WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 21 



at a meadow completely inundated by a broad stream, that 

 foamed and tossed through the middle of it like the tail of a 

 mill-race ; the sheet of water, as it filled the valley from the 

 skirts of one wood to the other, was at least a hundred yards 

 wide, and stretched away for miles, as far as the eye could 

 reach, to the westward. One strong plank, resting upon trestles 

 high reared above the flood, was the sole structure by which 

 foot-passengers were enabled to cross from one side to the 

 other ; and in doing this they had to wade knee-deep across 

 the meadows ere they reached the bridge. But how on earth 

 were the horses, beaten and jaded as they were by a long day's 

 work, to meet the difficulty ? The bridge, if they could have 

 travelled on it, was inaccessible to them, from the rude ladder 

 by which it was mounted, and the stream far too violent for 

 any rider to keep his seat and steer his horse in safety to the 

 other side. St. Prix, however, was fully prepared for the 

 emergency, and shouting to a piqueur, he demanded a rope 

 which, to the length of eight or ten fathoms, that official 

 speedily procured from a peasant's hut close by a coil reserved 

 there for this very purpose. 



The bridle being removed from his own mare, and one end 

 of the rope secured as a halter to her head, he mounted the 

 bridge, and the sensible, well-schooled animal feeling her way 

 into the flood, he guided her across with as much ease as a 

 skilful fisherman would have guided a salmon to a shelving 

 bank, and there he landed her in safety. In like manner some 

 ten or a dozen horses were thus handled ; and by nightfall we 

 reached Carhaix and the Hotel La Tour d'Auvergne without 

 further adventure. 



