WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 61 



respectfully, Louis informed us he had tracked in a couple of 

 old wolves where they had crossed the brook in the northern 

 valley; that Tonnerre had nearly dragged his arm off in his 

 eagerness to follow the trail ; and that, on laying on the pack, 

 he ventured to say they would rouse them in less than half 

 an hour. 



" I knew there must be more than one wolf at Trefranc," said 

 St. Prix, " to have done so much mischief. The cowardly brutes 

 " rarely commit wholesale murder single-handed." 



The pack, consisting this day of not more than twelve couple, 

 just two-thirds of the lot usually hunted on less dangerous 

 occasions, sat quietly on their haunches on a plot of short heather 

 within a hundred yards of us, but down wind of the cover we 

 were about to draw. The moment, however, they discovered the 

 Louvetier's voice, vain were the whips and frantic efforts of the 

 piqueurs to prevent their rushing forward to welcome his arrival ; 

 and, considering they were all in couples, it was a marvel to me 

 that no accident occurred by their fouling the horse's legs, as they 

 pressed forward tumultuously on every side and even under his 

 very girths. But St. Prix, who had a caress for one and a kind 

 word for another, was delighted at the demonstration, and took 

 no heed whatever, neither did his horse, of the jingling chains and 

 uproarious action evinced by the hounds. On my expressing sur- 

 prise at the steadiness of his hunter, he said, with a smile, " Ah ! 

 Barbe-Bleu knows better, when I am on his back, than to kick at 

 a hound ; but, left to himself, and without a hand on his bridle, 

 a more dangerous brute never accompanied a pack." I have 

 often heard the immortal "Jack Russell," the keenest of all 

 hound observers, say, that it is not the man who feeds the hounds, 

 nor the man who hunts them in the field, whom the hounds love 

 best ; but the man who opens their kennel door and gives them 

 freedom; here then, methought, was an exception; St. Prix 

 neither fed nor unkennelled his hounds, but led and cheered 



