296 IN THE LAND OF THE BORA. 



florins previously set upon his head. Only two 

 days before, this very man had attempted a bur- 

 glary in the town of Gacko, and had only been 

 prevented by his accidentally disturbing the house 

 by dropping part of the " swag," from carrying it 

 out. A few days after this, we heard of an attack 

 on a gendarmerie post on the frontier. It turned 

 out to have been a volley fired in the dark — I 

 dare say by some of the dead man's friends. 



The presence in the country of ruffians of this 

 nature might be considered a drawback to camp 

 life ; but, in the first place, we were much too far 

 away from the frontier for them to succeed in 

 passing the various lines of gendarmerie patrols ; 

 and, secondly, this sort of thing is daily getting 

 rarer. It is only with the greatest difficulty that 

 the frontier posts can be evaded, and when this 

 is done the hayduJc's career, as in this case, is a 

 short and not merry one. I dare say the Herze- 

 govina is as safe as any part of Austria — indeed, I 

 may say of England — though, by the way, a few 

 days after this we had a reminder that we were 

 by no means encamped in the New Forest or 

 Cannock Chase. About half-past six one morning 

 Eex began barking loudly, but at so late an hour 

 I did not feel inclined to take any notice. My 

 wife, however, did, and, sitting up on her bed, 

 opened the window just over it. 



" It's a dog," were her first words ; but directly 



