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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/28573-8.txt b/28573-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7c3b224 --- /dev/null +++ b/28573-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7460 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Le Morvan, [A District of France,] Its Wild +Sports, Vineyards and Forests; with Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches, by Henri de Crignelle + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Le Morvan, [A District of France,] Its Wild Sports, Vineyards and Forests; with Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches + +Author: Henri de Crignelle + +Translator: Captain Jesse + +Release Date: April 21, 2009 [EBook #28573] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LE MORVAN [A DISTRICT OF FRANCE] *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr) + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been faithfully +preserved. Only obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + +[Illustration] + + + + + LE MORVAN, + + [A DISTRICT OF FRANCE,] + + ITS + + WILD SPORTS, VINEYARDS AND FORESTS; + + WITH + + Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches. + + BY + + HENRI DE CRIGNELLE, + + ANCIEN OFFICIER DE DRAGONS. + + TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT IN FRENCH, + + BY + + CAPTAIN JESSE, + + AUTHOR OF "NOTES OF A HALFPAY;" "LIFE OF BRUMMELL;" + "MURRAY'S HAND-BOOK FOR RUSSIA," ETC., ETC. + + SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT-STREET. + + 1851. + + LONDON: + PRINTED BY WILLIAM TYLER, + BOLT-COURT. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +Born in one of the most beautiful provinces of France, in a country of +noble forests and extensive vineyards; brought up in the open air amidst +the blue hills, and ever wandering over the fields and mountains with a +gun on my arm--all the hours of my youth, if I may so say, were spent in +search of partridges and hares in the dewy stubbles, and in the pursuit +of the wild cat and the boar in the shady depths of the woods. + +When relating the adventures of these different shooting rambles to a +friend, talking over with him our mode of sporting so different from +that of England, and when in imagination I carried him along with me +into the dells and dark ravines, and described to him the chase and +death-struggle of the ferocious wolf, or the odd characters and +antediluvian customs of the primitive people amongst whom I passed the +days of my happy boyhood, astonished, he could hardly believe that such +sports and such singular personages existed within so short a distance +of his own country. + +"Why not scribble all this?" he would say, "your sketches would make +capital light reading." + +"But to write is not easy; and, besides, what a poor figure I and my +dogs and wolves, woodcocks and vineyards, would cut after the terrible +Mr. Gordon Cumming. How could any description of mine interest the +public in comparison with those of that famous shot and his three +coffee-coloured Hottentots, with his bands of panthers and giraffes, his +troops of yellow lions dancing sarabands round the fountains, and his +jungles and swamps swarming with elephants and hippopotami?" + +"But we might be able to go to Le Morvan," said my friend, "whereas few +indeed, if they wished it, can go to the South of Africa to shoot +elephants through the small ribs; neither is it probable that many of us +would like to pass several years of their valuable lives shut up in a +loose, rolling, sea-bathing-machine-like wagon, with their own beloved +shadow alone for all Christian company. Let us have a narrative of your +exploits?" + +"You do not consider what you ask," I replied; "my gossip may have +amused you, but the effusions of my pen would to a certainty make you +yawn like graves." + +"Nonsense," whispered the flatterer, "you will open to us a new country, +you will confer a real service upon hundreds of restless Englishmen, who +when summer comes know not for the life of them where to go, or where +not to go;--write your work, and advise them to turn their steps to Le +Morvan at the time of the vintage." + +But now another, a huge difficulty, sprung up. Printers do not lend +their types for nothing any more than they give gratis their time and +paper. To publish a book is always an expensive affair; misfortune, +which had touched me with its wing, which has been the sad guest of my +house, deprived me of the power of undertaking it myself: and where to +find a person so generous as to take upon himself the responsibility of +the undertaking? Happily I was in England, in the land of kind hearts +and warm sympathies. A noble lady, the mother of a distinguished English +nobleman, who passes her life in doing good, took an interest in my +forlorn history, and was pleased to honour me with her patronage. With +this mantle of protection thrown around me, and my generous friend +having undertaken to bear the responsibilities of publishing, the +difficulties were soon swept away, and Le Morvan was written. + +I had hoped that I should in this Preface be permitted to mention her +name, which would have been less a compliment to her than an honour to +me; but her modesty has refused this public acknowledgment of my +unbounded gratitude,--a veil of respectful reserve shall therefore +remain suspended over her name. As for me and mine, we shall treasure it +in our thankful hearts--every day shall we pray that the Great Giver of +all good may confer upon her His most precious and gracious blessings. + + HENRI DE CRIGNELLE. + +LONDON, _August_, 1851. + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + +English propensity to ramble--Where and how--Le +Morvan--Vezelay--Description of the town--Historical associations +connected with it--Charles IX.--Persecutions of the Protestants--View +from Vezelay--Scenery and wild sports--The Author--Object of the +Work _p._ 1 + + +CHAPTER II. + +Le Morvan--Forests--Climate--Patriarchs and Damosels--Peasants of the +plain and the mountains--Jovial Curés--Their love of Burgundy--The +Doctor and the Curé 14 + + +CHAPTER III. + +Geology--Fossil shells--Antediluvian salmon--The Druids--Chindonax, the +High Priest--Roman antiquities--Julius Cæsar's hunting-box--Lugubrious +village--Carré-les-Tombes--The Inquisitive Andalusian 26 + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Le Morvan during the Middle Ages--Legendary horrors--Forest of La +Goulotte--La Croix Chavannes--La Croix Mordienne--Hôtel de +Chanty--Château de Lomervo--A French Bluebeard--Citadel of Lingou 35 + + +CHAPTER V. + +Castle of Bazoche--Maréchal de Vauban--Relics of the old +Marshal--Memorials of Philipsburg--Hôtel de Bazarne--Madame de +Pompadour's maître d'hôtel--Proof of the _curés'_ grief--Farm of St. +Hibaut--Youthful recollections--Monsieur de Cheribalde--Navarre the +Four-Pounder--His culverin 43 + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Bird's-eye view of the forests--The student's visit to his uncle in the +country--Sallies forth in the early morning--Meets a cuckoo--Follows +him--The cuckoo too much for him--Gives up the pursuit--Finds he has +lost his way--Agreeable vespers--Night in the forest--Wolves--Up a beech +tree--A friend in need--The student bids adieu to Le Morvan 55 + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Charms of a forest life to the sportsman--The Poachers--Le Père +Séguin--His knowledge of the woods and of the rivers--The first buck--A +bad shot 65 + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Le Père Séguin's collation--The young sportsman and the hare--The +quarrel--The apology--The reconciliation--The cemetery--Bait for +barbel--Le Père Séguin's deceased friends--The return home 75 + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Passage of the woodcock in November--Laziness of that bird--Night +travelling--Mode of snaring them at night--Numbers taken in this +way--This sport adapted rather for the poacher--The _braconnier_ of Le +Morvan--His mode of life--The poacher's dog--The double poacher 88 + + +CHAPTER X. + +The woodcock--Its habits in the forests of Le Morvan--Aversion of dogs +to this bird--Timidity of the woodcock--Its cunning--Shooting in +November--The Woodcock mates--The Woodcock fly 100 + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Fine names--Gustavus Adolphus and the cabbages--Gustavus Adolphus no +hero!--The Parisian Sportsman--Partridge shooting despicable--Wild +boar-hunting--Rousing the grisly monster--His approach--The post of +honour--Good nerves--The death--The trophy and congratulations 117 + + +CHAPTER XII. + +The _Mares_--Manner in which they are formed in the depths of the +forest--_Mare_ No. 1.--Description of it--The appearance of the +spot--Mode of constructing the hunting-lodge--Approach of the +birds--Animals that frequent the _Mares_ in the evening 141 + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Appearance of the _Mare_ in the morning--Forest etiquette--Mode of +obtaining possession of the best _Mare_--Every subterfuge fair--The +jocose sportsman--The quarrel--Reveries in the hut--Comparison between +meeting a lady and watching for a wolf 157 + +CHAPTER XIV. + +_Mare_ No. 2.--Description of it--Not sought after by the sportsman--The +sick banker--The doctor's prescription--The patient's disgust at it--Is +at length obliged to yield--Leaves Paris for Le Morvan--Consequences to +the inmates of the château--The banker convalescent 170 + + +CHAPTER XV. + +Summer months in the Forest--_Mare_ No. 3.--Description of it--The +Woodcock fly--The Banker has a day's sport--Arrives at the +_Mare_--Difficult to please in his choice of a hut--Proceeds to a larger +_Mare_--His friends retire--The Banker on the alert for a Wolf or a +Boar--Fires at some animal--The unfortunate discovery--Rage of the +Parisian--Pays for his blunder, and recovers his temper 188 + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +The _Curé_ of the Mountain--Toby Gold Button--Hospitality--The _Curé's_ +pig--His hard fate and reflections--The _Curé_ of the plain--His worth +and influence--The agent of the Government--Landed Proprietors--Their +influence--The Orator--Dialogue with a Peasant 207 + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +The wolf--His aspect and extreme ferocity--His cunning in hunting his +prey--His unsocial nature--Antiquity of the race--Where found, and their +varieties--Annihilated in England by the perseverance of the kings and +people--Decrees and rewards to encourage their destruction by +Athelstane, John, and Edward I.--Death of the last wolf in +England--Death of the last in Ireland 221 + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +The _battues_ of May and December--The gathering of +sportsmen--Preparations in the forest--The _charivari_--The fatal +rush--Excitement of the moment--The volley--The day's triumph, and the +reward--The peasants returning--Hunting the wolf with +dogs--Cub-hunting--The drunken wolf 236 + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +Wolf-hunting, an expensive amusement--The _Traquenard_--Mode of setting +this trap--A night in the forest with Navarre--The young lover--Dreadful +accident that befell him--His courage and efforts to escape--The fatal +catastrophe--The poor mad mother 248 + + +CHAPTER XX. + +Shooting wolves in the summer--The most approved baits to attract +them--Fatal error--Hut-shooting--Silent joviality--The approach of the +wolves--The first volley--The retreat--The final slaughter--The +sportsman's reward--The farm-yard near St. Hibaut--The dead colt--The +onset--Scene in the morning--Horrible accident--The gallant +farmer--Death of the wolves, the dogs, and the peasant--The wolf-skin +drum--Anathema of the naturalists 261 + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +Fishing in Le Morvan--The naturalist--The _Gour_ of Akin--The English +lady--The mountain streams--Château de Chatelux--Sermiselle--New mode of +killing pike--Pierre Pertuis--The rocks and whirlpool there--The syrens +of the grotto--Château des Panolas--The Cousin--The ponds of Marot and +lakes of Lomervo--Mode of taking fish with live trimmers--The Scotch +farmer 280 + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +Village _fêtes_--The first of May--The religious festivals--The _Fête +Dieu_--Appearance of the streets--The altars erected in them--Procession +from the church--Country fairs--The book-stalls at them--Pictures of the +Roman Catholic Church--Before the _Vendange_--Proprietor's hopes and +fears--Shooting in the vineyards--The first day of the +_Vendange_--Appearance of the country--Influx of visitors at this +season--The consequences--Herminie--Her sad history--Le +Morvan--Recommended to the English traveller--Lord Brougham and +Cannes--Contrast between it and Le Morvan 297 + + + + + +LE MORVAN. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + English propensity to ramble--Where and how--Le + Morvan--Vezelay--Description of the town--Historical associations + connected with it--Charles IX.