Messenger for that. Again: a Berthollet suffers from a gangrenous ulcer, for several months, " with surprising fortitude. He himself, as a physician, knew the extent of his danger, felt the inevitable progress of the malady, and calmly regarded the slow approach of death." A Berzelius is struck with paralysis, but retains the serenity of his mind while he counts the steps of death approaching slowly, "as a messenger who regretted his errand." Whatever the weakness of character of Louis XVIII. may have been, he was, in the words of Marshal Marmont, "great and strong in those circumstances where so many men are weak: he saw his end approach with a calmness and resignation which inspired me at the time with profound admiration. At the moment of this great trial he displayed the stoicism of an ancient philosopher." Of the state of Crabbe's mind, during his last hours on earth, his son bears witness, that "it was more firm than I ever remembered under any circumstances. He knew there was no chance of his recovery, and yet he talked at intervals of his death, and of certain consequent arrangements, with a strong, complacent voice, and bid us all adieu without the least faltering of the tongue, or moisture of the eye."

"Hitherto," writes Wilhelm Humboldt, in 1826, "I have always thought of death as a friendly visitant,-one that would be welcome to me at any time, because, however contentedly and happily I may live, this life has always something limited and enigmatical, and the tearing asunder of the earthly veil must bring to us at once more enlarged views and the solution of the previous mystery." The calm meditative old man's Letters to a Female Friend are rich in passages of a similar tone, and to the same effect.

In one of Eckermann's evening walks with Goethe, they had gone round the thicket, and had turned by Tiefurt into the Weimar-road, where they had a view of the setting sun. Goethe, his companion tells us, was for a while lost in thought: "he then said to me, in the words of one of the ancients,

Untergehend sogar ist's immer dieselbige Sonne.'

(Still it continues the self-same sun, even while it is sinking.)

"At the age of seventy-five,' he continued, with much cheerfulness, one must, of course, think sometimes of death. But this thought never gives me the least uneasiness, for I am fully convinced that our spirit is a being of a nature quite indestructible, and that its activity continues from eternity to eternity. It is like the sun, which seems to set only to our earthly eyes, but which, in reality, never sets, but shines on unceasingly.'”—What different suggestions, by the way, the same cause, a setting sun, may excite in different minds, and under different states of feeling. Thus, at one stage of Tennyson's In Memoriam tribute to Arthur Hallam, we meet with the lines

For though my nature rarely yields

To that vague fear implied in death;
Nor shudders at the gulf beneath,

The howlings from forgotten fields;
Yet oft when sundown skirts the moor,
An inner trouble I behold,

A spectral doubt which makes me cold,
That I shall be thy mate no more.

COUNT HORACE'S SPORTING EXPLOITS.

66

COUNT HORACE, the hero of Alexandre Dumas's romance Pauline," called one day upon the author.

The representative of Pauline's husband was a spare, thin man, of some thirty years of age, sensual as an Oriental, and voluptuous as a Sybarite. He would sit smoking his nargileh on the softest of cushions, or be buried for days in the phantasms and illusions of opium and hemp, or he would rush from pole to equator, and back again from heat to cold, as if utterly indifferent to either.

The great Alexandre welcomed the arrival of his eccentric friend as the commencement of a causerie.

"I came to see you yesterday," said the count.

"Shooting at Villers-Cotterets."

"Your birthplace, is it not?"

"Yes; all my oldest friends are there."

"Had you good sport ?"

"Where were you ?”

"Pretty fair. Tambeau got up two deer, and I killed them in two shots."

"I have done as much with two elephants," remarked Horace, in a careless manner, exhaling at the same time a great puff of smoke.

"Ah!" said Alexandre, "where was that? Have you any objection to relate some of your sporting exploits?"

"None whatever. Which will you have? I have shot elephants in Ceylon, lions in Africa, tigers in India, hippopotamuses at the Cape, reindeer in Norway, black bears in Russia. I have only one thing left to accomplish, and that is to kill white bears at Spitzbergen."

"Ah! that you won't do. There are no more white bears at Spitzbergen. Travellers have eaten them all up. But suppose you begin with the elephant hunt at Ceylon."

