Читать книгу The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen / Приключения барона Мюнхгаузена. Уровень 1 - Рудольф Эрих Распе, Готфрид Бюргер, Готфрид Август Бюргер - Страница 11

You heard, I think, of the hunter and the saint and protector, St. Hubert[11], and of the noble stag, which appeared to him in the forest, with the holy cross between its antlers. I saw this stag a thousand times, either painted or embroidered. I hardly know whether such ever lived. But let me rather tell what I saw myself.

One day I was walking in the wood and eating cherries. Suddenly I found myself unexpectedly in presence of a stately stag. The stag was looking at me as if it knew of my empty pouches. I charged immediately with powder, and upon it a good handful of cherry-stones[12]. Then I shot at the stag, and hit him just on the middle of the forehead, between his antlers. It stunned the stag – it staggered and ran away. A year or two after, I saw in the same forest, and I beheld a stag with a fine full grown cherry-tree above ten feet high between its antlers. I immediately recollected my former adventure, looked at the stag, and brought it to the ground by one shot. It at once gave me the haunch and cherry-sauce; for the tree was covered with the fruit.

Who knows but some hunter, or abbot or bishop, could shoot, and fix the cross between the antlers of St. Hubert’s stag, in a manner similar to this?