--Persecutions of the + Protestants--View from Vezelay--Scenery and wild sports--The + Author--Object of the Work. + + +Every nation has its characteristics, and amongst those which are +peculiar to the genius of the English people, is their ardent and +insatiable love of wandering. + +To locomote is absolutely necessary to every Englishman; in his heart is +profoundly rooted a passion for long journeys; each and all of them, old +and young, healthy and sickly, would if they could take not merely the +grand tour, but circulate round the two hemispheres with all the +pleasure imaginable. At a certain period of the year, when the +weathercock points the right way, the sun burns in the sign of the +Lion, and the husbandman bends his weary form to gather in the golden +corn, the legs of the rich Englishman begin to be nervously agitated, he +feels a sense of suffocation, and pants for change--of air, of place, of +everything; he girds up his loins, and without throwing a glance behind +him, it is Hey, Presto! begone! and he is off. Where? + +It is autumn, blessed autumn, the season of harvest and sunny days; the +English are everywhere--they fly from their own dear island like clouds +of chilly swallows, light upon Europe as thick as thrushes in an +orchard, and are soon mingled with every nation of the earth, like the +blue corn flowers in the ripe barley fields. Yes, from north to south, +from east to west, go where you will, you cannot proceed ten miles +without meeting a smiling rosy English girl coquettishly concealed under +her large green veil, and a grave British gentleman, whistling to the +wide world in the sheer enjoyment of having nothing to do but to look at +it. + +I have seen green veils climbing the Pyramids; I have seen green veils +diving down into the dark mines of the Oural; I have seen an English +gentleman perched like a chamois on the top of St. Bernard, hat in hand, +roaring "God save the Queen." I have seen some sipping Syracusan wine, +puffing a comfortable cloud from obese cigars, most irreverently seated +in the big nose of St. Carlo Borromeo. One-half of England is gone to +China, the other half to Africa; these will speak to you of Kamschatka, +those of the mountains of the Moon, just as a London cockney or a +Parisian _badaud_ would speak to you of Greenwich or of Bagnolet. Some +have boxed with the bears of the Pyrenees; others have killed lions and +tigers by dozens; one has crossed the Nile on a crocodile, another vows +he waltzed with a dying hippopotamus, and several have bagged +camelopards and elephants by scores. In short, they have trodden with a +bold disdainful step all the high-roads and by-roads of our wondrous +planet, displaying, in every quarter of the compass, the daring and +devil-may-care spirit of their youth and the spleen of their mature age, +as well as the yellow guineas from their long and well-filled purses. + +Well, then, ask of all this wandering tribe, who boast of having been +everywhere, and seen everything; ask those travelling birds who have +flown through France and Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Palestine; +who have sledged in Russia and fished in Norway; who have lost +themselves in the prairies of the far West, or in the Pampas, the +gorges of the Andes, or the Alleghanies; who have bronzed their +epidermis in the fierce heat of the tropics, or moistened their fair +_chevelure_ in the diamond spray of Niagara; who have, in fine, +journeyed through calm and hurricane, snow-storms, sirocco, and simoom; +who have rubbed noses--male noses--of the tattooed savage; mounted +donkeys, ostriches, camelopards, lamas, and dromedaries; mules, wild +asses, negroes, and elephants; ask them all if once in their lives--one +single once--they have seen or even heard of LE MORVAN? + +Not one of these thousands will answer yes. Le Morvan, where is it? what +is Le Morvan? Is it a mountain, a church, a river, a star, a flower, a +bird? Le Morvan, who knows anything about Le Morvan? Echo answers, "Who +knows?" Paddy Blake's replies, "Nobody." And yet all of you roving +English, who delight in athletic sports and rural scenes--the forest +glade and murmuring streams, a view halloo and the gallant hound; who +love the bleak and healthy moors, the cool retreats, the flowery paths, +and mountain solitudes, how happy would you be in Le Morvan. Where, +then, is Le Morvan? + +Le Morvan is a district of France, in which are included portions of the +departments of the Nièvre and the Yonne, having on the west the +vineyards of Burgundy, and on the east the mountains of the Nivernois. +Its ancient and picturesque capital, Vezelay, crowns a hill 2,000 feet +in height, and commands a panoramic view of the country for thirty miles +round. It has all the characteristics of a town of the feudal times, +with high embattled and loopholed walls, numerous towers, and deep and +strong gateways, under which are still to be seen the grooves of the +portcullis, the warder's guard-room, and the hooks that supported the +heavy drawbridge. + +The capital of Le Morvan partially owed its rise to a celebrated +nunnery, founded by Gerard de Roussillon, a great hero of romance and +chivalry, who lived, loved, and fought under Pepin, the father of the +grand Charlemagne. This nunnery, which was sacked and burnt to the +ground by the Saracens, those terrible warriors of the East, was +restored in the ninth century, and fortified; and as the sainted inmates +were believed to have amongst their relics a tress of the golden hair of +the beautiful and repentant Magdalen, troops of the faithful--and people +were ready to believe a great deal in those days--flocked to Vezelay, +when it soon became a large and flourishing town. + +In the tenth century, when the people, in their endeavour to shake off +a few links of their fetters, refused to bend their bodies in the dust +before their lords and their minds before their priests--when the seeds +of liberty, till then lying in unprofitable ground, though watered for +centuries by the tears of tyranny and oppression, first germinated and +rose above the earth, who gave the signal of resistance in France?--the +inhabitants of Vezelay. Yes; it is to her citizens that the honour +belongs of having first refused to submit to the power, the domineering +power, of political and ecclesiastical rule; it was her brave +inhabitants who, assembling in secret, thought not of the peril, but, +having promised help and protection one to the other, flew to arms. A +short and desperate struggle ensued, but the victory remained in the +hands of the abbot of Vezelay. Hundreds of brave men were put, without +mercy, to the sword, and many, with less mercy, burnt alive or died by +the torture in the dark dungeons of the abbatical palace. Vezelay still +preserves in its archives the names of twelve of these martyrs. + +Again in the twelfth century, when the cry to the rescue of the Holy +Sepulchre shook all Europe, and every nation poured forth her tens of +thousands to drive the infidel from that land in which their Redeemer +had lived and died an ignominious and cruel death, it was at Vezelay +that Pope Eugenius III. assembled a great council of the princes of the +church, the great barons, and chivalry of those times. It was in her +immense cathedral, one of the oldest and largest in the kingdom, amidst +the clang of arms, war cries, and religious chaunts, and in the presence +of Louis le Jeune, King of France, that St. Bernard preached, in 1146, +the Second Crusade. + +Vezelay is celebrated as having been the birth-place of Beza, the great +Protestant Reformer (1519), who succeeded not only to the place but to +the influence of Calvin, and was, after that eminent man's death, +regarded as the head and leader of the Genevese church. + +It was to Vezelay, the only town that dared to offer them the protection +of its walls, that the unfortunate Protestants fled after the horrible +massacre of St. Bartholomew's--the base political cruelty of the brutal +homicide, Charles IX. Tracked and hunted down like wild beasts, and a +price set upon their heads, they found staunch and noble hearts in the +inhabitants of Vezelay; but, ere long, an army of their insatiable foes +arrived and besieged the town, and treachery at a postern one stormy +night made them masters of it, when scenes of horror followed under the +mask of religion that even at this distance of time make one recoil with +terror and disgust at the dogmas of the corrupt faith which dictated +them. + +Roasting men alive, and boiling women, dashing out the brains of many a +cherub boy and prattling girl, was the pleasing and satisfactory pastime +with which Pope Gregory, Catherine de Medicis, and her congenial son +gladdened their Christian hearts. The blood of their victims still cries +to us from the ground of their Golgotha; for on the south side of the +town there is a large green field, called _Le Champ des Huguenots_. The +damning fact, from which this spot received its name, has been handed +down to us by the historian. It is as follows: + +The Catholics, having instituted a strict search in the woods and +caverns of the environs, made so many prisoners that they were puzzled +what to do with them--nay, in what manner they should take their lives. +Among many ingenious experiments, it was suggested that they should bury +them alive up to their necks in the field to which we have alluded; and +this was accordingly done with nine of them, whose heads were bowled at +with cannon-balls taken from the adjoining rampart, as if they had been +blocks of wood instead of live human heads. The shrieks of the +miserable beings excited no compassion; on the contrary, it afforded +amusement to their executioners: so that games of skittles upon the same +principle were played the whole length of this meadow. + +Turning aside from these execrable deeds of man to the works of Nature +and of Nature's God, which have always been and always must be lovely +and worthy of our deepest admiration, let us dwell for a moment upon the +splendid view from the castle-terrace, which forms the principal +promenade of Vezelay. Shaded by large and venerable trees, through the +lofty branches of which many a storm has howled for nearly four hundred +years, the sight from hence is one of the finest panoramic views in +France. + +All around, whether on the slope of the hills by the river-side, in the +middle distance, or near the mountains which form the horizon, are seen +hundreds of little villages, and many a white villa scattered among the +green vines as daisies on the turf. To the left and right are St. Père +and Akin, two hamlets, which seem like faithful dogs sleeping at the +foot of the mountain crowned by Vezelay. The province in which this +cloud-capped fortress-town is situated is a retired spot out of the +beaten track of the tourist, the man of business, or the man of +pleasure--lost, as it were, in the very heart of beautiful France, like +a wild strawberry in the depth of the forest--encircled by woods, and +unknown to the foreigner, who, in his rapid journey to Geneva or to +Lyons, almost elbows it without dreaming of its existence. + +Le Morvan rears in its sylvan depths a population of hardy and honest +men and lovely women, fresh as roses, and gay as butterflies. There the +soft evening breezes are charged with the songs of ten thousand birds, +the odours of the eglantine, the lily of the valley, and the violet, +which, shaking off its winter slumbers, opens its dark blue eye and +combines its perfume with that of its snowy companion. + +Le Morvan is a country that would delight an Englishman, for it is full +of game; here the sportsman may vary his pleasures as fancy dictates. +The forest abounds with deer; the plain with rabbits and the timid hare; +and in the vineyards, during the merry season of the vintage, the fat +red-stockinged and gray-clad partridges are bagged by bushels. Here the +sportsman may watch in the open glades the treacherous wild cat and the +bounding roebuck; and, should these sports appear too tame, he may, if +foot and heart are sound, plunge into the dark recesses of the forest +in pursuit of the savage and grisly boar, or the fierce and prowling +wolf. + +When evening comes, bringing with it peace and rest to the industrious +peasant, when the moon shall light her bright lamp in the star-spangled +heavens, and shed her silvery rays across the plain, the hunter may lead +forth the village belle, and foot it merrily on the mossy greensward, to +the sound of the bagpipe and the rustic flute, by fountains which never +cease their monotonous but soothing plaint, and under the long shadows +of the ancient oaks and tall acacias. + +Happiness, says Solomon, consists not in the possession of that gold for +which men toil so unremittingly and grave deep wrinkles on the heart and +brow. Happiness lights not her torch at the crystal lustres in the halls +of royalty; she rarely chooses for her home the marble palaces of the +wealthy, nor is she often the companion of the great, robed in costly +apparel; rarely does she braid her hair with pearls, or wear the rosy +lightning of the ruby on her fair bosom. + +Happiness is known only to him who, free and contented, lives unknown in +his little corner, deaf to the turmoil and insensible to the excitements +of the selfish crowd, and ignorant of the sorrows and sufferings of +great cities. She is found in the enjoyment of the sunshine and the open +air, in the shady groves and flowery fields, by the side of the +murmuring brooks, and in the society of the gay, frank, and +simple-minded peasant of my own dear country. Oh! my white and pretty +_pavillon_, whose walls are clad with fragrant creepers and the luscious +vine, whose porch is scented with the woodbine and the rose--oh! lovely +valleys, dark forests, deep blue lakes which sleep unruffled in the +bosom of the hills, beautiful vine-clad hills, where in the morning of +my youth I chased those flying flowers, the bright and painted +butterflies--oh! when, when shall I see you all again--like the bird of +passage, which, when the winter is over, returns to his sunny home? When +shall I see thee again? Oh! my sweet Le Morvan! Oh! my native land! +Happy, thrice happy they who cherish in their hearts the love of nature, +who prefer her sublime and incomparable beauties to the false and +artificial works of man, accumulated with so much cost and care within +the walls of her great cities. Happy, too, are those who have not been +carried away by the fatal flood of misfortune from the paternal hearth, +who have always lived in sight of that home which sheltered their merry +childhood, and whose lives, pure and peaceful as the noiseless stream of +the valley, close in calmness and serenity like the twilight of a bright +summer's day. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + Le Morvan--Forests--Climate--Patriarchs and Damosels--Peasants of + the plain and the mountaineer--Jovial Curés--Their love of + Burgundy--The Doctor and the Curé. + + +Le Morvan, anciently Morvennium, or Pagus Morvinus, as Cæsar calls it in +his Commentaries, comprises, as we have before remarked, a portion of +the departments of the Nièvre and the Yonne, lying between vine-clad +Burgundy and the mountains of the Nivernois. Its productions are +various; in the plains are grown wheat, rye, hemp, oats, and flax: on +the mountain side the grape is largely cultivated; and in the valleys +are rich verdant meadows, where countless droves of oxen, knee-deep in +the luxuriant grass, feed and fatten in peace and abundance. + +But the real and inexhaustible wealth of Le Morvan is in its forests. In +these several thousand trees are felled annually, sawn into logs, +branded and thrown by cart-loads into the neighbouring torrent, which, +on reaching a more tranquil stream, are lashed into rafts, when they +drift onwards to the Seine, and are eventually borne on the waters of +that river to the capital. The forests of the Nièvre are some of the +most extensive in France; thick and dark, and formed of ancient oaks, +maple, and spreading beech, they cover nearly 200,000 acres of ground. +Those of the Yonne are larger but of a character far less wild. + +The climate of this part of France is delightful; with the exception of +occasional showers, very little rain falls; the sky is serene, and +scarcely ever is a vagabond cloud seen in the ethereal blue to throw a +shadow upon the lovely landscape beneath. For six months of the year the +sun is daily refulgent in the heavens, and sets evening after evening in +all his glorious majesty. But in the woods it is not thus; the storms +there are sometimes terrible, and, like those of the tropics, arise and +terminate with wonderful rapidity. These tempests, which purify the +atmosphere, leave behind them a delicious coolness, the trees and +shrubs, as they shake from their trembling leaves their sparkling tears, +appear so bright--the flowers which raise again their drooping heads, +load the air with such delightful odours--the whole forest, in short, +seems so refreshed and full of life, that every one hails their +approach, the toil-worn peasant breathes without complaint the sultry +air, and observes with pleasure the dark and lowering clouds gathering +in the far horizon. + +From the mountains, those huge ladders of granite that God has planted +upon the earth, as if to invite ungrateful man to come nearer to him, +descend many a stream and dancing rill of pure and crystal waters. No +part of France can be said to be more salubrious. "Centenarians" are by +no means uncommon, and a patriarch of that age may be found in several +families. + +When Sunday comes, always a _jour de fête_ as well as a day of prayer, +it is very pleasing to see one of these venerable men, dressed in his +best clothes, walking to church at the head of his children, +grand-children, and great grand-children. Long and of snowy whiteness is +his hair, and glossy white as threads of purest silver is his beard--his +hat, of quaker broadness in the brim, is generally encircled, in the +early days of Spring, with a wreath of the common primrose, and his dark +cloth mantle, of home-spun fabric, hangs gracefully on his shoulders, +showing underneath it the dark red sash that girds his still healthy and +vigorous frame. Tall and grave, erect and majestic as the oaks of their +native forests, these patriarchs bespeak every one's respect, and when +looking on them you might imagine they were men of another age, a +generation of by-gone years, you might fancy them some ancient Druids +that have escaped from their dusty tombs, from centuries of night, to +tread once more the pathways of this planet. + +And the women, heaven and earth! how sweetly pretty, how amiable and +adorable; and such eyes, dark and lustrous!