226 A MONTH IN THE FORESTS OF FRANCE. 



After a long delay, the cry of a couple or so 

 of hounds, varying in direction, sometimes coming 

 nearer, sometimes dying away, reached my ear; I 

 then heard them coming right upon the charcoal- 

 furnace, and settled in my mind that that object 

 would very likely head the deer to me. My vexa- 

 tion may easily be conceived when I saw the roe 

 deer cross the vista in the wood right through the 

 smoke of the fire, and, within twenty yards of both 

 the men, three hounds only on very good terms. I 

 then ascertained that these three hounds were run- 

 ning towards what seemed to be a heavier cry ; so, 

 making all the haste I could, I turned into another 

 ride, and at some distance saw that it was occupied 

 by my friends. On reaching Jules d'Anchald, I 

 found that the Captain had missed a fair shot at a 

 deer, and that Maurice had fired one or two long 

 ones without effect; and soon, as we listened, the 

 crv of the hounds began to fail, and the deer seemed 

 to have baffled them. Jules and I were talking, 

 when all at once, close to us in the cover, old Musto 

 flung his tongue in his usual eager manner, when I 

 thought that a good opportunity to illustrate his 

 falsehood. 



" There, Jules ! " I exclaimed ; " listen to that old 

 babbler ; he is never a hundred yards from one gun 



