74 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DOG. 



went along the same road, and of travellers that had occasion 

 to cross it :, and when he came to the chief market town, he 

 passed through the streets without taking any notice of the 

 people there. He ceased not till he had gone to the house 

 where the man he sought rested himself, and where he found 

 him in an upper room, to the wonder of those who had accom- 

 panied him in his pursuit. 



The only modes of escaping the unerring scent of the blood- 

 hound were crossing water or spilling blood upon the track. 

 In the notes to the " Lay of the Last Minstrel," Sir W. Scott 

 says, " Barbour informs us that Robert Bruce was repeatedly 

 tracked by sleuth-dogs.* On one occasion, he escaped by 

 wading a bowshot down a brook, and thus baffled the scent. 

 The pursuers came up 



" ' Rycht to the burn thai passyt ware, 



But the sleuth-hound made slenting there, 



And waveryt lang time ta and fra, 



That he na certain gait couth ga ; 



Till at the last John of Lorn 



Perseuvit the Hund the sleuth had borne.' 



The Bruce, Book VII. 



" A sure way of stopping the dog was to spill blood upon the 

 track, which destroyed the discriminating fineness of his scent. 

 A captive was sometimes sacrificed on such occasions. Hen- 

 ry the Minstrel tells us a romantic story of Wallace, founded 

 on this circumstance. The hero's little band had been joined 

 by an Irishman, named Fawdon, or Fadzean, a dark, savage, 

 and suspicious character. After a sharp skirmish at Black 

 Erneside, Wallace was forced to retreat, with only sixteen 

 followers. The English pursued with a border sleuth-brach,f 

 or Bloodhound. In the retreat, Fawdon, tired, or affecting to 

 be so, would go no farther. Wallace, having in vain argued 

 with him, in hasty anger struck off his head, and continued 

 the retreat. When the English came up, their hound stayed 

 upon the dead body." 



THE STAGHOUND. 



As the breed of English horses increased in swiftness, 

 sportsmen found that it became necessary to increase in an 

 equal ratio the speed of their hounds. From this circura- 



* From sleuth, or slot track, especially of blood, 

 t Literally, " track.beagle." 



