168 A MONTH IN THE FORESTS OF FRANCE. 



and then the surprise of one of them may be well 

 imagined when, under cover of the rain and bushes, 

 the snout of a boar almost touched his legs. He 

 was so astonished that he failed to fire ; but, crying 

 out to Jules, towards whom the boar dashed, the 

 latter fired into the boar with a cartridge which took 

 no fatal effect, and might only have been serviceable 

 if the hounds could have been got to hunt him. As 

 it was, one or two took up his line ; but, as French 

 hounds are so apt to do, they gave it up on finding 

 that they were not encouraged to go on. 



We then began to get more together; and for 

 some time it was impossible to know what the 

 hounds were running, till Maurice got a shot at and 

 hit a roe-deer, when the hounds, about three couple, 

 began to run hard. In attending on these hounds, I 

 saw them break away over an open piece of heather 

 for another portion of the forest ; so giving the 

 " gone away " on my horn, I jumped old Coco over 

 the fence out of the woods (a jump he was always 

 delighted to accept), and joined the hounds in the 

 fresh cover to which they had attained. As the 

 deer had made a decided effort to reach these woods, 

 I thought she intended holding them; so, getting on 

 ahead, on hearing the hounds running really hard 

 and directly towards me, I pulled up, ready for a 



