THE WOLVES ATTACKED. 155 



position I had taken up, and crossed where I then 

 stood, the wolf having passed before I got there. 

 Bang, bang, bang, went three guns at intervals on 

 beyond me, and then bang, bang, went two in the 

 high road. A horn kept blowing triumphant tunes 

 on and away ; but nothing indicated what had hap- 

 pened in the road, and still there were three lots of 

 hounds running hard. I would not move, for I 

 thought, whatever the old wolf chose at her pleasure 

 to do, the cubs would in all probability run rings. 

 The fact that had then happened was, that a vixen 

 cub wolf had been killed in the road, and those 

 hounds turned back after the rest. The diflPerent 

 lines of scent then seemed to resolve into one ; the 

 horns kept blowing away a long distance from me ; 

 and an immense tail of hounds seemed to be hanging 

 after the horn like the string of a kite, a long way 

 behind. All at once I heard at the tail of all a most 

 unintelligible row, the tongue of a hunting hound, 

 yells, and growls, all proceeding from a single indi- 

 vidual, coupled at times with a fearful shaking and 

 tearing at the bushes, — the advance of this incompre- 

 hensible bit of w^oodcraft being at the same time very 

 slow. Nevertheless, it came on right at me, so I 

 prepared for whatever it might be. Perhaps it was 

 a running fight, or sort of duel between hound and 



