HOUNDS IN FULL CRY ON NOTHING. 229 



moment Maurice commenced his draw, all the old 

 French hounds were in full crj ; but of this I took 

 no notice, till I heard Bavard fling her tongue in an 

 opposite direction, and run slanting back to where 

 the hounds had been put into cover. I knew then 

 that an animal of some sort was on foot, and pre- 

 pared for a shot at anything larger than a rat. It 

 was considerably upwards of an hour, perhaps two 

 hours, before anything came decidedly in my direc- 

 tion. Bavard's tongue had ceased, and not a single 

 English hound spoke ; but every now and then there 

 came such a volumed roar from the French hounds, 

 that, had I not been used to it, I should have deemed 

 them running some large beast of chase in view. 



At last this dawdling, lagging riot came towards me, 

 with immense noise, but no speed : and so near that 

 I could distinguish the howls of an old weak black- 

 and-white French bitch, who always seemed to me 

 to do nothing else but sing or howl by way of 

 accompaniment to the others. " Well, it's funny to 

 call this hunting ! " I thought ; " but here they come 

 right at my boots, so at least I shall detect them in 

 some strange vagary." Up came the pack, at a jog 

 trot, the little babbling harrier leading, in no way 

 going through the farce of pretending to pick out a 

 scent, but trotting on in the most open places in full 



Q, 3 



