AMBUSH IN THE FRENCH CHASE. 119 



possible, I consented to my kind friend's proposition. 

 Jules, Maurice, and the sedentary huntsman (who 

 had not yet been discharged) went on foot. We 

 settled to throw off in a part of the woods where all 

 my friends were certain there was nothing but roe- 

 deer: and, in nearing the spot, M. d'Anchald and 

 myself went on to take up positions in a ride. Now, 

 the difference between my practice and the French 

 practice, in taking up a position for a shot at a 

 hunted, or driven, and very wild animal, is this : — 

 In approaching the desired ambush I make no noise, 

 and if I have to speak it is in a whisper, and for this 

 very good sylvan reason. The wild, and, in a hunted 

 country, the cautious animal of chase, may be in a 

 lair, within hearing ; and I am perfectly sure, being 

 the more suspicious because he has not the wind, 

 that when he knows that in one particular direction 

 nothing but his ear or eye can serve him, if his ear 

 catches the human tongue, or any attribute usually 

 accompanying it, such as the stamping of a tethered 

 horse, or any noise of the sort, dow^n goes a resolution 

 on his mental pocket-book, rather to charge the known, 

 the lesser, and the noisy danger behind him, than 

 to let himself be forced into silent peril which he 

 suspects, but cannot be quite sure of. If I were of 



I 4 



