42 A MONTH IN THE FORESTS OF FRANCE. 



the wolf was detected up to the cottage-door ; he was 

 blind, and at night, on returning to the spot whence 

 he had been forced from his repast on the little girl, 

 he had discovered and hunted up the traces of her 

 blood, and in his blind pursuit came rushing down the 

 road, till his course was thwarted bj the cottage-door. 

 So great had become the terror occasioned by this old 

 wolf, and I regret to say so inefficient were the legiti- 

 mate means of hunting him, that an extra reward was 

 offered for his head ; when at last, the moon being 

 bright and high, a dead horse was placed in the forest 

 to attract him, and a man in a tree above it with a 

 gun. The first night nothing was seen of the old 

 wolf; but on the second the temptation to the blind and 

 famished animal was too strong. He came to the bait, 

 and while tearing at the flesh with the jaw of " starva- 

 tion," a bullet avenged his murderous deeds, and thus 

 ingloriously he fell dead. How I looked at this vene- 

 rable and venerated skin, and hoped that the owner of 

 it, now no more, had left an infinity of sons and daugh- 

 ters, every one of whom had also innumerable pledges 

 of loLipish felicity ; and with a hearty good wish for the 

 prosperity and fecundity of the larger game, I bade my 

 hospitable friends good night, or rather good morning, 

 and retired to my chamber, in which I found all that 

 could refresh a traveller, or add to his comfort and 

 contentment. 



