34 WOLF-HUNTING. 



woodcocks for another day. He is evidently not so drunk as he 

 pretends to be." 



A few more cocks, which, ever and anon, passed overhead in 

 wild flight backwards, fell to our guns before we reached the 

 auberge, into which the garde led the way, swearing he was so 

 thirsty he should become a corpse if he did not sustain his 

 sinking nature with something to drink. Without calling for his 

 liquor, however, he cast himself at full length among the dry 

 heather that lay in the chimney corner ; and, taking off his huge 

 sabots, both ends of which were shod with iron, he threw them 

 savagely at a pig's head that was quietly stretched on the opposite 

 side of the hearth, enjoying the heat of the smouldering embers 

 with perfect felicity. A piercing scream from the pig, whose head 

 quivered as if at least one eye had been knocked out, instantly 

 roused the indignant wrath of the aubergiste, who, seizing a 

 cudgel by the small end, as the Bretons usually carry it, sprang 

 like a tiger on the garde-du-bois, snatched away his fowling-piece, 

 and then dealt him two or three tremendous whacks over his 

 shoulders that must have left their mark there for many a day. 

 In a moment the garde was upon his legs, closing with his adver- 

 sary ; but, like Roderic Dhu without his targe, he was powerless 

 without his sabots, a Breton's chief weapons of offence in every 

 such struggle ; the aubergiste kicking him in the shins and twist- 

 ing him by the collar, as a Cornishman " at play " would do, 

 threw him once more prostrate to the ground as fair a back-fall 

 as a " stickler " ever witnessed. Had they been rival Irish 

 peasants meeting at Donnybrook, their pugnacious ferocity could 

 scarcely have been stronger ; for no sooner was the garde floored 

 than, like Antaeus, he sprang again to his legs, and, this time, 

 made a dash into the aubergiste, and gripped him fiercely by the 

 throat. 



Murder must have been the result speedily, if Keryfan and I 

 had not now interposed. We dragged them asunder with great 



