A ROYAL HART. 265 



taught him to keep it under control. But this is no time for 

 moralising. 



At last we get within easy range of the stag, now standing 

 forth alone, snuffing the tainted air as though he had some 

 inkling of danger. But little he recks of its being so near 

 him as he stands there, his royal head held proudly erect, 

 looking quite the "monarch of all he surveys." The bead- 

 sight is on his broad shoulder ; yet so fearful am I of missing 

 him, large and near though he is, that I hesitate for some 

 time before pressing the trigger. Off goes the shot at last, but, 

 to my intense surprise and concern, without the slightest 

 apparent effect on the stag. For a few seconds he stands 

 stock-still, and then with a bound starts down the steep 

 declivity in front of him. Oh, the agony of that moment ! 

 Fortunately for me, however, he has taken the open instead 

 of the wooded side of the spur, thereby giving another 

 chance as he rushes headlong down the hill. By great good 

 luck, the second shot catches him high up in the hind-leg ; 

 but he still holds on, with the broken limb dangling loosely 

 about, and disappears among the thick brushwood below. 

 The track where his wide-splayed hoofs have ploughed up 

 the ground in his rapid descent is easily followed, and we 

 soon overtake him near the bottom of a steep rocky water- 

 course, where he has lain down. He makes an effort to rise 

 on our approach, but a shot effectually stops his farther pro- 

 gress; and after a considerable amount of dodging to avoid 

 his swaying horns and kicking hoofs, we at last succeed in 

 giving him the coup de grdce with all due ceremony. 



He was indeed a royal hart in every sense, with wide- 

 spanning horns which measured six and a half inches round 

 the thinnest part of the beam, and such brow, bay, and tray 

 antlers as few stags can show. Yet I hardly deserved to get 

 him, for we found that although the first shot had struck 

 him just behind the shoulder, it was so low down that there 

 was barely an inch to spare. We should certainly have seen 



