78 WOLF-HUNTING. 



done to their crops by the wild boars in the neighbourhood of 

 Laz and Koenig, and entreat your aid." 



" They shall have it by all means," said St. Prix, heartily ; 

 " but show them in, Marseillier, and let us hear what they have 

 to say on the subject." 



In a few seconds, accordingly, six veritable Breton peasants, 

 all clad alike in dark, long-haired goat-skin jackets, tight canvas 

 trousers close-buttoned down to the ancle, heavy sabots stuffed 

 with hay instead of hose, and round-crowned, broad-brimmed hats, 

 which, with a cluster of long curly locks, fairly overshadowed their 

 shoulders, entered the room ; and, after lifting their hats in saluta- 

 tion, and replacing them at once on their heads, the leader of the 

 party proceeded forthwith to explain the object of their visit. 



" We are come," he said in the Breton tongue, " to tell you of 

 the damage done by the wild boars in our mountain land. Not a 

 farm from Gourin to Chateauneuf that has not suffered from their 

 ravages ; not a crop that has not paid a heavy tax to those 

 plunderers whole fields of potatoes have been upturned by their 

 snouts ; and standing corn, where not eaten, has been trampled, 

 like so much stubble, into the earth. Then, the chesnuts which, 

 at Kilvern, were wont to supply our families and pigs with so 

 much wholesome food, were totally demolished this autumn ; in 

 truth, if something is not done to diminish their number, they will 

 ruin us all before next winter." 



The peasant's earnest appeal, as he stood forward with hand 

 uplifted above his head, as if calling on a higher Power to attest 

 the truth of his statement, amounted almost to eloquence, inso- 

 much that his few simple words went like an arrow to the mark ; 

 and the Count de St. Prix, in spite of his anxiety to protect, so 

 far as he reasonably could, the fercz natures of the Brittany forests, 

 especially the rougher portion of them, at once gave his word that 

 no effort of his should be wanting to redress the evil of which the 

 deputation so justly complained. 



