42 COURAGE. 



doing during the two following nights her attempts to free 

 the prisoners were renewed. 



" But the matter did not rest here ; for one night shortly 

 afterwards a continuous noise, as of some one scraping, was 

 heard in the Vind* where in consequence the Lansman 

 proceeded to ascertain the cause of the disturbance. On his 

 way up the stairs, he was startled by an animal resembling 

 a dog rushing hastily past his legs, to which circumstance 

 he at the time paid little attention ; but as when he reached 

 the Vind he found everything quiet, he returned to his 

 bed again. On the following morning, however, it was 

 discovered that Michel had been the cause of the uproar ; 

 for with the intention of getting access to her cubs, she had 

 been endeavouring to make an aperture in the chimney; and 

 it then became perfectly clear that it was the fox herself, 

 which in her hurry to escape, had nearly upset the Lansman 

 whilst mounting the steps the night before. The room below, 

 in which the cubs were confined, was now examined, but they 

 were nowhere to be seen. At length, however, their cries 

 were heard in the flue of the stove itself the whole of 

 which structure it was necessary to take down before they 

 could be extricated." 



The fox is possessed of great passive courage, as is evi- 

 denced from his always meeting death without uttering even 

 a groan. By the following anecdote, it would, indeed, seem 

 that occasionally this animal becomes the attacking party. 



" At the end of last November," writes M. Wennerstrom, 

 " I killed a female crossed-fox. When the shot was fired, 

 which took effect in her hind- quarters, and broke the left 



* The upper or attic-floor of a dwelling-house. At times there may be a small 

 chamber at one or both extremities ; but more generally it is quite open in the 

 manner of a hay -loft, and is used for stowing away lumber, drying clothes, &c. 



