64 WOLF-HUNTING. 



dragged bodily from the saddle to the ground, while my coat 

 was literally torn to tatters on my back ; the clematis, inter- 

 twined with the bushes, formed a rope-like rigging as difficult 

 to pass through as the shrouds of a ship ; and I longed for a 

 cutlass to hew my way through the provoking growth. St. Prix, 

 however, in his close-fitting hunting-cap and green velveteen 

 attire, still forged ahead, and I could see him between me and 

 the sky-line fighting bravely forward, but, like myself, at some 

 distance astern of the hounds. Notwithstanding the Louvetier's 

 advice to stick to the hounds, Keryfan and Kergoorlas, as I 

 very soon found, had avoided this pass, and traversing a more 

 open part of the cover, had joined the peasants on the opposite 

 hill. 



I was just emerging from a network of clematis, by which 

 I had been nearly strangled, when I caught sight of " Barbe- 

 Bleu " jerked back suddenly on his haunches, and St. Prix 

 grasping at his horn ; at the same moment, the hounds' heads 

 being turned in my direction, the angrier, sharper tone of their 

 tongues told me at once the wolf was afoot, and they hard at 

 him entering the ravine. Instantly the exciting blast of "Le 

 Loup" rung from the Louvetier's horn, and, responding to the 

 signal, at least half a dozen other horns proclaimed the "find" from 

 distant parts of the cover. Then the " relais," the six couple in 

 hand, were thrown in at front, till what with hounds, horns, and 

 echoes, the old forest of Trefranc fairly rocked with applause. 

 Had Diana been there, that wild sylvan harmony would have 

 driven her mad with delight ; and had the goddess seen Keryfan 

 as, now with the hill in his favour, he crashed through the cover, 

 clearing the clematis before him like so many cobwebs, her anti- 

 matrimonial views would have vanished like a summer-cloud, and 

 she must have lost her heart to him for ever. But, if the truth be 

 told, had Venus herself been there, I doubt very much if, under 

 the circumstances, Keryfan would have looked a second time at 



