IN DAYS OF YORE 205 



riding near the water, that they may see the stag if 

 he is lying in it, but keeping their hounds at a little 

 distance on the landward side, that they may the 

 better catch the line if the deer has left the stream ; 

 for when he first comes out all dripping the scent 

 will naturally be weak. 



A chase sometimes lasted over two days, and full 

 directions are given as to the best way of recovering 

 a deer who has been given up for want of daylight or 

 other reason over-night. But the old author natu- 

 rally dwells at greater length on the successful ending 

 of the run, and prescribes with characteristic exactness 

 how the stag should be dealt with when at last he is 

 brought to bay. And here one is struck by the stress 

 laid on the fierceness of the stag's last fight for life, 

 and the dangerous character ascribed to the wounds 

 inflicted by his horns, which at the rutting season 

 were supposed to be poisonous. Du Fouilloux pro- 

 fesses to know so many instances of fatal accidents 

 that he only quotes one, and there was a proverb, 

 ' After the boar the leech, after the hart the bier.' 



I suppose that the old hounds were often nearly 

 as much exhausted as their quarry by the time they 

 got up to him, and probably in many cases they only 

 succeeded in doing so because the stag was leg 

 weary and had waited till he became stiff ; whereas 



