200 FOREST CREATURES. 



came down and saw the ladders standing, they would 

 not believe what they saw, and looked on the affair as 

 miraculous. 



It was not a miracle ; but I think myself that no 

 eagle had ever been taken from an eyrie in like manner ; 

 and I must confess, as I am the only one who can 

 judge of the difficulty and the danger in their full extent, 

 that nothing whatever should induce me to make the 

 attempt a second time. It is a feat — and I may say it 

 without being at all accused of want of modesty — which 

 is to be placed among those extraordinary things which 

 rarely succeed once, but never do a second time. Had 

 I known beforehand how the thing really was, I should 

 have been the last to have attempted it ; however, the 

 attempt once made, you not only trust to your own 

 powers more and more, but you also learn how to 

 employ them to the best advantage. Moreover, the re- 

 membrance, with perhaps a certain fatalistic feeling, 

 that " not a sparrow falls to the ground unknown to 

 Grod," has often caused that to be accomplished which 

 seemed really impossible. • 



By six o'clock the whole expedition, the young eagle 

 in triumph in the van, had returned to Eohrmoos, 

 where all that is here related was told and talked over 

 till late at night, amid rejoicing, noise, and festivity. 

 During thirteen hours jione of us had tasted any thing ; 

 and the enjoyment of the creature comforts^ after such 