--full of witchcraft, burning +and humid as an April sun after a shower. Some there are, also, of +pensive blue, pregnant with promises, soft and almond-shaped, like the +divine eyes of the Italian Cenci. Supple as the young and slender +branches of willow, are these divinities, fresh as new opened tulips, +and brisk and gay as the golden-speckled trout in the sparkling current. +In their charms is found a terrestrial paradise, a compound of delicious +qualities which intoxicate the senses, hook the heart, and like the bite +of the Sicilian tarantella, steep the loved one in delirium. + +Yes, the women of Le Morvan are lovely, ardent, and tender-hearted as +the dove, especially those who dwell within the forest districts; for +nothing contributes so much to bring forth the loving principle of the +affections as the silent melancholy of the umbrageous woods, and the +soft and perfumed breezes that pervade them. Here, in the dusk and +stillness of the summer evenings, these wood-nymphs hear in the lofty +branches of the linden, the endearing love songs of the feathered tribe, +and when night throws its charitable gloom over their blushing cheeks, +they whisper at the trysting place what they have heard and seen to +their rustic admirers. + +We have just briefly sketched the two extremes, the old men of Le Morvan +and its sprightly damosels: we must now mention the inhabitants +generally, and these vary like its productions according to locality. +The peasant of the plains is civil, gentle, and industrious, but cunning +and dangerous as an old fox; and if he thinks money may be squeezed from +your pocket, be sure there will be no sleep for him till he has taken +some out of it. Full of fun, he loves above all the dance, the song, the +merry laugh, and good cheer--and the uncorking of a bottle would be for +him a supreme delight, if this excellence itself was not superseded, by +the far greater blessedness of emptying it. + +The inhabitant of the mountain, on the other hand, is sober, severe and +roughly barked--clothed with silence and gravity, smiling but once a +year--the day he has cheated a good man of the plain; he does not please +so much at first sight: but if in any danger, if you are surprised by a +hurricane, surrounded with wolves; or you have lost your way, in a night +as dark as the grave itself, you call and ask his help, oh! it is then +that his sterling qualities shine forth in all their splendour. Always +ready, always on the look out, the ear for ever bent to catch the +well-known sounds of the forest, the slightest indication of distress +awakes his vigilance; it is then he comes, it is then he flies, and his +arm, gun, and eyes--his cabin, dog, and lean horse are all at your +command. + +Admirable example of courage and of devotedness: money for him is +nothing; happy to be useful, he obliges for the mere pleasure of +obliging. Many, many times have I seen poachers, cottagers, +charcoal-burners, and wood-cutters, poor as Job, hardly breeched, hungry +as a whole Irish borough, leave their work, their sport, their field, +their tree half down,--abandon in the roads, under the guard of the +dogs, their carts and oxen, and go some dozen of miles, through storm +and tempest, through rush, rock, and swamp, to set a sportsman in his +right way again. Without saying a word, with steps attendant on his +weary progress, they trudge on before, making a sign for him to follow; +and when they have placed him once more on his road, a nod, a shake of +the hand, a smile, a kind word falling from his lips, pays them the full +price of all their troubles. Never have I seen one of them accept the +least pecuniary reward for such services--they do nothing but their +duty, they say; and as they are happy in the firm conviction that the +whole forest belongs to them, they think they are only doing the honours +of their green drawing-rooms. Thus it always happens, that when, by +their good care, you have escaped certain danger, it is with great +difficulty, and only after a deluge of rhetoric, that they consent to +accept for their daughters or wives a red wool dress, a gold cross, or a +row of large blue Pundaram beads; or for themselves a few dozen of iron +bullets, a bag of shot, or a flask of powder. This abnegation, this +frankness of the heart, this kind sympathy for every stranger, is +universal among the mountaineers; these benevolent and kindly feelings +are a portion of their holy traditions, and as such are most religiously +grafted by every mother into the soft wax-like hearts of her dear little +ones. + +But while delighting to describe the virtues of these denizens of the +forests, these amiable fauns and jolly satyrs, I must not forget those +jovial trencher-men, the _curés_ of Le Morvan. Every sportsman +possesses, or should possess, the digestion of an ostrich; for his +appetite is generally prodigious, and the viands that fall in his way +are not always the most savoury. When, however, the venison pasty, the +truffled turkey, or the _pain de gibier_ is within his reach, no one is +so capable of enjoying and doing justice to these delicacies of the +table, of knocking off so dexterously the neck of the champagne bottle +when the corkscrew is absent, or whose legs are stretched out so +gracefully at the sight of brimming glasses and _recherché_ viands. + +In these, his fallen moments, and after a good day's sport, a Morvinian +would tell you he could drink all the Burgundian cellars dry,--aye, and +those of Champagne too; and as to smoking, why, he would smoke a whole +crop of tobacco. + +To all keen sportsmen, therefore, who love good eating and wine, and +intend to pay a visit to Le Morvan, I would give this piece of advice, +and I would say to them, place it in the secret drawer of your memory; +nay, carry it written, and, if necessary, painted on your knapsack or +scratched upon your gun--fail not to make the acquaintance of the _curé_ +the darling _curés_. Ask who are they that love the best _cuisine_--who +dote upon the most delicious morsels--who will have the oldest, purest, +and most generous wines?--you will be answered, the _curés_. For whom +are destined the largest trout, the fattest capons, and the best parts +of the venison?--for whom the softest and most choice liqueurs, wine of +the best _bouquet_, the largest truffles, the most luscious honey, the +best vegetables, and finest fruits?--for the _curés_. And the most +clever men-cooks, the happiest receipts, and latest culinary +inventions--for whom are they? the answer is always, _for messieurs les +curés_. Forget them not, therefore, for they are really worth +remembering; besides, they have excellent hearts and are capital +fellows, boon companions, full of _bonhommie_ and good-nature: in fact, +such _curés_ it is impossible to find anywhere else. + +But the great Architect of the universe has said, nothing is +perfect--everything human has its weak point. Well, it cannot be helped, +and it must be told, the _curés_ of Le Morvan have their weak points; +trifles, to be sure--mere bagatelles--but still they have them. They are +rather _too_ fond of old wine and good cheer. These two charming little +defects excepted,--you have in the Morvinian _curé_ goodness double +distilled, and the essence of generosity, and, be it said, abnegation. +This love of the bottle they imbibe from their dear colleagues of +Burgundy; for it is well known, and has never been disputed, that the +Burgundian _curés_ are the greatest exterminators, uncorkers, and +emptiers of wine-bottles in all Christendom. The first thing these +jovial clergymen think of when they open their eyes in the morning, is +an invocation to Bacchus, somewhat in the following strain: "O Bacchus! +son of Semele, divine wine-presser! O vineyards! full of the purple +grape! O wine-press! inestimable machine!" &c. Their second movement is +to extend the right arm, and clasp within their digits a flask of old +Pouilli, the contents of which they swallow without once stopping to +take breath. "An infallible remedy," say they, "against the devil and +all future indigestions." + +Fortified thus with this their first orison, they throw on their +cassock, and descend to the cellar, to count the bottles, or tap and +taste the barrels of some doubtful vintage. The thorough-bred Burgundian +_curé_, particularly one who has lived and got old and fat in the +solitude of a retired presbytery,--whose rubicund nose reveals his +admiration for the vineyards of his native province, and whose three +chins tell you that with pullets, and venison, and clouted cream he has +lined his scrip,--is certainly one of the most jovial and best of men. + +Ask him for indulgences, absolution, masses and prayers for the living +and the dead; he will grant them all. Ask him for his niece in marriage; +ask him to marry you, to baptize you, to bury you; he will do it +all--yes, all for nothing! It is not in his nature to refuse anything. +Ask him for his new cassock, his cane, or his hat, his black silk +stockings, or his silver buckles, and they are yours. No one so ready to +forgive an insult or forget an injury as he. But, by the blood of the +Mirabels, give him not a bottle of bad or sour wine, for he will neither +forget nor forgive it; and above all things, never give him a hint that +it would be well if he gave up his favourite fluid, for be assured, you +would forfeit his friendship for ever. Sooner would he consent to lose a +leg or all his teeth, than give up his life-loved Burgundy! Tell him he +will have an attack of apoplexy; tell him that he will be taken off +suddenly by inflammation, and that water therefore should be his +beverage; he will reply with a smack of his lips, and a castanet noise +with his fingers. "Nonsense, my boy--stuff and rubbish! Pass the wine, +my son; pass it again. Pass the ham, gentlemen. Fill a bumper. Hurrah +for old Burgundy! hurrah for her wines! Confound the pale fluid, and a +fig for the gout!" Such are the ebullitions of his heart in his jovial +moments; and the following lines, which would spoil in the translation, +give a lively picture of them: + + "Pour trop bien boire un curé de Bourgogne + De son pauvre oeil se trouvait déferré, + Un docteur vint:--Voici de la besogne + Dit-il, pour plus d'un jour;--Je patienterai! + Ça vous boirez:--Eh bien! soit, je boirai! + Quatre grands mois:--Plutôt douze, mon maître. + Cette tisane!--A moi? hurla le prêtre, + _Vade retro!_ Guérir par le poison! + Non, par ma soif! perdons une fénètre, + Puisqu'il le faut, mais--_Sauvons la Maison_." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + Geology--Fossil shells--Antediluvian salmon--The Druids--Chindonax, + the High Priest--Roman antiquities--Julius Cæsar's + hunting-box--Lugubrious village--Carré-les-Tombes--The Inquisitive + Andalusian. + + +Le Morvan, independently of its hunting and fishing, its lovely climate +and fine wines, pretty girls and jolly _curés_, possesses a more +important class of beauties and perfections, secrets and enigmas, over +which the _savans_ would pore and ponder through many a day and many a +night: those men who, like Eve, long to grasp the fatal apple--the apple +which destroys while it attracts--the apple whose flavour, alas! is so +bitter,--the apple of science. Let the geologists, who are ever bending +in earnest study over the mysteries of nature, and breaking stones by +the road-side,--who are ever seeking to analyse the _matériel_ of +creation,--who are always contemplating the internal and geognostic +constitution of the globe, the red or the blue clay, the yellow gravel, +the trappe, the limestone, the granite, or the slate, to satisfy +themselves what this poor planet is made of,--let them come and ransack +Le Morvan. Let them bring their hammers and chisels, their compasses and +barometers, and above all, their passport,--precious document! an +hundredfold more useful in France, in these liberty days, than a pair of +shoes or a shirt,--let them come, and I promise them endless +discoveries, a rich and ample harvest. + +In the meadow lands, when, for the purpose of sinking wells, the soil is +penetrated to an immense depth, the workmen often come to thick strata +of schist, in which they find imbedded trunks and roots of trees, and +stalks of plants and ferns, which now grow in tropical climates only. + +In the highest and steepest parts of the mountain chain may be found +marine petrifactions of every variety--the sea-hedgehog, the oyster, the +mussel, and the star-fish; and in the beds of trachytic rock, deposited +in such order that one might fancy they had been placed there by a +careful and tasty housewife, are layers of the most curious shells, +univalve, bivalve, sublivalve and multivalve, madrepors, and shapeless +remnants of creatures now no longer known, and petrified fish. + +Some few years ago, an engineer, who was carrying a road through a rock +in the mountain called the Val d'Arcy, found a salmon in the most +perfect condition, even with head and tail, the unhappy wretch enclosed +in the heart of a large stone. I should certainly have pronounced this +fish to be a cod, had not science decided it was a salmon of a large +species--_genus salmo_, sixty vertebræ. It is now to be seen in the +Natural History department, section _Salmonidæ_, of the Museum in the +Jardin des Plantes, at Paris. + +Poor old salmon! said I, and I took off my hat when I had the honour of +being presented to him; Poor old salmon! what wouldst thou have said, +some twelve or fifteen thousand years ago, when, free and glorious thou +didst pierce the briny waves,--when, perhaps, thou wast gambolling +amongst the pointed summits of the Alps, plunging in ecstacy into the +emerald depths of oceans now vanished,--what wouldst thou have said, +could the thought have crossed thy brain, that one day thou shouldst be +_here_? Under a glass! ticketted, numbered, pasted to the wall! forming +an item in a collection of things fabulous, and exhibiting thy venerable +form, thine antediluvian physiognomy, to thousands of _badauds_, who +either pass thee without a glance, or examine thee with unfeeling +curiosity, bestowing not a thought upon thy great age or thy cruel fate, +or with a whit more respect for thee and thine awful history, than a +cockney would show to a whitebait caught but yesterday in the Thames, +and served up to him as a fraction of his fishy feast at Blackwall. + +Le Morvan, abounding in forests, was a district most congenial to the +gloomy spirit of the religion of the ancient Druids; and therefore, in +the earliest days of the history of France, they consecrated its groves +of splendid oaks to the performance of their terrible rites. Remains of +many of their massive monuments still exist, in the fields, in the deep +valleys, and on the tops of the hills. Antique and mysterious all of +them--three-pointed stones, three-cornered stones, and massive groups of +stones in mystic circle ranged, round which, the peasant will tell you +with bated breath, _les Gaurics_--the spirits of the giants--come to +weep and bewail on the first night of each new moon. During the last +century, a peasant, who was at work in a deep ditch in a beautiful field +of this district, came, in the course of his excavations, upon a stone +which indicated, that he was not far from one of those monuments with +which he was so familiar; and, upon further investigation, it proved to +be the black granite tomb of the famous Chindonax, the high-priest of +the Druids. It contained many relics--the sickle and the collar of +gold, the holy bracelets, the metal girdle, the sacrificial axe, the +knife of brass; and, in the midst, was a glass urn, containing a pinch +or two of grey powder--human dust! proud dust--sad and last remnant of +the Druid Chindonax. + +Tumuli were, a century ago, very numerous in the uncultivated and desert +tract of Les Bruyères; but these little artificial hillocks are +disappearing very fast, for the peasants throw them down when they wish +to clear and level the ground. These tumuli always contain collars in +baked clay, arrow-heads, battle-axes of stone, pieces of crystal, and +other articles of a similar description. + +Even Julius Cæsar, the cruel conqueror of Gaul, the pitiless victor of +Vercingetorix--Cæsar, who cut off the hands of the Gauls as the only +means of preventing them from fighting--Cæsar admired Le Morvan. He +loved that savage country, he delighted in it; in the deep gorges of its +mountains he pursued the large wolves and the wild boar, and in it he +established the custom of relays of dogs the whole length of the woods. + +In this our day, on the summit of a mountain near the one on which is +built the town of Chinon, may be seen the thick strong walls of ancient +Roman buildings--buildings that have been fortified, bristling with +palisades, and surrounded by moats--where Cæsar had his principal +kennel, his hunting-box; in short, the spot which, in the third book of +his 'Commentaries,' he calls _Castrum Caninum_. + +In the darkest and most sombre part of this forest, the lovers of +antiquity will arrest their steps, delighted, at the very curious +village of Carré-les-Tombes, so called from the immense number of tombs +formerly found in its environs. So very numerous were they, that in 1615 +the Count de Chatelux, seigneur of the parish, had some of them sawn up +to build and pave the present church and tower of the steeple, and also +to roof the choir. They were seven or eight feet in length, and hollowed +out like troughs. Tradition says they were all found empty, with the +exception of five; in these reposed tall skeletons, blanched by time, +each having a helmet on his head, and a Roman sword by his side. The +stones of three only of these five tombs bore any inscription, name, +mark, or sign. On one was a double cross, very coarsely engraved; on the +second, a very large escutcheon, which the antiquaries, in spite of +their magnifying glasses, their science, and their patience, could never +decipher; and on the other, the most curious of the three, a Latin +inscription, in a legible, but very ancient character. + +Having one day had the simplicity to translate this inscription to a +young and beautiful Andalusian widow, smart was the rap of the fan that +I had for my pains. I had parried her curiosity as long as I could, for +her dark and dangerous eyes and clear olive complexion, which betrayed +every pulse of her southern blood, combined to put me on my guard. +Reader, will you wonder?--here is the inscription: + + "Qui Dæmone pejus? Mulier rixosa: fug ..." + +"But what does it mean?" said my curious brunette. + +"Señora, that you are lovely." + +"Stuff, sir! not at all;" and she tossed her graceful head pettishly; "I +really wish you to translate it." + +"Well--here, then: '_Qui Dæmone pejus_'--dark women; '_mulier +rixosa_'--are the loveliest." + +"No, no! I say; I am sure that is not it. Say it, word for word, or I +shall be angry--I vow I shall." + +"Word for word!" What was I to do? + +"Word for word," reiterated Dona Inez. + +"Indeed, Señora, I don't know ... you would not forgive me." + +"It is, then, something dreadful?" + +"No, not exactly dreadful, but----" + +"Dios! Dios! worlds of patience!" and she stamped her tiny foot; "will +you go on? You kill me with vexation. Translate it, I say, word for +word." And here the Dona, with discreet carelessness opening her fan, +prepared to blush. + +"'_Qui Dæmone pejus_'--who is there worse than the devil? Hum!"--now for +the pinch, thought I. + +"Go on! go on!--the next words." + +"'_Mulier rixosa_'--is--a----" + +"Well, go on, will you?" + +"Yes--a quarrelsome woman!" + +Like lightning the fan closed, fell upon the unlucky index of my left +hand, which was thoughtlessly reposing upon the arm of the _causeuse_, +and nearly knocked off the first joint, by way of reward for my +reluctant compliance with her feminine wishes. + +"Excuse me, Señora," I said, after I had recovered my breath, "but you +are very unjust. I had nothing to do with writing this ungallant phrase; +it was a brutal Roman, no doubt." + +"You are making game of me,--I know you are." + +"No, indeed; you insisted upon my translating it word for word, and I +have done your bidding." + +"Then the man was a wretch who wrote them." + +"I think so too, Señora." + +"A brute--an animal!" + +"Certainly, Señora." + +"A fool--an old horror!" + +"Most probably." + +"An ignorant slanderer!" + +"Oh! surely." + +"A monster!" + +"I wager anything you like of it." But it was of no use; unconditional +assent failed to pacify her. So she went on for hours; and it cost me +untold pains to earn the brunette's permission to offer her an ice, or +to win one single smile. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + Le Morvan during the Middle Ages--Legendary horrors--Forest of La + Goulotte--La Croix Chavannes--La Croix Mordienne--Hôtel de + Chanty--Château de Lomervo--A French Bluebeard--Citadel of Lingou. + + +But I must return from my Andalusian belle to the rugged Le Morvan,--a +patriotic, but, in spite of the broken finger, by no means so +captivating a subject. + +In feudal times--indeed, even so late as the last century--the district +was a perfect nest of cut-throats, where no one could venture in safety +for any honest purpose; without roads, and without police; full of dark +caverns and half-demolished castles, affording all kinds of facilities +for retreat and concealment; and thus it became the favourite rendezvous +of the worst and most ferocious characters of those lawless times. It is +widely different now. The hunter or the traveller--a woman or a +child--may ramble through the length and breadth of its forests, equally +in vain hoping for the excitement or fearing the danger of any +adventure, beyond the common one of seeing a wolf or wild boar threading +his way amongst the trees--a matter of no consequence at all. If, +however, you love to collect wild and mournful tales--tales, even, of +horror, with which to rivet the attention of the family group over the +fire in the winter evenings,--stop at every ruined wall over which the +lizard is harmlessly creeping; stop at every massive tower in which the +owl is screeching--at every large isolated stone under which the serpent +is hissing; linger along each tortuous path, and your peasant guide will +tell you a tradition for each--for all. + +Thus, for instance: you are perhaps a few paces in front of him, in the +forest of La Goulotte; and as the mid-day sun glances through the boughs +above you, you see its rays rest upon a cross at a little distance; it +was, you think, placed there for the rude worshippers of the province, +and you contemplate it with complacent reverence, till Pierre comes up +with you. "'Tis La Croix Chavannes, Monsieur, _la croix sinistre_. See! +in the narrow pass between the two mountains, its black and moss-covered +arms extended; at the end of each is a large knob, resembling a +threatening hand." You walk on, and find the cross riddled with ball, +chipped and notched, and carved with odd names. By the time you have +reached it, Pierre has told you it was set on the spot where, many a +long year ago, the Marquis de Chavannes was found, deluged in blood and +quite dead; he had been pierced through the heart by a treacherous +rival, who had joined his hunting party, and who basely took advantage +of a moment when, in ardent pursuit of the grisly boar, De Chavannes was +utterly unsuspicious of his evil intentions. + +A little further on is another cross, at the entrance of a deep, dark +gorge: What does that cross mean? "That one is called La Croix +Mordienne, Monsieur; at its foot our forefathers knelt to recommend +their souls to God, before they ventured their lives in the dangers of +Les Grand Ravins, where too many had been greeted by the bullet or the +dagger." The granite steps of this cross--this cross which was erected +for worship--are worn deep by the knees of suppliants for protection +against the cruelty of their fellow-men; and it is even a more +melancholy monument of the ferocity of those times, than the one which +records the assassination of the unsuspecting Marquis de Chavannes. + +Pursue your way, and, crossing a wild and marshy heath, you notice a +lonely house surrounded by thorny broom, the aspect of which is +forbidding, though it is gaily painted. Surely, you think, it can only +be the gloomy tales with which my guide has beguiled this morning's +walk, that make one suspect there is a history connected with that +house; and you ask him its name. "That is Chanty, Monsieur; that was +once an inn. The landlord was a frightful character, even for his own +times. When the doomed traveller halted at his door to seek shelter from +the storm, or to refresh himself and steed the better to encounter the +scorching heat, the villain drugged his wine, and, at nightfall, +following him into the forest, despatched and robbed his then helpless +victim. Or perhaps he would detain him with stirring tales of forest +life, till he found himself too late prudently to go further that night; +and, on his guard against every person but the right, ordering a bed of +his treacherous host, would fall into that slumber from which the +miscreant took safe means to prevent his ever awaking. When, after many +years of impunity in the commission of these fearful crimes, the +officers of justice were at last set upon him, and his house was +searched, in the cellar were found fifteen headless skeletons!" + +Such a mass of silent, awful testimony perhaps never was produced to +substantiate the allegation of similar villany against any man; and +atrocities like these, of the early and middle ages, have given their +character to the legends of Le Morvan, which, still carefully related +from one generation to another, are so impressed on the minds of the +people, that the honest peasant of the present day would rather make a +circuit of a dozen or twenty miles, than pass in the deepening twilight +near the scenes to which they relate. Not all the gold of Peru--no, nor +even of California--would tempt _Les Pastoures_ to graze their flocks or +herds near the scene of these horrid events, or pass them when the stars +are spangling the dark arch of heaven. + +Here also may be seen the solid walls, the array of towers, the high +belfry, the iron gates, and the ponderous drawbridges of the Château de +Lomervo; and many are the dependent buildings, courts, and gardens, +surrounded by the thick copse wood that covers its domain, which extends +over three neighbouring hills. Under the principal façade is a large +lake, whose blue waves bathe the walls; an immense mirror, ever +reflecting the numberless turrets, and the grotesque birds and beasts +which decorate the extremity of every waterspout; wherein, too, the +tranquil marble giants, who support the broad balcony on their heads, +seem to contemplate and admire their own imperturbable +countenances--countenances that betrayed no shade of feeling at all +that must have passed before their eyes. The gathering of armed knights +for war or revelry; the rejoicings for the birth of an heir, or the +lamentations for the death of the stern gray-headed lord; the bridal of +one lovely daughter of the house of Lomervo, or the solitary departure +of the mail-clad lover of another for the Crusades. But, it is said, +they saw much more than all this: according to popular rumour, these +calm deep waters are the cold and mute depositories of frightfully +tragic secrets. One bright spring morning in the very olden time, says +the tradition, a Lord of this domain left his castle. It was when the +sweet violet first cast its odours on the breeze, when the bright and +abundant bloom of the lilac and laburnum gracefully decorated the +gardens, and the country was reclad in all the charming freshness of the +season. After a short absence, he returned, accompanied by a lovely +bride;--but ere long she died. He went again, returning with another, +and was again received by his vassals with acclamations of joy; but +gloomy suspicions at last arose, for in this way, in succeeding years, +were brought to the Castle eleven young and beautiful damsels. One by +one, they all disappeared. What became of them? No one knew, or, if they +did, dared to tell. When, however, the long-dreaded lord was dead, some +old women declared, that as he became tired of each wife, he stabbed her +at midnight in one of his dungeons, took a sack from a heap which he +kept in the corner, and, sewing her up with his own hands, carried her +noiselessly to the water-gate, and laid her in the bottom of his boat. +Silently and rapidly he rowed to the centre of the lake, and coolly +dropped in his hapless victim amongst the sheltering reeds. + +"Ah! Monsieur," the village gossips will still tell you, as they make +the sign of the cross, and tremble till you see their very stuff gowns +shake again; "'tis all true, Monsieur; twenty times have we seen them in +the moonlight--twenty times have we seen the poor souls, in their long +white robes, with their pale faces, and the spot of blood on the left +side, wandering over the lake." Poor Bluebeard, for whom in childhood we +used to feel such awe, was a fool to this baron bold. + +There, a little in front of you, is the fortified village of Chamou, +which in former years defended the eastern opening of Les Grand Ravins; +also Lingou, an old citadel, three stories high, whose walls, now +cracked and ivy bound, guarded them on the south. This piece of feudal +architecture, full of trap-doors and dungeons, subterranean passages, +and secret stairs, is another of the places dreaded and abhorred by the +peasantry of Le Morvan; for near the walls, they say, at certain +periods, sounds can be distinctly heard under ground, funeral chaunts, +and the tolling of bells; and if you have the daring to apply your ear +to the sod, you will be able to distinguish sighs and sobs, and the dull +rattle of the earth thrown upon the victim's coffin. