h a row as they made when they began the drive; they beat
drums, fired guns, rang bells, and it was evident to me that no wild
beast would hold to his lair under such a torrent of abuse. I found the
words they were using were curses on the wild boar. I saw two or three
fallow deer glide past me, with their usual ghostlike silence, and
shortly afterwards the woods very near me seemed to shake with
something coming. Suddenly some fifteen to twenty wild boar appeared
among the bushes, coming straight towards me. The first of these was an
enormous brute, evidently _the_ boar we wanted.

I heard shots on either side of me from my friends, but I kept my eye on
the big boar. To my astonishment he came right under the tree where I
was sitting, and stopped to listen.

He cocked his head on one side, looked all round him, but forgot to look
up the tree he was quite close to, in which was his enemy.

Taking advantage of this I fired a ball and an S.S.G. cartridge into
him, before he could make up his mind which way to go; he gave a
tremendous grunt and rolled over. I had not time to be overjoyed at my
luck before I found myself rolling on the ground alongside of my victim,
who, not being dead, was by no means a pleasant companion. The fact is
that the seat on which I had been perched, having been very carelessly
put up, had given way, and down I came from a height of about twelve
feet. The branches of the tree had broken my fall, but my gun had fallen
out of my hand and I had sprained my ankle, so that I was in rather an
awkward position. The boar was shot through the spine, and could not
get along, though he made frantic efforts to get at me.

It was of no use my calling out for help; everybody was calling out,
everybody was excited, firing at the lots of pigs that were running
about in all directions. At the moment when I began to think affairs
somewhat serious (I tried to get up and walk, but could not do so on
account of my ankle), as the boar was crawling towards me, looking very
mischievous, two great shepherd's dogs arrived on the scene, and went
straight in for my enemy. Poor beast! He made a gallant fight; he could
hardly move, but he could use his head, and he tore one of the dogs open
in a frightful way; then two or three men came up, but they were afraid
to go near to the boar. I made them hand me my gun that was lying on the
ground near me, with which I soon put a stop to the battle. Then all the
people began to mu