WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 269 



scurried off in the wildest pursuit, and frequently were not seen 

 again for ten, fifteen, or even twenty minutes. Bawling after 

 them, as their masters did, was of no use whatever, and it was 

 only when the five hounds came to a dead check that they gave 

 the slightest heed to the signal that proved most effective for 

 their recall. The first hare that succeeded in running the gauntlet 

 securely got away, with every dog in full cry at her heels, and, as 

 she had apparently been unhit, I made up my mind the pack 

 were gone for just so long as that hare could stand on her legs 

 before them. " You'll never see them again," I said, somewhat 

 cynically, to the carpenter, " till they have either lost or killed 

 that hare." 



"Oh, yes, we shall," he answered, confidently. "The moment 

 they come to a check the hounds will always return on hearing 

 the report of my gun, and when their noses are up the mongrels 

 soon follow." 



In a few minutes afterwards the cry suddenly ceased, and the 

 carpenter, who had all the while been straining his listening 

 powers to the utmost, proceeded to exemplify the virtue of his 

 novel signal by firing off both barrels into the air, the shot 

 having been previously drawn, to save the ammunition. Jem 

 Hill's famous too-too, when he rattled the old Heythrop back to 

 their hunted fox, never did its work more promptly nor more 

 effectively ; for, exactly as the carpenter had represented it, 

 almost immediately the hounds could be seen coming back, 

 followed by the tag-rags soon after, until all had returned to 

 their respective masters. On two or three other occasions, when 

 a hare got away, this process was repeated, and always with the 

 like success. 



The habit of the hare, as we all know, is to run in circles, and 

 to return to the ground from which she was first started ; and 

 doubtless the knowledge of this habit had been frequently turned 

 to account by the carpenter, who, lying in wait for poor puss on 