Well, I had been three months in Ceylon, lodged in the Mansion House. I was reclining one morning in my bed, contemplating that splendid sea into which the Ganges pours it waters, when a friend of mine-a nephew or pupil, I am not quite sure which, of Sir Robert Peel -came into my room.

"What good wind brings you here this morning, Sir William ?" I asked.

"You are a sportsman. Will you join us to-morrow in an elephant

hunt?"

"An elephant hunt!

How long would it last?" "Seven or eight days. Have you any arms?"

"Oh yes; I have my rifle."

"That won't do. You must have three double-barrelled rifles, or I won't answer for your life."

66 But, my

dear friend, what shall I do with such an arsenal?" "Oh, don't trouble yourself about that. The attendants will see to your arms. I will provide what is necessary for you."

The sun, I must tell you, is awfully punctual in Ceylon. It always gets up at six and goes to bed at six the whole year round. It comes and

goes out like a flash of lightning. I was ready and mounted whilst it was still dark. At Sir William's I found four or five of the party already assembled; others were to join us on the way.

Our route lay along the banks of a splendid river, wide as the Seine at Rouen. The road was shaded with the most varied and magnificent vegetation. Crossing a bridge, we were joined by four more sportsmen. We were thus eleven in all, and, as each had three or four attendants, the whole party amounted to some fifty persons.

One attendant walked at the head of each horse, another in the rear. The first was to hold the horse, the latter to keep off the flies. They did not use the fan for themselves; the natives are never hot.

Our first station was a temple of Buddha-a very holy spot, as it contained one of the tusks of the sacred elephant. This relic is so much the more precious, as the Ceylonese elephants have no tusks. The tooth of the same animal was buried ten leagues deep in the ground beneath a neighbouring cupola, which exactly resembled half an egg.

The further off we left the town the less populated was the country; at the same time living things became more numerous. Every now and then gigantic lizards were seen by the roadside lifting up their flat heads or fore feet, and pushing forth a tongue six inches in length. Snakes were also seen gliding in the grass.

On the same afternoon we arrived at Postaye, where we dined and slept, starting early next morning on the road to Neura-Ellia. The road had now become so narrow through plantations, that only one horseman could proceed at a time, and beyond the plantations we came to jungle interspersed with rocks. Here we first met with monkeys. I shot one, and never did I regret a thing more. I have killed two or three adversaries in duels, but I never felt what I did in contemplating the agony of that caricature of a man called a monkey.

Shortly afterwards we arrived at a coffee plantation, in the centre of which was a habitation. Sir William clapped his hands, and an attendant made his appearance.

"Whose house is this?" inquired Sir William.

"Sir Andrew's," was the reply.

"Is he at home ?"

In answer to the announcement that the host was absent, Sir William contented himself with ordering a repast for fifty, and we took up our quarters there till the next day. In this way hospitality is practised in Ceylon.

The next day we breakfasted at Nuera-Ellia, and, ascending amidst rock and jungle, reached Elephant's Plain the same evening. Unluckily a storm came on, and we had to take refuge in a wayside hut, with nothing but a few biscuits for supper.

This time Count Horace regretted he had not kept the monkey. It was young, and might have been tender. Jupiter Tonans kept walking about all night at about twenty feet distance over their heads, and no one got even a wink of sleep.

The next morning it was resolved to commence sport in earnest. It was no longer a matter of amusement, it was a question of absolute necessity. The dogs were let loose, the attendants dispersed over the jungle, and the gunners followed close upon their tracks.

Scarcely five minutes had elapsed ere the dogs gave tongue, but with out stirring from the spot. Whatever it was, it did not care to leave its lair.

I hastened to the spot where the dogs were congregated, making a fearful noise.

"Take care,” shouted Sir William, "it is a tiger!"

I must acknowledge that the information nailed me to the spot. I had often heard tigers talked about, and always in the most unfavourable manner. But I heard at the same time my companions advancing on all sides and cutting their way through the jungle with their huntingknives. I knew that I was the nearest to the animal, and I did not like being superseded.

A heavy perspiration bedewed my forehead, so I repeated the words of Henri IV.:

"Ah, carcase, you tremble! Well, I will give you something to tremble for."

