130 DAYS OF DEER-STALKING. 



This, however, was all mighty well for a young historian* 

 We blame not his caution. We are circumspect ourselves. 

 But we object to his bragging, most decidedly object to it. 

 The whole affair was a paltry one. Thy histories, great 

 shade, I never read : they may live like the great pyramids, 

 or go to the tomb of all the Capulets, it imports me not, 

 but shame on thy bragging of such a deed ; shame on 

 thee, I say, " thou chronicler of small beer." 



Not thus was the bearing of the stout Glengarry, when 

 he confronted the stag in the rugged pass of Glendulachan. 

 Setting at nought the red glance of his eye, and unappalled 

 by his tremendous means of defence, in rushed the gallant 

 chief full at his front, and buried the sharp skene-dhu in 

 his chest. 



CHAPTER V. 



A Scotch mist. Visions of auld lang syne. Retrospect. The mist clears. How to carry 

 the spare rifles. Storm in the mountains. Sportsmen struck by a thunderbolt. 

 Willie Robertson's lament. Macintyre's death. Deer seen on the move. Vamped- 

 up courage. Making a dash. Unexpected success. Dogs fighting. 



Stay, huntsman, stay ; a lurid gloom 



Hangs threatening o'er your head ; 

 The rain comes lashing o'er the moor, 



The thunderbolt is sped. 



And mirk and mirker grows the hill, 



And fiercer sweeps the blast : 

 The heavens declare His wondrous power 



Who made the mountains fast. 



THE night has been dark and stormy, and the morning 

 broke over the mountains in flames of red and amber ; thin 

 wreaths of mist were ascending from the Vale of Tay, and 

 went twisting and flickering up the hill sides ; there were 

 no dark frowning clouds in the sky, but a sort of aqueous 

 appearance about the light itself, that occasioned certain 

 gloomy forebodings in the breast of our sportsman. True 

 it is that he passed rapidly over the moor, as he was wont, 

 and ate his usual slender meal with tolerable resignation. 

 But to say that he enjoyed any thing like elevation of 

 spirits would be an absolute perversion of the case, for the 



