These animals become as tame as dogs, and are of great value to the borderer, as it costs nothing to rear them, and they can be put to any work. For all that the wild horse is greatly detested in the vicinity of a settlement, and many a noble brute has died there with a bullet in its heart. The borderer cannot shut up his horses and mules in stables. They must seek the food which nature offers them in such profusion, and hence they have the gate of liberty always open; but they do not fly, because they do not know what liberty is. But scarce do they see a troop of their wild comrades dash past, ere they dart off too, never again to bow their neck to the plough or the bit. They in such cases become the wildest of the troop, and can always be recognised at its head. My black stallion, whose wildly flowing mane I followed for a long distance over the prairie, had, however, never yet bent his neck beneath the yoke of man, for it displayed too fully the pride and strength which nature imparts to liberty alone on its black curly forehead: these animals had never seen the low roof, the simple palisade of a frontier house, and no fugitive thence had ever complained to them about the fate he had endured. Czar was beside himself that he was not allowed to join in the race, and tried for a long time to check the speed of the fugitives by his snorts; he danced, threw his croupe from one side to the other, and furiously tore at the bit, but it was all of no use, and serfdom still lay on his broad neck, even though with rosy bonds. The sun was rather low on the horizon when I found myself about five miles from what seemed to be a very large forest, behind which rose the mountains which I had noticed a few days previously in the azure distance when I took my first glance at this valley. I leapt from my horse, hobbled it, and crawled through the grass after two very old stags, one of which was quietly grazing behind a fallen mosquito tree, while the other, as if it had noticed something, thrust its thick neck over the stump in my direction. I had left my hat with Czar in order to attract less attention, and the sun shone hotly on my head; but what will not a hunter readily endure if it enables him to draw nearer the game? At length there were about one hundred yards between us, and I had reached a small patch of flowering jalap trees which covered me. I raised myself on one arm, and fired, aiming at the head. I saw that the deer was hit close to the heart: it ran about fifty paces with its comrade, and then fell dead.