Swim to him with a Dagger ready drawn.

 

How to Kill a Hart when he is at bay, and what is then to be done.

When a Hart is at bay, it is dangerous to go to him, and especially in rutting time; for at that time, their heads are venomous and most perilous, and thereupon came this proverb, If thou be hurt with Hart, it brings thee to thy Bear, but Barber's hand will Boar's hurt heal, thereof thou need not fear.

The which has not been said for nothing, as has been proved by many examples. We read of an emperor named Basil, who had overcome his enemies in many battles, and had done great deeds of chivalry in his country, and was yet nevertheless slain by a Hart in breaking of a bay. Behold, gentle Reader, the unconstancy of variable fortune: a prince who had done so many deeds of prowess among men, who had comforted his friends and discomforted his enemies, who had peaceably defended his people, and courageously assaulted such as sought to subvert his dominion, was at the last in the pride of his pleasure and the unexpected day of his destiny vanquished and slain and gored by the horns of a brute beast, yea - what more is - by a fearful beast, and such a one as dare not many days nor hours before have beheld the countenance of the weakest man in his kingdom, a beast that fled from him, and a beast he constrained - in his own defence - to do this detestable murder. 

This example may serve as a mirror to all princes and potentates, yea, and generally to all estates, that they bridle thier minds from proffering of undeserved injuries, and do not constrain the simple sakeless man to stand in his own defence, nor - like the worm - turn again when it is trodden on. 

I would not have my words wrested to this construction, that it were unlawful to kill a Deer or such beasts of Venery, for so should I both speak against the purpose I have taken in hand, and again I should seem to argue against God's ordinances, since it seems such beasts have been created to the use of man, and for his recreation; but as by fables some good morality may be gathered, so by all histories and examples some good allegory and comparison may be made.

To return to the matter, I might recite many other stories and examples, but this may suffice to admonish all Huntsmen, that they go wisely and warily to a Hart when he is at bay, as hereafter I will more largely declare. You shall understand, then, that there are bays in the water and bays on the land; and if a Hart be in deep water, where the Huntsman cannot come at him, the best thing he can do shall be to couple up his hounds, and that for many causes. If they should long continue in the water, it would put them in great danger to founder and mar them, or if the water be broad and deep, they might chance - through eagerness of their game - to drown. A Hart which is spent will not willingly leave a great water when he sees the hounds and the Huntsmen come to him, but will swim up and down in the midst of the stream, and never come near the banks. 

Therefore I say the Huntsmen shall do well to take up his hounds, and to stand close upon a clear wind until the Hart may come our of his own free will, the which peradventure he will quickly do, when he hears no longer noise after him. If the Huntsman stand close and upon a clear wind, he may chance to have a blow at him with his sword as he comes out; but if he fail thereof, and the Hart be once past him, let him suffer him to pass far enough before he uncouple his hounds, for if a Hart hear any sudden noise coming after him, he may chance to return unto the soil. If he perceive the Hart will not come out of the water, let him get a boat, or if he can swim, let him put off his clothes and swim to him with a dagger ready drawn to kill him; yet let him well beware how he assail him, unless the water be very deep, for if it be so shallow a Hart may stand upon the bottom, he may chance to give the Huntsman a shrewd blow, if he take not heed at the first encounter; marry where it is deep, he has least force. 

It has been my hap oftentimes to kill in this sort very great Harts, and that in sight and presence of divers witnesses, and afterwards I have guided their dead bodies to the bank swimming. 

As touching the bay on the land, if the Hart be frayed and burnished, then the Huntsman ought well to regard and consider the place; for if it be in a plain and open place where there is no wood or covert, it is dangerous and hard to come in to him, but if it be by a hedgeside, or in a strong thicket or queach, while the Hart stares and looks upon the hounds, the Huntsman may come covertly among the bushes behind him, and so may easily kill him; and if the Hart turn head upon him, let him run behind some tree, or cover himself in the thicket quickly, or shake some bough rudely and boisterously before him. Or else, when you see a Hart at bay, take up the hounds, and when the Hart turns head to flee, gallop roundly in, and before he have lay sure to turn upon you, it is a thing easy enough to kill him with your sword. 

How to  break up a Hart after the French Manner, and to reward the hounds.

When the Hart is killed, all the Huntsmen who be at fall of him shall blow a note, and whoop also a dead note, to the end the rest of the companies with all the hounds may come in. Being assembled, and the Prince or Chief Hunter come also, they shall bring the hounds to the Deer, and let them all bite and tear him about the neck; then, couple them up until their reward be prepared.

The Chief Hunter shall take his knife, and cut off the Deer's right foot before, and present it to the King, as you see it here portrayed. Before they proceed any further, they must cut down good store of green branches and boughs, and strew them upon the ground; then shall they lay the Hart thereupon, laying him upon his back with his four feet upwards, and his head under his two shoulders, as you may likewise see here portrayed. 

That being done, make a little fork with one tyne longer than any other - as you may see also - upon the which fork you may hang all the dainty morsels which appertain to the Prince or chief personage on field. Before you go about to take off his skin, the first thing that must be taken from him is his stones, which hunters call his doulcettes, and hang them on the fork by a little of their skin. 

Let them begin to take off his skin in this manner. 

First, you must begin to slit it at the throat, and so all along his belly unto the place where you took away his doulcettes, then take him by the right foot before, and cut the skin round about underneath the joint of the dewclaws, and then slit it from thence unto the top of his breast, and do as much to the other foreleg. Then, slit and cut the skin in like manner of the hinder legs unto the top of the haunch, leaving at the place where you took away the doulcettes; begin at every leg, one after another, to take off the skin, and when you come at his sides, you must let cleave to the skin a thin kind of red felsh which hunters call the apparel of a Hart, the which grows above the benison, and between it and the skin on both sides of his body. 

