202 WOLF-HUNTING. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



ft 



NOTES ever welcome to the Breton's ear are those proclaiming 

 the " mort " over the captured game ; and when that game 

 happens to be the wolf or the tusky boar, his paeans of exultation 

 burst out into the wildest strains of gratitude and joy. The 

 "who-whoop" of our countrymen, vigorous even as that of 

 Osbaldeston when " it might have been heard at Cottesmore," 

 is a mild finale compared with the demonstration enacted in a 

 Brittany forest, when the sylvan war is brought to a close by a 

 successful and decisive victory. Nor is the flourish of horns, 

 commingled with the din of hounds and men, without its service- 

 able use, a mere vox et prater ea nihil an ebullition of joy, and 

 nothing more, in that forest-land but, on the contrary, by con- 

 veying the news of victory far and wide, the scattered forces of 

 the field, thrown out by the ever-recurring vicissitudes of the 

 chase, are gathered together from all quarters to share and enjoy 

 the triumph over the fallen foe. 



So when Keryfan and I came up to him, although Kergoorlas 

 was then alone, standing over the boar in an attitude that, but 

 for its animation, might have been taken for an antique statue, 

 and blowing his voluminous horn till his cheeks were well-nigh 

 cracked, in less than ten minutes a score of peasants had assem- 

 bled at the spot, all uniting to swell the hubbub, and looking 

 forward to a division of the spoil with eager eyes. However 



