rs and counselors were little better than himself. To anarchy,
insurrection seemed inevitably imminent. It was precluded by
annexation, and the kingdom of Oude, not an hour in advance of its
deserts, took its place in finished history.

Game of a humbler description I met with in abundance everywhere in
Oude, but I had hunted the tiger with the rajah of Benares, and since
then had conceived a disdain of feathered things, bustards excepted.
Moreover, I had lately bought a superb double-barreled Swiss rifle, as
yet untested in real work. With inviting jungles constantly within
easy reach, not to experiment with this lordly implement on something
bigger than a wild pig demanded abnegation beyond my philosophy. I had
no companion, but then I would control my impetuosity, do nothing
rash, and, if I could, keep out of the way of temptation. One day,
therefore, breakfast despatched, I shouldered my lovely Switzer, and
struck off at random across the open. Woodland was not far to seek,
and before I had been away an hour I was in the heart of a dense
jungle. Ordinary deer and "such-like" I might have shot at will, but I
happened to be in an exclusive mood of mind, and was determined to
drop a blue-cow, if anything. But let not my Occidental reader
reproach me with having meditated such an atrocity as bovicide. I have
literally translated the Hindoo _nil gae_, the misleading name given
in India to the white-footed antelope, sometimes called also _rojh_.
At last my slaughterous appetite was gratified, and a blue-cow bore
witness to the merit of my rifle, if not to my marksmanship. It had
cost me a tiresome search, and, being a shy animal, much stealthy
tracking. Yet when the beautiful creature lay stretched at my feet it
seemed as if I had been guilty of wanton cruelty, and I wished my aim
had miscarried, proud as I had just before been of having done
execution at what looked to be an impracticably long range. Not
improbably I tried to extenuate my inhumanity by the argument that if
I had not killed it somebody else would have done so. Be this how it
may, I could never bring myself to shoot another, though I had many a
fair chance. All things considered, then, I am disposed to strike a
balance in my favor.

However, a little while previously I had done a bit of bloodshed which
could not have lain on the very tenderest of consciences. The
circumstances were these: Near my camp was a patch of sugar-cane,
which I noticed bore marks