WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 77 



half clad, too, and wild in manner as any fawn of the forest, no 

 wonder the simple peasant stared again and again before he could 

 be assured it was a real child that crept into the darkest corner 

 of his hut, too timid to speak, and yet pinched by hunger even 

 to death's door. 



A moment's thought, however, convinced him that this must 

 be the lost child, respecting whom the gendarmes and others 

 had already paid him sundry visits and, being of a kindly nature, 

 the man, when he had fed her bountifully with his black buck- 

 wheat bread and washed her face, lifted her on his broad shoul- 

 ders and carried her directly home to the cabin of her parents. 

 Marie's eventful history was soon told: she had left the broom 

 field in search of blackberries, and on returning to her charge 

 was just in time to see a huge wolf jump the bank with the little 

 sheep struggling in its jaws ; the beast at once entered the forest, 

 and Marie, crying and screaming, and hoping to scare it from its 

 prey, followed on until she soon became lost in its mazes, and 

 found it utterly impossible to retrace her steps or distinguish even 

 the direction of her parents' home. Her sole food had been 

 beech-nuts, blackberries, and a few chesnuts ; and, although sleep- 

 ing nightly in the very presence of wolves, she had never been 

 disturbed for a moment by a sight of the ravenous brutes. 



The next morning after the sport at Trefranc we were all 

 seated round the table of the salle-a-manger, discussing at the 

 same time the various incidents of the chase and the bountiful 

 dejeuner provided by the host, when Marseillier's jolly face, always 

 bearing a happy smile, but now unusually lighted up with some 

 pleasant intelligence, suddenly appeared in the room ; and, as he 

 lifted his paper cap and twisted his white apron on one side (for 

 the cutlets and omelettes were still under his delicate manipula- 

 tion), he marched up to St. Prix's chair and announced the arrival 

 of a deputation from Treganteru. 



" They have come," he said, " to complain of the damage 