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Castle of Bazoche--Maréchal de Vauban--Relics of the old + Marshal--Memorials of Philipsburg--Hôtel de Bazarne--Madame de + Pompadour's maître d'hôtel--Proof of the _curés'_ grief--Farm of + St. Hibaut--Youthful recollections--Monsieur de Cheribalde--Navarre + the Four-Pounder--His culverin. + + +Each of the Radcliffian horrors narrated in the last chapter, though +vastly marvellous, most probably originated in some dreadful deed of +blood, on which the vulgar and superstitious admiration of excitement of +those days delighted to enlarge. We shall now turn to the castle of +Bazoche, where, in former days, dukes, counts and barons assembled every +September with their hunting-train, to enjoy the pleasures of _la grande +chasse_ and all its attendant revelry. The château in later years +belonged to the renowned engineer, Sebastian-le-Prêtre, Maréchal de +Vauban, who was a native of Le Morvan, and born in 1633 in the village +of St. Leger de Foucheret. The humble roof under which this celebrated +man first saw the light is now inhabited by a _sabot_-maker. + +Brought up, like Henry IV., amongst the peasants of his native +province, like him he loved the remembrance of all connected with it and +them; and when he died in Paris (1707), he desired that he might be +buried at his beloved Château de Bazoche, where he had so often, +sauntering under the noble _platanes_, sought and found relaxation from +the turmoil and fatigue of a soldier's life, and forgotten the +jealousies and injustice of the court. In the southern part of the +building is the gallant old veteran's sleeping apartment--there still +stands his bed: and his armour, with several swords and other articles +which belonged to him, are still preserved. On the rampart, now probably +silent for ever, are four pieces of cannon of large calibre, which +thundered at the siege of Philipsburg, and were subsequently presented +to the Marshal by Monseigneur, the brother of Louis XIV. + +Great were the works accomplished by the genius and perseverance of this +famous general--famous, not only in his own profession, but as one of +the honest characters of an age when honesty was rare indeed. He +improved and perfected the defences of three hundred towns, and entirely +constructed the fortifications of thirty-three others; was present at +one hundred and forty battles, and conducted fifty-three sieges. The +body of this eminent man was, in literal compliance with his orders, +interred in a black marble tomb, under the damp flagstones of the castle +chapel; but his heart, in melancholy violation of the spirit which +dictated them, is enclosed in a monument, surmounted by his bust, in the +church of the Hôtel des Invalides. Opposite to it is the tomb of +Turenne, and under the same roof at last repose the mortal remains of +Napoleon. Could their spirits perambulate this church at the hour when +the dead only are said to be awake, and we could muster the courage to +listen to their whispered communings, what should we hear? How severely +would this tremendous triumvirate judge some of the so-called great men +of our own time! + +But there are more modern edifices in Le Morvan, with far more agreeable +episodes attached to them: take, for example, the Hôtel de Bazarne, a +celebrated hostel, built among the green lanes on the borders of a wood +of acacias--a beautiful flowery wood, which, when the merry month of May +has heralded the perfumed pleasures of spring, dispenses them on every +breeze over the adjacent country. + +Bazarne, in its healthy situation and splendid environs, boasts the best +of cookery. The last owner of Bazarne was--Reader, the utmost exercise +of your lively imagination will never supply you with the right +name--was an _ancien maître d'hôtel_ of Madame la Marquise de +Pompadour--Madame de Pompadour's steward! What could he have to do in +the wilds of Le Morvan? Grand Jean was a curious little man, lively and +brisk as a bird or a squirrel, powdered, curled, and smelling of rose +and benjamin as if he were still at Versailles or Choisi. Grand Jean +decorated the back of his head with a little pigtail, which much +resembled a head of asparagus, and was always jumping and frisking from +one shoulder to the other. His snuff-box was of rare enamel, his ruffles +of point-lace, and his artistic performances in the culinary art were +all carried on in vessels of solid silver. He was, from the point of his +toe to the tips of his hair, the aristocrat of the saucepan and the +stove. + +Grand Jean acquired, in our provincial district, a reputation perfectly +monumental for the richness of his venison pasties, the refined flavour, +the smoothness and the exquisite finish of his _omelettes aux truffes_ +and _au sang de chevreuil_. All the world of Le Morvan used to visit +him. And the good _curés_? The good _curés_?--ah! they all went to visit +him by caravans, as the faithful wend their way across the deserts to +Mecca to pray at the tomb of the Prophet. And, when he died, they +mourned indeed; the worthy divines, incredible as it may be, drank water +for three days, in proof of the sincerity of their woe. Who would have +doubted it? + +To the north of Bazarne, and on the road to the best district for sport, +is seen at the foot of the gray mountains peeping cheerily, and like a +white flower amidst the sombre foliage of the chestnut-trees, St. +Hibaut, an immense farm, situated in an isolated spot, and built of the +lava from an extinct volcano. Saint Hibaut, ah! the moment the pen +traces that dear name my aching heart beats and throbs within my +breast--before my eyes pass to and fro the memories of a vanished +world--I seem to feel the fresh and odorous breezes from thy flowers, +thy mossy banks and scented shrubs, and hear thy murmuring rills and the +dash of thy wild torrents. St. Hibaut! lovely spot where flew so swiftly +and so sweetly the brightest and gayest hours of my early years--St. +Hibaut, the memory of thee burns within my heart: but those within thy +walls, do they still think of me? + +Alas! in this world of tears and deception, of moral tortures and often +of physical suffering--what is there more delightful, more consolatory +than to sip, nay plunge the lips, and drink, yes, drink deep from that +fresh and blessed spring, the memory of by-gone days. How great the +burden of the man who has been the sport of fortune, whose life has been +one continued sorrow, who, never satisfied with the present moment, is +always hoping for better and happier days, and always regretting those +which have been and are now no more. O! Reader--if many griefs have been +your portion, if it has been your sad fate to tread with naked feet the +thorny paths of life, if the foul passions of envy, rage, and hatred +have found a place in your heart, close your eyes, forget your +miseries--open, open for a moment that golden casket called the memory, +in which are preserved, embalmed and imperishable, all those happy +incidents which were the delight of your youth. Yes! open wide that +casket, ponder well, and with renewed fondness o'er these treasures of +the mind, and believe me after such holy reflections you will feel +yourself more able to meet the contumely of the world, and find yourself +a happier and a better man. + +Saint Hibaut, situated in a wild country, surrounded by lonely heaths +and deep ravines, and water-courses whose sides are covered by almost +impenetrable thickets, was at the time I speak of, that is to say, when +I was eighteen years of age, the property of Monsieur de Cheribalde, +the most intrepid, determined and ardent sportsman, who ever winded a +horn, wore a huntsman's knife, or whistled a dog. + +Distant very nearly twenty miles from any human habitation, it was at +times, the favourite rendezvous, the head-quarters of a great number of +chevreuil, boar and other denizens of the forest. In winter, when the +snow covered the earth for several weeks, the famished and furious +wolves assembled in the neighbourhood in packs, carrying off in the +broad daylight everything they could lay their teeth on; sheep and +shepherd, dogs and huntsman, horse and horseman, bones, hair, and skins +half-tanned, old hats and shoes--even the corrupt bodies of the dead +were torn from their resting-places, and eaten by these horrid animals. + +On moonlight nights, these brutes would come fearlessly up to the very +walls of the farm, dancing their sarabandes in the snow, howling like so +many devils, shrieking and showing their long white teeth, and demanding +in unmistakable terms something or somebody to devour; their yells, +their cries of rage, of victory, and of love, intermingled with the +funereal song of the screech-owl, and the lugubrious melodies which the +current from the blast without caused in the large open chimneys,--was +the concert, which from December to April lulled the inmates of St. +Hibaut to sleep; music that would I doubt not have reduced even the +formidable proportions of the inimitable Lablache, and made Mario sing +out of tune. + +But these were the good old times, the good old times! Well do I +remember, when the shadows of those winter evenings lengthened, when +nightfall came, and when at last the moon arose, bringing out in light +and shade every object within the court-yard, and at some distance from +the house, then it was that Monsieur de Cheribalde went his rounds. I +see him in my mind's eye now, with his gun on his shoulder, followed by +his five enormous bloodhounds strong and fierce as lions, and Navarre, +surnamed the Four-Pounder, who walked a few paces to the right and left, +opening his large saucer eyes, poking and squinting into every bush and +corner. + +Navarre, for forty years the head gamekeeper of the domain, was his +master's right hand, his _alter ego_. He had never in his whole life +been beyond his woods,--had never seen the church-steeple of a great +town. To him, the dark belt of firs that skirted the horizon, was the +limit of the world; and when told that the sun never set, and that when +it sank behind the mountains, it was only continuing its course, to beam +bright in other skies and on other lands, and to ripen other +harvests,--Navarre smiled, and did not believe a word. Happy Navarre! +what did it signify to him what was done, or what happened behind those +hills? He was thin and dry as a match, and tall as a Norwegian spruce, +with a face covered with hair; he smoked, and tossed off glass after +glass of brandy, like a Dutchman. In addition to these peculiarities, +Navarre was lame of the right leg, a boar having one day kindly applied +his tusky lancet to his thigh, and gored him seriously, before, hand to +hand, he managed to finish him with his hunting-knife. + +At the first glance, Navarre's aspect appeared strange and forbidding, +and savage as the locality in which he lived. The fact was, that, like +Robinson Crusoe, he was frequently arrayed in a suit of skins of which +he had been the architect, on a fantastic pattern, that his own queer +imagination had created. + +On great occasions the veteran keeper donned a helmet, or a gray +three-cornered hat, of so ridiculous a shape--so royally absurd--that +for my life, when he was thus attired, I could not, even in the presence +of his master, refrain from laughter; then he would tell you, with a +gravity it was impossible to disturb, that it had taken him fifteen +days, eight skins of wild cats, and twelve squirrel's tails, to achieve +this happy _chef-d'oeuvre_ of the tailoring art. But I once said to +him, "My good Navarre, in the name of heaven tell me, from what Japanese +manuscript did you fish out that odious hat? Why, with such a shed, you +might very well be mistaken for Chin-ko-fi-ku-o, high-priest of the +temple of Twi. Do give me the address of your hatter, my dear friend." +Navarre, furious, gave no reply. + +But the time really to admire him--to see the head gamekeeper in all his +splendour--was in winter, in a hard frost, when, covered with skins and +motionless, he lay in ambush in a black ravine, waiting for a boar. Oh! +then, for certain, the sight of him was anything but encouraging; for he +looked like some unknown animal, some variety of the species _Bonassus_, +a crocodile on end, a crumpled-up elephant, or a great bear on the +watch. And when he loaded his rifle--a sort of culverin or wall-piece, +which no one but himself knew how to manage--gracious powers! he was +something to see. His first movement was to seize the gigantic weapon in +the middle, as a policeman would fasten upon a favourite thief; and then +he set himself to blow into the barrel with such fury, that had there +been an ounce of wadding left, the blast would have blown it all through +the enormous touch-hole. Being well assured after this that neither an +adder nor a slow-worm had taken up his domicile within the barrel, he +began to load. One charge--two charges--then a third, "as a compliment," +and after this, a fourth, "for good luck." On this infernal +charge--imperial, as he called it--this Vesuvius, this volcano of +saltpetre, he threw half-a-dozen balls, or, if he was out of them, a +handful of nails; and then he rammed--rammed--rammed away, like a +pavior. + +My hair stood on end, and every limb trembled when he fired it off--holy +St. Francis!--the very forest bent, and coughed, and sighed; and it made +as much flame, smoke, noise, and carnage, as a battery of horse +artillery. One might have heard it all over Burgundy, or Provence for +what I know; and hence, no doubt, his _sobriquet_ of "the Four-Pounder." +I always thought his shoulder must be made of heart of oak. On one +occasion he did me the incomparable favour of loading my gun in this +fashion, but luckily for me, informed me of this piece of civility +before we started; and greatly was he chagrined when I declined to fire +it. In the common occurrences of life, Navarre was a right good fellow; +he had great good sense, could take a joke, was simple and modest in +his manners, and very kind-hearted and retiring. But once in the forest, +the dogs uncoupled, and the business of the chase commenced, he bounded +to the front; his eyes flashed, his nostrils dilated, he took a deep +breath, listened, and snuffed the air; he limped no longer; and as his +courage was unequalled, and his knowledge of wood-craft profound, the +proudest of every rank were content to follow where he led. