98 WOLF-HUNTING. 



the old brute charged so unexpectedly and so furiously that 

 there was little time for reflection; I could not, however, see 

 the hound when I touched my trigger." 



Old Balafre at that moment was giving the most demonstrative 

 proof of his being not only uninjured, but in the highest condition 

 of warlike vigour : with the grip of a vice, only relaxed to catch a 

 fresh hold, his jaws were fastened on the throat of the quivering 

 pig ; and, even when the peasants, who were employed to carry 

 off the carcase, attempted to remove it, the hound still clung to 

 his hold with the savagery of a bulldog. 



Both pigs were now borne in triumph to an open space in the 

 cover below ; whence they could easily be removed on the back 

 of a Brittany pony to those peasants' farms which had suffered 

 most from their depredations. Then sounded the death-note 

 from St. Prix's horn, loud and long, which not only awakened 

 a wild response from the thousand echoes of the glen, but roused 

 at least a dozen other horns into action from different parts of the 

 cover. Nor was the sound an uncertain one to the peasants, who, 

 to the number of one hundred or more, now gathered together 

 round the dead prey, and loudly applauded the success of the 

 chase. Considering the value of the meat to such a population, 

 living chiefly on farinaceous and vegetable diet and of that 

 possessing but a scanty store it might have been expected 

 that much jealousy would have been shown in its distribution, 

 and -that those who had suffered most from the porcine plun- 

 derers would expect the lion's share of the booty; but, if felt, 

 there was certainly no such feeling expressed by a single peasant : 

 no shuffling for the bag ; but, on the contrary, the sport alone 

 seemed to satisfy all. 



The usual council of war the most tedious of all meetings 

 as practised by our Gallic neighbours at a cover-side now 

 ensued; and after a long discussion, in which. every one present 

 had something to say, it was determined to clap the hounds on 



