i8o WOLF-HUNTING. 



catching him one day in a fever heat, after a grand banquet 

 served up for the baillie and judges of the Royal Court, I 

 proposed treating him to a bottle of this choice wine. His 

 delicate palate (it is not every cook that has a palate) watered 

 at the prospect, and before he had finished three parts of the 

 bottle his heart was fairly uncorked, and he would have decanted 

 the innermost secrets of his soul had I cared to know them. 

 'Now, Pierre/ said I, 'what is it that makes your oyster-soup 

 the delight of the epicure and the envy of all cooks ? ' 



" ' Nothing more nor less than conger-eel/ he replied, ' from 

 which the stock is always made, and which gives it the rich, 

 delicate flavour so highly esteemed by all good judges.' 



" ' Conger delicate ! ' I exclaimed, with amazement ; ' why, 

 we bait our crab-pots with that fish, and only cook it when we 

 can get no other fish.' 



" ' That may be,' he replied. ' Nevertheless, the fine flavour 

 of a Jersey conger, when used for stock in oyster-soup, is unques- 

 tionable, and I strongly commend it to your future notice.' 



M. Coste having told us this secret, Keryfan remarked that, 

 while on a visit to me in South Devon, he had often eaten excel- 

 lent conger-cutlets, which the farmers on the wild coast of the 

 Start Point and Prawle Head kept salted, in lieu of bacon, for 

 winter food. " And, Frank," said he, " you will bear me witness 

 that, after a hard day's shooting with our dear old friend, ' Dick 

 Randall,' over that rugged land, a conger-cutlet, fried in fresh 

 butter, was no mean dish after all." 



With the nuts and dessert after supper, the song went merrily 

 round, after the usual Breton fashion ; but M. de la Villemarque, 

 the man of all others who was brimful of the old ballads of the 

 country, could not be prevailed on to sing one of them. Either 

 he had no voice, or he considered it undignified to sing the songs 

 which he, with infinite pains, has collected together and published 

 with so much success. However, his recitation of " Kan Maen- 



