WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 95 



riotous ; the two couple of hounds are doubling their tongues 

 with great animation, and quickly getting farther and farther away 

 from us into the depths of the cover. Luckily, however, they 

 are working up-wind, and the faithful echoes, borne back on the 

 favouring breeze, report progress with the speed and fidelity of 

 an electric wire. St. Prix, seated on Barbe-Bleu, is silent and 

 motionless as the statue of Marcus Aurelius in the court of the 

 Capitol ; every peasant has left him and followed the chase, and 

 the hounds too, still in couples at his heels, but for the whip of a 

 piqueur, would have also joined the cry long since. St. Prix 

 beckons to me and almost whispers (for his ear is still fixed on 

 the drag) that the boar, in order to be sure that the coast is 

 clear, invariably retires up-wind to his lair, and almost as in- 

 variably traverses back over the foiled ground when he is pressed 

 in the chase; so, pointing to a rocky knoll about forty yards 

 below us in the cover, he recommends me to station myself at 

 that point and await the result. 



A sudden change in the cry is now noticeable ; 'the hounds' 

 tongues, hitherto growing every moment more and more indis- 

 tinct, are now turned towards us, and every note is heard short, 

 sharp, and earnest, as if the strife had begun and the hounds 

 were actually on the haunches of the game. Louis Trefarreg, 

 the chief piqueur, stood by, keeping his eye fixed on St. Prix, 

 and expecting his order to uncouple some more hounds; but 

 the Louvetier, hearing the cry draw nearer and nearer, and 

 suspecting there were more pigs than one afoot, gave no sign 

 as yet ; the horn only was held in readiness, and one blast from 

 it would send " the relay " headlong from their leashes. 



One, two, three ringing reports from the peasants' guns in the 

 ravine below made my pulse throb audibly \ a state of excitement 

 that was not a little increased by my catching an occasional view 

 of at least four or five large pigs close in front of the hounds ; the 

 biggest of them, which proved to be an old sow, bringing up the 



