seemed to agree with him, I declared my intention of stopping at home, rather than have him. So I carried my point, got rid of the beast, and kept my own particular fellow, who was beginning to understand what I wanted.

I took a turn at stalking with the host, who was supposed to be a very wise man; but I did not like his plan of operations at all. He said the deer are not to be found in the daytime, as they were laid up in the dense part of the forest, where they are not to be seen, and you could only find them when they came out to feed. Very likely, indeed! Would not the early morning do better, I suggested? That did not suit the host's avocations. So we tried the evening, and charming walks we had-lovely scenery-and we saw deer, too-also the deer saw us-only they saw us first. So, as may be imagined, the stalking was not productive, or to me very attractive, having seen something of it in my time, and pretty well understanding our chances. So I did not follow it on very keenly.

My kind friend, not content with having brought me to and located me in our comfortable quarters; but being obliged to return to Throndhjem on business connected with his shootings, and to see some old friends of his;

sent, in the most considerate manner, there for a Tolk, or interpreter, or laquay-de-place, to take care of me in his absence-poor innocent babe that I was!-and certainly there was one thing in which he was of the greatest use. What you miss in Norway is bread. If you have good hard biscuits, which you should never be without, very well; but the Norwegian oat-cake, or barley-cake is not good, and if you are not accustomed to it, gives you the heartburn. Now all these Tolks are bakers, and good bakers; and with flour, which you must always have by you, they contrive a very good sort of rolls. Also, to a certain extent, they are cooks. So that in that way, too, they are of use. My friend's servant was a most undeniable baker and cook; but as he was obliged to take him with him, it was a most thoughtful proceeding on his part to provide me with a Tolk. It was quite in accordance with the parental care he took of me during the whole visit, and I was very sorry to see him depart. May that good man's shadow never be less!

44

CHAPTER V.

I

THE INVESTIGATION OR TRIAL.

THINK I mentioned that a sort of report

had reached my friend at Throndhjem, that his sanctum had been invaded by a travelling sportsman, and those Elysian fields frequented by Black-game, Ryper, and other game, disturbed by interlopers. On inquiry, however, it appeared-or, rather, he fondly flattered himself—that such an occurrence, so destructive of his fondest hopes, could not have taken place, and he shut his ears against anything so horrible; and we loitered on in this Norwegian Capua, drinking in the tales of returning fishermen and their fair dames, talking of their fish, not by the pound, but by the ton. When, as I have said, we at last tore ourselves away, and betook ourselves to our shooting-quarters, and were landed and established, we naturally immediately set ourselves to work to open the campaign early the next morning, and make up

for lost time. When out came the real murder. There was, of course, the usual amount of circumlocution, but the plain blank truth was this: all our best ground had been well and thoroughly shot for a fortnight, and a very good bag made upon it, by some foreign buccaneer, under the following circumstances.

The shooting held or rented by my friend was a species of commonage, belonging to different proprietors, who had contracted with him for a lease of seven years, at such and such rent, with a singular clause that on lessee giving notice, previous to a certain time, of his not intending to shoot that season, the lessors were at liberty to let the shooting for that season, but the lessee was to have the option of having this year added on to the end of the lease. The rent was payable at the end of July. The year before my friend had been ill, and not able to go, and had given due notice of this. This year, however, he had notified, through his agent, his intention of coming out, but had not remitted the rent, intending to bring it out with him and pay it in specie, which was much more convenient for all parties. The lessors knew from the agent that the rent was perfectly safe. Notwithstanding this, one of them thought this a

very good opportunity of doing a nice stroke of business for his private pocket; and, our buccaneer having visited those parts in search of shooting a loafer, in short, on a grand scale -let to him the shooting of his farm, unknown to the rest, for a good round sum, very much out of proportion to the rent of the whole shooting. The season generally had been bad, but this particular farm had done very well, both in Black-game and Ryper. Our buccaneer, knowing our movements, had exactly calculated his time-got to his ground the beginning of the season, cleared it, and vacated the premises just as we put in our appearance. This individual proprietor, then, had done well, having got his share of the rent paid by my friend, plus the sum paid him by the buccaneer ; but even this did not satisfy him. He wanted to take his farm out of the lease and set up for himself a separate letting. That failed, not being legal. He then wanted to induce the other proprietors to join with him and break the lease, on the plea that, the rent not having been paid at the time specified, the conditions were violated and the lease forfeited. Now there certainly was some show of technical right in this, but, per contra, the agent had assured the lessors that all was right, and there