ike I had never tasted before. Who knows but some
passionate holy sportsman, or sporting abbot or bishop, may have shot,
planted, and fixed the cross between the antlers of St. Hubert's stag,
in a manner similar to this? They always have been, and still are,
famous for plantations of crosses and antlers; and in a case of distress
or dilemma, which too often happens to keen sportsmen, one is apt to
grasp at anything for safety, and to try any expedient rather than
miss the favourable opportunity. I have many times found myself in that
trying situation.

What do you say of this, for example? Daylight and powder were spent one
day in a Polish forest. When I was going home a terrible bear made up
to me in great speed, with open mouth, ready to fall upon me; all my
pockets were searched in an instant for powder and ball, but in vain; I
found nothing but two spare flints: one I flung with all my might into
the monster's open jaws, down his throat. It gave him pain and made him
turn about, so that I could level the second at his back-door, which,
indeed, I did with wonderful success; for it flew in, met the first
flint in the stomach, struck fire, and blew up the bear with a terrible
explosion. Though I came safe off that time, yet I should not wish to
try it again, or venture against bears with no other ammunition.

There is a kind of fatality in it. The fiercest and most dangerous
animals generally came upon me when defenceless, as if they had a notion
or an instinctive intimation of it. Thus a frightful wolf rushed upon me
so suddenly, and so close, that I could do nothing but follow mechanical
instinct, and thrust my fist into his open mouth. For safety's sake
I pushed on and on, till my arm was fairly in up to the shoulder.
How should I disengage myself? I was not much pleased with my awkward
situation--with a wolf face to face; our ogling was not of the most
pleasant kind. If I withdrew my arm, then the animal would fly the more
furiously upon me; that I saw in his flaming eyes. In short, I laid hold
of his tail, turned him inside out like a glove, and flung him to the
ground, where I left him.

The same expedient would not have answered against a mad dog, which soon
after came running against me in a narrow street at St. Petersburg. Run
who can, I thought; and to do this the better, I threw off my fur cloak,
and was safe within doors in an instant. I sent my servant for the
cloak, and he put it in the wardrobe with my