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was to reach a trading port of the Missouri Company, situated on a branch of the Yellow Stone River, and that could only be accomplished by traversing immense prairies, destitute of shade, exposed to the burning heat of the sun by day and the dews and chills of the night, depending for food on the roots of the earth. In defiance of these difficulties he pushed resolutely forward, guiding himself in his trackless course by those signs and indications known only to Indians and backwoodsmen ; and after braving dangers and hardships enough to break down any spirit but that of a western pioneer, arrived safely at the solitary port in question. Such is a sample of the rugged experience which Cotter had undergone of savage life.

Every day we made some new sporting excursions, and the scenery and objects, as we proceeded, gave evidence that we were advancing deeper and deeper into the domains of savage nature. Our encampments at night were often pleasant and picturesque, on some beautiful bank, beneath spreading trees, which afforded us shelter and fuel. The tents were pitched, the fires made, and the meals prepared by the voyageurs, and many a story was told, joke passed, and song sung round the evening fire. The pigeons were now filling the woods in vast migratory flocks. So great was the number one morning in the vicinity of our birouac, that we had a most splendid battue, quite a Hornsey Wood day. On one occasion, when in pursuit of game, we came upon an Indian camp in an open prairie, near a small stream which ran through a ravine. The tents were of dressed buffalo skins, sewed together, and stretched on tapering pine poles, joined at top but radiating at bottom, so as to form a circle capable of admitting thirty persons. After sending our guide to reconnoitre the camp, and ascertaining that, fortunately for us, it belonged to a friendly tribe of Indians, we selected some few presents, and made our way to the chief's residence. Nothing could exceed their kindness. They invited us to their lodges, and set food before us with true uncivilized hospitality. During the two days that we lingered at this place our tents were continually thronged by the Indians. They were a civil, well-behaved people, tolerably cleanly in their persons and decorous in their habits. The men were tall, straight, and vigorous, with aquiline noses and high cheek-bones. Some were in a state of nudity; others had leggings and mocassins of deerskins and buffalo robes, which they threw gracefully over their shoulders. In a little while, however, they began to appear in more gorgeous array, tricked out in the finery obtained from us. Here might be seen a dark specimen of humanity dressed in English shooting gaiters and fancy waistcoat; there, another with a straw hat and a pair of Wellington boots; a third with a pilotjacket and red cotton handkerchief round his raven hair; a fourth sported a sailor's pair of trowsers, with a checked shirt. In short, they were as fine as old clothes, bright feathers, brass rings, beads of every hue, vermilion, and yellow ochre could make them.

[To be continued.]

THE BOAR

OF THE ARDENNES.

CYNEGETICAL PORTRAITS.

"Every age reproduces some types of a past one."

(Continued.)

"About the middle of the seventeenth century, and during the papacy of Sergius I., there lived in the neighbourhood of the ancient city of Maestricht two brothers who belonged to one of the most illustrious families of the country. Young, handsome, and brave, they were both also of an adventurous, galliard disposition; and, by favour of their elevated rank, and the revenues of their large and almost contiguous domains, they were enabled, in accordance with the manners and usages of the nobility of that day, to indulge the full bent of their inclinations, however costly; and in their gratification also they permitted themselves a licence as unrestricted as was the generally-assumed privilege of the powerful, at a period when force constituted right. They led, therefore, we will say, a jovial existence, giving little thought to the yesterday, and without anxiety for the morrow, recklessly indifferent to all else but the pursuit or pleasure of the moment. Indeed, before they had attained the age of twenty years they were already cited for their disorderly courses, insomuch that they had caused many husbands and mothers to deplore bitterly the hospitable reception they had given them in castle and cottage; for there, where they had at first appeared to bring joy and happiness, they almost always left sorrow and anguish behind them.

"Like all men of a vigorous organization, the two brothers, whose names were Hubert and Rimbalt, were passionately devoted to the chase. Every day which was not passed in gallantry, or rather in debauch and the orgies of the cup, was devoted to hunting in the forests of the district to a distance of thirty or forty miles round, followed by a numerous retinue, happy and ever-ready accomplices in their manifold cynegetical exploits. When the fierce bayings of their gigantic hounds, and the powerful tones of their hunting horns, echoed on the mountain tops or in the deep valleys, the stags and deer fled to the shelter of their most inaccessible retreats; the sisterhoods of the monasteries near trembled and paled with fear, even behind the protection of their grated cells; and anxious mothers concealed their daughters in the most secret recesses of their homes.

