THE CHASSE IN PRUSSIA. 283 



the woods, and feasting upon their delicate flesh ; the poor 

 peasant was denied even the withered grass that these 

 animals rejected To us on the Sunday every pleasure 

 was permitted ; to him even necessary labour was forbidden. 

 Alas! for human justice, when will it cease to be absurd and 

 contradictory? 



We had started at daybreak. A white frost covered the 

 ground, and the sun had risen through a discoloured and 

 misty atmosphere. It was an unlucky prognostic, for frost 

 and sun together are bad omens, as far as the weather is 

 concerned, and there was every appearance of rain towards 

 the middle of the day. Indeed, we had scarcely taken our 

 seats in the neat cottage of the keeper to breakfast on some 

 sandwiches of sausages and bread-and-butter, with some 

 excellent Bavarian beer, when some drops of rain, aided by 

 a violent wind, beat against the windows. It was a just 

 punishment of Providence, and a well -deserved vengeance for 

 the poor peasant and his rake, and taught us that at all 

 events the rain falls on rich and poor alike. We received 

 the lesson with resignation, but our chasse was not put off 

 on this account. Our intention after breakfast was to sub- 

 stitute small battues for the purschen. Three keepers only 

 were the staff employed as beaters, if, indeed, a small dog, 

 which was held in leash by one of them, did not pass for a 

 fourth ; he was called "Bellement," and his appearance was by 

 no means flattering. I have no idea to what species or 

 variety of the canine race he belonged; of a dingy brown 

 colour, small, thin, with short ears, and lack-lustre eyes, he 

 kept his tail between his legs, and trembled in all his limbs 

 as if he had an intermittent fever. We set out in this 

 manner three shooters, three beaters, with the little dog 

 into the bargain, and the chasse commenced at the very doors 

 of the cottage. 



Small as was the space we beat at one time, we 



