cigar, which he had smoked while he waited for his companion, who had
evidently been straying about for some time among the forest
undergrowth. Four panting dogs by the speaker's side likewise watched
the progress of the personage for whose benefit the remarks were made.
To make their sarcastic import fully clear, it should be added that
the second sportsman was both short and stout; his ample girth
indicated a truly magisterial corpulence, and in consequence his
progress across the furrows was by no means easy. He was striding over
a vast field of stubble; the dried corn-stalks underfoot added not a
little to the difficulties of his passage, and to add to his
discomforts, the genial influence of the sun that slanted into his
eyes brought great drops of perspiration into his face. The uppermost
thought in his mind being a strong desire to keep his balance, he
lurched to and fro like a coach jolted over an atrocious road.

It was one of those September days of almost tropical heat that
finishes the work of summer and ripens the grapes. Such heat forebodes
a coming storm; and though as yet there were wide patches of blue
between the dark rain-clouds low down on the horizon, pale golden
masses were rising and scattering with ominous swiftness from west to
east, and drawing a shadowy veil across the sky. The wind was still,
save in the upper regions of the air, so that the weight of the
atmosphere seemed to compress the steamy heat of the earth into the
forest glades. The tall forest trees shut out every breath of air so
completely that the little valley across which the sportsman was
making his way was as hot as a furnace; the silent forest seemed
parched with the fiery heat. Birds and insects were mute; the topmost
twigs of the trees swayed with scarcely perceptible motion. Any one
who retains some recollection of the summer of 1819 must surely
compassionate the plight of the hapless supporter of the ministry who