f
amazement with which on that last, sixth day of creation their first
fathers, who dwelt in the Garden of Eden, gazed upon Adam, before they
quarrelled with him. Happily no man wanders into this enclosure, for Toil
and Terror and Death forbid him access.

Only sometimes hounds, furious in pursuit, entering incautiously among
these mossy swamps and pits, overwhelmed by the sight of the horrors
within them, flee away, whining, with looks of terror; and long after,
though petted by their master's hand, they still tremble at his feet,
possessed by fright. These ancient hidden places of the forests, unknown
to men, are called in hunter's language _jungles_.

Stupid bear! If thou hadst abode in the jungle, never would the Seneschal
have learned of thee; but, whether the fragrance of the honeycomb lured
thee, or thou feltest too great a longing for ripe oats, thou earnest out
to the edge of the forest, where the trees were less dense, and there at
once the forester detected thy presence, and at once sent forth beaters,
clever spies, to learn where thou wast feeding and where thou hadst thy
lair by night. Now the Seneschal with his beaters, extending his lines
between thee and the jungle, cuts off thy retreat.

Thaddeus learned that no short time had already passed since the hounds
had entered into the abyss of the forest.

All is quiet--in vain the hunters strain their ears; in vain, as to the
most curious discourse, each hearkens to the silence, and waits long in
his position without moving; only the music of the forest plays to them
from afar. The dogs dive through the forest as loons beneath the sea; but
the sportsmen, turning their double-barrelled muskets towards the wood,
gaze on the Seneschal. He kneels, and questions the earth with his ear. As
in the face of a physician the eyes of friends read the sentence of life
or death for one who is dear to them, so the sportsmen, confident in the
Seneschal's skill and training, fix upon him glances of hope and terror.
"They are on the track!" he said in a low voice, and rose to his feet. He
had heard it! They were still listening--finally they too hear; one dog
yelps, then two, twenty, all the hounds at once in a scattered pack catch
the scent and whine; they have struck the trail and howl and bay. This is
not the slow baying of dogs that chase a hare, a fox, or a deer, but a
constant, sharp yelp, quick, broken, and furious. So the hounds have
struck no distant trail, the be