286 WOLF-HUNTING. 



in listening to the weird cry of the brutes, a chill of awe 

 penetrated to her very marrow, and she could no more have slept 

 during that hideous concert, broken as it was at intervals by the 

 savage uproar of the hounds, than if the walls of the Hermitage 

 had been assaulted by a band of brigands. At length the sharp 

 report of a gun, that rang through the building, brought the serenade 

 abruptly to a close, and effectually scared the brutes, at least for 

 that night, away from the premises. 



It was Annette who had fired the gun, her husband having 

 point-blank refused to rise from his bed, declaring, as she roused 

 him to do so, that the howling of the wolves was music to his 

 soul, and that he was right glad to find there were still a few left 

 for their sport another season. The window of their sleeping 

 apartment, however, formed in the outer wall, and looking out 

 on the forest, happened to be in close proximity to the larder, in 

 which the newly-slaughtered meat was hung, and this attraction 

 for the wolves' noses caused them to make frantic efforts to 

 clamber in at that recess ; and it was not until Annette had 

 twice seen the pricked ears of a wolf, as he clung by his claws 

 to the sill of the window, that she could summon courage to 

 seize her husband's gun, and fire it in the face of the assaulting 

 foe. 



The next morning, on examining the ground, not a trace of 

 the wolves, beyond the indentation of their claws on the mossy 

 wall, could be anywhere seen, so steadily had the snow fallen 

 even till break of day. The layer could scarcely have been less 

 than two feet deep ; and, as there had been no wind to cause 

 it to drift and accumulate in particular spots, an uniform depth 

 of' snow had enamelled the whole country, and transformed its 

 withered, haggish old face into one of exceeding fairness and 

 dazzling beauty. 



" Have you any idea how many they were ? " said Shafto, 

 interrogating Owen Mawr as to the night attack. 



