The scene one entered, on leaving the sunny fields and passing through the gate, was a huge circle of dark foliage in the heart of the ancient forest.

At first, one saw only the majestic summits of mountainous trees, like peaks and globes lost amid the heavens, which on all sides overhung the clearing and bathed it in twilight almost green.
In this lordly solemnity of nature, down among the grass, moss and dead wood, there flowed a contracted but brilliant concourse around the final preparations for the execution of the stag.
The animal was kneeling on the ground, weak and overwhelmed.

We pressed round, and eyes were thrust forward between heads and shoulders to see him.

One could make out the gray thicket of his antlers, his great lolling tongue, and the enormous throb of his heart, agitating his exhausted body.

A little wounded fawn clung to him, bleeding abundantly, flowing like a spring.
Round about it the ceremony was arranged in several circles.