52 rOEEST CREATURES. 



drawing men onward, and charming their senses that 

 they might be maddened with one single passion. 



We all know of the law enacted by William the 

 Conqueror, that whoever should slay stag, hart, or hind, 

 "him man should blind;"* and William Eufus was as 

 severe in the penalties he enforced as his father. There 

 is hardly a passion which so grows with what it feeds on, 

 as the chase. For even great success does not satisfy : 

 it rather excites to new endeavour, and inspires with 

 hope of obtaining still nobler trophies. Thus William 

 of Hesse stalked in the rutting season more than eighty 

 stags, " for the greater part with large handsome an- 

 tlers " of twelve, fourteen, and sixteen points ; and yet he 

 complains of the shortness of the season, "shorter than he 

 had ever known it before in his life." Thus the hunger 

 is not appeased by food, but becomes a ravenous craving. 



And so it came to pass, that at length human life 

 was held cheaper than that of the deer; for whose 

 protection it was enacted, that he who should be caught 

 in the act of laying a trap for game should lose both his 

 hands. t And the clergy were possessed by the same 

 passion: abbots, bishops, and other princes of the 

 church. The abbots of Fulda had an immense terri- 

 tory, over which they enjoyed the exclusive right of 

 chase. Nor were these ecclesiastics more merciful 



* Duke William of Wurtemburg, in 1517, passed a similar law, 

 t Anno 1380. Biidingen. 



