Page 116 - A Jacobite Exile

wide a space at first, but, as you close in, the distances will rapidly lessen,
and they must make up, by noise, for the scantiness of their numbers. If

they find the animals are trying to break through, they can discharge their
pieces; but do not let them do so otherwise, as it would frighten the animals

too soon, and send them flying out all along the open side of the
semicircle."

It was more than two hours before the whole of the beaters were in
position. Just before they had started, the king had requested Captain

Jervoise to remain with him and the officers who had accompanied him,
five in number. They had been posted, a hundred yards apart, at the edge of
the forest. Charlie was the first officer left behind as the troop moved

through the forest, and it seemed to him an endless time before he heard a
faint shout, followed by another and another, until, at last, the man

stationed next to him repeated the signal. Then they moved forward, each
trying to obey the orders to march straight ahead.

For some time, nothing was heard save the shouts of the men, and then
Charlie made out some distant shots, far in the wood, and guessed that

some animals were trying to break through the lines. Then he heard the
sound of firing directly in front of him. This continued for some time,
occasionally single shots being heard, but more often shots in close

succession. Louder and louder grew the shouting, as the men closed in
towards a common point, and, in half an hour after the signal had been

given, all met.

"What sport have you had, father?" Harry asked, as he came up to Captain

Jervoise.

"We killed seventeen wolves and four bears, with, what is more important,
six stags. I do not know whether we are going to have another beat."

It soon turned out that this was the king's intention, and the troops marched
along the edge of the forest. Charlie was in the front of his company, the

king with the cavalry a few hundred yards ahead, when, from a dip of
ground on the right, a large body of horsemen suddenly appeared.