CHAPTER THE LAST. 383 



One feeling, moreover, was always present to me ; 

 and, whether lying down to sleep on the mountain- 

 ridge at noon, or when sitting of an evening with my 

 peasant friends in a cottage or Senn Hiitte, that plea- 

 sant consciousness, like a merry, laughing face, that 

 peeps in upon you, go where you will, was ever in 

 my thoughts. It was, to use the words of the author 

 of 'Eothen/ for he had felt it too, the delight at 

 being beyond the reach of " respectability." I often 

 quite hugged myself at the thought, " Not one re- 

 spectable person near me, look where I would !" and 

 this thought imparts always a sense of freedom, quite 

 distinct from that which the boundless space and the 

 fresh breeze bring with them : it is the sense of li- 

 berty, which he feels who has escaped from heavy thral- 

 dom, who has slipped off his handcuffs, and got away 

 over the walls of his prison, and laughs to find himself 

 in the fields and beyond pursuit. There is a feeling 

 of self-satisfaction in the heart, and a very wantonness 

 in your contentment and glee, as you repeat again and 

 again the assurances of your safety, of being beyond 

 the reach of either the " genteel" or the " respectable." 



As I have observed in a preceding chapter, it is not 

 the mere killing which affords him pleasure who stalks 

 through, the forest in pursuit of game. Besides the 

 natural appearances which will meet him at almost 

 every step, and which contribute so largely to his de- 

 light, he has another interest, the observation of the 

 habits of animals. In dense forests this is not so easy; 

 but in the beech-woods, where there is less under- 



