AN UNWELCOME REFUGEE 55 



to secure the other crutch and let him softly down. The deer 

 taken, and the elderly man, who proved to be the father of the 

 cripple, having caught his wind, of which for a time only the stag 

 had deprived him, I reasoned with them on their folly, and the 

 poor fellow, now restored to his crutches, assured me that the 

 cause of his violence was that he thought his father had been 

 killed. I gave them some silver, and we parted good friends. 

 Another instance worth remarking occurred at Lady Mary 

 Hussey's, who lived near Hillingdon. A stag, quite fresh, and 

 of whom the hounds had suddenly obtained a view, came tearing 

 along under the garden wall, among the shrubs, till he found 

 himself in contact with one side of a bay window : through this 

 he went, with two or three hounds each side of him ; and instead 

 of going out at the other side of the window, he turned, and ran 

 to the farther end of the drawing-room, in which I believe Lady 

 Mary Hussey and other ladies were seated. It was enough to 

 have scared a man, and this sudden crash and furious apparition 

 of course had a startling effect on the ladies. Seeing the mis- 

 chief to the window, I was off my horse immediately, cap in 

 hand, to make a thousand apologies ; but my first act was to 

 get the stag out, and prevent further damage. On entering the 

 drawing-room, alas ! I found the line lay through a conservatory ; 

 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 plastering, the wainscot, while occasionally he rubbed his 

 antlers, 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 ser- 

 vant, or one of my field, I forget which, behind some ancestral 

 portrait, with the face of the picture 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 



