400 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



before three men laid hold of him, exclaiming, "Eh, 

 my lad, so we've got you now \" Out they dragged him, 

 and one beat him soundly with a cudgel while the other 

 two held him fast ; but before long he sank down quite 

 insensible. On coming to himself, — roused by the sharp- 

 ness of a new pang, — he found that the men, poachers 

 all three, whom he once before had caught and taken 

 before a magistrate, were raising him up against the 

 wooden walls of the hut, and, extending his legs and 

 arms, were nailing them to the boards. Having no nails, 

 they had cut pointed wooden pegs, which they drove 

 through each hand and foot ; and so they left him on the 

 mountain upreared — crucified. 



"My dog, Waldmann/* to continue the story in 

 ZacherFs own words, " ran after the men, but soon he 

 came back again to his master. I was too exhausted by 

 agony to call out, and I scarcely took heed of anything ; 

 still I can remember how anxious and sympathizing my 

 poor dog seemed. At last I beheld before me, as I hung, 

 the sun slowly coming up behind the mountain- tops ; 

 and I was glad to see it again, though for the last time. 

 f Your morning prayer today/ thought I to myself, ' will 

 be a prayer for the dying V and I was in despair with my 

 sufferings and the thought of perishing by so miserable 

 a death ; and I began to think of our Lord and Saviour 

 Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, and of his agony. 

 But I soon grew insensible ; and all I know is, that when 

 1 came to myself I was lying on the grass. The thing 

 was, Waldmann's barks and howls had brought a boy to 

 the place, who was out with his cows on the pasturage. 

 He ran to get help, and then began the descent from the 

 cross. I was taken down, and with water from a spring 

 close by my wounds were washed ; but I could not 

 stand, and some wood-cutters carried me down into the 

 vallev. 



