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top of leaf torn away, revealing text from underlying leaf, transcribed separately

Better than all the advice, my kind hostess stuffed my pockets with a savory salchicon, a bunch of hot peppers and a twist of bread, and adding a flask of aguardiente to the Commissariat, off I started, word a figure looking me though word.

When I entered the marsh, which in many places was up to my waist ? in water, the snow was falling in heavy flakes, but the snipe were plentiful and laid like stones. Following a ditch, I passed away, bagging several couple, and occassionally walking ? over a mallard as he rose quacking at my feet, when feeling somewhat peckish I adjourned to a dry spot, and produced the sausage.

As I sat munching away, oldTigre suddenly raised his head and gave a short bark, and looking up I saw the same figure I had observed on leaving the town, stealthily picking his way over the marsh in the direction of the mountain. I thought nothing of it at the time, and having finished my tiffin, I again turned to all the long bills. Some excellent sport had led me on beyond my usual hour of returning, when just before sunset, a lot of teal swept whistling over my head and lit on the snow in a field outside the marsh. To get a shot at them I had to take a circuitous route by making round the foot of the mountain and proceeding under cover of a wall. As I was creeping stealthily along, a stone suddenly rolled down to my feet, and looking up, to my no small dismay I saw three figures behind the upper wall ? of the field in which I was walking, most deliberately pointing three villainous looking escopetas at my head. To dodge behind a small rock & quickly slip a ball into each of my barrels was the work of an instant -- and as I rammed a wad ? over each, I thought it prudent to parley with my friends, who were shouting at me loudly