206 
STAG. 
are not less ardent in their speed on horseback, 
cheering up the dogs, and directing them where 
to pursue. On the other hand, the stag, when 
unharboured, flies at first with the swiftness of the 
wind, leaving his pursuers several miles in the 
rear ; and at length having gained his former co- 
verts, and no longer hearing the cries of the dogs 
and men that he had just left behind, he stops, 
gazes round him, and seems to recover his natural 
tranquillity. But this calm is of short duration, 
for his inveterate pursuers slowly and securely 
trace him along, and he once more hears the ap- 
proaching destruction from behind. He again, 
therefore, renews his efforts to escape, and again 
leaves his pursuers at almost the former distance ; 
but this second effort makes him more feeble than 
before, and when they come up a second time, he 
is unable to outstrip them with equal velocity. 
The poor animal now, therefore, is obliged to 
have recourse to all his little arts of escape, which 
sometimes, though but seldom, avail him. In pro- 
portion as his strength fails him, the ardour of 
his pursuers is inflamed ; he tracks more heavily 
on the ground, and this increasing the strength of 
the scent, redoubles the cries of the hounds, and 
enforces their speed. It is then that the stag seeks 
for refuge among the herd, and tries every artifice 
to put off some other head for his own. Some- 
times he will send forth some little deer in his stead, 
in the mean time lying close himself, that the 
hounds may overshoot him. He will break into 
one thicket after another, to find deer, rousing 
them, gathering them together, and endeavouring 
to put them upon the tracks he has made. His 
old companions, however, with a true spirit of 
ingratitude, now all forsake and shun him with 
the most watchful industry, leaving the unhappy 
creature to take his fate by himself. Thus ab&Q^ 
