rate within
fifty feet of where I stood. Leaping from my horse, and placing one knee
upon his shoulder, and a hand upon his antlers, I drew my hunting
knife; but scarcely had its keen point touched his neck, when, with a
sudden bound, he threw me from his body, and my knife was hurled from my
hand. In hunters' parlance, I had only 'creased him.' I at once saw my
danger, but it was too late. With one bound, he was upon me, wounding
and almost disabling me with his sharp feet and horns. I seized him by
his wide-spread antlers, and sought to regain possession of my knife,
but in vain; each new struggle drew us further from it. Cherokee,
frightened at the unusual scene, had madly fled to the top of the ridge,
where he stood looking down upon the combat, trembling and quivering in
every limb.

"The ridge road I had taken placed us far in advance of the hound, whose
bay I could not now hear. The struggles of the furious animal had become
dreadful, and every moment I could feel his sharp hoofs cutting deep
into my flesh; my grasp upon his antlers was growing less and less firm,
and yet I relinquished not my hold. The struggle had brought us near a
deep ditch, washed by the fall rains, and into this I endeavored to
force my adversary, but my strength was unequal to the effort; when we
approached to the very brink, he leaped over the drain. I relinquished
my hold and rolled in, hoping thus to escape him; but he returned to
the attack, and, throwing himself upon me, inflicted numerous severe
cuts upon my face and breast before I could again seize him. Locking my
arms around his antlers, I drew his head close to my breast, and was
thus, by great effort, enabled to prevent his doing me any serious
injury. But I felt that this could not last long; every muscle and fiber
of my frame was called into action, and human nature could not long bear
up under such exertion. Faltering a silent prayer to Heaven, I prepared
to meet my fate.

"At this moment of despair, I heard the faint bayings of the hound; the
stag, too, heard the sound, and, springing from the ditch, drew me with
him. His efforts were now redoubled, and I could scarcely cling to him.
Yet that blessed sound came nearer and nearer! Oh how wildly beat my
heart, as I saw the hound emerge from the ravine, and spring forward
with a short, quick bark, as his eye rested on his game. I released my
hold of the stag, who turned upon the new enemy. Exhausted, and unable
to rise, I sti