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Bird's-eye view of the forests--The student's visit to his uncle in + the country--Sallies forth in the early morning--Meets a + cuckoo--Follows him--The cuckoo too much for him--Gives up the + pursuit--Finds he has lost his way--Agreeable vespers--Night in the + forest--Wolves--Up a beech tree--A friend in need--The student bids + adieu to Le Morvan. + + +We have alluded in the opening chapters to the inexhaustible wealth +drawn by the inhabitants from the woods of Le Morvan, though we have as +yet touched but slightly on their beauties. To see them at one _coup +d'oeil_, in all the splendour of their extent, one ought to call for +the veteran, Mr. Green, and, safely (?) lodged in his car, with plenty +of sandwiches and champagne, fly and soar above these forests of La +Belle France. By St. Hubert, gentle reader, your eyes would be feasted +with a glorious sight. Beneath your feet you would, in autumn, behold a +verdant expanse in every variety of light and shade--a sea of leaves, +which, though sometimes in repose, more often moan and murmur, while the +giant arms they clothe rock to and fro in the gale, like the restless +waves of the troubled deep. + +Here Nature displays all her sylvan grandeur; here she has scattered, +with a liberal hand, every charm that foliage can give to earth, and +many a lovely flower to scent the evening breeze. Descend, and in this +immense labyrinth you will find a tangled skein of forest paths, in +which it is never prudent to ramble alone; as will be seen by the +following adventure, which befell a young student who once went to Le +Morvan, anticipating infinite pleasure in spending a few weeks at the +house of an old uncle, a rich proprietor and owner of a large farm in +the forest of Erveau. + +Residing from his infancy in the department of the Seine, he was quite +ignorant of a forest life; and the morning was yet early when he arose +from his bed and sallied forth to enjoy the fresh and fragrant air, of +which he had a foretaste at his open window, and take a ramble till the +hour of breakfast summoned him to his uncle's hospitable fare. All +without was life and sweetness; every bush had its little chorister; the +sun brilliant, but not as yet high in the heavens, threw his bright rays +in chequered light and shade between the trees, and made the pearly +tears of night, which hung quivering on each bending blade of grass, +sparkle like diamonds of the purest water. The student was in raptures, +and after a brief survey of the garden, he cast a longing eye upon the +woods which he so much wished to penetrate. On he walked, stopping +occasionally to muse on the enchanting scene around him, when all at +once he espied, on the lofty branches of an ash, a cuckoo! At the sight +of this splendid bird, our Parisian sportsman felt his heart pit-a-pat +and jump like a girl's in love; and without stopping any longer to +admire the marvels of Nature, he turned hastily back to his uncle's +abode, in search of a gun, with which to annihilate the luckless +harbinger of spring. He soon found one, ready loaded, in the hall; and, +with his heart full of hope and his legs full of precaution, he glided +mysteriously from one tree to another, endeavouring, by all possible +means, to conceal his approach from the wily cuckoo, which, perched on +high, was throwing into space his two dull notes, regular and monotonous +as the tick-tick of an old-fashioned clock. + +Warily and stealthily did the student approach; bent nearly double, he +scarcely drew his breath, as his distance from the tree grew less; but, +says the song of the poacher,-- + + "If women smell tricks, cuckoos smell powder." + +And again,-- + + "'Tis a difficult thing to catch woman at fault, + More difficult still, an old cuckoo with salt." + +Without appearing to do so, from the height of his leafy turret, the +prudent cuckoo kept a wary eye upon the tortuous movements of his enemy; +but as he saw at a glance what sort of a customer he had to deal with, +he evidently did not feel any particular hurry to shift his quarters: +only every time he saw the double barrel moving up to the Parisian's +shoulder, and that hostilities on his part were about to be opened, he, +as if just for fun, dropped his own dear brown self on the branch below +him, flapped his wings, and soon perching himself on a tree a little +further off, gravely re-opened his beak and resumed his monotonous +chant. + +The young student, piqued and mortified at this discreet behaviour of +the cuckoo, which, like happiness, was always on the wing, perseveringly +followed the provoking bird--one walked, the other flew, the distance +increased at every flight, and thus they got over a great deal of +ground; the young man still believing his uncle's farm was close behind +him--the cuckoo perfectly easy, knowing full well he could find his +leafy home whenever he might please to return to it. So, for the +fiftieth time, perhaps, the cuckoo was vanishing in the foliage, when a +sudden thought cramped the legs and cut short the obstinate pursuit of +the young lawyer; he then, for the first time, remembered the wholesome +advice his uncle had given him on his arrival.--"Beware, my fine fellow, +beware of going alone in the forest, for to those who know not how to +read their way, that is, on the bark of the trees, the mossy stones, and +dry or broken twigs, the forest is full of snares and danger, of +deceitful echos and strange noises that attract and mislead the +inexperienced sportsman." + +"By Juno," thought our hero, "as it is most certain that in Paris they +are not yet clever enough to teach us geography on the bark of trees, I +am an uncommonly lucky fellow to have just remembered the dear old +gentleman's warning. Hang the infernal cuckoo! Go to the devil, you +hideous cuckoo! Good morning, sir, my compliments at home." And then, +with his terrible carbine under his arm, he retraced his steps, +expecting every moment to see peeping through the trees in front of him, +his uncle's large white house and lofty dove-cote. + +But, alas! no such thing met his hungry eyes; still on he walked, trees +after trees were passed, glade after glade, and many a long avenue, but +neither white farm-house nor gay green shutters greeted his anxious +sight. "How odd," thought he, "how very odd; this, I feel confident, is +the identical spot near which I first noticed that odious cuckoo; here +is the self-same little regiment of white daisies that my feet pressed +not half an hour ago; see now, this chestnut, this immense chestnut, +whose monstrous roots lie twisting about the ground like a black brood +of ugly snakes--certainly this was the way I came, surely I saw these +roots, and yet no house appears." And thus, from time to time, he +reasoned with himself, looking on either side for some object that he +could recognize with certainty; at last, grown thoroughly hungry and +impatient, he hallooed and shouted, but no voice replied, not the +slightest sound was floating in the air. It was then he felt he had lost +his way,--that he was alone, yes, alone in the forest of Erveau, in a +leafy wilderness stretching many miles. + +Many a vow he made and many a blackberry he picked as he walked hither +and thither, in every direction. The day wore on, the sun had long +passed the meridian, and with the coming evening rose a gentle breeze, +which moaned in the dry ferns; and this and the rustling of the giant +creepers that reached from tree to tree, and swung between the branches, +fell mournfully on the student's ear. A vague fear, a fatal +presentiment of evil began to creep over him; again he shouted, the echo +from a dark wild ravine alone replied; he fired his gun again and again, +the echo alone answered his signal of distress, and nothing could he +hear, except at intervals, far, far away in the green depths of the +forest, the notes cuckoo--cuckoo. + +Faint and weary, from hunger and fatigue, the young man, no longer able +to proceed, fell down at the foot of a spreading beech, and gave way to +an agony of grief; drops of cold sweat stood upon his brow; the clammy +feeling of fear took possession of his heart, and though, perhaps, he +would have had no objection to try the fortune of the pistol or the +sword, in any college broil or senseless riot of the populace, the +circumstances under which he then stood were so new to him, that he was +quite unmanned and incapable of further exertion. + +In blood-red streaks sank the setting sun, his large yellow orb glancing +through the trees like the dimmed eye of some giant ogre; twilight came, +and soon after every valley lay in shadow; the breeze, as if waking from +its gentle slumbers, whistled in the highest branches, and, increasing +in force, rocked the lower limbs, which moaned mournfully as the night +closed in. + +Hungry and alarmed, and now quite worn out with his lengthened walk, the +young Parisian lay stretched on the moss, listening with painful anxiety +to this melancholy conversation of the woods, when, suddenly, and as +night fell, spreading over the earth her sable wings and shaking from +the folds of her robe the luminous legions of stars, he heard a +prolonged and sonorous howl in the distance--a strolling wolf-- + + "Cruel as Death! and hungry as the grave! + Burning for blood! bony and gaunt and grim," + +had scented the Parisian and was inviting his good friends with the long +teeth, to come and sup on the dainty morsel. Touched as if by a hot +iron, up got the terrified youth, and striking his ten nails into the +friendly tree near him like an Indian monkey, he was in an instant many +feet above its base. Here, astride upon a branch, shivering and shaking, +each hair on end, and murmuring many a Pater and Ave Maria, unsaid for +years, he passed the most horrific night that any citizen of the +department of the Seine had ever been known to spend in the middle of +the forest of Erveau. + +The following morning, but not until the sun had already run nearly +half his course, for he never dared to leave his timber observatory +before, _le pauvre diable_ dropped down from his perch like an +acorn--and, marching off with weary steps, and scarcely a hope that ere +another night fell he should gain the shelter of some cottage, he +dragged himself along. On he rolled from side to side, torn with the +thorns and bitten by the gnats that swarmed around him, sometimes +calling upon his mother, sometimes upon the saints--when a wood-cutter +happily met, and seeing his exhausted condition, threw the slim student +over his shoulders like a bundle of straw, and carried him to a +neighbouring village. There, he was put to bed and attended with every +care, when he soon recovered--and received the charming intelligence +that he was about forty miles from his uncle's house--that he had been +wandering for that distance in the most beautiful part of the forest of +Erveau, and that if by any chance he had deviated a little more to the +right in his unpleasant steeple-chase across the woods, he would have +gone, in a straight line, eighty-six miles without meeting house or +cottage or human soul until he found himself at the gates of Dijon, +chief town of the Côte-d'Or, where he might and would, no doubt, have +been able to refresh himself with a bottle of Beaune and inspect the +Gothic tombs of the great Dukes of Burgundy. + +Grateful was the unlucky lad to think that he had not taken this road, +and truly glad was he when, under the woodcutter's care, he reached his +uncle's white house. No sooner, however, was he fairly recovered from +his misadventure, than he packed up his superb cambric shirts, his Lyons +silk socks, patent leather boots, and white Jouvin gloves; squeezed the +hand of his aunt, gave a doubtful shake to that of his uncle, and +started in the _malle poste_ for the capital. His father's brother and +Le Morvan never saw him more. + +Such adventures, however, as these are rare, and you must have, indeed, +a double dose of bad fortune to be lost in such a woful way, and spend, +without meeting any mortal soul, thirty long hours in the woods: for +though the tract of forest is very extensive, there are strewed, here +and there, several merry villages, large farms, and hunting-boxes, +snugly hidden, it is true, beneath the trees,--but which an experienced +huntsman very soon discovers when he stands in need of assistance or a +night's lodging. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + Charms of a forest life to the sportsman--The Poachers--Le Père + Séguin--His knowledge of the woods and of the rivers--The first + buck--A bad shot. + + +However dangerous the forests of Le Morvan may be, and certainly are, to +the citizen of Paris, whose knowledge of wood-craft, whatever may have +been his delightful visions of forest life, of fairy revels, and +hair-breadth escapes, is about equal to his proficiency in navigation, +they are no labyrinth to the true sportsman of this province; in his +mind, they are mapped with an accuracy perfectly astonishing to the +uninitiated in the countless indications of nature, of which the eye of +man becomes so keenly observant when thrown constantly into her +fascinating society. Let a man of a vigorous health, active frame, and +contemplative mind once enter, even for a short time, upon the +enjoyments of sporting, wild and varied as are those of Le Morvan, it +would be difficult to withdraw him from its delights, and persuade him +that it is in any way desirable to return to the crowded haunts of men, +and condemn himself to resume the harassing struggle for wealth or a +competence in his own legitimate sphere. + +No; there scarcely breathes the human being who could be so insensible +to the charms of scenery like that of Le Morvan as to do so without a +pang. 'Tis a chalice of gold, brimful of real pleasures for those who +love the joys of the open air; 'tis alive with fish and game, and has +its vineyards and its cornfields too. + +But we are thinking of the forests only, of the boar--that potentate of +the solitudes--and the wild cat: of the ravines and caves, to which the +hardy and venturous hunter, through bush, brake, or briar, over +streamlet or torrent, will chace the ravenous wolf,--who, bearing the +iron ball in his lacerated side, ever and anon gnaws the wound in his +rage, and slinks on weeping tears of blood. The roebuck and the hare, +the feathered and the finny tribe, are ever presenting an endless +alternation of amusement more or less exciting; and the sportsman has +but to settle with himself, when the rosy morn appears, whether he will +bestride his gallant steed, or throw the rod or rifle over his +shoulder,--his day's pleasure is safe. + +It matters not whether the falling leaf announces that the woods are +clearing for him, the deep snow warns him to look to the protection of +his flocks from the dangerous intrusion of the wolves, or the genial air +and the brilliant flies tell him that the silvery tenants of the many +streams and rivers that intersect the forest are ready to provide him +sport. + +Arouse thee, sportsman! when the dark clouds of night fly before the +rays of Phoebus as a troop of timid antelopes before the +leopard,--when the lark abandons his mossy bed, and soaring sends forth +his joyous carol, + + "----blythe to greet + The purpling East," + +then, O sportsman, up, and to horse! Away! bending over the saddle-bow, +follow the wild deer across the heath--inhale the perfume of the +trampled thyme. Draw bridle for a moment, and pity the thousands of thy +fellow-men to whom the pure air and light are denied, and let thy +heartfelt thanksgivings for thy free and happy lot ascend to the azure +battlements of heaven. Beneath your gaze lie valleys whence rise the +morning mists as do the clouds from the richly-perfumed censer, and +float over the bosom of the plain ere they wreathe the mountain side; +all the bushes sing, every leaf is shining to welcome the glorious sun +as he rises majestically over that high dark range, and the bright blue +dome of day is revealed in all its purity. + +Plunge onward to the forest--you will perhaps fall in with one of the +_braconniers_--must I call them poachers?