5872 



Bavarian Sporting, 



the keepers and others, with whom we marched, forming a close line, 

 began to walk up from the other end of the enclosure, driving all the 

 unfortunate hares in a body towards the guns ; as they neared the 

 shooters they naturally ran to the sides ; and now they were hunted 

 round the open space, and made to run the gauntlet in front of all the 

 guns : then the murder began in earnest, and for the first ten minutes 

 each royal forefinger was continually engaged in pulling trigger after 

 trigger, for as fast as each sportsman shot off his gun another was 

 handed in its place. The hares at first came round in perfect droves, 

 and then it was not only impossible to miss, but also impossible to 

 kill without wounding many others ; so then a horrible sight ensued, 

 of hares unnumbered shuffling about with broken legs, wounded in 

 every possible way, half-dead, bleeding, and uttering their mournful 

 cry, so like the cry of a child. Soon the ground in front of the 

 shooters was white with dead hares ; still the slaughter went on, at 

 first amidst a roar of guns, then a dropping fire, then single guns at 

 longer intervals, then occasional shots, then it ceased, but not till 

 every one of the hares enclosed had been driven round and round till 

 it had met its death : happy were those first slain, for, once enclosed 

 within the canvas, escape was impossible : if the poor animal had 

 run the gauntlet before all the shooters once or twice, and had 

 escaped unharmed or with a broken leg, the third or fourth round 

 must destroy it ; nothing living could escape. An unlucky squirrel, 

 appalled at the noise, descended a tree close to the king, who, with a 

 shout of delight, ruthlessly shot it as it gazed at him in amazement 

 from the ground at about ten yards' distance, proving that if " a cat 

 may look at a king'* the old adage does not hold good with a squir- 

 rel, for this poor unsuspecting innocent paid for its temerity with its 

 life. About twenty roe, bucks and does, had been accidentally en- 

 closed with the hares, and these, too, must of course suffer the same 

 fate, and were shot in like manner, save and except five or six bucks, 

 which, terrified at the first noise of the shooting, and not yet having 

 been shot at, ran back towards the advancing line of keepers, who 

 immediately raised their hands and sticks to turn them ; but, led by 

 one noble fellow^ the bucks took a spring right over our heads, hats 

 and uplifted sticks, not a little to the delight of the Crown Prince, 

 who, priding himself on his English habits and ideas, and knowledge 

 of the English tongue, told us, he " would give any sum for a hunter 

 who shall jump so," though, as the Germans never hunt or leap, and 

 indeed there are no fences in Bavaria, we did'nt see of what possible 

 use to his Royal Highness such a fencer would have been. Some of 



