186 FORAYS AMONG SALMON AND DEER. 



return and overtake him. He had not however 

 mounted much higher, when he again heard the bay of 

 his dog below, and from its increasing loudness, per- 

 ceived that they were ascending the brae in his direc- 

 tion. Soon they approached nearer, and the loud 

 panting of the two, audible in the profound stillness 

 of the night, as they toiled painfully up the rocky pass, 

 told plainly how severe had been the chase. Presently 

 the deer was dimly visible through the gloom, though 

 not many yards distant, the dog straining closely at 

 her flank, and striving each moment to fix his fangs in 

 the animal and bring her down. Acting on the im- 

 pulse of the moment, and without thinking what he 

 did, Gillespie concealed himself behind a moss-hagg, 

 and as the two rushed by he sprang out, and striking 

 the terrified and exhausted deer on the back of the 

 head with a stout staff he bore in his hand, by one 

 blow felled it to the ground. In a moment his trusty 

 hound had fixed his fangs firmly in the throat of the 

 prostrate animal, and the death-rattle greeted his ears. 

 But now, the deed completed, and the excitement of 

 the moment passed, he was seized with pity and 

 remorse at the thoughtlessness of which he had been 

 guilty in slaying a deer which he did not need, in 

 a place from which he could with difficulty get it 

 removed, and last, and possibly also least, in direct 

 defiance of his duty. The blood of the slaughtered 

 hind seemed to call to him from the ground ; to use his 

 own words, he " was weel nigh greeting as he saw the 

 creature lying dead at his feet," and he vowed that 

 he " wadna touch ane hair o' it." The next time he 

 passed that way, the fox, the gled, and the corbie had 

 made their meals on its flesh, and its bones were 

 bleaching in the sun. 



Here are one or two interesting particulars connected 