So saying, I rushed forwards, and in a step or two stood face to face with the wild beast. The tiger made a movement as if to receive me after his own fashion. Luckily two great dogs held it back, one by the throat, the other by the ear; three or four more dogs had hold of it behind. Others kept barking at the distance of a few paces.

The head of the animal, drawn on one side by the dogs, still sought to turn towards me, as if instinct told its owner that the greatest danger lay in that quarter. The tiger's yellow eyes shone with the lustre of carbuncles, and a furious foam bathed its open mouth, exposing in the rear two rows of formidable-looking white and sharp teeth.

I began by fixing the animal. I knew that so long as a man has the courage to meet the eyes, be it of lion, tiger, or panther, he influences it. But let the look waver, and he is lost.

The voices of my companions were getting nearer and nearer. There was no time for hesitation, unless I chose to be last. So taking my hunting-knife in hand, I went straight up to the tiger, without ever quitting its eye, and then with the tranquillity which characterises me when I have once made up my mind, I plunged my knife up to the hilt immediately behind the shoulder-blade.

The animal made such a violent plunge that it drew the weapon out of my hand.

I leaped aside.

Once more the tiger made an effort to bound, but the dogs. still held it fast. It then rolled over, and in a moment was covered by the dogs, who, at this signal of its agony, simultaneously rushed in on all sides.

At this crisis, Sir William came up. Lashing away at what appeared to be a pyramid of dogs' tails, he soon cleared a way to the tiger. "Whose is the knife ?" he exclaimed, dragging it forth from the wound.

"Mine," I answered.

"Bravo, for a beginning."

"Excuse the faults of the author," I ventured to remark, as I wiped my knife with my pocket-handkerchief and replaced it in its scabbard. All this was done with a simplicity which earned for me the unanimous praises of all present.

I am an excellent actor, fully as skilled in performance as you are in putting a thing on the stage.

66

Tiger hunting seems to be a sport capable of awakening high emotions," the great Alexandre observed.

"Just so; especially at first, but after you get accustomed to it the excitement wears off. I have since killed ten, twelve, or fifteen tigers a day in Bengal, and thought nothing of it."

"You must tell me how that came about."

"Not now. You must ask your friend Méry. He has monopolised the hunting-grounds of India just as Bertrand has those of Rambouillet. If he knew that I had killed one of his tigers, he would bring an action against me."

"I will not ask Méry, then."

"Yes, do; he will relate the events much better than I who enact them. It will be the same as with yourself when you make the Pasha of Egypt say, in reference to your Voyage du Sinai,' that of all travellers you are the one who has seen Egypt to the greatest advantage—you, who have never put a foot on Egyptian soil."

"True; but I had Dauzat, an artist and a wit, who had been there, to supply me with materials."

"That accounts for it. Give me a cup of tea."

"On condition that you give me the conclusion of your sport."

"Don't be alarmed, I won't wrong you out of a wild cat. Hungry as we were, we could not eat a tiger, so barely five minutes had elapsed after its death when we were once more in the jungle. Another five minutes and the dogs gave tongue again; but this time the noise moved away rapidly.

"A stag, gentlemen!" exclaimed Sir William; "our dogs have found us a breakfast. Get ready the jacks and the gridirons: there will be enough for everybody."

Suddenly the noise ceased.

"Good," continued Sir William; "the animal is run down. Ah! they are splendid dogs, my dear Horace; I believe that they would fetch up a hippopotamus from the bottom of the Ganges. Let us to the beast, gentlemen-to the game!"

This time Sir William arrived first, and when we got up he was wiping his hunting-knife. A gigantic stag lay at his feet, breathing its last. Sportsmen and attendants alike shouted with joy. There was truly, as he said, enough for everybody. The attendants set to work at once digging holes, lighting fires, and extemporising spits of ironwood. These were placed on poles stuck crosswise in the ground, and two attendants turned them round, one at each end. Notwithstanding their indifference to heat, they had to be changed every five minutes. As to the offal, it was put into another hole and covered with live embers, and these again with dry wood..

In less than an hour we were at work, and wine, rice, and biscuits, made the complement of one of the most delicious meals I ever partook of. Our repast finished, we mounted our horses and took the direction of Bintenne. It is between Bintenne and Badula that most elephants are met with.

At less than a mile distance from where we had lunched, the road makes