WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 275 



twenty yards off on my left, did not go unpunished for his 

 reckless temerity. The carpenter-commandant rebuked him 

 fiercely, and told him he should be excluded evermore from 

 joining the town chasse. This, too, as I afterwards found, was 

 no idle threat ; for over and over again the ouyrier came to beg 

 my pardon most pathetically (though he would have done it 

 again the next instant if a rabbit had given him the chance), 

 praying that I would intercede with the carpenter and get him 

 restored to his lost rank. But the carpenter was firm, saying he 

 was a dangerous fellow, and would one day shoot one of his 

 hounds if he allowed him to join them again. 



What the total amount of the bag was at the end of the day 

 nobody seemed to know ; and, as every man carried the game he 

 killed in his own carnassiere, and showed a strong repugnance to 

 disclose its contents, the quantity and variety of the game gathered 

 could not be accurately ascertained. It must have been a con- 

 siderable lot, to judge from the carnasst'eres, most of which were 

 filled to repletion, and must have heavily burdened the backs of 

 the bearers. Nevertheless, the sturdy little fellows stood up well 

 under them, and fagged and shot as if unconscious of the weighty 

 load. The number of woodcock killed exceeded probably all the 

 rest of the game, flax and wing, put together; but that number 

 might have been doubled if the Bretons had gone manfully into 

 cover and followed up their dogs per crassum et per rarum, instead 

 of waiting for the birds to come to them on the outside, and 

 only getting an occasional shot in open ground. But, excellent 

 game-shots as many of them are in the open, they do not seem 

 to understand the business of shooting in cover, provided the 

 growth is at all thick, and higher than their own heads. 



The approach of night now brought our chasse to an end ; and 

 as we had been continually drawing farther and farther afield, we 

 could not have been less than three leagues from Carhaix when, 

 for want of daylight, our steps were homeward turned : the dogs, 



