210 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 



Homeyer also appeared at the trysting-place, so the exciting- 

 drive could now begin. 



We had got the forester to place the whole of our party 

 along a narrow forest by-road, while all the other guns re- 

 mained on the broad ride ; for we valued our lives far too 

 much to stand in the same line with these excessively dan- 

 gerous sportsmen. 



The disorderly way in which the final arrangements were 

 made and the guns posted was most extraordinary, and there 

 was such a chattering and shouting that I should have mar- 

 velled at any wolf who came there to be shot at. 



My brother-in-law and I stood next each other at the corners 

 of a little glade, and in front of us was a stretch of dense, 

 almost impenetrable thickets of hawthorn diversified with a 

 few tallish oaks, a sort of cover that seemed just made for all 

 sorts of vermin ; and I quite believed an old keeper (the only 

 real sportsman in the whole district), who assured ine that 

 these thickets were the favourite retreats of numbers of Wolves, 

 Wild Cats, and Foxes. 



Hardly were we posted when there was a shot from the 

 other line of guns. It was the first and last during the entire 

 beat, and turned out to have been ineffectually fired at a sly 

 fox that crossed the broad ride. 



We must have been standing motionless for about half an 

 hour, with our guns cocked and loaded with slugs, when the 

 beaters came up with loud shouts and endless curses. Instead 

 of working through the bushes, a dread of the thorns and an 

 infinite respect for the wolves had kept them to the more 

 open places, and they were following each other in gangs of 

 ten to twenty ; nor did these individual bands even break 

 cover at the same time, but appeared at irregular intervals, 

 and then vanished into the woods beyond the beat, utterly 

 ignoring our line of guns. One knot of beaters made them- 

 selves particularly comfortable ; for half a dozen of these 



