132 WARWICK WOODLANDS. 



tain, wherein they had undoubtedly made their head- 

 quarters. Arrangements had been made on all sides — 

 forty or fifty stout and active men were mustered, well 

 armed, though variously, with muskets, ducking-guns and 

 rifles — some fifteen couple of strong hounds, of every 

 height and color, were collected — some twenty horses 

 saddled and bridled, and twice as many sleighs were 

 ready; with provisions, ammunition, liquor and blankets, 

 all prepared for a week's bivouac. The plan prescribed 

 was in the first place to surround the swamp, as silently 

 as possible, with all our forces, and then to force the pack 

 out so as to face our volley. This, should the method be 

 successful, would finish the whole hunt at once; but should 

 the three-legged savage succeed in making his escape, we 

 were to hunt him by relays, bivouacking upon the ground 

 wherever night should find us, and taking up the chase 

 again upon the following morning, until continual fatigue 

 should wear out the fierce brute. I had two horses with 

 me, and Tim Matlock; so I made up my mind at once, 

 got a light one-horse sleigh up in the village, rigged it 

 with all my bear-skins, good store of whiskey, eatables, 

 and so forth, saddled the gray with my best Somerset, 

 holsters and surcingle attached, and made one of the party 

 on the instant. 



"Before daylight we started, a dozen mounted men 

 leading the way, with the intent to get quite round the 

 ridge, and cut ofF the retreat of these most wily beasts of 

 prey, before the coming of the rear-guard should alarm 

 them — and the remainder of the party, sleighing it merrily 

 along, with all the hounds attached to them. The dawn 

 was yet in its first gray dimness when we got into line 

 along the little ridge which bounds that small dense brake 

 on the northeastern side — upon the southern side the hill 

 rose almost inaccessibly in a succession of short limestone 

 ledges — westward the open woods, through which the 

 hounds and footmen were approaching, sloped down in a 

 long easy fall, into the deep secluded basin, filled with the 

 densest and most thorny coverts, and in the summer time 

 waist deep in water, and almost inaccessible, though now 

 floored with a sheet of solid ice, firm as the rocks around 

 it — due northward was an open field, dividing the wolf- 

 dingle from the mountain road by which we always travel. 



