WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 245 



" Then we must kill them both, Louis," said the Louvetier, 

 " or that crippled wolf, unable as she now is to chase and catch 

 her wild prey, will turn her attention to domestic stock, and, with 

 the aid of her mate, will do more damage in a month than 

 half-a-dozen other wolves in a whole year." 



" That's quite certain," said Shafto ; " just as a mangy old 

 -tiger betakes himself to villages and 'cantonments,' and be- 

 comes a man-eater, simply because from age and infirmity he 

 is no longer a match for the stately sambar or the swift Indian 

 antelope." 



This information of the piqueur's rendered a change of tactics 

 at once necessary ; and instead of trotting them off to the forest 

 of Dualt, three couple of the steadiest old hounds were laid 

 directly on the hot drag within a hundred yards of the kennel 

 door. Over the first fence they broke abreast, every hound 

 throwing his tongue and dashing into the adjoining genet, with 

 bristles up and in full cry. "Let them all go," shouted Shafto. 

 " With such a scent they're not likely to change ; and the 

 stronger the pack the better head will they carry between this 

 and Dualt." 



St. Prix either did not or would not hear him, for he instantly 

 gave Louis Trefarreg orders to make the best of his way to that 

 forest with the body of the pack, and to hold them in couples till 

 the signal was given for slipping the first relay. This, as it soon 

 appeared, was sound advice, as, while the drag-hounds were 

 carrying the scent at a rattling pace through a thick gorsy cover, 

 overhanging the brook on the south side of Callac, a fox and a 

 brace of roe-deer broke away in the very face of the hounds, 

 the scent of the latter being a temptation which none but the 

 staunchest old tufters are ever able to resist. But, strangely 

 enough, in addition to this chance of riot on view, the roe-deer 

 took exactly the same line with the wolves, broke the fences 

 exactly at the same spot, and finally entered Dualt within fifty 



