222 
PASSIONAL ZOOLOGY. 
the first speaker, spitting out with a grimace the muddy water 
that he had tasted, we are a long ways from home; but even if 
we all have to go to bed standing to-night, it will never do to give 
it up so. . . . Where do you suppose this devil of a stag has 
gone 
My idea, sir, is that he has returned to the copse of the point,’^ 
replied the whipper-in to his master, whom I now recognized as 
the old Prince of Conde. Leaping the high road, the animal has 
returned under cover to the spot where we saw so many fresh 
tracks, and I should not be astonished if our stag had gone there 
to start a change in his place. . . 
‘‘ Then you do not think he is about here, wdiere the other day, 
almost under the same circumstances, we had to couple our dogs 
and go home.” 
No sir, I think not ... if the fellow has grazed the edge of 
the road it is all ; but I am either much deceived or it is only a 
feint ; if we lose precious time in consulting as we did the other 
day, I fear he will escape us.” 
‘‘ Come then, to the chase,” said the prince, wdio, despite his ad- 
vanced age, vaulted lightly to his saddle; ‘‘let us tread the thick- 
ets, step by step ; I will remain here a moment as vidette, and 
honor to the first who shall get a sight of him.” 
At this injunction the two huntsmen entered the wood, sound- 
ino’ a blast for the dogs. Some sleuth-hounds who had assem- 
o o 
bled, divided to the right and left to watch for the animal if he 
should pass ; and the Prince of Conde, remaining alone on the 
edge of the swamp, kept guard. 
With the exception of two griffons, all the dogs were deep in 
the copse, and some already seemed to approach the track. 
“ Back ! back 1” cried the prince, turning his horse upon these 
loiterers, who, nosing earnestly on the track, seemed to disregard 
the call of the bugle ; but instead of minding him, they turned to- 
ward the ditch where the stag had gone down, and there one of 
them opened with an accent of truth which seemed to surprise 
the piince. 
I breathed hard, but kept dark. As to my young companion, 
whom I had much trouble in silencing during this magnificent epi- 
