ADVENTUEE IN GLEN TILT. 209 



paid no heed to this threat, and e, actually putting 



his cowardly threat into execution, levelled his piece and 

 fired. The ball struck the snow at the feet of one of the 

 party. 



IS and R , his comrades, were thunderstruck at 



this mad act of e, and peaceably awaited the coming 



up of the other party, who proved to be poachers like them- 

 selves. The man fired at was outrageous, and he had good 

 reason to be so : but after various threats on one side, and 

 submission on the other, matters at length took a pacific 

 turn. 



These poachers who had given chase, finding that others 

 of the fraternity were before them, and were putting a com- 

 plete obstacle to their success, hid their guns, and endea- 

 voured, by passing for keepers, to drive them out of the 

 forest. The finesse, as has been seen, wanted but little of 

 ending in bloodshed. 



When men went forth singly on these unlawful excur- 

 sions, they were sometimes placed in considerable difficulties 

 for want of efficient assistance. A poacher had very lately 

 a desperate struggle in Glen Tilt, the particulars of which 

 I mention as they came from his own mouth, for he was 

 never discovered. 



He set off in the evening, that he might be on a deer- 

 cast by the grey of the morning : whiist it was dark he 

 descried the horns of a deer in a hollow very near him ; he 

 had small shot only in his gun, and was in such a position 

 that he could not change the charge without danger of dis- 

 turbing the stag. He crept, however, so close to him, that 

 when he sprung on his legs he fell to the shot. Not a little 

 surprised, the poacher threw down his gun, dashed forward 

 and seized his victim by the hind leg ; but it was no easy 

 matter to hold him. In this struggle the man kept his grip 

 firmly, whilst the deer dragged him at a tearing pace 

 amongst the large stones and birch hags, till he was all over 

 bruises, his legs severely lacerated, and his clothes torn to 

 shreds ; his bonnet and plaid had entirely disappeared. 



He now contrived to get hold of his knife, but it dropped 

 in the struggle ; and as the- deer still sustained its vigour t 

 he had much ado to keep hold of the limb even with both 



