WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 299 



knife and fork with renewed vigour, and never dropped them 

 again till he had finished the last cutlet. Dear old Keryfan 

 but old only in the language of love he was certainly difficult 

 to move when his head was in the manger, and engaged in the 

 important business of taking in his complement of stock when 

 a day's work was before him, but still more difficult to stir if he 

 was sacrificing to the Graces, by paying tribute (which he held 

 to be the first duty of man) to his sacred person. Yet, once 

 afield and in pursuit of game, who could beat him, no matter how 

 rough the work nor how long the day ? His dawdling, luxurious, 

 and even lazy habits at home presented, in truth, a strange 

 contrast to those he exhibited in the forest or on the mountain 

 side, where, keen as a sparrow-hawk after his prey, his energy 

 and perseverance seemed never to flag, his passion for the chase 

 never to grow cold. 



We then started for the stream; and, although we stepped 

 along briskly, it took an hour and a half ere we hit the nearest 

 bend of it our course over the pathless wilds being impeded by 

 rock and heather, copse and broom, throughout the whole dis- 

 tance ; and yet that distance, to judge by the eye, could not have 

 been more than a league and a half at most. We then divided 

 forces, Shafto taking downstream with Owen Mawr, who carried a 

 carnassiere over his shoulder big enough to bag a wolf, while 

 Keryfan and I turned upwards, with my Breton servant, Noel 

 Postollec, in attendance on us. 



Duck and teal were more plentiful than I ever saw them on 

 fresh-water before ; and the only precaution necessary for getting 

 at them was to keep clear of the banks on the straight reaches, 

 and come in suddenly upon the pools in the bends of the river, 

 where they were too busy in nozzling for their food to hear the 

 sound of our approaching footsteps. The first pool we drew pro- 

 duced a couple of duck which rose under the muzzle of Keryfan' s 

 gun up went the piece deliberately to his shoulder, and giving 