"To Hubert and Rimbalt these terrors and precautions were a source of amusement, well knowing that their fleet and indomitable packs would run down everywhere the fleetest stag or fiercest boar that fled before them, and that no burgher of the smaller townships or village churl would long dare to keep their doors closed, should it please them to knock at them upon any pretext whatever; for they were the most powerful nobles and hereditary seigneurs of the country, where their ancestors had formerly been both loved and honoured for the mildness of their rule and their beneficence.

"One evening in autumn-one such as this evening, we will say, by

way of example-they presented themselves, accompanied by a numerous train of men, horses, and dogs, before the gate of a humble sanctuary, where some holy women, fearing God without having loved the Evil One too much, had retired to live in prayer and meditation. They demanded shelter and hospitality for the night, purposing at daydawn on the following morning to hunt in the forests in the midst of which the humble hermitage of the recluses was situated. The timid sisterhood at first refused to receive beneath their roof the noisy and dangerous company, assigning several reasons for their refusal, the least good one of which was nevertheless excellent; but Hubert and Rimbalt broke out in such terrible threats, and gave utterance to imprecations so fearful, that the sisterhood were compelled to lower to them the small drawbridge that gave access to their asylum of peace, into which they rushed as into a fortress taken by assault.

"They there passed the night in every kind of debauchery, ransacking the cells, insulting the sacred images, and offending the ears of the unfortunate recluses by the ribaldry of their impious songs, mocking their devotional forms, and forgetting themselves so far as to dance even upon the tombs of their little cemetery.

"To all these insolent abuses of superior strength and power the first rays of the morning sun could alone put a stop, and when the two bro. thers left that forlorn and desecrated house, one of the oldest of the sisterhood, standing on its threshold, with upraised arms, called down upon their heads a fearful retributive curse, which was received by them with loud bursts of laughter.

"To the elder of the brothers, Hubert, we must, however, render the justice to say that he several times endeavoured to restrain Rimbalt, and that he did not imitate him in his outrages and impieties until his head had become troubled with the fumes of the wines which they had brought with them, as was their custom always on their distant ex

cursions.

"They began to beat the woods, and soon their dogs, uncoupled in a part of the forest known to be the most stocked with game, were laid on to a magnificent stag of ten branches, which passed proudly at a distance of some few paces, as if defiant of them.

"They followed him over hill and valley, clearing every obstacle that presented itself, spurring their horses into the most rapid torrents, and swimming them like the noble beast that led the way through them, confident as it were of his own powers, and with the instinctive cunning or sagacity of his kind in full developed age, taking the water always where the force of the current would for tertain diminish the number of his pursuers.

"As was ever their wont, the intrepid hunter-brothers still led the way int le arduous pursuit, leaving far behind them all their companions and servants, for none of these equalled them, either in skill, power of endurance, or resolution.

"A little before set of sun they found themselves at the extreme end of a deep glen, where their pack had brought the stag to bay, which seemed no longer able or disposed to run.

"The gallant beast, entrenched as it were between two enormous masses of rock, which protected his flanks and rear, seemed resolved to sell his life dearly; the struggle was grand.

"Already the most intrepid of the dogs lay weltering in their blood upon the ground, and others less seriously gored were licking their wounds at a distance, still eyeing with a look of regret the battle-field which they had been compelled to abandon before the victory.

“Rimbalt unsheathed a short, strong sword, which it was his constant wont to wear, and dismounted at once to hasten to the assistance of his hounds.

"The pallor of a strong internal emotion overspread his countenance; but despite the involuntary and to him wholly-new feeling of trouble that agitated him for the first time in his life, his spirit remained firm.

"Brother! stay, brother mine!' exclaimed Hubert, alighting also with precipitation from his horse; in the name of Heaven, do not kill him, for misfortune will assuredly come of it.'

'I

"You talk to me of heaven, brother!' replied Rimbalt, with a Satanic smile that gave a hideous expression to his countenance. pledge thee my word that animal shall die by my hand.'

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"Dost not see, then, that luminous cross he bears between his two antlers?' replied Hubert, in a tone of piercing agony. By the soul of our father who died a Christian death, let us call off the dogs, and haste to some monastery to cleanse our sin-stained souls in the waters of penitence.'

