SPORT OF SORTS WITH THE PRINCE 289 



Next a solitary old boar rushed out with hackles on 

 end, and tushes gleaming white against the green 

 background. Just for a moment I saw him with back 

 well humped, mobile snout carried low at the charge, 

 eyes Hke long-lit lamps. Crash ! Into the opposite 

 tangle his thundering pace carried him, with the 

 velocity of an eighteen-pounder shell, and so to safety. 



A wolf now, furtive and wary. Not for him the 

 reckless taking of chances, the wild distressed stampede. 

 He stole forth with the quick right and left glance of 

 his kind, the first thing his mother taught him ere she 

 gave him freedom. He saw me, and for a second it 

 seemed to me, standing there, with unready rifle, his 

 grey coat grew stiff and erect — then, like a ghost he 

 passed, stealthily as he came. 



Hares, scurrying this way and that in frantic dis- 

 order, and tragic-faced little rabbits with no reason 

 in their race, fled past, and then an old hind, with 

 terrified eyes, leapt out almost alongside me. 



" Buagh ! " she cried protestingly. " Buagh ! " as I 

 stepped towards her the better to see what she was like. 



A grand deer broke up wind, crashing through the 

 underbrush tempestuously. He made an impossible 

 mark as he dashed by, even had I wanted to try for 

 him. Deer in close thickets are desperately difficult to 

 see. 



The forest, of course, was on too vast a scale to 

 drive really thoroughly, but we beat portions success- 

 fully enough. I loved to hear the stir which followed on 

 our passing. The very grasses tingled with excitement. 

 'Twas like the reviving interest of a scandal in some 

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