AN ADVENTUEE. 361 



highness would get the point of the insidious hook 

 attached to his royal person. What time elapsed I know 

 not, but my necessary inertness and the disagreeableness 

 of my position induced me to endeavour to bring the 

 drama to a finish. With a gentle strain, I evoked a 

 succession of rapid, quick jerks, admonishing me that I 

 had a gentleman of short temper to deal with. Gradually 

 I continued shortening my line, which, although an unusual 

 proceeding thus early, I succeeded in doing without the 

 least hindrance. Still the dead strain that existed pro- 

 claimed that no ordinary contestant was at the other end. 

 In all my previous experience I had never seen a fish come 

 without an effort almost up to my hand, without once 

 making a rush, or giving a chance to judge of his paces. 

 By this time nearly all my line was in, and the trout could 

 not have been over fourteen or fifteen feet from me, but 

 down in deep water, moving slowly in rings of a foot or 

 two in diameter. Whatever some persons might have done, 

 I did not exactly like bivouacking in two feet of rapid 

 stream, with a very precarious footing, and a cloud of 

 mosquitoes singing either a requiem or a lullaby about my 

 unprotected face. My patience exhausted, I inwardly made 

 up my mind, let the results be what they would, that I 

 would force the giant to declare himself. Gradually rais- 

 ing the point of my rod, inch by inch, with a steady 

 motion, to my astonishment I brought him to the surface, 

 giving me a good view of his massive form. The chub 

 was across his mouth, as a spaniel would carry a stick, and 

 devil a hook had touched him ! Worse than all, it was- 

 apparent, from the constant strain, that my hold of the 