"Art thou still drunk, Hubert?' stammered out Rimbalt, still advancing towards the stag.

"Think thou-O think of our mother, made already so piteously unhappy by our wild disorders!'

"To this touching appeal, that came as from the depth of his brother's heart, Rimbalt replied by an abominable sarcasm, and brandishing his dagger he rushed like a madman upon the stag.

"The valiant beast shunned not the encounter, but with lowered antlers rushed headlong to meet his antagonist, and striking him full in the breast with his terrible branches, hurled him lifeless to the earth.

"Lord, Lord have mercy upon his soul!' murmured Hubert, dropping upon his knees, with hands upraised to heaven.

The hapless Rimbalt was now ruthlessly trampled under the iron hoofs of the vengeful animal.

"His brother's impulse was to rush to his rescue; but, his strength paralyzed by an invisible Power, he sank senseless upon the spot where a few seconds before he had fallen upon his knees.

"When his returning faculties enabled him to rise, the body of Rimbalt presented nothing but a shapeless mass, hideously disfigured with blood and dirt. No one would have recognised in that fearful condition the fine young nobleman whose conquering glances had kindled the blush and tremor of gratification in every woman of an age to blush and feel their power.

"Hubert fell again upon his knees; for he distinctly heard a voice calling to him from above, in a tone of authority full of gentle solicitude: "Hubert, Hubert! the Lord hath compassion for thee; have compassion thou for thy soul, which will fall anew into peril if thou returnest to the world.'

"The stag was still there, but immoveble, and bearing still between his branching antlers the luminous cross.

"In about half an hour afterwards the huntsmen, pages, and ser

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vants of the retinue of the two brothers arrived on all sides at the utmost speed of their jaded horses, attracted by the distant dismal howlings of the dogs, which seemed stricken as with vertigo and powerless. The remains of Rimbalt, disfigured beyond recognition, lay piteously weltering in a large pool of blood-stained mire. It no longer resembled a human body. Hubert and the miraculous stag had disappeared, but the two horses were there, aghast and immoveable with terror, their manes and coats standing ou end, and their nostrils wide distended, as though a thunderbolt had fallen at their feet. The huntsmen, in their consternation, shouted aloud for help, and wound their horns in signals of distress to every side of the forest, but the echoes alone came back to them in mournful accents of response. Sixty years after this tragic adventure a pious bishop died in Maestricht, and on the day of his interment, which was effected with great pomp, the sick and afflicted were brought in crowds to touch his remains, and returned cured or consoled. That holy personage was the brother of Rimbalt, and he is at this day the patron saint of hunters throughout all the civilized countries of the world."

"Doubtless, gentlemen, you expected a story," continued the stranger, suddenly changing from the grave tone of narration to that of familiar conversation; "you must excuse me for having substituted a legend, the only merit of which is that it is appropriate, inasmuch that the day after to-morrow is the church festival of the holy personage who is its hero, which, like ardent disciples of his as you seem to be, you are preparing to celebrate in a few hours hence."

"Your legend is rather a sinister one," replied the Count, in a tone of good-humoured reproach; from which, perhaps, one might have inferred that he was not one of those men who had sufficient firmness of heart or purity of conscience to like to hear death spoken of.

"But, however," he resumed immediately, tossing off a large glass of punch at a single draught, "it will not prevent my drinking and singing all night, though regretting all the while that we are not at the retreat of your recluses that was taken by assault, instead of being in this wretched inn of the Chêne des Beaux Vents."

The stranger rose gravely from the seat he had occupied near the fireplace, took a candle from the table, and, bowing to the other sportsmen with polite but cold dignity, he retired to his chamber.

They, however, as the Count had said for himself, passed the rest of the night in drinking and singing, like hardened reprobates, without once giving attention to the bells which from time to tiime tolled out anew the vigil of all departed souls.

The next morning, about an hour before daybreak, La Trace, who in his double mental pre-occupation of the morrow's boar-tracking and of the jealous husband, had, so to say, slept with but one eye in the conjugal bed, crossed on tip-toe the floor of the public room of his inn to go and beat the wood in that quarter of the forest which had been indicated to him by the young nobleman and his friends the previous evening.

He was accompanied by the stranger, in a costume that denoted he was ready to resume his journey.

As for the sportsmen who were to have been in the saddle at daydawn, overcome with fatigue, and stupified with their libations, they were asleep upon chairs near and around the chimney-place, upon the hearth of

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