u6 WOLF-HUNTING. 



" How was it possible for them to escape," said St. Prix, ener- 

 getically, " when eighteen couple were crowded together in that 

 narrow cavern, cheek by jowl with that terrible tusker ? It is a 

 mystery to me that so few have been killed ! " 



" Too many, too many ! " said Kergoorlas, with a groan ; 

 " but who could foresee that the brute would run to ground, and 

 there butcher my hounds in this fashion ? " 



Two out of the four died almost immediately after their 

 wounds were washed ; another having several of his ribs 

 protruding through the skin, and his stomach rent, was destroyed 

 on the spot ; while the fourth, sorely maimed, was carried to a 

 distant cottage on a goat-skin jacket, which, with a peasant at 

 each corner, served the purpose of a most convenient ambulance. 

 An old army surgeon was fortunately present, and spared no 

 pains, with brandy, bandages and needle, to alleviate the misery 

 of the other wounded hounds. 



For a short time only, however, did this episode cast a gloom 

 on the general field ; most of whom cared little about the hounds,, 

 but were deeply interested in the destruction of the swine that 

 had ravaged their crops, and terrified the women and children 

 throughout the district. The hounds, as yet, had scarcely done 

 an hour's work ; and fourteen couple, a larger pack than St. Prix 

 ever used for boar, were available and fresh for further operations. 

 About a league from the ground where the carnage described 

 took place, up stream and in some thick scrub hanging under the 

 mountain-brow, several full-grown boar had been harboured by the 

 piqueurs ; and, as that part of the forest had been quite undis- 

 turbed, the hounds were trotted thither without much delay. 



The evil of working too large a pack for boar could not have 

 been more severely exemplified than in the recent massacre, 

 although the circumstances, to be sure, were somewhat excep- 

 tional j the cavern proving a fatal trap in which the mischief was 

 aggravated by numbers ; and the animal hunted being a " soli- 



