"Uds daggers and scabbard, madam," said Bucklaw, whom this observation
brought at once upon his own ground, "there is no difficulty or merit in
that matter at all, so that a fellow is not too much afraid of having a
pair of antlers in his guts. I have hunted at force five hundred times,
madam; and I never yet saw the stag at bay, by land or water, but I
durst have gone roundly in on him. It is all use and wont, madam; and
I'll tell you, madam, for all that, it must be done with good heed and
caution; and you will do well, madam, to have your hunting-sword right
sharp and double-edged, that you may strike either fore-handed or
back-handed, as you see reason, for a hurt with a buck's horn is a
perilous ad somewhat venomous matter."
"I am afraid, sir," said the young lady, and her smile was scarce
concealed by her vizard, "I shall have little use for such careful
preparation."
"But the gentleman says very right for all that, my lady," said an
old huntsman, who had listened to Bucklaw's harangue with no small
edification; "and I have heard my father say, who was a forester at the
Cabrach, that a wild boar's gaunch is more easily healed than a hurt
from the deer's horn, for so says the old woodman's rhyme--
If thou be hurt with horn of hart, it brings thee to they bier;
But tusk of boar shall leeches heal, thereof have lesser fear.
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