270 
PASSIONAL ZOOLOGY. 
the goat was made in his favor. History records that the treaty 
was faithfully observed on both sides for many years. 
Before having obtained this triumphant recognition of his rights, 
Cambronne had successively crippled ten packs of Saintonge dogs 
and of griffons of Yendee, recruited and equipped at great ex- 
pense. His tactics consisted in firmly awaiting the enemy in his 
fortress, then in dashing upon his most impetuous assailants and 
breaking a leg at each bite. Every dog thus wounded was for- 
ever lost to the wolf-hunt. The end of this hero was worthy of 
his life ; he drowned himself in the Soane, not like Ophelia, gath- 
ering flowers on the waterside, but swimming a race against a 
steamboat, the paddle-wheel of which broke his back. 
The wolf is no longer hunted in France, because none or so few 
are left ; the separation of properties, disastrous increase of popu- 
lation, and destruction of forests, have played a hard game with 
the species. If it has not been exterminated, it must thank the 
good offices of the wolf-hunters, who every year save some cubs 
from the proscription ; urged to this charitable act by the judi- 
cious reflection that were there no more wolves, the institution of 
wolf- killers would become useless, and ‘‘Othello’s occupation 
gone.” I am often tempted to think that it must be an analogous 
reason which inspires our deputies to cobble up such bad laws 
for us. 
I have spoken of the manners of the wolf, of his character, his 
qualities, his tactics in fight, his means of attack and defense. I 
have not attempted to conceal his vices. I have shown him as 
the emblem of the bandit. I have only attributed those vices to 
misery and to the pernicious influence of the sphere in which he 
lives. Why this attenuation ? Because I am not a civilizee who 
condemns a beast without giving it a hearing — because I have 
reared wolves and lived in their intimacy before judging them. 
And when I assign to the wolf brilliant future destinies, it is be- 
cause profound studies have given me the consciousness of his 
high capacities — because 1 know him to be susceptible of attach- 
ment, of gratitude, and fidelit}^ 
Yes, I repeat it, the robber whom you shut up in your prisons; 
the wolf whom you have devoted to extermination, are exuberant 
