\yOLVES AND WILD BOARS. 33 



tlieir ravages. One killed a cow a few liundred yards 

 hence last year, and another came into my rrarden 

 on a nightly prowl. Within the last month, at Guing- 

 camp, a wolf entered the town, and actually wounded 

 sixty-two persons, and threw the place into as much 

 consternation as a horde of Cossacks would have done. 

 The people seemed paralysed with fear, and could do 

 nothing until he was gone. Sheep are very frequently 

 destroyed by them. In each district is a louvetier, who 

 has a certain allowance for keeping a pack of wolf-hounds, 

 with which he is expected to go wherever his presence is 

 wanted ; and a sum of twenty-five francs is paid for every 

 wolf's head produced at the mairie. In England they would 

 be speedily extirpated ; but here, from want of energy, 

 they linger on, damaging the farmer and alarming every 

 body. The wolf-hunt is an apt type of many a Frenchman, 

 " all sound and fury, signifying nothing." I was once 

 invited to one by the louvetier, and accompanied by a 

 friend I went. We got to the rendezvous at 8 a.m., and 

 found a motley host assembled. All arms were in re- 

 quisition, from the blunderbuss to the flail ; and when we 

 sallied out, in number exceeding a hundred, Falstaff would 

 have been ashamed of our company, and would have 

 flatly refused to march through Coventry with us. Before 

 starting we were regaled with the tantararara's of half-a- 

 dozen French hunting horns of the antique form, which, 

 with the shrieks of the crowd, made enough noise to scare 

 the dead ; then came the parting cup, and the word being 

 given, the mob was let loose against the enemy, who dwelt, 

 it was believed, in a forest about a mile ofi". Thither we 



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