In the kindness of this humble countryman, flowing partly from
national partiality, partly from a sense of long-remembered benefits,
which had been scarce thought on by those who had bestowed them, Lord
Glenvarloch thought he saw the last touch of sympathy which he was to
receive in this cold and courtly region, and felt that he must now be
sufficient to himself, or be utterly lost.
He traversed more than one alley, guided by the sounds of the chase,
and met several of the inferior attendants upon the king's sport, who
regarded him only as one of the spectators who were sometimes
permitted to enter the Park by the concurrence of the officers about
the Court. Still there was no appearance of James, or any of his
principal courtiers, and Nigel began to think whether, at the risk of
incurring disgrace similar to that which had attended the rash exploit
of Richie Moniplies, he should not repair to the Palace-gate, in order
to address the king on his return, when Fortune presented him the
opportunity of doing so, in her own way.
He was in one of those long walks by which the Park was traversed,
when he heard, first a distant rustling, then the rapid approach of
hoofs shaking the firm earth on which he stood; then a distant halloo,
warned by which he stood up by the side of the avenue, leaving free
room for the passage of the chase. The stag, reeling, covered with
foam, and blackened with sweat, his nostrils extended as he gasped for
breath, made a shift to come up as far as where Nigel stood, and,
without turning to bay, was there pulled down by two tall greyhounds
of the breed still used by the hardy deer-stalkers of the Scottish
Highlands, but which has been long unknown in England.
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