WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 91 



bitterly cold and stormy, and, blowing in fitful gusts, brought 

 down heavy showers of rain and snow alternately. Still, was 

 not Laz the meet ? and were there not twelve couple of strong, 

 roaring hounds, eager to rouse the grisly boar from his lair and 

 pursue him to the death, even now trotting across the little Place 

 in front of my window? The very sight of them, as the grey 

 light of morn enabled me to catch just a glimpse of their mottled 

 sides, acted on my spirits like an electric spark. I shouted to 

 " Marie," the stereotyped name of the Breton women, to bring 

 me my stockings, which, with my other nvida vestimenta, had 

 been suspended the night before within the chimney nook. 

 Alas ! my Highland hose had fallen into the live wood embers, 

 and the mere tops of them, brought in by a young chasseur 

 with a broad grin on his face, alone remained to attest the 

 fact ; the rest had been turned into tinder. This was vexatious 

 enough ; but the unsuppressed laugh of the youth chafed me to 

 the quick ; and, had he not been a bidden guest of St. Prix's, I 

 should have certainly hurled him out of the room without farther 

 ceremony. However, I smothered my wrath as I best could ; 

 aud, requesting him to throw the rags on the floor, proceeded to 

 pull on the pair of thin cotton stockings lent me by Keryfan the 

 night before, my own baggage not being expected by the diligence 

 before mid-day. But this was only the prelude to far greater 

 annoyance and discomfort : my hunting-boots, at least the feet of 

 them, were still sopped with wet ; and although I emptied a lot 

 of burning wood-cinders and tossed them rapidly to and fro inside 

 the boots (just as a man shakes shot in a bottle he is attempting 

 to clean), and then wiped them out with a pocket handkerchief, 

 my feet in five minutes were wet and cold as a lump of snow. 



Few men, however hardy their nature or inured to discomfort, 

 care to put on dirty boots, to say nothing of wet ones, on a 

 hunting morning ; but on such a morning as this, ye gods, defend 

 me from a similar fate for the rest of my life ! Nothing but young 



