THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 301 



paid one pound for the keeper's game license. It 

 will thus be seen that for a decent shot to rent 

 shootings is quite a profitable business in Germany. 

 It is, however, only fair to point out that whereas the 

 shootings are let for a period of six or nine years, 

 as there is no clause in the lease about leaving a fair 

 head of game at the end of the tenure, the first two 

 years can only be looked upon as dead loss. The 

 outgoing tenant invariably shoots off everything he 

 can find during his last season, for the simple reason 

 that he may be outbid at the coming auction. Never- 

 theless H made his shootings pay very well. 



To return, however, to this particular " opening 

 day." Germans are proverbially early risers, and to 



this rule H was no exception. We left the house 



soon after seven, accompanied by H 's liver- 

 coloured pointer, which, though rather coarse-headed, 

 would not have been a bad-looking dog had not the 

 senseless German fashion condemned him to the loss 

 of several inches of the tip of his tail. At the edge 

 of the beat (some twenty minutes' walk), the Waldhilter, 

 or woodward, met us. He was accompanied by a dog, 

 which no Englishman would ever have taken for a 

 pointer. In fact, he would have passed muster as a 

 poor specimen of a bloodhound. In colour he was a 

 rich red tan without a white spot. He had the large 

 wrinkled head, long silky ears, and hanging jowl of a 

 bloodhound, and his frame was on a scale little, if at 

 all, smaller. Like that of the liver dog, his appearance 

 was spoiled by a docked tail. I was assured he be- 

 longed to the purest race of old German pointers, and ? 



