THE FIKST WILD BOAK. 79 



for a shot, I turned Coco obliquely away, so as to open 

 my left side for use, and sat prepared. 



A fox dashed across, and 1 fired. Coco not even 

 shaking his head nor moving ; and, assuring Jules 

 d'Anchald, who came up, that I thought the fox was 

 dead in the cover — for, like a rabbit, 1 had to shoot 

 wliere he would be, and not at him where he w^as — I 

 dismounted to reload, and subsequently heard I had 

 killed him. 



" It is not my fox they are after," I soon said to 

 myself, as I rammed a pellet over the powder ; " the 

 hounds have turned the other way." 



All at once — by Jove, what a stir it made among 

 us ! — a huge horn began playing a lively air, which 

 to me did not convey much, but which, in regard to 

 M. d'Anchald, put " life and mettle in his heels." Up 

 he came at a gallop. 



'^ Load with ball ! " he shouted. " Hear the horn ; 

 it is a boar." 



And now I found the want of a gun that loaded at 

 the breech, like those of my French companions. One 

 cartridge had to be drawn, and that, as we all know, 

 takes some time ; still the boar was headed in all 

 directions, and shot at two or three times ; and, before 

 he quitted the quarter of the wood where we found 

 him, I had loaded with ball, and was again in the 



