268 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



into a poacher's back. The fellow took four days to 

 get home. By good luck or rather by ill luck, I 

 should say not one shot touched his neck*/' 



"Did he take his rifle from him?" 



"No, the man crawled into a bush, so of course 

 the other could not venture near him ; but next day 

 he came up to the spot again, bringing a comrade 

 with him, to look for the poacher, and see what had 

 become of him. They thought to find him there still, 

 either alive or dead, but he was gone." 



" And did you hear nothing more about him?" 



" Oh yes, we knew who he was, and went to see 

 him. He never said anything about the matter, nor 

 complained to the authorities ; and as he had got 

 punishment enough, we did nothing more either." 



I cannot give a better proof of the progress which 

 the lawless spirit of the revolutionary movement had 

 made among the bureaucracy, as well as the peasant 

 class, than by repeating what my companion told me 

 as we walked slowly up the steep mountain path. 



" A short time ago, one of my men met some pea- 



* As these are actual conversations, and not dialogues invented or 

 dressed up for the occasion, I beg the reader not to make the Author 

 answerable for any deficiency of mild forbearance or Christian love, 

 in these or similar expressions of feeling : that is to say, should he 

 happen to find there is a lack of either. It is the Author's intention, 

 to the best of his ability, to give a plain, faithful picture of what he 

 saw, and to tell what sort of people these mountaineers, and poachers, 

 and foresters are, and show how they feel inclined towards each other. 

 As to a forester feeling anything like human kindness for a poacher, 

 this is demanding more than his sinful mortal nature is capable of ; 

 but he has plenty of human hate to give him, inveterate, deep, and 

 unquenchable. 



