WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 93 



suggestion of Keryfan's that we should put up our horses and 

 run with the hounds, as the peasants did, for the rest of the 

 day, was at once agreed to as the only solution for this difficulty : 

 and to it, chilled as I was by my damp clothes and slow riding, 

 I probably owed my escape on that occasion from rheumatic 

 fever or a like ailment. 



It so happened that the cover-owner was present, the Comte 

 de Kerjeguz (I hope he will pardon the phonetic liberty I take 

 with his Celtic name), who, overhearing our conversation, was 

 kind enough to offer his stables for our use, and, moreover, to 

 send our horses so far, not a mile off, under the care of his 

 own servants. Accordingly, this being done, our anxieties 

 vanished for the day ; every man and there were six of us 

 in the same predicament at once joined the hounds on foot : 

 an arrangement, as it afterwards proved, by no means disadvan- 

 tageous to us, as we were thus enabled better to view the sport 

 and take up our position in rocky and precipitous parts of the 

 cover, which, on horseback, would have been utterly inaccessible. 



The pack was a short one, only eight couple out of the 

 twelve having been selected for the dangerous duty anticipated 

 in these covers, the other four Caesar being conspicuous 

 amongst them from his great size and badly scarred face were 

 chiefly wolfers ; and, partly on that account, and partly because 

 SL Prix feared the additional risk that a larger body of hounds 

 would run, these were despatched with the horses to M. de 

 Kerjeguz's stables. The result, however, did not confirm the 

 Louvetier's apprehension. 



At half-past eight o'clock exactly two couple of hounds were 

 thrown into cover, on the edge of a ravine, into which several 

 well-worn paths, hollowed out by use, and bearing the fresh track 

 of pig on their surface, led directly down to the rocky fastnesses 

 in the glen below. Not a word of encouragement did the hounds 

 need ; but, dashing at once into the brushwood, in one second 



