2 1 4 WOLF-HUNTING. 



have been impracticable, as the boar even now was breaking 

 directly in the Louvetier's face. 



I held my breath as I saw the danger to which he was 

 exposed, with no power on my part or Keryfan's to lend him a 

 scrap of aid. He and I had voted our guns a bore on this 

 occasion, and had sent them with our baggage to Carhaix ; but, 

 as that huge fierce boar, with the hounds hard after him, his ear 

 dropped, and his face painted with blood and foam, lowered his 

 head and prepared to charge Barbe-bleu and his rider, I would 

 have given all I possessed, or ever hoped to possess, for my old 

 smooth-bore at that moment. But, mirdbile dictu, it so happened 

 that neither the horse nor man required such help ; for, just as 

 the boar dropped his nose, to give him greater power in the use 

 of his tusks, and when within three feet of the horse's legs, Barbe- 

 bleu made a sudden spring into the air, and, clearing the pig, 

 alighted safely on the path beyond, without touching a bristle of 

 the brute's back. Never could there have been a more timely 

 jump, nor one displaying a clearer instinct of impending danger, 

 and the need of instant action. 



The boar passed on ; while St. Prix, unslinging his horn, rung 

 out " La Vue," as coolly and cheerily as if he had viewed a fox 

 away, and thought nothing of the danger he had so narrowly 

 escaped. But he talked of it afterwards ; and, while he extolled 

 the adroitness of Barbe-bleu, he never failed to characterise 

 himself as a born idiot for getting into that narrow, cramped 

 path, and exposing himself and horse to such a risk. 



However, "all's well that ends well," especially if the result 

 be a profitable experience. Jot more than eight couple of 

 hounds got away with the boar ; but they were ample for the 

 work, and in less than half-an-hour brought him to bay in the 

 rocky river, not far from the spot where we had killed our 

 second pig. He was dead beat ; and a peasant, coming up 



