two of the captors had gone down with a crash, and Caerleon was on his feet and hitting out furiously, while Wright made herculean but unavailing efforts to join him. But the struggle was hopeless from the first, for Caerleon could not even get his back against the wall, and he was dragged down by sheer weight of numbers, and bound firmly with the tasselled cord torn from a curtain.

"I don't think you will get that undone," said Louis, bending over him and testing the knots; then, with the theatrical tendency which besets a certain class of Irishmen in moments of excitement, he kicked him heavily, adding, "That is for my sister."

"Nasty coward!" growled Wright. "'It a man when 'e's down that you don't dare touch when 'e's up, and bring in a young lady's name about it, you precious blackguard, do!"

"Lieutenant O'Malachy," interrupted General Sertchaieff, as Louis advanced threateningly towards his unconquerable assailant, "if you will be so good as to take three men and secure the person of the Prince of Schwarzwald-Molzau, I will wait here with the prisoners for your return."

Louis departed instantly, to return before long with a laugh.

"No fighting there. He accepts the situation with great philosophy," he said, and Caerleon felt oddly disappointed. For some reason he had thought that he might reckon on Prince Otto Georg for support at this crisis.

"Your presence is now required down-stairs, milord," said General Sertchaieff. "If you will give yourself the trouble of walking, it will be as well; otherwise we must take you."

Choosing the less of the two evils, Caerleon allowed himself to be dragged to his feet and con

ducted down the stairs to his study by his captors, wondering vaguely whether a scaffold and a block would meet his eyes on entering. Nothing of the kind was visible, however, although the room was crowded with people-officers of the palace and city guards mostly, with a sprinkling sprinkling of civilians, principally officials connected with the Ministry of War, and a number of men of foreign appearance, who were evidently exiles returned from Scythia. On the writing-table lay a document, which General Sertchaieff presented to Caerleon as a formal deed of abdication, and demanded his signature.

"I thought you had done with that," said Caerleon. "I have told you already that I won't sign it."

"Milord," said the War Minister, impressively, "we are anxious not to shed blood, but we are not to be trifled with; and if you refuse to sign, Lieutenant O'Malachy has his orders."

"Sign under compulsion," whispered Cyril. "I can witness that you were forced to it by threats, and it can't stand."

"Shut up, Cyril!" said Caerleon, gruffly. "Have you unlimited time to waste, General?"

"At least consider your brother and your servant, who must suffer for your obstinacy, instead of returning in safety to England," said General Sertchaieff.

"If 'is Majesty will say anything to get me my 'ands free for a moment, fust thing I do, I'll give you one in the eye," said Wright, ferociously.

"We are to understand, then, milord, that you refuse finally to sign the deed?" asked the General.

"I do refuse," said Caerleon; "and if there is one man here, of all those who have taken oaths to me and have eaten my bread, who has one spark of honesty left in

him, I hope he will let it be known that I preferred death."

"May I ask whether you are referring to me?" demanded Louis O'Malachy. "I have not offered

to carry your messages."

"No, I don't think you ever had a spark of honesty," returned Caerleon. "And as for your sister, to send a message to her by you would be to insult her."

"Lieutenant O'Malachy, you will conduct the prisoners outside, and follow the directions you have received," said General Sertchaieff.

Caerleon drew a long breath. To be led out, and shot like a dog! But his pride came to his aid. Show a sign of flinching before these Scythian spies and Thracian traitors? Never! and he squared his shoulders and held his head erect as he was led out of the room. On the threshold a thought struck him, and he paused to say

"I do not know whether this rebellion is to be conducted according to the usages of civilised nations, but in any case I entreat you, for the honour of Thracia, to allow Prince Otto Georg of Schwarzwald-Molzau to return unharmed to his own country. He came here merely as my guest, and has taken no part in Thracian politics."

"Make your mind easy, milord," said a tall man, with a strong likeness to General Sertchaieff, who stood among the returned exiles. "As the representative of my gracious sovereign, I can assure you that the King of Thracia does not make war on non-combatants."

