River Bush, still at that period thickly tenanted by every species of the larger game, but chiefly by elephants, the sale of whose ivory amply repaid the dangers incurred by the many adventurous Nimrods who then sprang up on the eastern frontier.

Whilst looking down, during our onward progress, on those denselywooded kloofs, assuming every moment a darker and more sombre hue as night enveloped them in her gloomy mantle, many a tale passed round, referring to bold deeds of woodcraft performed in their mazy depths of hair-breadth 'scapes from the ponderous rhinoceros, the headstrong buffalo, or lordly elephant; for amongst our party were two or three old sportsmen, who had oft trodden the mazes below us, ere they were, as at present, nearly denuded of their savage denizens, who since then had followed up their track beyond the far Orange River, even to the verge of the southern tropic; for to this remote limit is the daring votary of the chase now fain to proceed in quest of what, a few short years back, was so plentiful in those deep masses of jungle, which-save, may be, by lurking Kaffirs—then lay so silent and tenantless at our feet.

The tedium of our now darksome march was thus whiled pleasantly away. One of the party-a man from infancy devoted to the chase, whose youth and manhood were passed in its pursuit, who had marked down the last elephants in those their once-favourite hauntsentered most enthusiastically on the theme. Striking on an elephant spoor," he soon eloquently led away his audience through deep and rocky valleys, dense thorny jungles; threaded the narrow elephant path amidst all the intricacies of wooded kloofs; tracked the noble animals to where they fed; pointed out their gigantic forms, looming like dark ocean rocks above a glittering sea of bright green "speck-boom," aloes, euphorbias, and other strange and fantastic shrubs. Next would he tell of the stealthy, snake-like approach, the moment of breathless suspense, the sharp crack of the rifle, the fall of the huge patriarch of the flock, the wild crashing charge of the survivors, arrested in mid career by the ignited bush blazing up into a secure rampart of smoke and flame. The lifeless prostrate victim is now approached; then would follow the process of " marking" the tusks, to be carried away at some future time; the tail docked in token of triumph, the amputation of the trunk, of a foot, or extraction of the heart, part of which, wrapped in a flap cut from one of the fallen monster's ears, would form at the bivouac the evening repast of the tired and famished hunters.

Next would he speak of the huge rhinoceros, tearing up with its nasal horn, during wild paroxysms of fury, the very ground it trod on; of the mad, headlong charge of the buffalo, blinded in its rage; of the prancing "gnoo" and stately "gemsbok" (the fabled unicorn of old). Many a hair-breadth 'scape did he relate, mingled occasionally with a tale of woe; for accidents sometimes inevitably occurred amongst the followers of so adventurous a mode of life.

This old hunter had associated with, and well remembered, the famed and intrepid Thwackray,† who, after slaying I forget how many

*The favourite food of the elephant. Its small fleshy leaves, when boiled down and seasoned, form a very palatable dish.

The daring sporting exploits of this young man, one of the settlers of 1820, are still the theme of conversation on the frontier. The elephant hunter was gene

hundred elephants, was, as our friend related, at last trampled to death by one whom he had, unfortunately, wounded without disabling. Amongst other casualties which had occurred in this sylvan warfare, he mentioned Colonel F-'s melancholy death: pursued by a wounded buffalo, he had taken refuge amidst the branches of a low, stunted tree; the infuriated animal, though unable to reach him with its horns, effectually used its tongue as a weapon of offence, with whose rough, prickly surface, by licking the legs and thighs of the unfortunate sufferer, it so completely denuded them of flesh, that, although at last rescued from so dreadful a position by the Hottentot attendants, who shot his tormentor, the poor fellow only lingered on for a few days, when death put an end to his most excruciating agonies.

Our friend's inexhaustible supply of sporting anecdote still continued, for miles and miles, to flow rapidly on, till at last the bright flickering blaze which illumined the darkness in front of the column of march announced our arrival at the halting ground for the remaining portion of the night.

The surrounding obscurity precluded, however, all possibility of ascertaining the nature of the spot of our proposed bivouac; for all that could be discerned were the dark forms of the Hottentots as they intercepted the bright reflection of the blazing camp-fires, around which they appeared to move with the restlessness of condemned spirits at some pandemoniac feast; whilst an occasional lurid glare was thrown on dark masses of tall underwood, which here and there were scattered over the high level table land around.

