WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 283 



he would have gone to the stake rather than treated the man to 

 whom he had given the right hand of fellowship with such 

 disloyalty. 



Amid a chorus of music, too, from hounds, setters, and 

 spaniels, every one of which had come out from his barrique far 

 as the chain would permit, we were welcomed to the Hermitage ; 

 while Owen Mawr and his busy little wife proceeded at once to 

 relieve the ponies of their baggage, and to express in the strongest 

 terms their delight at the return of their master and the cessation 

 of the solitude to which of late they had been so frequently 

 condemned. It did one's heart good to witness the honest,, 

 homely fashion in which these uncontaminated rustics sought to. 

 serve us in every possible way ; nor, from their downright refusal 

 to accept a single franc on our departure, could the imputation 

 of mercenary motives be attributed to their service, but, on the 

 contrary, it was all given, beyond a shadow of doubt, as a 

 veritable labour of love and a homage due to their master's 

 guests. " Heu pietas ! hen prisca fides ! " may we well say in 

 this independent age of education and communism. 



Flakes of snow had been falling intermittently during the day, 

 and before we had fairly settled into our nooks at the Hermitage, 

 the leaden aspect of the world around gave token of more to 

 come. The rocky slopes of the hill-side had already changed 

 their hue, and the dark forests below, unruffled by the wind, were 

 gradually growing whiter and whiter under the soft feathery flakes 

 now gathering densely upon them. 



" I don't like the look of the weather at all," said Shafto, as 

 he led Keryfan and myself across the courtyard to a kind of 

 outhouse which he called his larder, " for should it continue 

 snowing thus steadily for the next twenty-four hours, it will go 

 hard with us if Owen Mawr has not made ample provision for 

 the impending siege." 



So saying, he flung open the door of the outhouse, which, 