Caerleon bowed his head and

followed his guards. They passed through the courtyard, where the first snow lay on the ground, then out through the gardens. A few steps farther brought them to the batteries on the river-face of the town, and they were ordered to enter the lift by which shells and ammunition were raised from the shore. The descent accomplished, they came out on the river-bank, where a boat was lying, manned by two sailors whom Louis addressed in Scythian. The prisoners were thrust in without ceremony, the soldiers took their places, and the boat was pushed off from the shore.

"Caerleon," said Cyril, in a low voice, "I'm sorry I've brought you. to this, old man. If I had had the sense to see through that blackguard O'Malachy, it wouldn't have happened."

"Oh, don't go blaming yourself," said Caerleon, hastily. "It's just as much my fault. Wright, I wish you were not obliged to lie just on my chest. No, don't wriggle, that's worse."

"Silence, dogs!" said one of the soldiers, angrily, and the boatmen rowed steadily on until they reached the Scythian steamer which had attracted Cyril's notice that afternoon. The prisoners were dragged up the ladder, and placed in a row on the deck.

"You have one more chance," said Louis O'Malachy to Caerleon. "Will you sign?"

"No," returned Caerleon, dog

gedly.

"Then I must obey my orders. Your fate is on your own head."

ORIGINALLY exploited by British anglers on account of the excellence of its salmon-rivers, Norway is now annually resorted to by many sportsmen from this country who affect the rifle and the shotgun rather than the rod; and there is not a club smoking-room in Pall Mall or St James Street where the elk-hunter, the reindeer-stalker, and the ryper-shooter do not occasionally exchange ideas with reference to their respective pursuits. As yet the daily achievements of these gentlemen when domiciled in their Scandinavian abodeswhether farmhouse, sæter, hut, or fjeld-stue-are not chronicled in the weekly press with that diligence (accuracy is hardly the word) which applies to similar doings within the precincts of the British Isles; but such is the energy of the modern editor, and so unappeasable the public appetite for up-to-date intelligence upon every subject under the sun, that the time, we fear, is not far distant when the " tapes will announce for the benefit of the unhappy ones at home the discomfiture of each Norwegian mountain. or forest monarch within a few hours of the discharge of the shot that laid him low. As soon as the day's bag of willow-grouse has been counted on each birch-clad island of far Lofoden, the local correspondent will set the wires agoing, and a full account of the day's proceedings in Norsk-English, and with suit

Province. Smaalenene Akershus.

Hedemarken

able adornments, will appear in the extra special editions of the London evening papers; while the doings of the Hon. Jack Postobit (who invariably catches the first boat to Norway after a bad Derby) on his famous salmon-river will doubtless receive similar attention.

It is evident that the game laws of a country of so much present interest to English sportsmen, and upon which in the near future so fierce a light will in all probability beat, are worthy of scrutiny; to them, therefore, and their influence as exhibited by the status of the more important of the creatures to which they apply, we propose devoting the following paragraphs.

A warm-hearted and kindly race, possessing, moreover, in common with certain other northern peoples, a keen eye to the main chance, the Norwegians treat their wild animals and birds in a manner which cannot certainly be described as either wise or humane; and in this connection it may be well to refer in the first instance to the elk, the grandest and most important inhabitant of the Scandinavian woodlands. Comparatively few people in this country have any idea of the number of these fine animals annually killed; for the five years 1889-93 the average, according to the official returns, was 1122, and in 1894 no fewer than 1252, distributed as follows, were shot:

Kristians

In

Several months will probably elapse before the returns for last year are published; but it is certain that in many parts of the country there was in 1895 a very marked falling off in the number of elk, and complaints of indifferent sport, both from native and foreign hunters, were numerous. order, however, to convey an idea of the position generally, we cannot do better than give a free translation of some of the remarks contained in a paper by a wellknown Norwegian sportsman which appeared in the number of the magazine above referred to, published in January last:

646

606

1252

story again and again, and continuing to point out the various injustices of our laws, which sooner or later must

race.

bring about the destruction of the But the authorities seem quite incapable of appreciating the fact that our stock of elk is now so reduced as immediately to require energetic measures if the remainder are to be saved. Such is now the state of matters that in several provinces the choice lies between absolute protection (that is, perpetual close time all the year round) or complete extinction of the

elk.

