WANT OF KNOWLEDGE IN WOODCRAFT. 125 



at present are there — in the same quarter of the 

 forest where we had made all this noise at a martin- 

 cat, and immediately, the jaded hounds were again 

 in full cry, the French hounds walking and picking 

 their way as wide as they pleased of the line, howling 

 at the briars in addition to making cry enough for 

 forty couple of fresh hounds. In this peculiar art — 

 as I have before remarked — they are wonderful, when, 

 as the folly and deception of it seems not to be un- 

 derstood in France, and French huntsmen being kept 

 in an artificial state of excitement and erroneous 

 belief, the day's pleasure is to them perpetually pro- 

 longed. 



On returning for my horse for this second draw, I 

 discovered that sagacious old Coco had broken loose 

 and taken the ride which led home— of that I was 

 certain by his foot-marks ; so M. d'Anchald sent the 

 sedentary huntsman, to that so-called huntsman's great 

 delight, on his tracks, to ascertain that he had delivered 

 himself safely at his stables — a thing the good old 

 steed had done with the greatest care and punctuality, 

 though, of course, the sedentary man did not take the 

 trouble to return and tell us so. Thus left to my own 

 legs, the hounds, as I before said, being soon in full 

 cry, and, by the English tongues, evidently ona tre- 

 mendous scent, it was not long before M. d'Anchald's 



