My post was on the edge of a steep grassy opening running up and down the hill between two strips of forest, and I sat facing the one which was being driven, with the sun rising just at my back. Two or three hinds and small stags came to the edge of the forest, and, after looking out, passed acioss the opening below me at a walk, as I did not think them good enough to shoot. Then a royal put his head out at the same place, and smelling the tracks of the deer which had crossed before him, came on with confidence at a slow trot. I took a careful aim at about seventy yards, and he rolled down the hill out of my sight, apparently dead. Above me my host got two stags, one a very good one, and the men were sent to drag them down to the road a long way below.
In the afternoon we went out together and about five o’clock heard a stag roar in a strip of forest, separated from the wood where we stood by a rather steep, smooth, grassy sort of gully, about twenty yards wide. After listening for a while, as he did not seem to get nearer, I began to cross the opening, but was immediately pulled back by the forester, who said it was dangerous. It seemed to me perfectly safe though the slope was steep, but whilst he was talking in a whisper, the stag, luckily for me, came out fifty yards above me. I aimed at his heart and fired. He gave a jump into the air and fell on his back, rolling down. I then realised how steep and slippery the grass was, for by the time the stag was opposite where we stood, the body was rolling at such a rate that it was soon out of sight 400 yards below, and I expected to find every bone broken. But we never got to the place where it was found, as my com¬ panion said it might roll a long way further, and it would be recovered by one of his men in the morning.
The next day we moved our quarters to another keeper’s house a few miles off, where we were made very comfortable as before. On the way we passed over a high bare hill, which overlooked an adjoining valley forming part of one of the Emperor of Austria’s private preserves. As we were spying the ground, which was high-lying grassy moorland with scattered bushes and stunted trees, I saw a very good stag, which we made out to be a sixteen-pointer, coming up slowly from the march into our ground, as though looking for hinds, of which we could see two with a small stag on the other side of a grassy ridge which ran down from the hill where we sat. I said, <c There is a stag worth some trouble/’ My host said, a Yes, but you will never get a shot in this open ground, for we cannot come down from where we are without his seeing us.” I said,
“ Let me try alone, for I think I can,” so I started to slide down on my back in full view, stopping when the stag stopped, and going on when he moved on. When I did get about 300 yards down, the stag had put the ridge between him and me, and seeing that it was quite safe, I jumped up and ran to the place where he crossed the ridge. Peeping over quietly, I saw a really splendid beast within 200 yards, just coming to the hinds after driving the small stag away. And I certainly believe that I would have got him if the men above had not foolishly tried to follow me, stand¬ ing up, and not on their backs. But the hinds had already seen them and were just going to be off. Seeing that there was no time to lose I aimed carefully at the stag, but just as I pressed the trigger one of the
