362 



WILD SPAIN. 



The writer, to-day, though the first gun in line, was posted 

 some half a mile back from the commencement of the 

 beat, and was endeavouring to make a hasty sketch of the 

 beautiful landscape of cane-brake, bamboo, and marsh-land 

 which stretched away before us. The dry sedges and canes 

 were fired at several points : but hardly had the distant 

 smoke- wreaths begun to curl upwards in the clear still air, 

 than a first-rate stag slowly trotted across the open, right 

 before me. I had not seen him come ; the sketch-book 

 was in hand ; the gun — loaded in both barrels with shot, 

 for cats and the like — lay on the ground ; truly a magnifi- 

 cent bungle ! One ball-cartridge was inserted ere the game, 

 still unconscious of an ambush, was passing, full broadside, 

 at 80 or 90 yards — as easy a shot as need be wished. But 

 in the flurry of unreadiness, I forgot to raise the sight, 

 and the ball passed immediately beneath the breast, miss- 

 ing both forelegs. Again a cartridge had to be changed ; 

 and now the stag was bounding away, end-on, at 150 yards. 

 This time the aim was refined and nerves braced by a very 

 sense of shame, and the impact of the ball was distinctly, 

 though faintly, heard. On went the stag, disappearing 

 over rising ground behind, and hardly had the cartridges 

 been replaced, than a second hart, breaking back, offered 

 a long and infinitely more difficult shot ; but, after one 

 vertical bound, like that of a lightly-hooked salmon, 

 dropped stone-dead in his tracks. Soon afterwards a small 

 stag with three hinds showed on the outer edge of the 

 jungle ; but, though more than one express rifle was 

 levelled at him, the distance was too great (300 or 400 

 yards), and the bullets uselessly ricochetted across the 

 swampy wastes. Towards the end, two wild-cats bounded 

 from the fringe of burning bamboos, and simultaneous 

 shots stretched both lifeless among the tamarisks. 



The spectacle from our posts was remarkable, the whole 

 area, many hundred acres, enveloped in smoke ; here and 

 there tongues of flame shot upwards as the flying sparks 

 carried forward the conflagration across some marsh- 

 channel and renewed the dying blaze. Dense black clouds 

 rolled away to leeward, amidst which hovered swarms of 



