88 WOLF-HUNTING. 



This, of course, would be a desert land for many a day to come ; 

 but, as the ouvriers* raid was necessarily confined to a certain foot- 

 distance from the town, it was my usual custom to ride to a point 

 outside and beyond the circle of their operations, and thifs beat 

 virgin ground, un-get-atable by these marauders. 



In less than half-an-hour after the last dog and chasseur had 

 quitted the town, the deathlike stillness that reigned over Carhaix 

 for the rest of the day was something awful. Not even the usual 

 gathering of women at the well, nor the gossip that accompanied 

 it, was seen or heard for one moment around that attractive spot ; 

 and, but for the occasional flitting of a grisette, in gay holiday 

 attire, from one house to another, the absence of all living creatures 

 from the streets was absolutely appalling. On the present occa- 

 sion, however, the monotony of the day was somewhat enlivened 

 towards the afternoon by the departure of M. de St. Prix's hounds, 

 horses, and men, for Gourin, which, although but a small village, 

 and possessing but scanty accommodation, was selected as the 

 most convenient quarters for the forthcoming campaign. 



Lower Brittany, especially that portion of it in the region of 

 the Black Mountains, is the land of storms ; indeed, had the 

 ancients fixed upon this country as the kingdom of ^olus, instead 

 of those seven pleasant little islands in the Mediterranean Sea, it 

 would, methinks, have been a happier fiction, and far nearer 

 the truth. Some hours after the party had left for Gourin, 

 I mounted a well-bred cob, that I had lately bought out of the 

 Morlaix mail-cart, at a hundred and twenty francs just four 

 shillings and twopence less than a five-pound note and a gamer 

 animal no man ever crossed. I was scarcely off the flag-stones, 

 when a thunder-cloud burst overhead, and poured such a deluge 

 of rain down that, notwithstanding a double-milled great-coat, 

 warranted waterproof, in which I was enveloped, I was soaked 

 to the skin in less than half-an-hour. The wind, too, blew a 

 hurricane ; and the lightning, which seemed to play upon the 



