274 SPORTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



and patience ; in fact, according to the old proverb, " the 

 eyes open and the mouth shut." 



The Prince had selected as my guide one of his keepers, a 

 man of middle age, of Herculean proportions and agreeable 

 countenance. He had been formerly a notorious poacher, 

 and the Prince considered that the best way of preserving 

 his game was to give this man the charge of it. 



Like smugglers who have turned coast-guards, or thieves 

 that have become police-officers, he was the terror of his old 

 companions, whose schemes and resorts he was well aware 

 of, and was not less skilful and determined in the capacity 

 of a sportsman. Although his step was heavy and his pipe 

 always lighted, no one was better able to guide me, or 

 initiate me into all the mysteries of woodcraft. He possessed 

 the eye of an Indian, the strength of a Sclave, and the calm 

 of a philosopher; and as to silence, which was so essentially 

 necessary, there was not much danger of our breaking it. 

 My guide, who was named Piotr (Peter), spoke nothing 

 but Hungarian ; he did not even know a word of German. 

 We had no means of communication, therefore, but the lan- 

 guage of signs, which was nearly sufficient for all purposes, ren- 

 dering gossiping impossible, and, above all, making no noise. 



As it was not late when we arrived at Marienthal, I com- 

 menced my first campaign that very evening, and got a shot 

 at a stag, which my guide perceived with a sort of second 

 sight by a small red speck that was just apparent through 

 the thick branches of the trees. Not having made a pact 

 d, la Freischutz, I lodged my ball in one of the branches that 

 covered the body of the animal. Piotr cut it quietly out of 

 the wood with his knife, put it into his pocket, and by a 

 sort of pantomimic action, tried to prove to me that, had it 

 passed to the right or left of the obstacle, the animal would 

 have been killed, as a consolation for returning with empty 

 Jiands. The Prince, who had taken another direction (as two 



