THE RENTED MANOR. 4o 



until tlic snowy morning* came wliicli I have pre- 

 viously alluded to. Ho tlicn went forth watli aiiotlier 

 man, who was armed with a heavy bludgeon, 

 amounting to a small tree, and was regarded 

 as an invincible bully by all his confreres. 



Two keepers (they were mine) fell in with 

 these villains, and took them in the act of 

 poaching and of theft; for dead hares and 

 rabbits are the private property of the owner 

 of the land and manor on which they are found. 

 The champion bully brandished his club, and 

 threatened the brains of any man who attempted 

 to lay hands upon him ; so, thus put to his 

 weapon, the under-keeper at once delivered 

 a blow with his own stick, and broke the 

 cowardly bully's head, wdien he immediately 

 threw down his bludgeon, cried, and surrendered. 

 Upon these thieves were found a net and four 

 dead rabbits. 



Summoned for this offence before the Bench 

 that same Aveek, these two fellows refused to 

 appear, so of course they were convicted. In 

 what ? Why, in a moiety of the penalty, twenty 

 shillings instead of forty, and that, too, in the 

 face of their previous convictions, and defiance of 



