nfusion, clearing the ground by a
succession of frog-like leaps, and leaving me far in their rear. Twice
were their towering forms concealed from view by a park of trees, which
we entered almost at the same instant, and twice, on emerging from the
labyrinth, did I perceive them tilting over an eminence far in advance,
their sloping backs reddening in the sunshine, as with giant port they
topped the ridges in right gallant style. A white turban that I wore
round my hunting-cap, being dragged off by a projecting bough, was
instantly charged and trampled under foot by three rhinoceroses, and
long afterward, looking over my shoulder, I could perceive the ungainly
brutes in the rear fagging themselves to overtake me. In the course of
five minutes the fugitives arrived at a small river, the treacherous
sands of which receiving their spider-legs, their flight was greatly
retarded, and by the time they had floundered to the opposite side and
scrambled to the top of the bank, I could perceive that their race was
run. Patting the steaming neck of my good steed, I urged him again to
his utmost, and instantly found myself by the side of the herd. The
lordly chief being readily distinguishable from the rest by his dark
chestnut robe, and superior stature, I applied the muzzle of my rifle
behind his dappled shoulder with my right hand, and drew both triggers;
but he still continued to shuffle along, and being afraid of losing him
should I dismount, among the extensive mimosa groves with which the
landscape was now obscured, I sat in my saddle, loading and firing
behind the elbow, and then placing myself across his path to obstruct
his progress. Mute, dignified, and majestic stood the unfortunate
victim, occasionally stooping his elastic neck toward his persecutor,
the tears trickling from the lashes of his dark humid eye, as broadside
after broadside was poured into his brawny front.

'His drooping head sinks gradually low,
And through his side the last drops ebbing slow
From the red gash fall heavy one by one,
Like the first of a thunder shower.'

"Presently a convulsive shivering seized his limbs, his coat stood on
end, his lofty frame began to totter, and at the seventeenth discharge
from the deadly grooved bore, like a falling minaret bowing his graceful
head from the skies, his proud form was prostrate in the dust. Never
shall I forget the intoxicating excitement of that moment! At last,