SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 605 



Stupid and apparently sleeping much of the day, nothing, however, 

 escaped his observation, or was subsequently erased from his memory. If 

 led round a V>uilding, or enclosure, or even an open space, at night-fall, in 

 a manner to evince particular design, during the entire night like a senti- 

 nel he traversed some part of the guarded ring, permitting neither man nor 

 beast to pass 771 or out from it. 



Arrogante was a " temperance man," of thestraightest sect — an out-and- 

 out teetotaler — and if tolerant of deviations from his creed, he could bear 

 none, from the sobriety oi\i\s practice. Never would he confess acquain- 

 tance with a drunken man — though the hand of that man fed him. The 

 bailiff, who usually fed Arrogante, used occasionally to come home late in 

 the evening a little "yt'2/,"and never could he in this condition get his foot 

 on the premises ! The old man has plead guilty to more than one night's 

 lodgings on the ground, in consequence of Arrogante's temperance scru- 

 ples. 



On one occasion a couple of sailors, to take advantage of the tide,came 

 unexpectedly, and without giving any notice, on the farm, at 3 A. M., to 

 take away some potatoes they had purchased. Arrogante thought it 

 was not so " nominated in the bond ;" he forced them to clamber into an 

 empty cart, and there he kept them until morning. They tried the expe- 

 riment of putting a leg over the side once or twice, but were admonished 

 in too unequivocal a manner to keep quiet, to need any farther hints. 

 They lost the tide, and wei-e in great tribulation, but, like honest fellows, 

 confessed the fault was their own. 



I might, did limits allow, recount many more anecdotes displaying the 

 iron determination and fixed precision with which this noble dog obeyed 

 his instructions in guarding sheep or other property committed to his 

 charge. He was a decided " strict constructionist," swerving not from the 

 letter of his commission, and woe to him who attempted to countervail the 

 tenor of that commission ! 



Drunkenness was destined to prove as fatal as it was detestable, to Aito- 

 gante. A gentleman occupied a cottage orne by the sea-side, the lane to 

 which ran along the farm, and near the stable which Arrogante made his 

 head-quarters, Avhen not on particular duty. The gentleman was reg- 

 ularly introduced, to him, and warned against ever provoking him. Re- 

 turning him home late one Saturday evening on horseback, from a conviv- 

 ial meeting, as he galloped through the lane, he met the dog, and v/an- 

 tonly struck him or struck at him with a hunting-whip. He was a large 

 man, and rode a tall, powerful horse, and being under speed, he escaped 

 before the astonished dog recovered from his surprise. But the insulted 

 blood of Castile rushed in boiling currents through the veins of the mad- 

 dened Arrogante. He felt, like his countryman De Lerma, in Epes Sar- 

 gent's tragedy of Velasco — 



" Stru»k like a nieniiil ! buffeted ! degraded ! 

 SpHrc not my We, if mercy thou would show, 

 Thou givpst me back only what thou hast made 

 A burden, a disgrace, a misery !" 



But AiTOgante felt both the power and will to avenge himself, and he 

 resolved on a bloody retribution. 



The next morning the gentleman was on his way to church, mounted as 

 before. The dog heard and knew the tread of his horse, rose from his lair 

 in the stable, walked to the road-side, and stood grimly awaiting his in- 

 sulter. "When the latter had approached within a few yards, Arrogante, 

 like a missile projected from a catapult, met him in the air, in a deadly 

 spring at his throat. The sudden jump and swerve of the frightened and 



(1125) 