"In any case, something must be sacrificed. If it is to be the elk, then of course there is nothing to be done but put our hands behind our backs and continue to prophesy death and destruction; if, on the other hand, the elk is to be preserved as game, we must relinquish some of our former methods of hunting it, and this we consider is absolutely essential. In regard to the statistical returns of elk killed in 1894, we made certain remarks to which we now venture to refer. We then stated that these animals were greatly on the decrease in the Smaalenene, Akershus, and Kristians Amts; that things were somewhat better in Hedemar

ken, Buskerud, and Jarlsberg; while Bratsberg was perhaps the most favoured province.

"We further expressed the hope that the number of elk in the North Trondhjem Amt had not fallen off to any considerable extent, although there they have one enemy morenamely, the wolf-which can at times be troublesome enough. The results

of the season just concluded corroborate the above remarks; but the prospects of our stock of elk are not rendered any brighter, and the hope that we entertained for the Trondhjem Amts has not been realised. There also the elk have diminished in numbers nearly everywhere, while the paucity of bulls is very marked.

"From Indherreds Fogderi complaints are rife. 'Is the elk to be exterminated?' asks a Stenkjer paper, when giving the number killed in the Fogderi last autumn - 43 bulls and 49 cows, no fewer than 34 of which were shot in the district of Suaasen. The sport in Sparbu was not much to boast of last year; and in Aafjord the skeletons of no less than 10 elk which had been killed by wolves were found. In the Southern Province (the South Trondhjem Amt) things were somewhat better, but there also fewer deer were killed than usual; in Fosen Fogderi, for instance, only 17 (12 being cows) were shot, as against 48 the preceding year. In the southern portions of the country, however, the paucity of elk has been still more marked. In Hedemarken's Amt there are a few places where there would appear to be a fair number, among which we have heard Romsdal mentioned; and

even in Akershus and Smaalenene such exceptions are still found, as, for instance, Hurdal and some of

the extensive forests in Enebak and Raelingen, to which elk have come in from the surrounding country. From elsewhere in the neighbourhood the reports are fairly unanimous that there are again few elk, only some homeless animals that wander restlessly from place to place; and such is now the state of matters

in both upper and lower Romerike, as, for instance, in Naes, Sörum, Fet, Urskoug, and Höland. In Ullensaker, where ten deer or thereabout are usually killed annually, only two were shot last autumn; and in the great forests to the west, Gjerdrum, Nordmarken, and Hadelands-almenningen, poaching still flourishes.

"The skeletons of four elk which had been unlawfully killed were found in Nordmarken, but this is undoubtedly only a fraction of those that were killed in the same district out

side the close-time. In Hadeland and Land on both sides of the Randsjord, elk now seem to have entirely disappeared a well-known native sportsman, who has been in the habit of hunting in this district regularly every season, did not fall in with a single animal last year in fourteen days, during which he covered an immense extent of country in Ost and Vestaasen, districts where formerly elk were numerous. Hallingdal showed but little improvement; but farther south in the province things were somewhat better, although neither there-as in the Jarlsberg and Bratsberg Amts-were there so many elk as formerly. In Bamble and Drangedal, for instance, where these animals were plentiful the previous year, the decrease last season was perceptible."

The value for sporting purposes which the elk confers upon the tracts of country which it frequents is considerable. It seems singular, therefore, in view of repeated warnings emanating from such a source as the above, that the authorities have not, for merely economical reasons, initiated fresh legislation for the protection of the

elk.

As in the medical profession, opinions differ with regard to the nature of the remedies which ought to be applied; but the following, we venture to think, would meet with general approval, and are likely to be included in any measures of reform :

1. The season during which elk may be lawfully killed in any part of the country should occur between two fixed dates, not more than one month apart. At present there are considerable discrepancies in this respect in the different

amts.

sion of elk-meat during the close 2. Any one found in the possesseason, whether for purposes of sale or consumption, should be made liable to the infliction, with