208 
PASSIONAL ZOOLoaY. 
Meanwhile, the hare has kept its advance ; it has already gain- 
ed the hillside, while the dogs are still entangled with the flock. 
This hillside is planted with vines, strongly manured and set in es- 
paliers facing the wind. The persevering dogs of Vendee are tall 
and must pay pretty dear for this advantage. The hare takes great 
care to keep all the hedges in its way, and slips under all the low- 
est gaps of the treliice. The dogs of Vendee will supple their 
spines at this manoeuvre, but more than one will howl with impo- 
tent rage before reaching the last barrier. If the hare had been 
wise, he would not have budged from this formidable position, his 
future would have been secure, but he has contented himself wiih 
giving his enemies a thread to twist over in the accursed pass. He 
has been wrong. While our brave Vendeeans contend with the 
treliice which bars their way, and cut themselves a passage with 
their jaws, the hare, lying snug for a quarter of an hour under the 
wind, amid a great wood which crowns the hill, ruminates new 
tricks. Jump for it, then ! for there is the infernal voice of the 
griflbn nearer and nearer, and already sounding beneath the vaults 
of the forest. 
But had not this annoying explorer incidentally to take a fa- 
tiguing promenade through the quagmires, the holms and thorns 
with which this crest is sown ? Doubtless, but the Satanic griffon 
has divined the enemy’s thought, and calling to his aid his expe- 
rience as a lime-hound, he turns the skirts of the quagmire, first to 
inquire whether the hare remained there, and he meets nose to 
nose with the latter from the moment when he issues from the last 
ditch. Disappointed so abruptly in his legitimate hopes of a res- 
pite, our hare begins to disquiet, himself seriously, and in the trou- 
ble of his ideas, seeks safety of his heels. Vain attempt. The 
hamstrings of the griffon and those of his comrades seem to double 
in strength and elasticity in proportion as his own give out. 
Already more than an hour without interruption this hare-brain- 
ed chase has lasted ; he must however rest or perish, for the pack 
gains and gains — five minutes more and all will be over. In this 
frightful perplexity our hare remembers to have seen in this neigh- 
borhood that very morning one of his companions in persecution 
withdraw to a clump of brushwood which he knows. Selfishness 
