THE BOAR BREAKS COVER. 181 



left off thinking of a shot, and devoted myself exclu- 

 sively to the hounds. The chase now brought me to 

 the verge of a cultivated valley, old Coco coming over 

 the little fence from the vi^ood into the fields with a 

 joyous swing, and running almost against a peasant 

 with his team at plough. 



Immensely excited, and pointing some little dis- 

 tance up the narrowest portion of the little valley, to 

 where the forest again crowned the heights, the man 

 cried, " The wolf! the wolf ! — the great wolf there ! " 

 *^ Oh," I cried with vexation, " the boar ! — have you 

 seen the boar ? " " No, no," he shouted, " no boar ; 

 but the wolf — the wolf — away across the valley and 

 up into the woods beyond ! " What was I then to do ? 

 Not half an hour previously to this I knew the hounds 

 were on the boar; yet they kept running hard for 

 the spot indicated by the peasant. 



But hark I they turn away more in the woods 

 again, so into the woods I followed; but in a short 

 time they showed an inclination for the little valley, 

 and before I had again gained the field, the change 

 in the sound of the foremost tongues gave me well 

 to know those tongues were flung in the open, 

 and when I emerged from cover I found we were 

 on the very spot pointed out as the line of the 

 wolf. " Well," I cried to myself, " boar and wolf, 



N 3 



