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a cypress, reared, plunged and dashed forwards, almost into the
circle where the other hogs were still collected; and, but that the
Major was a famous horseman, he would have been unseated. The
wounded boar was not, however, permitted to carry the affair after
his own fashion. The Knight of Santee came to the Major’s res
cue, and adroitly drove his iron in between the gnashing teeth of
the brute, piercing obliquely through the neck again, and compel
ling another crv, betweeu a grunt and a roar. The blood gushed
freely from the wounds, and the scent of it had the usual stimulat
ing effect upon the dogs. The lirst in was the gaunt gray, of
whom nobody knew anything,—the volunteer in the expedition.
He had the boar by the nose in a moment. A single toss and
twist threw the monster down, and, leaping from his horse, the
Knight of the Dragon passed his keen coutcau de chasse over his
weaasand.
The other parties, hogs, dogs, and knights, were by no means
idle during this progress. The operations of the Major, by which
one of the grimmest of the boars had been withdrawn from the
circle, left it penetrable. The dogs dashed in once more. The
pigs squealed, the sow r gave battle fiercely, but was taken by the
snout, by the dog Gripe, and turned over in a jiffy ; the overseer,
jumping down and tying her with certain buckskin thongs, with
which he had come properly provided. The capture of the pigs
continued to employ him during the rest of the affair. For this,
we had a fair field; and, by the way, the noblest quarry. The
Knight of the Dragon, like a courteous gentleman, kept aloof,
leaving the sport to those who had taken no hand in the killing of
the first boar. Major Bulmer was disanned, by the breaking of
his spear, and looked on with rare impatience, while the conflict
continued. It was not allowed, be it remembered, to use any other
weapons than spear and knife. There had been little sport, and
none of the classical, in the affair, but for this restriction. The two
remaining boars confronted us, with their little, round, sharp, ma
lignant eyes, telling us, as well as words could do, what we might
expect from their monstrous white tusks, which stuck out three
goodly inches or more from either jaw. To seperate these two, to
divide our forces against them, and to begin the attack, were all
matters of very brief arrangement. To the Knights of St. John,
the Bleeding Heart, and myself, were assigned the conquest of the
largest of the grim graziers. The second named dashed forward
valiantly, and delivered his spear, well addressed, fairly at the throat
of the brute; but, turning suddenly, at the moment —not disposed
to wait for the assault —he made at the horse of the attacking
O
knight, who barely recovered himself in season to wheel about and
escape the glaring tusks that almost caught the courser’s sides.
Following up his onslaught, I put in, successfully taking the fierce
brute just behind the ear and below the junction of the head and
neck. The spear passed in, —a severe thrust, —which was only
arrested by the skull. I was fortunate in drawing forth the wea
pon before he could turn about, and seize upon it, as he strove to
do. At this moment, no aspect could be more full of rage and
fury than that which the boar presented. His back was absolutely
curved like a bow, the bristles were raised, erect, and standing out
in points like those of the porcupine; his eyes seemed to flash a
grey, malignant light, like so much white heat, while the brist
ling brows, long and wiry, stood out straight. The teeth and tusks
were bare; and, standing, regarding us with a sidelong watchful
ness, there was a mixture of rage and subtlety in the look of the
SUPPLEMENT TO SOUTHERN LITERARY GAZETTE.
boar, that showed him no merciful customer, could he ever m
\ o fu 111 ■ t purpose to do so, every
raised and corded muscle of his body seemed to declare
It was a point of honour to give the Knight of St. John
chance, so I held my spear uplifted, and suffered him to ride up t 0
the charge. To say that the Cavalier in question is one of the
best riders in the country, one of the best exercised in the lance and
can ride at a ring w ith a grace to charm the most fastidious of the
damsels of the parish, would be mere surplusage. To see him
w ith his beaver up, —by which I mean his fur cap, with patent
leather peak, —his enormous mass of sable whiskers, and elabo
rately twirled mustache, —to behold him rising in the stirrup and
levelling the spear, —then, as he drives the spur into the sides of
the courser, to see him lance the direct shaft into the throat of the
beast, a seemingly mortal thrust—would have given a grim delight
to any ancient Nimrod of the German forests. One would have
supposed such a thrust, so well delivered, with so much equal ad
dress and force, quite enough to have settled the accounts in full
of the victim; but not so ! It seemed to act only as anew spur
to his fury. He dashed headlong at the horse of his assailant—
w hich curved with a sweep handsomely out of his way —then, with
a strange caprice, dashed on the opposite side, just as the Knight
of the Bleeding Heart was slowly approaching, lance uplifted, and
never dreaming of his enjoying another chance at the grim enemy.
He was taken completely by surprise, and, before he could antici
pate the danger, or wheel out of the way, the sharp, white, feloni
ous tusk of the boar rashed against the foreshoulder of his beast,
swift and deep, so that you could hear the griding of the keen in
strument against the bone. With a terrible snort of fear, his
mane rising and ears backing, the horse dashed wildly off, at an
acute angle, turning as if upon a well oiled pivot, working under
electricity; and, in the twinkling of a musquito’s wing, the hand
some young Knight of the Bleeding Heart, might be seen describ
ing a short evolution in the air, vulgarly called the summerset—
supposed to be only a vulgar contraction for w some upset, ’ or
“ some overset,” —and falling incontinently into the midst of the
conflict going on just then between the remaining hoar and the
Knights of Etiwan, the Rose, and the Swan. Out of one peril
into another, the Knight of the Bleeding Heart seemed in danger
of literally verifying his claim to the title. Os a certainty, that of
the Broken Head, seemed absolutely unavoidable. Nor was this
the only danger; for, at the precise moment when he fell into the
midst of the striving parties, the spears of the Knights of £tiwan
and the Rose, had actually crossed in the throat of the boar, and
he was gnashing, and rashing, and dashing, on both sides alter
nately, keeping up a sort of seesaw motion, the crossed s P ears
maintaining fur him the balance admirably, and the two knight.,
during his phrensied movements, finding it difficult to withdraw
their weapons from his tough side. You have heard of the lit!
Canadian hunter, who was pitched by bis horse among a hen
galloping buffaloes, and straddled the great bull, and was hoi
from him to the back of the great cow T ANARUS, then precipitated
and over and between and through and above, a forest o
calves ! Such, on a minor scale, was the sort of progress nia - •
our Knight of the Bleeding Heart—first over the great b° r
flirted off upon the sow — who lay prostrate and tied then t
from her embrace among the swarm of little pigg ies > AV
grouped around her, ten in number, each with nose
