THE STAa. 51 



dances along his dappled moving body, there is a daz- 

 zling confusion of passing gleams, and he has vanished 

 you know not whither. 



I have waited for the stag's coming at early morning, 

 have followed him in the woods, and listened to and 

 hastened after him in the mountains, when his roar has 

 re-echoed from their slopes and been answered ag-ain 

 from afar. I know the excitement of pursuit, and the 

 delight, and the elate feeling when, still incredulous, we 

 grasp the indented crown of the giant extended at our 

 feet. And I can understand therefore how the lord of 

 a domain should be jealous of any encroachment on his 

 forests, and should fence them round with laws and 

 penalties. Heaven forbid I should defend inhuman 

 statutes or a<its of savage barbarity ; but it is, I assert, 

 only he who knows all this, and has himself, at mo- 

 ments, been transported with an ecstacy of joy, can 

 comprehend how it should be possible to grow into so 

 insatiable, all-absorbing a passion as to make a man 

 forget his humanity, and, in all that relates to this one 

 matter, become a very demon. 



Yet it has been so ; and, human nature being always 

 and everywhere the same, the same ruthless acts would 

 no doubt recur again were they not prevented by the 

 stern severity of law. All this, however, only shows 

 what a spell pervaded the deer-forest, and how the 

 presence of the noble stag acted as a fascination; 



£ 2 



