some of the beaters-we faithfully observed the orders of our generalin-chief of the forest, and executed the manœuvres which he had planned, till the night closed in, when the sun bid us good-night, and the moon arose to bid us good-day. A battue thus carried on till the shades of night is said to be the best; but I own I cannot see the advantage of shooting when the darkness prevents your discerning the white scut of a hare or the end of your own gun. I heard certainly the gallop of a herd of roe-deer where I was posted, who bounded by my side; this only caused my heart to beat, as they passed like shadows; and as in winter time the males have shed their horns, I will leave others to discover the sex. But after this whirlwind of roe-deer, I heard before me a sterner footmore grave and more heavy-and there appeared a larger shadow, which, as a cloud passed from the clear moon for a moment, enabled me with delight to see the large antlers of a stag, that moved slowly beneath the unruffled branches. Instantly I threw myself on my knees, and, calling to aid all the nerve and patience possible at such a moment, awaited quietly till he came within twenty yards, my gun being loaded only with large shot. When at the above-named distance, aiming at the side of his head, I fired, and the noble animal fell to the earth, with a slight movement of his hind legs, stiff and dead.

At this fortunate shot, which all the other shooters took as a signal of departure, a general discharge of arms took place. The "OberForster" called together his recruits, counted the royal game, received his fines, as also our thanks, and bid us adieu. But he ought, in order to carry out his rule, again to have mounted the rostrum of the morning, and have read aloud the bulletin of the battue:

66

Sportsmen and beaters, receive my compliments on your valour; you have all done your duty. The enemy's line is entirely broken-fled in all directions. Two stags, five roe deer, eleven foxes, and more than fifty hares are the trophies of this memorable encounter."

I must add, for the benefit of those who desire to follow my footsteps, that a fortnight previous to my arrival, a similar battue had taken place on the same ground, when the success was far greater, and which caused ours to be far less than usual.

CHAP. II.

On reaching Berlin, after leaving Hamburg, when recalling to mind the numerous promises which had accompanied my departure the year previous, I really fancied, according to a common saying, that the larks would fall from heaven ready roasted for my pleasure. However, instead of roasted larks, I was entertained by no end to marvellous stories of sporting. A celebrated artist had just returned from Silesia, where he had killed in two days, with his own gun, eighty-nine hares. Count P― had returned from Hanover, where, in six days, on his own shooting, the prodigious number of one hundred and seven foxes had succumbed to his deadly aim. Moreover, at a neighbouring shop I beheld the arrival of no end of venison and roe-deer, which came frozen from the provinces and from the twenty-five regions of the Prussian monarchy. But all this passed before my nose like the smell of roast beef to a famished man; and, after three weeks' abstinence, I longed

to rehandle my gun. Nevertheless, although the promises were made, I feel satisfied, with the intention of being fulfilled, there was so much hesitation, delay, and adjournment, moreover the cold was so intense, that, although at St. Petersburgh the season would have been considered as natural, at Berlin few were in the disposition to expose either their noses or fingers out of doors. Add to this that such healthy weather was said to be the forerunner of the cholera, and a sudden stomach-ache seemed to have seized the whole population, without counting the hundred other maladies to which man is subject. Then came the absence and even death of many of my former friends. According to the Spanish proverb, I might well exclaim, "In the last year's nests there are no birds." Some had their affairs to attend to, others their pleasures, others their duties; consequently the difficulty of forming a shooting party, and, when formed, how many obstacles ere the wished-for pleasure is obtained! First to select a day agreeable to the authorities; then to gather together your party, inform the keepers, and await their reply. I really came to the conclusion that anyone desirous of sport in Germany, during the month of January, should arrive there in the month of September. What on earth, then, had brought me among so unenergetic a race at Christmas? I do not, however, desire to be hard on my German friends; but really, when I reflected that my visit to Berlin was limited, and that I might never return there, when I found days and weeks rapidly pass away, I became almost desperate.

In this state of mind, returning, one evening, to my lodgings, I found on my table a letter, about the size of a pancake, together with a visiting card, on which was engraved the name of the Prince of Cwhom I knew held the position of grand veneur, or chief keeper of all the royal forests. I seized the pancake with delight; and on inspecting the seal, as large as a penny piece, beheld engraved thereon emblems of the chace, surmounted by a stag's head with royal antlers. Carefully cutting the letter open, to preserve the wax unbroken, I read, with joy, an invitation to shoot on the following day in the royal domain. The species of game, the spot, the locality for shooting, the hour of departure, the hour of retiring, and the means and mode of getting there, all being clearly stated, nothing was wanting in their order of the day, my name being also clearly written on the note.

