ries ago."

ELIZABETH, THE LAST DUCHESS OF GORDON, AND THE WOLF-DOG KAISER.

The Rev. A. Moody Stuart, in his "Life of the last Duchess of
Gordon,"[69] that truly Christian lady, refers to some old pets of the
duke's and her own, which, on her becoming a widow, she took with her
from Gordon Castle to Huntly Lodge, a bullfinch, an immense Talbot
mastiff named Sall, and others. He adds--"To a stranger, the most
remarkable of the duke's old favourites was Kaiser, an Hungarian
wolf-dog, with a snow-white fleece, and most sheep-like aspect in the
distance, but at whose appearance out of doors, man, woman, and child
fled as from a wolf. The duchess called him 'The wolf in sheep's
clothing.' Her husband's tastes having brought her much into contact
with all sorts of dogs, she had learned to pat them confidently at their
first introduction, when a large space between their eyes betokened a
kindly temper. This open breadth of forehead was strongly marked in
Sall, a fine old mastiff that used at this time to walk round the
dining-room after breakfast, with her noble head reaching the level of
the table. But the duke had chosen Kaiser for other qualities. Two of
those wolf-dogs had been brought to him for sale when travelling on the
Continent; the other was the larger and handsomer animal; but Kaiser's
eyes, sunk deep in the head, and all but meeting under his shaggy hair,
at once fixed his choice on him as 'likest his work.' That work was to
defend the sheep from the wolves, and one mode of defence was by laying
a strange trap for the enemy. The dog was remarkably like a sheep, his
hair white without a dark speck, and he carried a great load of it, long
and fleecy like wool. In the Hungarian steppes four or five of those
dogs would lay themselves down on the grass in the evening, sleeping
there like so many harmless lambs, with their faces inward for the heat
of each other's breath. The keen eye of the wolf was soon attracted by
the white fleeces, with no shepherd near to guard them. Eager for blood,
he careered swiftly over the plain, and sprang unsuspecting into the
midst of the flock, only to find himself clenched in the relentless jaws
of Kaiser and his comrades, wolves more terrible than himself under the
clothing of timid sheep. A conversation once took place at the Lodge on
the character ascribed to dogs in Scripture. It slightly vexed the good
duchess that they were so often mentioned in the Bible, but only as
emblems