REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 69 



room, alas ! I found tlie line lay through a conserva- 

 tory ; but when I gained the locality of the stag, the 

 following scene presented itself. The stag, wet and 

 bloody from a few (not serious) scratches by the 

 glass, had his muddy haunches against, and plaster- 

 in o-, the wainscot, while occasionally he rubbed his 

 o.ntlers, to keep them in a condition for war, on 

 a mahogany table, making considerable ditches in 

 it, while at the same time whenever two or three 

 hounds, who were baying him from beneath the sofas 

 and chairs, approached too near, he made furious 

 dashes at them, upsetting everything in his way. On 

 one side of the room, and staring over the top of it, 

 was a servant, or one of my field, I forget which, be- 

 hind some ancestral portrait, with the face of the pic- 

 ture to the stag, which he had taken down to serve as 

 a shield, while the window-frame had been driven in 

 with such force, that as it stood, there was no getting 

 the deer out that way. In the midst of it all, and 

 expecting more hounds in at the window, unless my 

 brother and Henry AYombwell were quick in getting 

 them away, I was almost at my wit's end ; however, 

 calling on the spectator Avho was parading the pic- 

 ture, for heaven's sake, at least, to turn it the other 

 way, or the first thing the ancestral countenance 

 would have would be the horns of the stag through 

 it, in motion as the bearer kept it, I caught the 

 hounds and led them out. The stag being quiet, and 

 having sent all sorts of apologies up to Lady Mary, T 

 reported that the state of the window Avould not 

 admit of the stag's egress, unless I was permitted to 

 enlarge the aperture, while, at the same time, fresh 

 and powerful as the stag was, it would be dangerous 

 to attempt to lead him through the conservatory. 



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