8 FOREST CREATURES. 



to mangle yon farther ; he is off and away like a shot, 

 bnt the wonnd he will have given yon in passing is 

 qnite enongh. 



And if, where he cannot escape meeting yon, yon 

 choose to face him and provoke an attack ; or shonld yon 

 oppose him when made wrathful by a wonnd, he will at 

 once charge down npon yon, even though the two-edged 

 gleaming blade of the long-shafted boar-spear be held 

 towards him, two feet from the ground, so that it may 

 enter his shoulder as he rushes on. And though yon 

 grasp it firmly, and yon lean your more advanced hand 

 on and against your somewhat bended knee, he may 

 strike the blade sidewards with his head and be npon 

 you quick as a sabre-cut. But even if you are cool and 

 collected and steady, and the sharp steel passes between 

 the shoulder-blade and his neck, even then, I say, be 

 careful that his tusks — for his neck is long — • do not 

 reach your knee. 



On the 12th of December, 1581, just such an accident 

 as I counsel you to guard against happened to Klaus 

 Eantzau, " one of the gentlest pages " of Landgrave 

 William of Hesse, who thus describes the occurrence in 

 a letter to a friend. " We had a right merry day's sport, 

 having killed 121, and, thank Grod ! without any mishap, 

 when our page ran from his place to seek his dagger 

 which he had lost. Meanwhile a boar, followed by the 

 dogs, comes towards him ; and he resolves to attack it 



