322 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



cunning, I lay down in some young brushwood 

 and long grass, which indicated to the deer no 

 chance for an ambush. I had observed that she 

 always, wheiL she could, avoided open rides and 

 hi^'h hollow cover. I had not thus lain flat on 

 the ground for long, when, by the nearer aj)proacli 

 of Druid's tongue, Avhich my ear told me was 

 coming exactly in. the line where I was, I knew 

 that the deer was between us, and must very soon 

 come in sight. It was so, for I saw her in a long 

 gallop coming directly to the s})ot where I still 

 held my recumbent position. Now to me at the 

 time, and perhaps still to the reader, comes a 

 painful fact : many such facts I liave seen in my 

 sporting life, though at the moment excitement 

 took from them the sting. The poor doe came 

 on in a line which she deemed an open line, not 

 likely to contain or harbour a foe (she had been 

 shot at by the keepers), until she "was within thirty 

 yards of me, when I suddenly rose immediately in 

 front of her and raised my gun. The scream of 

 hopeless terror she uttered, and the bound of liorror 

 which she gave, I shall never forget. Deer never 

 give utterance to a cry unless seized by dog or 

 man ; but, in this instance, the loud and prolonged 



