AN r:\FOKTlTXATE MISHAP. 197 



track. It was a favourable opportunity for the display 

 of our equestrian skill. We understood that it was the 

 object of the stag to reach the other and more secluded 

 part of the forest; our tactic was to prevent him by 

 reaching the goal before him, and barring his passage. 



In front of all of us galloped a hunter mounted on a 

 mare of unequalled swiftness. I saw him raise his gun and 

 fire ; but the stag escaped untouched : he leaped up at the 

 unwonted sound, and darted aside, but still in the 

 direction of the deep wood. The shot only quickened his 

 erratic course. Our hunting companion had yet another 

 chance ; namely, to drive the stag towards the edge of a 

 great ditch, which it would be impossible for him to cross 

 at a leap. On this manoauvre he resolved, and we saw 

 him dig his spurs into the flanks of his steed, and guide 

 her towards the border of the wood, where he arrived 

 just as the stag crossed the road, a hundred paces from 

 him. For some seconds we lost sight both of the hunter 

 and the hunted ; but all at once the echoes repeated the 

 noise of a fire-arm. Each of us then dashed ahead to 

 arrive first xipon the scene, and on coming near the 

 hunter, a sad spectacle presented itself to our eyes. 

 Before us lay our companion's mare, expiring; and at 

 fifteen paces distant, the stag, sobbing and moaning in his 

 last agonies. 



What had happened 1 



In the ardour of his pursuit, the hunter had attempted 

 to leap his mare over a dwarf palm, in whose rear bristled 

 the trunk of a tree cut in the form of a stake ; the 

 mare, falling on this unexpected cheval defrise, had im- 

 paled herself in the middle of her chest. The rider was 

 flung to the ground, but without experiencing any great 



