Three short works | Page 8

seemed to be thinking of deep and serious things.
He killed bears with a knife, bulls with a hatchet, and wild boars with a
spear; and once, with nothing but a stick, he defended himself against
some wolves, which were gnawing corpses at the foot of a gibbet.
* * * * *
One winter morning he set out before daybreak, with a bow slung
across his shoulder and a quiver of arrows attached to the pummel of
his saddle. The hoofs of his steed beat the ground with regularity and
his two beagles trotted close behind. The wind was blowing hard and

icicles clung to his cloak. A part of the horizon cleared, and he beheld
some rabbits playing around their burrows. In an instant, the two dogs
were upon them, and seizing as many as they could, they broke their
backs in the twinkling of an eye.
Soon he came to a forest. A woodcock, paralysed by the cold, perched
on a branch, with its head hidden under its wing. Julian, with a lunge of
his sword, cut off its feet, and without stopping to pick it up, rode
away.
Three hours later he found himself on the top of a mountain so high
that the sky seemed almost black. In front of him, a long, flat rock hung
over a precipice, and at the end two wild goats stood gazing down into
the abyss. As he had no arrows (for he had left his steed behind), he
thought he would climb down to where they stood; and with bare feet
and bent back he at last reached the first goat and thrust his dagger
below its ribs. But the second animal, in its terror, leaped into the
precipice. Julian threw himself forward to strike it, but his right foot
slipped, and he fell, face downward and with outstretched arms, over
the body of the first goat.
After he returned to the plains, he followed a stream bordered by
willows. From time to time, some cranes, flying low, passed over his
head. He killed them with his whip, never missing a bird. He beheld in
the distance the gleam of a lake which appeared to be of lead, and in
the middle of it was an animal he had never seen before, a beaver with
a black muzzle. Notwithstanding the distance that separated them, an
arrow ended its life and Julian only regretted that he was not able to
carry the skin home with him.
Then he entered an avenue of tall trees, the tops of which formed a
triumphal arch to the entrance of a forest. A deer sprang out of the
thicket and a badger crawled out of its hole, a stag appeared in the road,
and a peacock spread its fan-shaped tail on the grass--and after he had
slain them all, other deer, other stags, other badgers, other peacocks,
and jays, blackbirds, foxes, porcupines, polecats, and lynxes, appeared;
in fact, a host of beasts that grew more and more numerous with every
step he took. Trembling, and with a look of appeal in their eyes, they

gathered around Julian, but he did not stop slaying them; and so intent
was he on stretching his bow, drawing his sword and whipping out his
knife, that he had little thought for aught else. He knew that he was
hunting in some country since an indefinite time, through the very fact
of his existence, as everything seemed to occur with the ease one
experiences in dreams. But presently an extraordinary sight made him
pause.
He beheld a valley shaped like a circus and filled with stags which,
huddled together, were warming one another with the vapour of their
breaths that mingled with the early mist.
For a few minutes, he almost choked with pleasure at the prospect of so
great a carnage. Then he sprang from his horse, rolled up his sleeves,
and began to aim.
When the first arrow whizzed through the air, the stags turned their
heads simultaneously. They huddled closer, uttered plaintive cries, and
a great agitation seized the whole herd. The edge of the valley was too
high to admit of flight; and the animals ran around the enclosure in
their efforts to escape. Julian aimed, stretched his bow and his arrows
fell as fast and thick as raindrops in a shower.
Maddened with terror, the stags fought and reared and climbed on top
of one another; their antlers and bodies formed a moving mountain
which tumbled to pieces whenever it displaced itself. Finally the last
one expired. Their bodies lay stretched out on the sand with foam
gushing from the nostrils and the bowels protruding. The heaving of
their bellies grew less and less noticeable, and presently all was still.
Night came, and behind the