THE RISS. 145 



below they do not seem far apart — is an intervening 

 space, which it may take a good half day to get over. 



On such occasions the foresters do not go down into 

 the valley at nightfall, but pass several days and nights 

 on the mountains. They must be on the watch too for 

 poachers, and see that none are about, scaring the chamois 

 and sending them scampering away from their accustomed 

 places ; for when disturbed the game is off at once, and 

 does not return again for several days. 



At Tegernsee an anticipated day's sport was frustrated 

 in this manner. I was to have gone out on the Peissen- 

 berg, where there was every chance of being able to get 

 a shot, when the foresters came in with the intelligence 

 that poachers had been there : reports of their rifles had 

 been heard in that direction, and it was vain therefore 

 for me to think of stalking with any prospect of success. 

 Once before, when the King had intended to shoot there, 

 the same thing occurred. The head-forester had sent 

 some of the under-gamekeepers to watch on the moun- 

 tain, with orders to remain out till the appointed day : 

 on account of the lawless state of the country at that 

 time (1849), he sent a gendarme to. accompany them, 

 thinking that the presence of a police-officer would over- 

 awe the marauders, should any be met with. As might 

 have been foretold, he was wrong in his calculation; 

 for* the power which such an individual exercises is a 

 moral one, quite independent of his constable's staff, or, 

 as in the present instance, of his bayonet and side-arms. 

 Obedience to him is ceded out of respect to the law, 

 which happened just at that time to be as devoid of dig- 

 nity as power. Even in the plain the laws had ceased 

 to be respected; it was something to excite a smile 

 therefore thus to see stationed, high up on the moun- 

 tain-top, out of the world as it were, and in presence of 



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