XXII 
THE DEER 
235 
and were lost to view. It was the party which had 
disturbed him, therefore he had again reposed when 
the party was gone. 
In this opinion I agreed; we accordingly held 
the dogs in readiness to slip immediately, and the 
gillie led the way. We were not kept many 
minutes in suspense ; there was no doubt that the 
stag had been lying down, as he suddenly sprang 
up within 100 yards of us, and in the same instant 
the dogs were slipped. They had viewed him 
immediately that he sprang up from the heather 
and the broken surface of the hill-face. 
This must have been a lovely sight from the 
carriages, although rather far for the unassisted eye. 
For a few seconds the stag took up the hill, but 
the hounds ran cunning, and cut him off; he now 
took a straight course along the face, towards the 
direction where the carriages were waiting below. 
The hounds were going madly, and were gaining 
on him. I now felt certain that he could not breast 
the hill at such a pace, therefore, instead of follow¬ 
ing over the rough ground, we made all speed 
direct for the bottom, to gain the level road. It 
did not take long to reach the welcome solid footing, 
and away we went as hard as we could go along 
the road, towards the direction of the carriages. 
As we drew near, we could see the hunt. The 
deer had passed the spot where our party was in 
waiting, but he now turned down the hill towards 
the river, with the two dogs within a few yards of 
his heels. Presently we lost sight of everything; 
