I loaded my gun with buckshot in one barrel and ball in the other, and remained as quiet as a mouse.

As the noise of the beaters and dogs approached me, I heard a crash in the bushes within about forty yards of me, and presently a magnificent stag as big as a cow came slowly out of the cover, looking behind him, evidently not expecting an enemy in front.

As soon as he was well clear of the bushes, I fired at him with buckshot and killed him dead.

I hardly had time to think, when, with a tremendous rush, two other large deer broke out of the wood straight at me at full gallop.

I fired a bullet at the foremost one, which turned back into the woods apparently wounded, and so it proved, for it ran among the beaters, evidently having lost its head, and was soon despatched among dogs, men and guns.