INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 5 



pected intelligence. In Stein Seigen were two stags, 

 one of ten and the other of twelve*; indeed he might 

 have fourteen, so large was his shot. Another had 

 been round Heh 1 Berg and Schopf Loh, but had seen 

 nothing. He had seen tracks of deer, it is true, but 

 they were old ones ; and where the deuce they had 

 gone to he could not think. They must have been 

 disturbed, for " he had had them there" for four suc- 

 cessive days, and they were there yesterday. Sud- 

 denly perhaps a messenger would arrive, aU breath- 

 less with haste, with such speed had he come 

 down the steep path that leads through the forest 

 to the village. He brought the news that the 

 stag which had disappeared so suddenly was come 

 back again. "The same that Count H. missed 

 lately ?" " Yes, the very same :" he was now in a 

 small wood on the hill-side in the next forest, and 

 a young peasant who was quick of foot had been 

 despatched immediately to inform His Highness of 

 the event. Such was the information contained in the 

 head-forester's hastily written note. What excite- 

 ment was there then, and what hopes and question- 

 ings ! As I look back on these days, I can hardly 

 believe that ah 1 is now over, that the forests are as 

 deserts, no longer peopled by their red inhabitants 

 that these, like the Red Indian of the prairie, have been 



* An expression made use of above may need explanation. The 

 points on the antlers of a stag increase in number with his years ; to 

 them therefore reference is always made when denoting the age and 

 size of the animal. " A stag of twelve " is one with twelve points or 

 branches to his antlers. 



