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70 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [cuap. xxxrv. 
There was not a breath of wind blowing from any direction, 
everything was as calm as it could possibly be, so that although 
we had no fear of being scented by the stag, we had to take the 
extremest care not to make the least noise in going to our place 
of ambuscade. We held the dogs in our handkerchiefs as the 
quickest way of slipping them. The stag was easily seen with- 
out much risk of his observing us, as we looked through a crevice 
in the rocks. 
After waiting an anxious half hour or more, we saw the deer 
suddenly spring up, and, after standing at gaze for a moment, 
trot up the hill, but not exactly in our direction. He came toa 
flat spot, and then halted again, and looked earnestly down into 
the glen. The shepherd was now in full view, and the deer 
having looked at him fixedly for a minute, seemed to recognise 
an old and harmless acquaintance; and then turning, trotted 
deliberately, at no great pace, straight towards us. We heard 
every step he took as he trotted up the hard hill-side; now and 
then he crossed a sloping piece of loose gravel which rattled as 
his hard hoofs struck the stones, and at one time he had to 
pick his way through a wet splashy piece of marsh, which he 
did deliberately and slowly, occasionally looking round at the 
shepherd below him. At this time we could not move or lift 
our heads for fear of being seen, but had to wait till the deer had 
passed the rocks amongst which we were concealed, that we 
might let slip the hounds at a distance of about thirty or forty 
yards. The deer was now close to us, not more than ten yards 
off, but we did not want to let the dogs go for fear of turning 
him back again into the valley from which he had come, where 
the ground was not nearly so favourable for the dogs as the slope 
on the other side of us. We heard him tramp past us as he 
trotted slowly along on the other side of the rocks behind which 
we were concealed. The next moment he had cleared the rocky 
ground, and was in full view about thirty yards from us, on a 
wide expanse of good heather-ground. The dogs saw him too, 
and getting to our feet, we slipped them. 
With one affrighted glance behind him, away went the stag, 
at first along the top of the slope, as if anxious to keep above 
the dogs; but finding himself hard pressed, he turned his head 
down the hill, and the race began. Down they went, the dogs 
