76 WOLF-HUNTING. 



themselves together and searched diligently for many days, and 

 even weeks, in the forest of Huelgoet and the broom fields around. 

 Fires, too, were lighted in lone spots and kept burning throughout 

 the night, with the hope of attracting the little wanderer's atten- 

 tion and rescuing her, if alive, from the starvation to which she 

 must otherwise succumb. But all efforts proved unsuccessful, till, 

 at length, hope became extinguished in the hearts of all, save 

 those of the parents. Some peasants, indeed, in their superstition, 

 came to the conclusion that the footprints in the mud were those 

 of the Loup-garou, and that the demon-wolf had carried off the 

 child ; others thought that, had no such fate overtaken her, the 

 sight of the wolf had probably scared her from the spot, that she 

 had then wandered into the forest, and died there from hunger 

 and exposure. This opinion, after awhile, seemed to be generally 

 accepted, and further search for the poor child was abandoned by 

 the public as hopeless and unavailing. 



The parents, however, parent-like, still clung to the belief that 

 their little Marie was not lost to them for ever ; and for many a 

 weary day they threaded the deepest nooks of Huelgoet, returning 

 only at late eve, when the howling of the wolves was the sole 

 sound that fell on their anxious ears, and the pale stars the sole 

 light to guide them on their lonesome path. Nightly, too, they 

 burned a resin-candle in the one small window of their cabin, 

 trusting it might prove a beacon to guide the little wanderer 

 home. 



Six weeks or more had elapsed, and hope, with all, was at its 

 lowest ebb, when a charcoal-burner, following his lonely avocation 

 in the heart of the forest, was startled by the apparition of a child 

 timidly approaching his hut ; this, of course, was little Marie ; but 

 exposure and want of food had almost converted her into a living 

 skeleton : her face begrimed with dirt and blackberry juice, her 

 hair matted with particles of moss and other lichens, making her 

 head look more like a bird's nest than that of a human being ; 



