142 WOLF-HUNTING. 



attached by a leash to his wrist, was advancing towards his 

 master, when Shafto, anticipating his report, shouted out, " Bravo, 

 Louis ; always the first to bring good news : you've tracked them 

 home, I see, by your face. How many are they, and on which 

 side of the valley?" 



"Pe'var moc'h vras, ha daou vihan" (four big pigs and two 

 small ones) said the piqueur, in his own vernacular language ; for, 

 although he understood the import of the questions put to him in 

 French, he never trusted himself to speak a word in that tongue : 

 and at the same time pointing with his club-stick, which, like the 

 Bretons of that district, he perversely carried knob downwards, he 

 indicated the rocky hollow in which he had harboured the game. 

 " A couple of hounds," he continued, " will be ample for rousing 

 them ; and when they divide we can clap on more." 



" Quite enough at first," said St. Prix ; " or, with six pigs afoot 

 at the same time, we should soon be in trouble. Uncouple 

 Veteran and Harmonic, give them the wind, and, when you hear 

 my horn, let go three couple more." 



" Mine, or your own ? " inquired Shafto, deferring with 

 scrupulous etiquette to the Louvetier's word of command ; but, 

 in truth, a little eager to see his own lot uncoupled and busy at 

 work. 



"Yours, by all means," responded St. Prix, divining his 

 friend's ardour, and willing to indulge it ; " but let them be 

 your steadiest hounds, Shafto, or, by St. Hubert, you'll never 

 see some of them again." 



While this conversation was going on, Louis Trefarreg had 

 uncoupled the tufters, and trotting them rapidly across the moor- 

 land waste, lying to leeward of the gorge into which he had 

 tracked the boar, the two hounds gave quick notice of hitting 

 upon the drag, and with sonorous tongue carried it merrily 

 forward into the very heart of the cover. Exactly in front of 

 us, on the opposite side of the glen, lay the rocky recess, directly 



