96 WOLF-HUNTING. 



rear, and covering, as best she could, the retreating herd. Their 

 heads, too, as they galloped over the rocky ground on the oppo- 

 site side of the gully, were pointing directly for the spot on which 

 I stood ; and, unless untowardly headed, another minute or two 

 would bring them within easy range of my smooth-bore ; and, as 

 both barrels were charged with the balk-mari'ee, I confidently anti- 

 cipated turning two of them into bacon without the shadow of a 

 miss or difficulty. 



St. Prix, who never carried with his hounds any weapon but 

 his couteau-de-chasse, had on this expedition, for the sake of the 

 suffering peasant-farmers, requested his friends to bring their guns, 

 and to shoot down every pig, young or old, that gave them the 

 chance of doing so. To myself, as being a novice at the sport, he 

 was kind enough to give a few cautionary hints, one of which, I 

 have no hesitation in saying, was the means of saving me from a 

 dangerous encounter: "Be sure," said he, "when you are 

 choosing your position for a shot at a pig, not to choose it 

 too near a run or foot-path, but some yards wide of it ; and 

 secondly, in case you should wound and not kill your game, it 

 is always well to station yourself under the horizontal bough of a 

 large tree, so low that, in emergency, you may spring up, seize it 

 with both hands, and so lift yourself a few feet above the ground. 

 This move will securely place you beyond reach of the boar's 

 tusks, and the animal, thus foiled, will pass instantly on." 



The first part of this good advice I had grossly neglected, 

 not having observed that the portion of rocky ground on which 

 I stood was completely denuded of moss, and was, in fact, the 

 well-worn run and highway of the pigs ; so, instead of getting 

 a broadside shot as they passed, I had to take them " stem on," 

 or "fore and aft," as I best could a manifest disadvantage that 

 exposed me to imminent danger, and, but for the impending 

 bough, would probably have brought me to grief. As four of 

 them advanced rapidly in single file, the old sow being about 



