124 A MONTH IN THE FORESTS OF FRANCE. 



the shooter to us as to what had happened, or what 

 was going on ; so I made for the place, unluckily in 

 search of information, and found that M. d'Anchald 

 had fired at, but had not killed, the martin-cat of 

 which the hounds were in chase. The martin-cat 

 headed back, and M. d'Anchald ought to have shouted 

 to us in French or English " to look back," when we 

 should have kept our posts, instead of running up to 

 him, and perhaps have obtained a victory. Jules 

 d'Anchald might have killed the animal, when once 

 or twice it got into a tree ; but, thinking the martin- 

 cat w^ould remain, he lost his shot by good-naturedly 

 calling for me. After running a martin-cat for two 

 hours — will you believe it, ye English huntsmen ? — 

 he fairly beat us by running ; and the poor hounds, 

 quite run out and tired, gave in. The thing we 

 ought to have done was to have taken them home 

 iheuy on anything, in their condition, but an easy day. 

 Two hours in the terribly severe cover, with an animal 

 whose scent and peculiar short running led them 

 on, was ample ; but my friends were not tired : they 

 still, most kindly, wished to show me sport; so the 

 state of the hounds, though I called attention to it, 

 was again forgotten. 



Well, we drew a second time, and — to show what 

 these woods may contain, in spite of such hounds as 



