90 DAYS OF DEER-STALKING. 



it too, and pulls down the leash, straining his nose to the 

 ground ; do look at the eager fellow ! 



" He is slipped, and has overrun the scent : see what a 

 cast he makes, with all the dash of a foxhound united to the 

 speed of a greyhound : beautiful ! there he has it, and 

 the deer is before him, going down towards the Tilt : come 

 along, then ; and follow you, Davy, with the other dog." 



Off ran the sportsmen to the river Mark at their best 

 enduring speed, and so on to the Tilt, where they expected 

 at once to find the bay, but they were wofully mistaken. 

 After having followed the wild romantic course of that im- 

 petuous torrent for some time, they overtook Peter Fraser, 

 who seemed as much at a loss as themselves ; still they 

 kept running on, and at length came upon the track through 

 a birch grove. Here and there they found the grey stones 

 dyed with drops of blood : now, all were sure they heard 

 the baying of the hound ; but, although they kept advanc- 

 ing with their utmost speed over rock and ridge, through 

 burn and cataract, it died away and was lost : again it was 

 renewed ; and the sound ceased as before. This was very 

 strange! what should make a stag so badly wounded break 

 his bay in such a manner ? But Percy would never leave 

 him, come what might. Once more, in rounding a point, 

 they heard the bay distinctly, and not far distant. They 

 gained upon it, and soon the fatal truth broke upon them, 

 filled them with astonishment. Could it have been believed 

 that, amongst the lonely woods of Glen Tilt, reserved alone 

 for ducal sports sacred as the harem : where neither 

 stranger nor traveller were permitted to put a foot unbid- 

 den in a country where the chase, and its customs, and its 

 laws, were so well recognised and understood could it 

 have been believed, I say, that a mortal could be found so 

 rash as to constitute himself the lord of the chase, setting- 

 aside the laws of the Medes and Persians ? Yet there 

 figured such a monument of audacity. He seemed to be 

 a young man ; certainly he had all the vigour and activity 

 of youth. He shouted with all his might, rushed into the 

 water, assailed the deer with stones, and tried to get in 

 upon him and fell him with a sort of bludgeon which he 

 brandished. A kilted Highlander was running towards 