I turned into bed with the hope of a good night's rest, but the hopes of the morrow caused my repose to be light and feverish; in fact, although I had an alarm clock on my chimneypiece, in order that I might awake in good time, and slept like the Bristolians, with one eye open, I was up and dressed an hour before the carriage came to the door, and arrived at the railway ere the office was open.

It was not far from the railway which runs to Silesia, by Frankfortsur-l'Oder, that our sporting ground had been selected, and carriages awaited at the nearest station to conduct us to the spot, which carriages followed us throughout the day to take us from ground to ground, conducted by the chief forester, or I conclude he ought to be termed the Minister of Woods and Forests, in person: although neither the King nor the princes took part in the sport, it might fairly be said to have been well regulated. Cards drawn by lot by the shooters bore numbers, to each number being attached most minute regulations for the precaution of all accidents. The keepers of every grade-on horseback as on

foot-in full uniform, directed the beaters, of which appeared an immense number, all having round their necks a number, and all being paid for the labours of the day. Players of the French horn and cornet-à-piston marched on each flank of this army, to give the signal of moving and halting, and thus keeping the whole in line, as marking the extremities of the shooting-ground. Lastly, in each covert were formed several bowers of broken branches. I can scarcely say whether these hiding-places were not of greater harm than utility. It is possible that the forming of them by the woodcutters, the day previous, might have disturbed the game. It is certain that in this first campaign, which took place on some ground newly tried, large game was rare, notwithstanding that permission was given to shoot hinds, and even fawns, on the supposition that deer were far more numerous there than roe-deer. One hind, however, only was killed. As usual, the poor hares paid, as the foreigners have it, for the broken pots.

Three days subsequently I received another invitation; and availing myself of the opportunity to call and thank the Prince for his kindness, I was informed that it was by the express command of the King that I had received the honour-rarely awarded-of being placed on the list of those invited to the royal battues. Long may his Majesty live and sport. This second battue took place at Cossnick, on the same side, but nearer to Berlin than the first; and from the precision, rapidity of movement, the good order, and the final success which attended it, it might be regarded as a model battue among German sport. The ground was a series of small coverts, by no means thick in underwood, through which were numerous cuttings. There was neither red game nor black game, according to German sporting phraseology-only that which is termed home game; nevertheless, at the end of the day the slaughter was great, consisting of twenty roedeer, six foxes, one hundred and thirty-three hares, and a leash of partridges. In a battue of this nature it would be difficult to say who was the most successful, as it is a mere lottery. Those who draw the best numbers are the best placed, and often the worst shots kill the most, whereas a good shot being badly placed may have nothing to shoot at.

On the third occasion the King took part, as also the princes, in the sport. The ground selected was the plain of Lichtenberg, near the gates of Berlin. It was what is termed a circular battue-the caldron battue (Kessel Treiben)-which I formerly described. Those invited found a troop of at least forty guns, while a whole battalion of guards had been secured as beaters, without counting numerous peasants, who voluntarily enrolled themselves to enjoy the sport. Although the ground had not been shot over for five or six years previously, the knowing ones proclaimed the sport would be bad-the more so as we were already in the first days of February, when the hares, beginning to pair, sought the woodlands. Nevertheless, we were reassured by innumerable tracks on the snow, which proved that a multitude of hares had quitted their forms, and, reuniting themselves in small troops, threw back their ears with fear at the sight of the army, which already encircled them. In fact, as is not seldom the case, the knowing ones were taken in; and, notwithstanding their prognostics, and that we had breakfasted late and the day was short, and that we had only two battues, in the first we killed three hundred and seventy-three hares, and in the second two

hundred and forty-eight, making a total of six hundred and twenty-one, without counting the dead and wounded picked up on the field of battle the day following.

This battue, most successful from the amount of game killed, would have been far more destructive, had not the weather taken the

part of the poor hares. At the very moment we commenced shooting, a fine piercing snow blinded our eyes and wetted our locks; at the same time we shot at hazard as regards distance without this ill luck, the massacre would have proved enormous. At starting, I remarked that all the hares which got up before me made direct for a small wood at hand. Impatient at the success of my neighbours, I ran, regardless of orders, several yards in front, and placed myself in a hole, from which the earth had been thrown, so as to form a sort of embankment, behind which blockade all my double shots told; but the repeated cries of "Vorwaerts!" or forward, soon obliged me to return to the line. One of the princes had placed himself at the corner of the covert, in fact, at the very point where the hares entered, and, in this favourable position, killed fifty-eight. It is true that he had two or three guns, and two keepers to load them, and it is equally true that he fired until the whole side of his face became swelled by the effects.

