MY FIRST START IN BRITANNY. 9 



dezvous to a minute ; but no one was there. " Oh ! " tliought 

 I, " he will come presently; it is well to be first." Piiced 

 up and down for five minutes — twenty minutes — liult'-an- 

 hour. Dogs grow cold, I too : half-an-hour more passes, 

 and I grow warm. In exactly an hour and twenty minutes 

 arrives the Frenchman in fine order. " Ah ! Bon jour, 

 Mons. John ; c'est bien, vous etes la tout pret." '^ Yes,'' 

 said I, ''and have been for more than an hour; you said five 

 o'clock." " Oui, ma foi, mais nous sommes tres-bien encore ; 

 allons : " — and I learnt in future to give them an hour's 

 law, and make them wait for me. But this is a nuisance ; 

 I like being punctual or nowhere. 



We had some three miles to walk before reaching the 

 spot, and I commenced at a moderate pad of three miles 

 and a half an hour. " Ah ! mon brave, mais marchez 

 vite." "All in good time," said I; *Sve have plenty be- 

 fore us." At length we turned out, and in the first 

 stubble the dogs drew and pointed. My friend was in 

 ecstasies. " Toho ! voila ! " I walked up to the nearest dog, 

 who seemed close to his game ; but where was Monsieur ? 

 He was beckoning to me, and edging away sideways in a 

 mysterious manner. What the deuce is he at — is he ill, 

 or going to conjure, or what ? But on he goes laterally, 

 like a crab, with his gun cocked and' pointed to an ima- 

 ginary centre, round which he was slowly revolving. I 

 pushed on to my dog. Whirr ! whirr ! and up rose a fine 

 covey under my nose, and with a double shot I dropped 

 one; but such a yell arose : " Sacr-r-r-r- nom de diable — 

 nom de cochon," &c. &c. ; and up came my friend, boiling 

 again. " Bon ! " said I. " Bon ! — mais non ! c'est fort 



