356 ALL ABOUT DOGS 



All inquiries were made, but nothing could be 

 heard of them and it was concluded they were 

 stolen. The squire immediately offered five and twenty 

 guineas for the discovery of the thief ; but no thief was 

 heard of, or the dogs either, till a week afterwards, 

 when they again entered the yard, but two such poor 

 jaded, worn-down creatures as never were seen. 



They were, apparently, starved to the very point of 

 death, covered with dust, and in fact, in such a condi- 

 tion that notwithstanding all that could be done, they 

 both died in the course of a few days. On examining 

 them after death, they appeared to have been shot at, 

 various shot-corns being found in their skins. 



Nothing, however, came to light about it; and on 

 the next rent day the Squire made his journey into Ox- 

 fordshire without either of his favourite dogs. 



As he passed the kennel of the Mastiff in the Inn 

 Yard, at Oxford, he could not help looking, with re- 

 sentment, towards it, when to his surprise, instead 

 of the Mastiff, which had been there many years, he 

 saw quite another dog. " And so you have parted 

 with that savage brute of a Mastiff that worried my 

 setter the last time I was here/' he said to the 

 Ostler. " Ay," replied the Ostler, " there's a curious 

 thing about that, sir, the dog was worried, dead on the 

 spot, at the door of his own kennel, and if I am not mis- 

 taken, your setter helped to do it too." " My setter," 

 said the Squire, " what do you mean ? " "I mean, 

 sir," said the man, " that about a week or so after you 

 was here last, when your dog got so towsled by old 