--of which there are many; all +alike, in one sense, yet each having the most whimsical characteristics. +The reader knows my friend Navarre, but I must now introduce him to +another of the cronies of my youth, the Père Séguin, the thoughts of +whom revive all the sweet recollections of my home when my family lived +in the ancient and picturesque Vezelay. + +Séguin's "form and feature" are as well impressed upon my memory as +those even of Navarre. Could any one forget him? I should think not; for +he was so fantastic and mysterious, such a determined sportsman and +eccentric desperado, that he was known to all Le Morvan. + +As well as I remember, he was about fifty-five years of age when I first +knew him; from his earliest boyhood he had fancied and loved a +forester's life, and for more than forty years had realized his dreams +of its wild independence. The woods, the rocks, the streams had no +secrets for him; he understood all their murmurs and their silence--he +knew the habits of every bird and beast of these forests and the +whereabouts of every large trout in his clear cold hole. + +But it is of no use to describe Père Séguin; to know him you must hunt +with him, and that pretty often, too--as I have done from my earliest +youth. I am now with him, on one of those joyous mornings of my boyhood, +and having threaded the woods for an hour, he has placed me in ambuscade +at the corner of a copse. Here, after a short delay, he pulls out his +watch, a time-piece weighing about two pounds, and after a mute +consultation with the hands, says in a low decided tone: + +"Good! Three o'clock. Stop here, youngster, and in an hour I shall send +you a buck." + +"A buck at four o'clock? How are you to tell that?" And I felt that I +opened my eyes as an oyster does his bivalve domicile at high water. "A +buck! you are joking." + +"I never joke," said the Père Séguin with a hoarse grunt, walking away, +and his face did not belie his words. + +"Well, then, but how can you possibly--Stop, do, for one moment. Hear +me! holla! Père Séguin! I say, you old humbug.--By Socrates, he is off." + +But Père Séguin was already striding fast and far through the bending +branches, wilfully, if not really out of hearing, and I had nothing to +do but to watch for the promised game. I had no watch, and it seemed to +me long after the appointed hour, when my reverie was disturbed by a low +voice, from I knew not where,--from heaven, from earth, from a murmuring +brook, from a tree,--which dropped these words in my ear. + +"Silence--four o'clock--the buck." + +At that moment I saw the ears of the roebuck, and soon after the animal +itself, pausing for a moment in his leisurely course, just where he +ought to be for a good shot. But amazement and trepidation seized me. I +fired in a hurry, and the deer bounded off unscathed. "How clumsy," said +I to the Père Séguin, as he emerged from the thicket, "and how +unfortunate, for I have some friends coming to dine with me this week." + +"Never mind, never mind," replied the poacher; "I will fill your larder +to-morrow." + +"Well, you are a good fellow, but remember I require also some fish--a +fine dish of trout." + +"Very well," growled the Père, "you shall have one;" and without a word +more the _braconnier_ is off; and soon after I meet him with his rod, a +young fir-tree, on his shoulder, a box of worms as large as snakes, and +with the most entire confidence in his piscatory powers, proceeding on +his way to the stream that will suit his purpose. In the evening he +reappears, taking from the fresh grass in which he has carried them, +three or four magnificent fish studded with drops of gold. White wine +and choice aromatic herbs flavour them, and you rejoice in the pleasure +and praises of your friends as they partake of the savoury meal. + +And now for a sketch, if possible, of this excellent purveyor. Père +Séguin was tall as an obelisk, strong as a Hercules, _vif_ as gunpowder, +thin and sinewy as any wolf in his beloved forests. His ear large, flat, +and full of hair; his teeth long, white, regular, and sharp as those of +his favourite and extraordinary dog; his eyes yellow, calm, and piercing +as those of a mountain eagle, and his chin had never been desecrated +with a razor. A kind of brushwood covered his face, and through it +peeped, with the tip of his hooked nose, the features I have described. +This immense uncultivated beard, tucked carefully within his waistcoat, +reached nearly to his waist. Did I say it had never been shaved? I might +add, it had never been combed. Lurking in it you might see leaves, +white hairs, red hairs, bits of a butterfly's wing, two or three jay's +feathers, a nutshell, some tobacco, a blade or two of grass, the cup of +an acorn, or a little moss. Indeed, so strangely was it garnished that, +when asleep on the grass under the trees, a robin was once seen to hover +over him undecided as to whether she would build her nest in it, or pick +out materials to make one elsewhere. + +Of uncommon intelligence, peculiarly taciturn, brave, frank, loyal, and +incapable of a bad action, his mind was of a gloomy cast; he was always +alone, he had no friends, he wanted none, and, if not hunting, reading +the Bible or muttering to himself, with his eyes fixed on the ground. He +lived like the woodcock, sad and solitary in his hole. + +The peasants dreaded him, and never spoke of him but as the _Sorcier_, +the _Vieux Diable_; when naughty little children refused to learn their +letters or to go to bed, it was only necessary to threaten them with +sending for the Père Séguin and his red dog, and the whole of the rosy +troop would scamper off to their nursery in an instant. + +I need scarcely say that amongst his other perfections he was a perfect +shot--the best in the department,--and the moment he touched the +trigger death winged his charge at two hundred paces. With a single ball +from his rifle would he bring down the wild cat from the highest +branches, and cut the poor squirrels in two, stop the howl of the wolf, +or shiver the iron frontal bones of the wild boar. + +In short, his gun was his joy, his friend, his mistress, his all; he +spoke to it, caressed it, rocked it on his knees as a mother would her +sick child, and took a thousand times more care of it than he would have +bestowed upon the most lovely wife, had he ever done anything so rash as +to marry. It was a singular accident that brought us acquainted; and if +I had had any respect for chronology, I should have related it before. + +One day, when rambling over the mountain in search of game, I put up and +fired at a hare; she was evidently hit, and I gave chase, yet though +puss had but three legs effective I could not overtake her, + + "I follow'd fast, but faster did she fly;" + +at last, a bank stopped and turned her, and I was on the point of taking +possession when a large red brindled dog dashed past and anticipated my +purpose, carrying off my hare, without bestowing so much as a glance +upon me,--no, not even appearing to see that I was there. Electrified +with astonishment, my left leg seemed pinned to the spot, while the +right, extended on a level with my shoulder, emulated that of Cerito in +"Giselle;" but recovering myself, I followed the thief, who made off +with the speed of a greyhound, in the direction of a neighbouring wood, +and on arriving at a little green knoll almost as soon as he did, I came +suddenly upon a strange and uncouth-looking figure who was reclining +comfortably on the grass beneath the shade of a large walnut-tree. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Le Père Séguin's collation--The young sportsman and the hare--The + quarrel--The apology--The reconciliation--The cemetery--Bait for + barbel--Le Père Séguin's deceased friends--The return home. + + +The extraordinary personage in whose presence I so suddenly found myself +was the celebrated Père Séguin, who, tired with his morning's sport, was +taking his noontide meal; that is, appeasing his appetite, always +enormous, with a loaf of black rye bread, into which he plunged his +ivory teeth with hearty rapidity, now and then taking a mouthful out of +a turnip he had pulled in a field hard by. The abominable quadruped was +there too, planted on his haunches, just in front of his master, looking +as innocent as a lamb, though still holding my hare between his teeth, +probably not daring to lay it down without permission. + +Père Séguin ate, drank, twisted his wiry moustache, dipped his turnip in +the coarse salt, and from time to time cast a glance at his vile dog, +without deigning to speak a word, or even to acknowledge my presence. +Furious at this behaviour, I bowed and said to him, "So, you are the +owner of this precious cur?" + +The poacher signified his assent by a slight movement of the head. + +"Well, if the dog belongs to you, the hare in his mouth belongs to me." + +"Does it?" said the Père Séguin, and he looked at his dog, who winked +his eye and shook his paw: "my dog tells me he caught this hare +running." + +"I know it, the rascally vagabond! and with no great trouble either, +seeing that the hare was half dead, and had but three legs to go upon." + +Père Séguin threw his yellow eye on the cur again, and, as if he had +understood all we said, he once more shook his paw, and gave a sort of +sneeze. + +"My dog repeats, he coursed the hare well, and has a right to her." + +"What do you mean by saying he has a right to her, when I tell you the +hare belongs to me?" + +"And my dog says the reverse." + +"Go to Dijon with your dog!" I exclaimed, "I tell you the hare is mine." + +"My dog never told a lie," rejoined the _braconnier_, and he dipped the +remnant of his turnip for the twentieth time in the salt. "Never." + +"Then _I_ am the liar," said I, beginning to feel hot, "I am the liar, +ah! am I? By Jupiter! your dog, you bearded fool--your cur of a dog? I +do not care a _sous_ for his carcass any more than I do for yours. I'll +have my hare." + +"Don't get excited, young man--don't be savage, I beg of you; for, as +sure as I am a sinner, you'll have a crop of pimples on your nose +to-morrow,--and red pimples on the nose are not pretty." + +"Keep your jokes to yourself, old man, or on my honour you shall repent +it!" + +"Ha! ha! ha!" grinned the Père Séguin, "Ha! ha! ha! capital turnip." + +"Houp! houp! houp!" went the dog. + +I was bewildered; such a strange adventure had never befallen me before. + +"Once, twice--will you give me my hare?" + +"Have I any hare of yours?" + +"You? No, but your dog." + +"Ha! that's another affair. You must settle that with him. Take your +hare, and let me eat my turnip in peace." + +Enraged at this, I rushed at the carroty dog, but he was off in an +instant, jumping first behind the tree, and then behind his master, +keeping my hare all the time fast in his mouth till I was fairly out of +breath, and aggravated beyond expression. + +I looked towards the poacher. He was quietly plucking the top off a +fresh turnip, but under the air of icy indifference which pervaded his +whole exterior I detected a sarcastic smile, which fully convinced me +that I was the laughing-stock of man and beast. I took my resolution, +and Père Séguin, who had followed my movements with his eye, said drily, +as I was going to put a cap on, "What are you going to do young man?" + +"Oh, nothing! just to kill your dog for taking my hare." + +"Bah! you're joking." + +"Joking! am I? You shall see;" and I proceeded quietly to raise my gun. + +"Gently, my lad," roared the Père Séguin, and he seized the weapon in +his iron grasp. + +"I may be but a 'lad,' but I'll not give up my rights; the hare is mine, +and I'll have her. Let go my gun!" + +"No!" + +"By----" + +"No!" + +"Then look out for yourself," said I, and with a rapid movement I +attempted to draw my _couteau de chasse_; but long before I could get +it out, he had seized me with both hands, and in a twinkling I measured +my length upon the turf, and the knife was in his possession. + +"Child of violence!" he said, as he set me again on my legs, and pushed +me from him, "Do you then already love to shed blood? Would you kill a +man for a hare? Have you not the sense to distinguish a joke from an +insult? There," he added, giving me back my knife, which had fallen from +its sheath in the struggle, "young man, do your worst!" + +But I was now as angry with myself as I had been with the old man, and +heartily ashamed of my conduct. I turned on my heel, and walked off, +vexed beyond expression at my intemperate folly. + +The very next day, as good fortune would have it, I met him again in the +forest, and lost not a moment in asking his forgiveness for my brutal +conduct of the previous day. + +"Ah! you acknowledge your fault, do you?" replied the Père Séguin, +"enough, that shows you have a heart. I bear you no ill-will; you are +_vif_ as the mountain breeze, but that comes of being young. Give me +your hand, and when you want a dove or lilies of the valley for your +sister, venison or wild boar for your friends, I, my gun, and my dog, +are at your service; but"--and he whispered in my ear--"no more knives." + +"See! see!" and I opened my jacket, "it is gone. I threw it into the +moat this morning." + +"'Tis well! very well! You have had a happy escape, young man. _Au +revoir._ Now, Faro, take your leave of Monsieur;" and instantly obeying +a sign from his master, the red dog licked my boots. A moment more, and +they were both lost to view in the forest. + +From that time I was frequently with the Père Séguin, for he seemed to +have a fancy--a sort of affection for me, and on my part I had an +incomprehensible pleasure in his society, though in the early part of +our acquaintance I could not divest myself of an undefined dread of him; +and had some difficulty in reconciling myself to the harsh and guttural +tones of his voice, and his peculiarly severe physiognomy. Nevertheless, +many an evening did I slip away from the paternal hearth, much to the +distress of my poor mother, to seat myself on one of his wooden stools, +and eat the chestnuts he was roasting in the embers, while he related, +by the