CHAPTER XXVI.

"What shall he have that killed the deer?"

AS YOU LIKE IT,

Act iv., Scene 3.

OF THE WILD HUNTSMEN.

This was a superstition, which, once universally prevalent among the lower orders of Germany, was rapidly fading away, in Dr. Bräuner's time, before the light of the gospel. It was supposed

that the jolly old German barons were so ardently addicted to the pleasures of the chase that, even after death, their attachment to it remained unabated; although a restriction upon their favorite pursuit so far existed, that they could only follow it just before the festivities of Christmas set in.

At this period the ignorant peasantry were wont to be startled in their cottages, at midnight, by an exceeding uproar accompanied by drums and fifes; after which a vast multitude of ghosts presented themselves to view, märching solemnly through their domiciles, but inflicting no injury on the inhabitants.

An old countryman, of Saxony, told Dr. Bräuner that a procession of this nature once came into his house, and his servant, who saw it and could not make his escape, took refuge in a large barrel; when the party playfully, in a Tom-and-Jerry-wise fashion, capsized it atop of him, but doing him no injury. These wild huntsman too, in the Swiss Cantons, were very often seen moving in a funeral procession, towards the Protestant burial ground, driving before them a bier covered with a black pall,

and imitating all the ceremonies of funeral processions; and this in broad daylight. On reaching the walls of the burial-ground they all suddenly vanished.

But our concern lies chiefly with their hunting propensities; and, as we have the authority of the Hellish Proteus of Erasmus Franciscus for asserting that they have often been heard, with the sound of dog and horn, chevying though the woods at night, and startling the solitary traveller as the train swept by him; we shall confine ourselves to what is related on this head.

Dr. Bräuner entertains very little doubt that the Devil has a great deal to do in these matters, either by pursuing the chase in person, or by animating the bodies of deceased hunters; and his reasoning is unanswerable; viz., that he is a most unwearied hunteras far as the souls of men are concerned. All these wild huntsmen, however, appear to have been barons who oppressed their serfs; although it appears to be rather a queer punishment making them pursue those pleasures after death, to which they sacrificed the welfare of their dependants during their life-time. But we have Dr.

Bräuner's word for it, that, when he was a young man, he knew one of these oppressive barons who thus hunted, after death, for no other reason but the very amiable one, that the curses of his serfs had reached his ears while he was alive, and so he was actuated by a pure spirit of revenge.

John Rist tells us of a nobleman of this description, who in his fondness for hunting, had inflicted great injuries upon his serfs. He was at last taken so ill that his recovery was despaired of, and his friends advised him to take care of his soul, and get the Romish passport for Heaven in the shape of the viaticum ; to which he carelessly replied, "Oh, time enough yet." Then, ordering all his dogs into his room, he amused himself with setting them in full cry, and then, with folded hands, lamented that he should be obliged to leave such a splendid pack behind him.

Our author doubts not, that, after his death, he was converted into a wild huntsmen, for thus preferring his dogs to his soul, his wife, and his children. Did the rule hold good, we fear the world would, by this time, be

overstocked with these ghostly hunters.

Dr. Bräuner records that, in a certain large village at which he put up for the night, with a fellow-traveller, and adjoining to which was a wood, an adventure of this kind befel him. About half-past ten o'clock, as they were standing at the window, preparatory to undressing, the woods re-echoed with all the sounds of a chase, and the voices of a pack in full cry. This continued for half an hour, the sounds sometimes approaching, and at others appearing to become more distant, until they grew fainter and fainter-until, at last, it seemed as if the cavalcade had plunged deeper and deeper into the recesses of the forest, when they finally died away altogether. Whether the sounds were afterwards repeated the worthy Doctor expresses his inability to declare, as he slept soundly till day-light. The next morning they mentioned the circumstance to the host, who informed them that it occurred every new moon; and as she was in that quarter then, he was not surprised to hear it. "This," quoth our author, "I am the more inclined to believe, because the Theologian, Dr. Müller, observes, in his Informatorio, that a secretary of the Duke