242 SPORTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



coffee, I observed the baron deliberately unsling his gun, 

 bring it to his shoulder, and fire both barrels in quick 

 succession, when two swallows simultaneously dropped, one 

 into the tasse de cafe of the Burgomeister of the town who 

 was seated near, and the other into the beer (schoppen) of 

 a corpulent butcher as he was in the act of lifting it to his 

 mouth, and was thunderstruck at this unexpected windfall. 

 Both, however, upon looking round and perceiving the 

 source and occasion of this interlude, merely shrugged their 

 shoulders, cast a quiet look of remonstrance upon the Ober- 

 forstmeister, and resumed their contemplative recreations. 



The eccentricities of the Baron Henri von S were so 



well known, and at the same time his goodnature so much 

 appreciated, that he could do nearly what he pleased with 

 impunity. 



He was justly celebrated as one of the best shots in this 

 or any other country, particularly with ball; was accustomed 

 to shoot hares running with a small pea rifle ; could kill 

 swallows on the wing with a pistol ; and at fixed marks, such 

 as wafers, eggs, &c.,&c., at any reasonable distance, was in- 

 fallible, but I never could initiate him into the mysteries of 

 fly-fishing, although he was at first anxious to learn. I 

 remember on one occasion at Biberach, whilst wading up to 

 my waist grayling-fishing, that he accompanied me step by 

 step in my progress in the most philosophical manner, and 

 returned to the inn and dined with me in his wet clothes, 

 and after having emptied four or five bottles of klevner, and 

 smoked as many pipes, he quietly remarked, on taking his 

 departure for a twenty mile walk homewards, in his own 

 very peculiar French, " Le poizon ne vautpas la peine." 



He had an instinctive, and I believe hereditary dislike to 

 anything French, and although our conversation was a 

 curious mixture of the two languages, bad French on his side, 

 bad German, on mine, he evidently was very averse to 



