DEER-STALKER'S RHYMES. 169 



Then spur on your ponies, and haste to the slaughter, 

 Where the Tilt and the Tarff mix their eddying water ; 

 The ravens have spied us, and croak as they wheel 

 O'er the antler'd heads of their destined meal. 



Now brace up your sinews, give play to your lungs, 

 Keep open your eyes, and keep silent your tongues ; 

 And follow with cautious and stealthy tread 

 The forester's footsteps wherever they lead. 



Here pause we a moment, while yonder slope 

 He surveys with the balanced telescope : 

 By heavens ! he sees them just under the hill 

 The pride of the forest lie browsing and still. 



" Yon moss must be past ere we gain our shot, 

 'T is full five hundred yards to the fatal spot." 

 So near has he reckon'd that, as we crawl by, 

 Lo ! the points of their horns on the line of the sky. 



We have travers'd the flat, and we lurk behind 

 A rock, to recover our nerve, and our wind : 

 Hist ! the calfs are belling ; and, snuffing the air, 

 Two jealous old hinds to the front repair. 



See the herd is alarm 'd, and o'er the height 

 The leading hinds have advanc'd into sight : 

 " Hold ! hold your hand till the antlers appear, 

 For the heaviest harts are still in the rear." 



Crack, crack ! go the rifles, for either shot 

 A noble hart, bleeding, sinks on the spot ; 

 The third ball has miss'd, but the hindmost stag 

 Was struck by the fourth as he topped the crag. 



" Uncouple the lurchers ! " right onward they fly, 

 With out-stretching limb, and with fire-flashing eye : 

 On the track of his blood they are winging their way ; 

 They gain on his traces, he stands at bay ! 



Magnificent creature ! to reach thee I strain 

 Through forest and glen, over mountain and plain ; 

 Yet, now thou art fallen, thy fate I deplore, 

 And lament that the reign of thy greatness is o'er. 



Where now is that courage, late bounding so high, 

 That acuteness of scent, and that brilliance of eye ; 

 That fleeteess of foot, which, out-speeding the wind, 

 Has so often left death and destruction behind. 



12 



