146 WOLF-HUNTING. 



before ! not a hound omitted, nor a friend forgotten throughout 

 the story. 



Again and again rang forth the signal to uncouple more 

 hounds ; till the Louvetier, determined to give the pigs a 

 " burster," and, if possible, to run them fairly down, had sum- 

 moned the twelve couple to his aid, and brought his whole 

 force to bear on the flying game. His tactics, however, turned 

 out to be somewhat premature ; the two pigs had separated ; 

 and while the pack, hard at work with one, had at length brought 

 it to bay under a rock impending over the river, the other was 

 viewed leisurely trotting back to the high genet adjoining the moor 

 where it had first entered the cover. Here, far away from the 

 roar that accompanied its less fortunate mate, it was doubtless 

 quietly resting, catching its wind and nursing its strength for 

 further emergencies. 



The notes of the Louvetier's horn now changed j and the wel- 

 come signal, " La sortie de 1'eau " brought Keryfan and myself 

 with rapid strides to the river's edge, where a grand picture of 

 sylvan life was presented to our view. There, in the deep solitude 

 of that mountain glen, on a bend of the stream, barred in its 

 course by a rugged, perpendicular rock, thus forming a pond above 

 and a cataract below, stood St. Prix up to his knees in water, his 

 horn in one hand and his coutean in the other, not daring to 

 advance into the gurgling eddies, and yet wild with excitement at 

 the danger to which his hounds were exposed. And there, too, 

 confronting him and the hounds, piqueurs and peasants, all of 

 whom had understood the last signal of the horn, stood the grisly 

 boar, up to his belly in soil, his eyes glaring with rage, his back 

 arched, till every bristle stood erect on it like a porcupine's quill, 

 and his stern bearing firmly against the rock, as if it was his last 

 stay and refuge. 



At sight of the brute in this position, to compare small things 