There is something to learn every day one lives, and in these round battues I discovered that if one awaited the coming of a hare, as in ordinary cases, he invariably turned to the aim of a neighbour; whereaas, by advancing and loading, your success was complete.

I have already expressed my opinion with reference to these battues, which I consider mere butcheries-curious, and supportable once a year-on this occasion more bloody than usual. I had, however, at all events, the pleasure of witnessing the courteous affability and sincere kindness shown alike by the King and the royal princes to those around them, both by their cordial and simple manner. The King spoke gaily and pleasantly alike to shooters, soldiers, beaters, and peasants, without being recognized by many, so simple were his dress and his whole bearing, and I felt charmed when he did me the honour to call me to his side, and address me in the most amiable manner on the subject of our sport. Generals, ambassadors, counts, dukes, princes, even the royal princes, drew lots, and took their places accordingly: this, as far as regards sporting in Germany, place all at their ease and on the same footing; truly it has its freemasonry in all countries.

The second battue over, we were rapidly conveyed in carriages to the Château of Schonhausen-a small royal residence, celebrated for the fine trees which embellish its park-where a dinner was prepared for all who had been invited to take part in the sport, and there simplicity and cordiality reigned around the table, not less than in the circle of the battue. No one changed his dress; all sat down to dinner as they appeared in the field, washing the hands being all the toilet permitted. Truly the contrast was singular: on the one hand, the saloon of a palace, brilliantly lighted, rich in its service of plate and china, cookery of the choicest, and servants sumptuously attired; on the other, an assembly of sportsmen, in all the rough attire of a midwinter's shooting garb. A spectator of such a scene might well have fancied himself looking on a Roman feast, on the day of the year when the masters served the table of their slaves. After dinner the battue was closed, and we separated.

[COMMUNICATED TO, AND EDITED BY, LORD WILLIAM LENNOX.]

CHAPTER II.

Summit after summit, peak, and glacier, mingled together in gigantic chaos, were at length kissed gradually by the first trembling rays of the great day-star, as the edge of the golden zone rose from out the flood of warm glory which bathed the eastern paradise of clouds. Then the mists and clouds of night, and the veil of the early morn, slowly and languidly rolled far over and away from the stern dark sides of the earth's mighty walls, which reared themselves from out the blue waters of the thirteen sparkling lakes beneath the whole earth seemed spread out like the chart of a god, with eternity its horizon. He, who with lip or pen can do justice to the wonders of that morning's view, were immortal.

After a scanty breakfast of bread and mountain honey, the alpenstock was grasped, and we descended by a gradual and winding path through clouds, pine woods, gorges, gardens, parks, meadows, rushing cataracts, and by enormous masses of stone, which, detached from their parent rock in some great convulsion, lay strewed around, assuming wild and fantastic shapes, like the gloomy ruins of some dead Titan city, till we at last stood by the rippling wavelets of the fair lake of Lucerne, in the humble village of Weggis. Again the views, over which our eyes roved in silent rapture, assumed an indescribable sublimity. There the barren towering grandeur of the snow-crested Alps, and the dark, distant mass of Mount Pilate, with its mysterious cloud and fabled waters, mingled with the quiet, green, sunny slopes and pastures studded with the fig, the almond, and the chestnut, to gladden the eye of the artist and the soul of the poet. The heart of man is like an iron bar; warmed must it be, ere it can be bent. For my own part, it is among such scenes as these that I find placed the anvil of the heart, when the faintest murmur of the breeze, a touch of the hand, or a woman's whisper, will call up the thrill of enthusiasm and the tear of gladness. I think I read the critic's line of raillery-" Here, we are somewhat detained on our journey, as the author indulges in fine writing." Now, if many of those christian gentlemen who are critics would only follow the excellent maxim put forth by a certain heathen sage, they would act more in accordance with their pretensions-I mean christian charity." "Nothing can be more unhappy than the man who ranges everywhere, ransacks everything, and dives into other men's bosoms to find food for censure, but does not consider all the while that his own mind will afford him sufficient scope for inquiry, and the care and improvement of

*Marc Anton, lib. ii., § 13.