Page:Busbecq, Travels into Turkey (1744).pdf/128

 endure it; so that we were forced to shut her up, that her Noise might not offend us. But when he returned, as soon as ever she fixed her Eyes on him, she would make to him, clapping her Wings with such an antick Posture of her Body as Dancers in a Jig use to do; or as if she had been to prepare herself for Combat with a Pygmy. In fine, she at last used to lie under his Bed at Night, where she laid him an Egg. Thus I have given the story of the Loves of brute Animals towards Man, now prepare your Ears for another Story of a contrary Import, viz. the Cruelty and Ingratitude of another Brute towards Man. I had a Hart, that lived very quiet and tame with me for many Months; but, when her rutting or coupling Time came, she grew on a sudden so wild, that, forgetting all our Respects, she flew upon every body that she met, as if she would have killed them with her Horns, so that we were compelled, for our own Security, to hamper her, and to shut her up in a walled Place; but one Night, she broke from her Prison, and ran amongst all the Horses, which, as I told you, in Turkey, use to stand all Night in the Yard, and where she made such a Tumult amongst them, that she forced the Grooms to drive her to her Hold; she wounded many of them, which set them into a Rage, so that at last they drove her into a large Stable, and there I gave them leave, with what Weapons came next to hand, to destroy her: She defended her self stoutly at first; but they, being forty to one, at last felled her, and made her pay for her breach of Hospitality. When she was dead, I cut her in pieces, and made a Feast for the Ambassadors that then resided at Constantinople. It was a Hart or Stag, of a huge Bulk, such as use to come in the beginning of Autumn, out of Hungary into Austria,