Thus when the skin is clean taken off saving only at the head, ears, scut and the tewel - at all which places the skin must still have hold - before you go about to go anymore, the Chief Huntsman must call for a bowl of wine, and drink a good hearty draft; for if he should break up the Deer before he drink, the venison would stink and putrify. 

You shall also present before the Prince or chief personage in field, some fine sauce made with wine and spices in a fair dish upon a chafing dish and coals, to the end as he or she beholds the Huntsman breaking up of the Deer, they may take their pleasure of the sweet dainty morsels, and dress some of them on the coals, making them carbonadi, and eating them with their sauce, rejoycing and recreating their noble minds with regearsal which hound hunted best, and which Huntsman hunted most like a Woodman, calling their best-favoured hounds and Huntsmen before them, and rewarding them favorably, as has been the custom of all noble personages to do. 

Then shall the Huntsman take his knife in hand again, and break up the Deer in this sort, spreading the skin on both sides upon the green leaves strewed for that purpose. First, he shall take out the tongue, and put it upon the fork, for it appertains to the Prince or to the chief personage; likewise, two knots or buts which are to be taken between the neck and the shoulders, and two others which are in the flanks of the Deer, and are called flankards, and hang them upon the fork. This being done, he shall first take out the right shoulder with his shoulder knife, the which pertains to the Huntsman which harboured him; then next, that other shoulder pertains to the rest of the Huntsmen. Then must he take the brisket bone, and the flaps which hang with it unto the neck, and that pertains also to him that harboured and roused him. Then shall he make his arbour and take out the paunch, and cut off the Deer's pizzle, which is medicinable; afterwards, he shall take the sweet pudding - which is the fat gut that goes to the Deer's tewel - and the uppermost gut next the stomach, and turn and cleanse them both while they be hot, and put them on the fork, for they appertain to the best personage. 

All these being done, you shall take the Hart's heart, and slit it in sunder, taking out a bone which is therein, and raise the noombles from his fillets and between his haunches, and so up to the midriff between the bloodboulke and the sides, leaving the Raven's morsel - which is the gristle at the spoon of the brisket - and give two gashes on each side of the brisket, to show the goodness of the flesh. You shall take from the noombles three knots or nuts, which are between them and the sides and are called cinq and quatre; those pertain to the Chief Huntsman, the noombles, haunches and tenderlings - which are the sofy tops of his horns when they are in blood - pertain to the Prince or chief personage. The neck and the chin being taken from the sides, reserve the sides for the Prince, the neck for the Varlet of the Kennel, and the chin for the Varlet that keeps the Bloodhounds. 

How to reward the Hounds, and first the Bloodhound. 

The hounds shall be rewarded in this manner.

First let the Bloodhounds be present when you break up the Deer, that they may see him broken up, and let them be tied or made fast to some tree or bough, so far one from another they fight not. Then, the Huntsman which harboured the Hart shall take the cabbaging of the head and the heart of the Deer to reward his Bloodhound first, for that honour pertains to him; when he has done, he shall deliver it to the rest, that they may likewise reward theirs.

That done, they shall sit down and drink while the Varlets of the Kennel prepare the reward for their hounds, and that may be made in two sorts.

First, some use immediately as soon as the Hart is dead - the Huntsman having blown to assemble the rest unto his fall - to alight from their horses, and take off the Deer's skin from his neck while it is hot; and when they have well scotched it with their woodknives, that the hounds may the more easily tear off the flesh, they reward the hounds with that and the brains, all hot and bleeding. 

Surely, those rewards are much better than others which are given afterwards cold when they come home, and will much better flesh and encourage the hounds. But the rewards which are made at home - which are called cold rewards - are thus given: the Varlets of the Kennel take bread, and cut it into gobbets into a pan, cutting cheese likewise in gobbets with it; then take they the blood of the Deer, and sprinkle it upon the bread and cheese, until the bread and cheese be all bloody. Then, they take a great bowl of milk warm, and mingle it altogether; afterwards, they shall spread the skin upon the ground in some fair place, and put out this reward upon it. Remember you let it not abide long in the pan, for then the milk will turn and be sour. When it is thus prepared, put the cabbaging of the head in the midst among it, and have a pail or tub of fresh water in readiness near to the reward, to let your hounds lap in when they are rewarded. 

Then, you shall set the head upon a staff - which must be smooth and clean for hurting of the hounds - and let one of the Varlets carry it a hundred paces from you. The Prince or Chief shall begin to blow and to halloo for the hounds, because that honour with all others appertain unto the Prince or chief personage; if he or she cannot or will not do it themselves, let them appoint who shall do it as for their honour. Afterwards, all the Huntsmen shall take their horns and blow, and halloo to the hounds to rejoice them. 

In this meanwhile, the Varlet of the Kennel shall stand at the reward with two wands - in each hand one - to keep the hounds back until they be all come about him, and when they are all baying and calling about him, let him stand each reward, and suffer the hounds to eat it. When they have almost eaten it up, let him who holds the Deer's head halloo and cry, Here again boys! here again, haw, haw! etc. The Varlets of the Kennel which stand about the reward must rate away the hounds, and make them go to him that halloo'ed; then, he shall show them the head of the Deer, lifting it up and down before them to make them bay it, and when he has drawn them all about him baying, shall cast down the head among them, that they may take their pleasure thereon. 

Then shall he lead them back again to the skin, and turn the skin upon them - being cold - then kennel them up. Consider it shall be best to kennel them immediately, for else if they should run about and travel, it would make them cast up their reward again.

The reward being thus given and finished, the Varlet and the rest may go to drink.