A HOLLOW BUSH. 137 



the more so when I heard M. Lucas say to M. E. 

 Brunier — " Sound, sound I " On this direction^ the 

 latter gentleman rode off some distance under the 

 cover, and then commenced long, loud, and apparently 

 triumphant tunes on both the great French horns. I 

 afterwards found that this was done to make the boar 

 fly, and to put him off from a portion of the forest 

 into which, I supposed, from its additional difficulties, 

 they did not wish him to go. I kept down-wind of 

 the cry, midway between the two masters of the 

 hounds, when suddenly the excitement began to 

 decrease ; the horns ceased their tunes ; and the cry 

 of the hounds became more rational and less promising. 

 In short, false excitement and consequent babbling 

 seemed over with them ; for all that reached my ear 

 now was an occasional tongue, as of a hound on a line 

 he could scarcely own. I could stand this no longer, 

 so giving Coco the rein, I got through the wood just 

 as the hounds came puzzling out on some cultivated 

 land ; and then I ascertained, alas ! that, instead of 

 having harboured the boar, this infallible piqueur and 

 limier had made what in the French chasse is denomi- 

 nated a " hollow bush " — in fact, that he had marked a 

 cover ivith nothing in it, and that, instead of having 

 traced this old sanglier day and night to his lair and 

 to his food, he was exactly one day and night behind 