Meanwhile, the group who had been spinning such tough sporting yarns during the march were soon snugly ensconced to leeward of and beneath one of the dense clumps of foliage above alluded to. A fire was kindled our Hottentot attendants, in ten minutes, had, al fresco, prepared coffee and a "carbonadje," and we all huddled up together to spend the night as we best could, under the sheltering boughs which intervened between ourselves and the canopy of heaven; across which, murky clouds, driven by the night-wind, mournfully sighing through our leafy bower, appeared in the surrounding pitchy darkness to be chasing each other in rapid succession, and threatened to bedew our slumbers with their watery burthen.

But sleep, gentle sleep, scared by the "figures and the fantasies" of so many a stirring tale of sylvan war, had, affrighted, fled this group of determined sportsmen; for in that wild and appropriate resting place to such staunch votaries of the chase were now assembled those who, in every portion of the globe, had long and sedulously plied the "merrie woodland craft."

(To be continued.)

rally accompanied by three or four Hottentots, with whose assistance some have been known to kill between 300 and 400 elephants during the year. No wonder, therefore, that these animals should now have entirely disappeared from this part of the country.

• Small pieces of meat spitted on a branch or wooden skewer, and thus hastily roasted before a camp fire.

Amateur performance-Love at first sight—“ We met—we gazed—I saw and sighed -She did not speak, and yet replied"-A lecture from the Head Master.

At the close of the last chapter, Kirkonnel, F—————, and myself were seated in what was called the parlour in a tolerable-sized house in Queen's-square, Westminster; we had just been introduced to the occupiers of it, Monsieur and Madame de Tourville, by their son Charles. There was an air of tawdry finery and vulgarity, both about the apartment and its owners, that caused us to start as young De Tourville presented us to his parents.

66

Pray be seated, young gentlemen," said the Maître de Ballet, placing himself in the first position, and, in the most pantomimic manner, suiting the action to every word he uttered; skipping across the room with that running step and shuffle so peculiar to dancers, he brought us chairs, which, with a motion of the hand, he called upon us to occupy.

"A glass of wine, young gentlemen? Clarisse, the keys!"

In the most bland yet dignified manner, the former representative of Juno rose from her seat, and after apologizing to us for her apparent rudeness, and begging a thousand pardons, cast a look at the corner cupboard, and making one of those matrimonial freemasonry signs to her husband (so well understood by man and wife), left the room, followed by him.

Although we have given the conversation of the host in our native English tongue, without the foreign aid of ornament and accent, our readers, to understand the spirit of the Frenchman's speech, as also that of his sposa, must fill them up with sundry ejaculations of Parbleu ! Hein! Ma foi! Ventre bleu! Diable! and others, profane and irreverent, with which they interlarded every remark.

Charles was now called out of the room by an over-dressed dirtylooking maid-of-all-work to assist in some family conference, and as the door was left ajar, and the voice of Madame de Tourville was raised whilst indulging in her own vernacular language, the quick ears of Kirkonnel could not help catching every word that fell from her, and which he as immediately translated to us in the following short-hand style

"Grand row-wine all drank-key corner cupboard lost-Sarah to go round the corner for a bottle of home-made gooseberry, called champagne, and sixpennyworth of cakes-inquiries as to our finances and prospects, which being pronounced good, satisfied the belligerent parties.'

