“a dear gazelle, To glad me with its soft black eye.”

He was armed with a cigar, while I had a double-barreled gun, loaded at (not to) the muzzle.

The Cossacks went to rouse the game, but their first drive resulted in nothing beyond a prodigious noise.  When they started for the second drive I followed the doctor in a temporary visit to the ladies.  During this absence from duty a large gazelle passed within ten steps of my station.  I ran toward my post, but was not as nimble as the frightened deer.

“Tirez” commanded the governor.

“Fire,” shouted the doctor.

And I obeyed the double injunction.  The distance was great and the animal not stationary.  I fired, and the governor fired, but the only effect was to quicken the speed of our game.  I never knew a gazelle to run faster.  Three weeks later I saw a beast greatly resembling him running on a meadow a thousand miles from Blagoveshchensk.  Whether it was the same or another I will not attempt to say.

A few minutes after this failure the horn of the hunter was heard on the hill, and two gazelles passed the line, but no game was secured.  The governor proposed a change of base, and led us where the mysterious wagon had halted.  The ‘ammunition’ was revealed.  There were carpets and cloths on the grass, plates, knives and forks, edibles in variety, wine, ale, and other liquids, and the samovar steaming merrily at our side.  I think we acquitted ourselves better at this part of the hunt than at any other.  The picnic did not differ much from an American one, the most noticeable feature being the substantial character of solids and liquids.  Most of us sat on the grass and stumps, the number of camp-stools not exceeding half a dozen.

Finishing the lunch we took a new hunting spot and managed to kill a gazelle and a large hare.  A fourth drive brought no game, and we returned to enjoy another lunch and drink a Russian beverage called ‘jonca.’  In its preparation a pound or two of loaf sugar in a single lump is fixed on a wire frame above a copper pan.  A bottle of cognac is poured over the sugar and set on fire.  The sugar melts, and when the fire is almost extinguished a bottle of claret and one of champagne are added.  The compound is taken hot, and has a sweet and very smooth taste.  The Russians are fond of producing this beverage when they have foreign guests, and if taken freely it has a weakening tendency.  The captain of the Variag told me he had placed several British officers under his table by employing this article, and there was a rumor that the Fox embassy to St. Petersburg was quite severely laid out by means of ‘jonca.’

The lunch finished we discharged our guns and returned to town at a rapid pace.  While descending the bank of a brook our horses turned suddenly and nearly overset the carriage.  The doctor and I jumped out to lighten the lower side, and were just in season to keep the wheels on the ground.  Madame Pedeshenk followed into the arms of the strong doctor, but the governor, true to the martial instinct, remained in his place and gave instructions to the driver.  We did not re-enter the carriage until it was across the brook; the horses were exercised rather violently during the remainder of the journey.