50 WOLF-HUNTING. 



and again Keryfan knocked down a brace, while I only managed 

 to floor my second bird. 



There was a good deal of high, branchy timber, chiefly oak, 

 too, with the leaf still on, standing in the cover ; and, as Keryfan 

 announced a brace down to his barrels, I could not resist a few 

 words of applause. " Bravo, Baron ! " I exclaimed ; " I never 

 saw man and dogs do better work." 



"Hold hard, Frank," said he, "wait till they're gathered. 

 Both my birds, if I mistake not, are runners ; and if so, the dogs' 

 hardest work is yet before them. Red-legs, in such a cover as 

 this, are far more difficult to stop on foot than they are on wing." 



He had scarcely finished speaking, when Dian, with her short, 

 stumpy tail eloquently expressing her satisfaction, sprang on the 

 bank, bearing aloft my dead bird, its head and legs dangling from 

 her jaws, but not a feather crushed by her tender mouth. She 

 dropped it gently into Keryfan's hand. 



Again, away she flew at her master's command, as if she was 

 well aware, too, there was more game still to be recovered. I 

 could hear Mars in hot pursuit, as the dry sticks crackled in his 

 track ; but Dian knew her business far too well to interfere in his 

 work. She had her own to do, and seemed to understand it 

 instinctively the result, doubtless, of careful training and high 

 sagacity. Battues and beaters are abominations ! " Procul, O 

 procul este, profani ! " Give me one hour with such dogs as 

 Keryfan's, and pleasantly will my memory dwell on it to the day 

 of my death. 



In a little more than two minutes both dogs appeared on the 

 bank, each with a red-leg alive in his mouth. As before, Dian 

 trotted directly up to Keryfan, and literally put her bird into his 

 hand; but Mars was not so complaisant. He, proud of his 

 capture, and carrying his head high, marched round and round 

 his master, indicating, with all the signs of which he was capable, 

 his extreme delight in the successful chase. Never did I see 



