120 WOLF-HUNTING. 



were lifted so far, they should lose so much sweet hunting, and 

 probably not hit upon the line again. 



" It appears to me," he said pointedly to St. Prix, " that the 

 month you spent with Mr. Brockman's hounds in East Kent has 

 warped without improving your former good judgment on 

 Brittany hunting. You could not have gone, so Keryfan says, to 

 a better school for a lesson in fox-hunting ; but a fox and a 

 boar are two different animals." 



" So they are, Kergoorlas ; but why you should prefer 

 trailing with a cold scent over a long league of rough country, 

 when you could clap your hounds quietly and quickly on the 

 very back of the boar in half the distance, beats my compre- 

 hension." 



The remonstrance was in vain ; and in a few minutes the 

 hounds, cheered to the scent, were picking it along merrily, 

 but certainly not with that crash of music which was the delight 

 of Kergoorlas's heart. Gradually, however, it improved; and 

 in half-an-hour, as the hounds entered the scrub-cover, the 

 " field " being a mile behind, and scattered in every direction, a 

 roar of thunder burst on our ears, and told of hot work in the 

 cover above. .Then came the blast of many horns, announcing 

 " the boar afoot " with a din that, like Virgil's Fame, seemed to 

 gather strength as it went rolling along the valleys below ; 



until 



" Tot linguae, totidem ora sonant, tot subrigit aures." 



The peasants, rejoicing in the well-known signal, hastily 

 planted themselves, in small groups of twos or threes, at various 

 points by which the chase was likely to pass. Some occupied 

 the summit of a granite boulder far above the reach of the 

 tusky foe; while others, preferring the ambush afforded by 

 the trunk of a tree, took equal care to post themselves under 

 an impending bough, into which, in case of attack, they could 

 instantly spring out of harm's way. Keryfan, who was standing 



