DEER-SHOOTING IN HUNGARY. 275 



stalkers rarely go out together), had not been more fortu- 

 nate than myself, but remarked at supper that he would 

 show me much better sport in the morning. 



I had hardly composed myself into my first sleep, after 

 reading some pages of a romance, when Piotr entered my 

 room, cap in hand, and made signs to me respectfully to 

 get lip immediately. I jumped out upon the bear-skin, 

 niy eyes half opened, and dressed in haste by the light of a 

 candle he had brought. It was exactly one o'clock in the 

 morning. Our lantern went out after we had crossed the 

 park, and we were left in total darkness. The obscurity 

 was so complete that I could not distinguish a tree. I walked 

 behind my guide, and, although he knew every inch of the 

 way, and passed along it 365 times in the year, he had some 

 difficulty in making out the road with certainty. We had 

 passed a slate-mine, where the poor labourers, even more 

 matutinal than ourselves, were already at work, and were 

 gradually ascending the bottom of a narrow ravine near a 

 torrent, the noise of which served us as a guide for our steps. 

 In the most difficult places, Piotr always stopped to offer 

 me his hand. At one time, indeed, when it was necessary to 

 cross the torrent, he took me without ceremony upon his 

 broad shoulders, and carrying a gun in each hand, we thus 

 traversed the river. 



In spite of these nocturnal difficulties, we arrived at our 

 post one hour before daybreak. It was on the point of an 

 ascent, where, on the first approach of day, we could perceive 

 all the valley that lay at our feet, and the opposite slopes of 

 the hills. The morning air was very cold, and the heavy 

 clouds above our heads discharged a rainy mist of a moist, 

 icy, and penetrating character. I was much heated by my 

 walk and the ascent of the mountain, and the reaction of 

 the cold was so great, in my present inactive position, that 

 my teeth chattered, and I felt completely benumbed. The 



