CLOSE COMBAT. 289 



he killed two woodcocks at one shot. Thou shouldst have 

 died that moment, my own hero : alas, why did you survive 

 to pace over geometrical enclosures in pursuit of pigmy 

 game ? But bear thy faculties meekly, whilst the deer are 

 being gralloched, and the black flag is hung on the bonny 

 antler to scare away the raven. 



" Xow, Tortoise, I really think that Macrobius, and 

 the rest of Virgil's commentators, are senseless goupies ; 

 for I am ready to maintain, in spite of them all, that the 

 slaying of such a magnificent animal as this was a very fit 

 cause for the Latin war 



4 Cervus erat forma praestanti, et cornibus ingens ' 



(handling the horns all the while). But why did you 

 throw away a charge upon your wounded deer, who was 

 lying extended in the bog, and at your mercy ? I should 

 have preferred close combat, like our friend the artist ; 

 I would have got across him, and seized him by the 

 horns." 



" In which case you would have had a charming ride, 

 like the late Glengarry, or like the forester of the present 

 chief of Clanchattan, who, in passing last summer* through 

 the forest of Stramashie, near Loch Laggan, descried the 

 horns of a stag above the heather at some distance ; and 

 taking advantage of the cover of a grey stone on the lee- 

 side of the animal's lair, crept cautiously up to him, whilst 

 he was apparently asleep. He had no rifle, but opened 

 his deer-knife, which he placed between his teeth that his 

 hands might be free, and then threw himself suddenly 

 upon the stag : up started the astonished beast, and sprung 



* The summer of 1837. 

 U 



