circle of their lines, now proceed to drive it down towards
the shooting party.

Usually, great nets are stretched a hundred yards to the rear of the
two monarchs, with the object of forcing the game which may have got
past their majesties to retrace its steps, and to face the royal and
imperial sportsmen once more.

Sometimes curious scenes result in connection with these nets. On one
occasion a magnificent gemsbock had managed to get past the King of
Saxony, and finding a net in the way, charged it full tilt with a
flying leap. Its horns got entangled in the meshes, seven or eight
feet high, and there it remained hanging and kicking until a couple of
jaegers in attendance on the king disentangled it and carefully
placed it on the ground. For a moment it stood as if transfixed
with amazement, gazing steadfastly at the net, and then deliberately
charged head down, and with a tremendous bound, at the obstacle once
more, with the same result, of course. Again the jaegers disengaged
it, but in its struggles to recover its liberty the gemsbock left its
beard torn out by the very roots in the hand of one of the men who had
grabbed it for the purpose of holding the animal fast. A third time
the gallant buck charged the net, and cleared it in magnificent style
and made good its escape. The beard which it left behind it figures
to this day on the Alpine hat of King Albert, who is probably the only
man living who can boast of wearing the beard of a chamois that may
still be roaming over the Styrian Alps.

Emperor William's favorite form of sport is wild-boar hunting.
This species of game abounds in the imperial preserves of
Koenigs-Wusterhausen, Letzlingen, Gohrde and Springe, the latter being
quite near to the ancient city of Hamelin, celebrated in legendary
lore for its "_pied-piper_" and for its rats!

The preserves at Gohrde are liked best by the kaiser, as they were by
his grandfather, the old emperor, for they are alive with wild boars.
Persons invited for the first time to these imperial shooting parties
have to go through a regular form of initiation, somewhat akin to that
practised in the case of people crossing the line for the first time
at sea.

On the eve of the day on which the hunt is to begin, and when the
party are assembled in the smoking and card-rooms of the jagdschloss,
after dinner, the great oak table in the dining-room is cleared and
ornamented with several lines of chalk; thereupon, the deputy gran