70 CHASE OF THE WILD RED DEER 



night. Suddenly, above the growl of the thunder, 

 came a sound proceeding as it seemed from the 

 bowels of the earth, so loud, so deep, so passing 

 strange, that I never had heard its like before. I 

 am not what is called a nervous man, I believe, but 

 this sudden, and to me at that moment unaccount- 

 able noise, had such an effect upon me, that 



' I care not though the truth I show, 

 I trembled with affright ; ' 



and it was not until I had galloped half-a-mile from 

 the spot that I felt my pulse beat as usual. I did 

 not discover to what the novel and awful sound 

 was due until ten days after, when, happening to 

 mention the circumstance to a farmer who lived by 

 the woods in question, he invited me to his house 

 that evening, promising that I should hear the 

 same, or an exactly similar noise, before the night 

 grew old. I accepted his invitation, and before 

 the lapse of an hour from the time of entering the 

 house, satisfied myself that what I had heard was 

 the ' bell ' of the stag, roaming in search of the 

 hinds. I have heard the sound often since, and 

 now know it well ; but to my dying day I shall 

 not forget the dark, dreary night, when I first 

 heard the dismal, infernal noise, or the effect it 

 produced upon me. 



