As for his assistants, they had quietly gone home, so soon as they felt sure that the keeper was housed for the night.

Long immunity from attack had bred over-confidence; the staff also was too small for the extent of the place, and this had doubtless become known.

No one sleeps so soundly as an agricultural labourer; and as the nearest hamlet was at some distance it is not surprising that they did not wake.
In the early morning a fogger going to fodder his cattle came across a pheasant lying dead on the path, the snow stained with its blood.

He picked it up, and put it under his smock-frock, and carried it to the pen, where he hid it under some litter, intending to take it home.

But afterwards, as he crossed the fields towards the farm, he passed near the wood and observed the tracks of many feet and a gap in the fence.