726 THE DOG. 



fend ; and, on seeing that all is secure, will either betake 

 himself to the couch prepared for him, ready to awake on 

 the slightest alarm, or, if danger be imminent, will move like 

 a sentinel in his allotted bounds from midnight to dawn. He 

 will not, unless trained to murder, take away human life. 

 He is tender of those who may have come with no evil 

 intent within the guarded precincts ; but his sagacity enables 

 him to detect the stealthy pace and suspicious demeanour of 

 the midnight thief. He will rush upon the caitiff and hold 

 him fast, or, if he offers to resist, throw him down, and stand 

 over him, until assistance arrives. At a mansion, surrounded 

 with its park by a high wall, a gentleman, on a visit to the 

 owner, strolled out after sunset amongst the shrubberies and 

 pleasure grounds. A large mastiff employed to guard the pre- 

 mises was in use to be turned loose at a certain hour. The 

 gentleman, pursuing his solitary saunter, was alarmed by a 

 rustling among the bushes behind him, and, suddenly turning 

 round, beheld the dangerous mastiff close upon him. The 

 gentleman offering no resistance, the mastiff quietly caught 

 him by the skirt of his coat, and brought him a prisoner to 

 his master. When the mastiff saw the recognition of the 

 two friends, he seemed entirely satisfied, and used afterwards 

 to follow the gentleman in his solitary walks like a spaniel. 

 There are too many cases, indeed, in which the fierce pas- 

 sions of the man may be made to react upon the instrument, 

 and adapt him to the most terrible deeds. Who. has not 

 heard of the frightful butchery perpetrated on the unoffend- 

 ing inhabitants of the Antilles by sanguinary plunderers, who, 

 not contented with common weapons, brought dogs from 

 Europe to run down their victims. These dogs were mastiffs 

 of the race common in Spain termed Mastins. They were 

 speedily trained to the dreadful chase ; but the thirst of blood 

 was not in the dog, but in the merciless men who abused 

 their power over the instincts of the brute. In other cases 

 in which the mastiff is trained to shed human blood, we may 

 find a justification, perhaps, in the necessity of self-defence. 



