150 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



best of my belief, were two of those that were out when Coles 

 was shot, though he was shot by a larger one, I stepped quickly 

 up and took them under my arm. Up sprang the three fellows, 

 with a demand that I should leave the guns alone, and where 

 was my right or warrant to seize them ? No time to lose, that I 

 saw ; so, springing back to the little low and narrow entrance or 

 passage from the room, and drawing my truncheon, I told them 

 " that was the warrant, and I would split the head of any man 

 who assailed me." They all three came on, but I drew back so 

 that only one could come in at me at a time, which no one of 

 them seemed inclined to be the first to do, and, during their 

 hesitation, three strides backwards took me into the bar and to 

 the door, where, to my horror, I found my horse in custody of 

 the fourth man whom I had seen go out. It was as near a thing 

 as could be that I did not strike him, but he whispered, " Mount, 

 sir ; " and I saw the rein thrown on Norna's neck in readiness, 

 and that his hand held the stirrup. I mounted just as the three 

 fellows from within came out in my wake swearing at me ; so, 

 telling them I cared nothing for their menaces, I walked my 

 horse slowly away, guns and all. The tinker and public-house 

 keeper " flitted," and I heard of him no more. There was evi- 

 dence to prove that he had been the receiver of stolen game, and 

 I believe he had been more or less connected with the transac- 

 tions of the night on which the keeper was murdered. That he 

 himself was a poacher I know, from having met him on Lord 

 De Grey's land, over which I had leave to sport, after dark, in 

 pursuit of wild-fowl by the river, telling him then that I had a 

 great mind to take his gun away, but, as that was before I ascer- 

 tained him to be a confirmed game-stealer, on his entreating to 

 be forgiven I let it pass. The end of this affair was remarkable. 

 When the time of the assize came for the murderer to be tried 

 he was seized with the small-pox, and the trial was, in conse- 

 quence, postponed. His sentence ultimately was transportation, 

 a verdict arrived at on account of the intentional insufficiency 

 of the evidence, as, when I left it, a clearer case of the most 

 deliberate murder could not be. The dying man's declaration 



