WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 55 



the ravines of Benvoirlich, than a red-leg under such circum- 

 stances. 



Kledan, or Kledan Kam for, owing to a lame leg, the 

 braconnier was thus surnamed had arrived at this knowledge 

 by a plan clever enough and peculiarly his own. Being physically 

 unable to work hard for his game, it was his habit, in default of 

 less natural jackalls, to send his wife and dog to scour the 

 surrounding hills and feeding ground ; while he, mounted on 

 some knoll that commanded the whole valley, took the bearings 

 of every covey disturbed by them, and thus ascertained the 

 remise, far or near, to which it winged its flight. Hence, as a 

 guide to the game, he was more effective than a dozen dogs 

 would have been in that district ; and if, at the end of a day, a 

 franc piece and a brace of birds were added to the two ounces of 

 tobacco which at least in a few hours he converted into smoke 

 and ashes, poor Kledan was made unspeakably happy. We 

 gradually became great allies ; insomuch, that if I failed to pay 

 the valley of Locrist a weekly visit, he would loudly complain of 

 my long absence ; and when, at length, the time came for my 

 departure, a stranger would have supposed Kledan was about to 

 lose the dearest friend he had upon earth. " But for my wife and 

 dog," he said, despondingly (he always bracketed them together, 

 and it often puzzled me to know which of the twain he loved 

 the best) ; " but for my wife and dog, I would cross the sea 

 to-morrow, and be your garde-chasse in England for the rest of my 

 days. But they would soon want bread if they lost me ; and that 

 chains me to Locrist." 



Poor Kledan ! little did he know what a fish out of water he 

 would have been as an English gamekeeper : the night-watching 

 would scarcely have suited him so well as killing red-legs and 

 playing the lion over the jackalls that visited his native valley. 

 His thorough independence, too, would have astonished a stranger 

 at the cover-side. I turned my back on him soon afterwards with 



