to remind Jacob, if the larder was for many days deficient in that
meat. Jacob had gone out accordingly; he had gained his leeward
position of a fine buck, and was gradually nearing him by stealth--now
behind a huge oak tree, and then crawling through the high fern, so as
to get within shot unperceived, when on a sudden the animal, which had
been quietly feeding, bounded away and disappeared in the thicket. At
the same time Jacob perceived a small body of horse galloping through
the glen in which the buck had been feeding. Jacob had never yet seen
the Parliamentary troops, for they had not during the war been sent
into that part of the country, but their iron skull-caps, their buff
accouterments, and dark habiliments assured him that such these must
be; so very different were they from the gayly-equipped Cavalier
cavalry commanded by Prince Rupert. At the time that they advanced,
Jacob had been lying down in the fern near to some low black-thorn
bushes; not wishing to be perceived by them, he drew back between the
bushes, intending to remain concealed until they should gallop out of
sight; for Jacob thought, "I am a king's forester, and they may
consider me as an enemy, and who knows how I may be treated by them?"
But Jacob was disappointed in his expectations of the troops riding
past him; on the contrary, as soon as they arrived at an oak tree
within twenty yards of where he was concealed, the order was given to
halt and dismount; the sabers of the horsemen clattered in their iron
sheaths as the order was obeyed, and the old man expected to be
immediately discovered; but one of the thorn bushes was directly
between him and the troopers, and effectually concealed him. At last
Jacob ventured to raise his head and peep through the bush; and he
perceived that the men were loosening the girths of their black
horses, or wiping away the perspiration from their sides with handfuls
of fern.