80 A MONTH IN THE FORESTS OF FRANCE. 



saddle — old Coco splendidly anxious, free as the wind, 

 with a mouth soft enough for the hand of a child. 

 Here, there, and everywhere, I " cheeked " the cry, 

 and tried to view the boar for a shot, but in vain ! at 

 last he slipped through the line of guns, made his 

 point, and went straight away, leaving all those on 

 foot far and far behind, so that the mounted gentle- 

 men had it all to themselves. 



In passing one of my companions in a ride, he cried 

 out to me, " The boar is wounded ; it is all right ; ** 

 but the boar paid, for the present, no more attention 

 to the bullet and a handful of slugs that were in his 

 stomach than he would have cared for an acorn that 

 had got there by legitimate means. 



And now, as I expected, the pace with such a 

 scent as that left by a stricken wild boar, and in such 

 a scenting woodland, began to tell on the few ill- 

 matched, ill-conditioned hounds ; and several times 

 they crossed me in the rides, one leading hound two 

 hundred yards ahead, and the others following at 

 long intervals, but all in full cry, and each hound 

 doubling his tongue and making noise enough for a 

 w^hole pack. Luckily, the boar ran very straight, 

 so that it was evident to me where the head of the 

 chase existed. At the end of, I think, nearly two 

 hours the horsemen began to get few and far between ; 



