390 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



things, even low sounds, have been to him as a Pre- 

 sence, and he will have felt sorely troubled. And this 

 not merely in the darkness, but in the broad light of 

 noon; when the stillness of midnight seemed hang- 

 ing in the air, yet the sun-rays were streaming silently 

 down the stems of the beeches, and there was no liv- 

 ing creature to be seen. At such times I have watched 

 and listened, listened long and earnestly, not will- 

 ing, not venturing rather, to break by my steps the 

 profound repose. Once, I remember, on an Autumn 

 day, when in a wood in Suabia, I suddenly looked 

 round, and behold ! right before me, on a clear space 

 amid the bushes, stood a deer at gaze. To me then 

 it seemed no ordinary creature, but of gigantic size, 

 the like of which I had never seen before. There it 

 rose above a little knoll, encircled in golden light, and 

 its vast form surrounded with a glory. We gazed for 

 some time at each other in great astonishment; and 

 had I beheld a bright cross gleaming over its head, 

 such as St. Hubert saw, I could not have been more 

 amazed. Suddenly it bounded away, and the spell 

 was broken. 



Wordsworth, in his ' Prelude, ' describes with won- 

 drous truth such visionary appearances, and the men- 

 tal organization that called them forth. He tells how 

 in the dusk some peak, as " with voluntary power in- 

 stinct," upreared its head, and growing still in size, 

 and seemingly " with purpose of its own, strode after 

 him." And very fine, because so very true, is the 

 picture of him who, " in majestic indolence," wanders 



