THE CHASSE IN PRUSSIA. 289 



with skill and prudence, brought us into close contact with 

 him, that is to say, within a hundred yards : no great distance 

 for a good rifle, when the target is the body of a red deer. 



The object of our pursuit stood quietly inspecting our 

 manoeuvres, whilst the female squadron denied off at a slow 

 canter, as though he bore between his horns the miraculous 

 vision which disarmed St. Hubert, and caused the dogs to 

 fall on their knees in prayer. 



My friend the Russian, who had done much execution 

 amongst bears and wolves, had never in his life killed a stag 

 in these temperate climates. I placed my good rifle in his 

 hands, and pushed him gently out of the ckar-ct,-banc, which 

 the horses continued to drag onwaids at a snail's pace. 

 When he was well established upon his legs, he took a 

 steady aim at the stag, but with that kind of nervous 

 emotion which the newspapers describe as inseparable from 

 a first debut. His ball lodged in the trunk of a young pine- 

 tree, the splinters of which were scattered around, whilst 

 the stag, with a bound which would have done honour to a 

 "Vestris, disappeared with his wives, his concubines, and his 

 offspring. " Ah ! my good friend," I exclaimed to the Mus- 

 covite, " what a pity it is there are any trees in the forest !" 

 Thus finished our purscfien by a bad shot and a foolish speech. 



After breakfast, as usual, we changed our mode of shoot- 

 ing to the battue with the keepers and the little dog, and I 

 shall not exhaust the patience of the reader with a descrip- 

 tion of the numerous drives we made, where we saw nothing 

 but hares and foxes, or, if we came upon any of the larger 

 game, it was always of the female gender. Sufficient to 

 relate that towards evening, upon leaving the forest, we 

 arrived at a small hill in the midst of an amphitheatre of 

 woods, and covered by a plantation of young pines. Placed 

 with our backs to the forest and our faces to this eminence, 

 we perceived the green foraging-caps of the keepers just 



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