Читать книгу The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen - Rudolf Raspe - Страница 5

_Reflections on Saint Hubert’s stag – Shoots a stag with cherry-stones;

the wonderful effects of it – Kills a bear by extraordinary dexterity;

his danger pathetically described – Attacked by a wolf, which he turns

inside out – Is assailed by a mad dog, from which he escapes – The Baron’s

cloak seized with madness, by which his whole wardrobe is thrown into

confusion._

You have heard, I dare say, of the hunter and sportsman’s saint and

protector, St. Hubert, and of the noble stag, which appeared to him

in the forest, with the holy cross between his antlers. I have paid my

homage to that saint every year in good fellowship, and seen this stag a

thousand times, either painted in churches, or embroidered in the

stars of his knights; so that, upon the honour and conscience of a good

sportsman, I hardly know whether there may not have been formerly, or

whether there are not such crossed stags even at this present day. But

let me rather tell what I have seen myself. Having one day spent all my

shot, I found myself unexpectedly in presence of a stately stag, looking

at me as unconcernedly as if he had known of my empty pouches. I charged

immediately with powder, and upon it a good handful of cherry-stones,

for I had sucked the fruit as far as the hurry would permit. Thus I let

fly at him, and hit him just on the middle of the forehead, between his

antlers; it stunned him – he staggered – yet he made off. A year or two

after, being with a party in the same forest, I beheld a noble stag with

a fine full grown cherry-tree above ten feet high between his antlers.

I immediately recollected my former adventure, looked upon him as my

property, and brought him to the ground by one shot, which at once

gave me the haunch and cherry-sauce; for the tree was covered with the

richest fruit, the like I had never tasted before. Who knows but some

passionate holy sportsman, or sporting abbot or bishop, may have shot,

planted, and fixed the cross between the antlers of St. Hubert’s stag,

in a manner similar to this? They always have been, and still are,

famous for plantations of crosses and antlers; and in a case of distress

or dilemma, which too often happens to keen sportsmen, one is apt to

grasp at anything for safety, and to try any expedient rather than

miss the favourable opportunity. I have many times found myself in that

trying situation.

What do you say of this, for example? Daylight and powder were spent one

day in a Polish forest. When I was going home a terrible bear made up

to me in great speed, with open mouth, ready to fall upon me; all my

pockets were searched in an instant for powder and ball, but in vain; I

found nothing but two spare flints: one I flung with all my might into

the monster’s open jaws, down his throat. It gave him pain and made him

turn about, so that I could level the second at his back-door, which,

indeed, I did with wonderful success; for it flew in, met the first

flint in the stomach, struck fire, and blew up the bear with a terrible

explosion. Though I came safe off that time, yet I should not wish to

try it again, or venture against bears with no other ammunition.

There is a kind of fatality in it. The fiercest and most dangerous

animals generally came upon me when defenceless, as if they had a notion

or an instinctive intimation of it. Thus a frightful wolf rushed upon me

so suddenly, and so close, that I could do nothing but follow mechanical

instinct, and thrust my fist into his open mouth. For safety’s sake

I pushed on and on, till my arm was fairly in up to the shoulder.

How should I disengage myself? I was not much pleased with my awkward

situation – with a wolf face to face; our ogling was not of the most

pleasant kind. If I withdrew my arm, then the animal would fly the more

furiously upon me; that I saw in his flaming eyes. In short, I laid hold

of his tail, turned him inside out like a glove, and flung him to the

ground, where I left him.

The same expedient would not have answered against a mad dog, which soon

after came running against me in a narrow street at St. Petersburg. Run

who can, I thought; and to do this the better, I threw off my fur cloak,

and was safe within doors in an instant. I sent my servant for the

cloak, and he put it in the wardrobe with my other clothes. The day

after I was amazed and frightened by Jack’s bawling, «For God’s sake,

sir, your fur cloak is mad!» I hastened up to him, and found almost all

my clothes tossed about and torn to pieces. The fellow was perfectly

right in his apprehensions about the fur cloak’s madness. I saw him

myself just then falling upon a fine full-dress suit, which he shook and

tossed in an unmerciful manner.