THE CHASSE NEAR HAMBURG. 309 



no other sound than a deep-drawn breath, in which his last 

 sigh passed away. 



Soon afterwards a general discharge of guns in the air 

 took place. The oberforster dismissed his recruits, who made 

 their escape like so many schoolboys after lessons. The 

 game was heaped up together, the fines paid, which were 

 only for shots missed, when he received our thanks and bid 

 us adieu, but, before departing, he once more ascended a 

 bank, and read us the bulletin of the campaign. 



"Chasseurs and beaters, I am satisfied with you. You 

 have all done your duty. The enemy's line is broken, and they 

 are retreating in all directions. Two stags, five roebucks,, 

 eleven foxes, and more than fifty hares are the trophies of 

 this memorable day." 



Upon returning to Berlin, after leaving Hamburg, and 

 recalling to mind the numerous promises of shooting invita- 

 tions I had made to me previous to my departure, I expected 

 to meet with excellent sport for the remainder of the winter. 

 Indeed, upon my arrival I heard nothing but wonderful 

 accounts of the success of my friends and acquaintances. One 

 had just returned from Silesia, where he had killed in two 

 days eighty-eight hares ; another from Hanover, where he 

 had killed, in six days, a hundred and seven foxes ; truly a 

 prodigious number. And at a certain butcher's shop 

 opposite my lodgings I daily witnessed the arrivals of cart- 

 loads of half-frozen stags and roebucks ; but all this was the 

 shadow without the reality. Not that these promises were 

 made without the intention of fulfilling them, and with the 

 best intentions, but in Germany nothing is done in a hurry, 

 and there were many reasons for the delay. In the first 

 place, the intense severity of the cold, the thermometer 

 marking every morning sixteen degrees Reaumur, and no one 

 daring to expose his nose or his fingers. The " grippe," or 

 influenza, which was also exercising its ravages over the 