While this conversation was being carried on outside the parlour, we had time to take a sketch of the interior. The walls of the room were painted in a most gaudy theatrical style in different compartments, containing scenes from various ballets; the showy window-curtains had once graced the dining-room of the pension bourgeoise at Paris, but were now so faded and covered with fly-marks and besmeared with "blacks," that they no longer retained their former splendour; the wooden mantelpiece was covered with tarnished cotton velvet studded with brass nails, and upon it were some small specimens of china and glass, in the forms of pots and bottles, all of which, upon close inspection, showed that they once had held pomatum, rouge, pearl powder, perfume, and Eau de Cologne; a bright red drugget partly concealed a torn and tattered French carpet, the colours of which were not (as the advertisements say)" warranted to last ;" an elaborately decorated wooden chandelier, in the (theatrical) style of Louis XIV., hung from the ceiling; and a huge arm-chair, bedizened with cherry-coloured silk and gold lace, was placed before the fire-place; upon it, during its mistress' absence, reclined a fat asthmatic dog of the "pug" breed, called " Bijou," and at its feet reposed a tortoiseshell tabby, with a blue morocco leather collar mounted in silver, who bore the euphonious name of "Euphrosyne." Under a glass shade appeared two wreaths of artificial flowers, which had been thrown upon the stage by the hands of royalty during the early triumphs of Achille and Clarisse in the successful ballet of Telemache. Two portraits of the host and hostess, highly varnished and coloured, occupied the spaces upon each side of the fire-place, while over the mantel-piece was suspended a mirror, the glass of which had lost its lustre and the frame its brightness: four or five painted chairs, and a round table covered with a dirty drab cloth of unspeakable hue, completed the furniture of the room, with the exception of a huge gilded cage (evidently a stage property), in which a parrot screamed, whistled, and repeated every sort of French and English jocosity which had been taught him by the Maitre de Ballet and the maid-of-all-work. "Sabre de bois, pistolet du paille," said the talking bird; and as the door opened, and Monsieur and Madame de Tourville entered, followed by Sarah with a tray, by an instinct scarcely to be believed the plumed chatterer uttered-" Oh! Le vieux gredin! Oh! la vielle coquine !" for which slips of the tongue poor Poll was mulcted of her sugar for the day.

The tray was now placed upon the table, and the sherry from the wood (from the " King's Head" round the corner), after a panegyric from our Amphitryon upon its oldness and pureness, and the length of time it had been in his cellar, was handed round, Charles had made his appearance, and it was evident from the courteous and respectful manner in which his parents addressed us, that our positions and station had, upon being properly explained, produced a great sensation upon. their minds.

The object of our interview was now entered upon; and after a time

we were conducted into a large room on the second floor, which had been converted into a temporary theatre, and here the man of pirouettes and entrechats taught his young dramatic pupils all the intricacies of the ballet department, occasionally before audiences to give them confidence; and here, twice a week, the proscenium and scenery being removed, Monsieur Achille de Tourville instructed a private class in all the dignified movements of the minuet, the less graceful motions of the English country dance, and the spirited evolutions of the hornpipe, those being the fashionable dances for the youths of that day; the waltz, quadrille, Mazurka, and polka, not having then been imported into our country.

"Vive la gaieté !" exclaimed the light-hearted Gaul, after we had suggested our private performance. "I love to encourage it in every country; and at any time my theatre is at your service. I can furnish some costumes, and a few. private and professional friends would form an audience. Command my services."

We thanked the complaisant foreigner and his sposa, and took our leave, promising to communicate through Charles the night upon which we should put his kindness to the test.

For the next fortnight we could think of nothing but the play, which we rehearsed morning, noon, and night. The scenes from the pantomime were more difficult, as we could only go through them during the period we were locked up in our dame's house. Still we managed to "progress," as the Yankees say; and in due course of time Kirkonnel had accomplished a harlequin's leap through the face of a clock, F———— had tumbled and been knocked about as the slippered pantaloon, and I could turn my eyes and feet in, open my mouth from ear to ear, put out my tongue, throw a summerset, filch legs of mutton and strings of sausages, exclaiming "Here's your fun! Smuggins!" in the most clownish and grotesque manner.

We had now arranged with Monsieur de Tourville for two grand dress rehearsals, in which one of his pupils, Mademoiselle St. Clair, was to join us as Columbine. The first went off extremely well, our stipulation being that no one except the Maître de Ballet, who with his "kit" was to act as orchestra, two scene shifters, three of our own acquaintances, and Mesdames de Tourville and St. Clair, were to attend. So elated were we with our success, that we authorized bills to be printed for private circulation, announcing a performance, consisting of scenes from the tragedies of "Othello," Julius Cæsar," and "Douglas," to conclude with a selection from the comic pantomime of " Harlequin and Mother Goose," in the course of which the song of " Tippitiwitchet" would be sung by the clown, and a sailor's hornpipe by the cabin-boy; characters in both pieces by amateurs, with the exception of that of Columbine, which would be supported by Mademoiselle Adeline St. Clair, pupil of Monsieur Achille Gardel de Tourville, of the Parisian and English Opera House.

The evening for the second dress rehearsal arrived, and the De Tourvilles and ourselves had issued a limited number of tickets to our friends. Six o'clock struck, and as we strutted from our dressing-rooms to the stage, and took a peep through the slit in the green curtain, great was our consternation to find the theatre crowded in every part, each visitor having brought a friend or two, who happened accidentally, as they as