pale light of his small charcoal fire, which but dimly showed the +extent even of his small room, frightful stories of ghosts, suicides, +drownings, and fearful murders, with which he delighted to terrify me; +and, dear reader, he succeeded to perfection, for all the time I sat +listening to them I was cold, and trembled like a leaf in the northern +blast. + +Well do I remember--yes, as well as if it had been yesterday--going out +with him to fish for barbel, and joining him over-night to go in search +of bait. I found him crouched by his fire, eating potatoes out of the +same plate with his dog. This frugal meal over, he took up a small +lantern, a large box, and a long spade, and beckoned me to follow him. + +The moon was rising as we left the hut, but red as blood, lightning +streaked the sky at short intervals, and the wind howled as if a storm +was approaching. Père Séguin rubbed his hands, and an expression of +satisfaction passed across his extraordinary countenance; for, living as +he did a lonely wandering life, he had become superstitious, and firmly +believed that worms caught at certain hours of the night, and in a +breeze that foretold an approaching tempest, were more likely to attract +the fish than those taken in the daylight. To this article of his creed +I offered no objection, but I own my heart shrunk within me when I +observed that he took the direct road to the burial-ground. "Père +Séguin," said I, "we need go no further; the turf in this lane is +capital; we shall find all we want here without a longer walk." "Since +when," he inquired in a voice that seemed to come from between his +shoulders, "since when have young fawns taught the old roebuck the way +to the forest-glades?" And he strode on without a word more, still in +the direction I so much abhorred. + +Arriving at the cemetery, Père Séguin walked leisurely round it, paying +as much attention to me as if I had not been with him, and I followed +like a criminal going to the scaffold. After having made a careful +examination of the wall, he stopped suddenly, gave me the lantern and +the spade, and leaped upon the top, desiring me to do the same. I +hesitated, and fell back, for I felt more inclined to throw them down +and run away, and Père Séguin saw it. + +"Ha! ha!" he exclaimed, fixing his yellow eye upon me. "I thought you +were heart of oak, young Sir; are you only a man of straw?" + +I gave no answer, but I leaped on to the wall like a rope-dancer. + +"Hum!" he muttered; "good legs, but a faint heart." And he begun rapidly +to turn up the rank grass, and pick the large red worms from amongst the +roots, when, looking up in my face, he said, with infinite coolness, +"Why, you are as pale as my mother was on the day of her death! What +ails you?" + +"Ails me!" I replied, repressing my fears, "why to tell you the truth, +I'd just as soon be anywhere else as here." + +"Pooh! pooh! young man; one must accustom one's self to everything in +this world. We must learn--be always learning. Remember, for instance, +for I'll be bound that you never heard of such a thing before, that +worms taken in a burial-ground are the finest possible bait for barbel, +do you hear?--taken by moonlight from the roots of the hemlock." + +"Good heavens! Père Séguin, I would rather never catch a fish for the +rest of my days than touch one of those worms!" + +"Nonsense, my lad--nonsense; they are admirable bait--fine fat +fellows--sure to take. We shall have a wonderful day to-morrow. You will +soon see how the giants and gourmands of the streams will snap at these +beauties." + +"Hang the barbel, Père Séguin!--let us leave this cold churchyard. I +feel sick, and a clammy cold creeping over me already--do let us be +gone;" but he would not move. + +"Don't feel unwell, pray don't; it is a well-known fact, that any person +who feels ill in a churchyard is sure to die within the year." + +"Let us leave then, for I do feel very ill;" but the purveyor of worms +was now too much occupied to listen to me. + +Hopeless, therefore, of inducing him to leave till he had filled his +box, I sat down on a tombstone, and the noise he made with the spade in +the silence, the darkness, and the peculiar and sickening odour of the +place, filled me with an indescribable sense of fear and horror. + +At length the poacher paused, and having disentangled a very long worm +from the twisted roots of a large clod, he said, "This makes one hundred +and thirteen--a holy number. Now I've done, my lad; let us be off." + +"Yes--oh, yes!"--for the minutes seemed hours--"let us go instantly;" +and I sprang from the tombstone, while Père Séguin proceeded +deliberately to fill up the holes, and replace the turf, whistling +through his moustache just as if he had been in the middle of his +garden. + +"One hundred and thirteen!--I like that number." + +"So do I, Père Séguin; but do let us be going. If we remain here, they +will think that we have killed and buried some one. Do, pray, be off;" +and I made for the wall. + +"Stop!" he said suddenly, drawing himself up to his full height, six +feet three, "Stop!" and throwing out his long arms, which made his +shadow on the stones resemble an immense black cross, "Hold there! Look! +Do you see that tomb--that large gray stone?" + +"I see nothing, Père Séguin, I will see nothing. I close my eyes, and +only desire to be gone." + +"As you please," said the poacher; "but you are wrong. I could have told +you a curious history--a most interesting history." + +"Thanks for your histories--much obliged to you; but I have had enough +of them." Still Père Séguin would persevere: "A woman, who has appeared +to me three times--yes, three following days--spoken to me, pulled me by +the fingers and by the beard eight days after her death." + +"Yes! yes! I know; but which way are we to get out of this infernal +place?" + +"Why, what a hurry you are in!--I say stop, and let me say good night to +her!"--and Père Séguin approached the tall gray stone, the moon shining +full upon it, and struck it with the handle of his spade, calling each +time in a solemn voice, "Madeleine! Madeleine! Madeleine!" + +Had I been at that frightful moment cut in four quarters, not one drop +of blood would have been found in my veins; my teeth chattered with +terror, and I would have given every acre of my inheritance for strength +enough to run away. "Madeleine! Madeleine!" le Père Séguin continued in +a low and churchyard tone, "Madeleine!" he cried, leaning on the gray +tomb, "'tis me, Séguin--le Père Séguin; good night, good night, +Madeleine!" + +I could not speak, I could not move; and certainly had the lady +whispered only one single little word in reply, I should have fainted. + +"Well, it is all over; she is dead for certain now!" said the poacher, +shaking his head. "Alas! poor Madeleine! Gone in the flower of her age! +Dead at two-and-twenty, for having offered me a violet! Dead! Let us +begone." + +I beg you to understand I did not put him to the necessity of repeating +his words, but found my legs in excellent running order in a moment. + +"Hold! not so fast!" said my companion, just as I was springing at the +wall, and thought myself out of danger, "Hold! Down there, my young +gentleman, in that dark corner amongst the brambles. You see that little +heap of earth, which one might fancy a dead man alive had pushed up +with his knees; well, there also is one of my comrades. Ho! halloo, +Jerome!" + +"Père Séguin," said I, "this is unworthy of you; you have no right thus +to mock at and disturb the dead; you only want to torment me; and I have +already told you, and I repeat it, I feel exceedingly ill." + +"Come, come along then--let us go. I shall return here presently to +sleep. Good night, Madeleine!--good night, Jerome!--good night, all of +you who are sleeping so quietly under the green turf!"--and it seemed to +me, as these adieus were uttered, that icy breezes passed from every +tomb across my face, whispering in my ears, "Good night!" and that the +firs, the yews, the cypress bending across our path seemed to salute us +as we left the horrible precincts. + +We soon regained the town, and on the road there I would not have turned +my head for a crown of rubies; Père Séguin, meanwhile, coolly carrying +his box of worms, which I would not have touched for the best place in +Paradise. + +The next morning, instead of fishing for barbel, I was unable to rise +from my bed; and for fifteen nights I never closed my eyes without +seeing in my dreams ghosts, and all the horrid details of the churchyard +and the charnel-house. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + Passage of the woodcock in November--Their laziness--Night + travelling--Mode of snaring them at night--Numbers taken in this + way--This sport adapted rather for the poacher--The _braconnier_ of + Le Morvan--His mode of life--The poacher's dog--The double poacher. + + +The object of this chapter will be to give the reader some little +insight into the habits of the woodcock, and the mode of snaring them in +the forests of Le Morvan, during the month of November. At the close of +this month, Dame Nature's barometer, their instinct, far better than the +quicksilver, tells them the December rains are close at hand; and that +if they remain in their hiding-places in the low grounds, they will be +driven out by the approaching deluge. They at length make up their minds +to set forth on their travels. With a long-drawn sigh, therefore, the +woodcock bids farewell to the old oaks that have sheltered it all the +summer, and taking leave of its friendly comrades, the squirrels, it +sets out on the first fine night for a more genial climate, to the +delight, no doubt, of the neighbouring worms, who pop their heads out of +window to witness its departure; and the moment their enemy is fairly +out of sight, perform many a pirouette on the tip of their tails, and +dance upon the grass in honour of the joyous event. + +If a woodcock was not a woodcock, that is, one of the laziest birds in +the creation, it might easily reach, in a few days' flight, the dry +heaths, the hills, and elevated regions, which it loves; but woodcocks +abhor all violent exercise, always preferring the use of their feet to +that of their wings, which latter they never agitate, except when +necessity requires. Well, they have now set out, and after marching all +night by slow and easy stages, when morning comes our woodcocks make a +halt wherever they happen to be, breakfast as best they may, and then +ensconce themselves in some snug spot, where they doze the livelong day, +till, refreshed by their twelve hours' rest, they set off again with +renewed strength the moment the sun has gone down. + +Thus it is that during the middle of November there is no regular +flight, but a kind of circulation, of woodcocks, perambulating from the +lower to the higher regions, and the _gourmet_ and the sportsman fail +not to stop them on their way. + +As it is necessary in this kind of _chasse_ to spend the night under the +trees and on the damp moss, those who wish to enjoy it prepare for it +accordingly by dressing themselves like Navarre, in a suit of +sheepskins, and lay in a good store of cold meat and brandy. + +During their nocturnal peregrinations, instinct leads the woodcock to +follow ascending roads and open pathways, especially such as are +completely exposed to the mild winds of the south and south-east only; +they avoid walking through the woods, where the road is encumbered with +brambles and other obstacles, which would oblige them to hop or fly far +oftener than they like, occasionally leaving a portion of their feathers +behind them. Moreover, their feet are tender, and they in consequence +prefer the paths that are overgrown with grass, the open glades, or +roads cut through the moss. + +It is now that the sportsman who is well versed in the private history +of the woodcock prepares his snares; for at this period of the year it +is by them that they are taken. + +Penetrating, therefore, the depths of the forest, the experienced +_chasseur_ soon discovers, in some secluded spot, a path well carpeted +with verdure, lighted by a few stray moonbeams and sheltered from the +wind, where he forthwith begins to lay his snares. Should the path be +broad, he proceeds to contract it, strewing it partially with stones, +brambles, and thorns; he likewise cuts down some twigs and branches, and +sticks them into the ground at intervals, so as to present as many +impediments and _chevaux de frise_ as he can to thwart the progress of +the lazy bird. The middle of the path should be left quite free, and +wide enough to allow a couple of woodcocks to walk abreast. Into this +narrow passage they all walk without suspicion, and their further +progress is prevented by their falling into the trap which is laid to +receive them. + +This snare is placed across a hole about the size of a crown piece, and +consists of a strong noose made of horsehair, which is fixed to a peg, +and so arranged that the slightest touch causes it to rebound and catch +them by the leg. + +In the hole is laid a fine, fat, red worm, healthy and tempting, and, in +order to prevent the poor prisoner's escaping, the sportsman has devised +a method of keeping him down in spite of himself, by pinning him to the +ground at one end with a long thorn--it is presumed worms do not feel; +his miserable contortions attract the attention of the hungry woodcock, +who immediately seizes this irresistible tit-bit. + +Every preparation completed and the snare baited, the hole, the worm, +and the noose are carefully covered over by a withered leaf--a second +snare, similarly concealed, is set on the right, a third in the middle, +and so on at a distance of three or four feet from each other. All is +now in readiness, and twilight finds the sportsman covered up in his +skins at some fifty paces from his traps. Here, after having comforted +his inward man, and sharpened his sight by swallowing two or three +glasses of cognac, addressing between them an invocation to his patron +saint, he listens and waits. + +On come the long-bills, looking right and left, pecking the ground, +peering at the moon and the stars, and eating all they can find in their +way. They now approach the dangerous defile, and some of the younger +ones fly over the traps; others, more prudent, turn back; but the main +body hold a council of war, when the staff officers having decided that +these Thermopylæ must be passed, first one woodcock and then another +taking heart proceeds, and the sportsman hugs himself in his success on +perceiving the whole troop making towards the baits he has spread for +them. Before long one of the birds gets its leg entangled, totters, +falls, rises again, but in doing so is made fast by the noose, and in +spite of its efforts is unable to advance a step further. Another, +hearing the sound of a worm struggling at the bottom of a hole, darts +in its beak, with the charitable intention of ending the prisoner's +sufferings, and on raising its head is suddenly seized by the neck. The +sportsman now steals softly from his hiding-place, and, stooping down, +smashes the woodcock's brain with his thumb nail, and so on with the +next, after which he retreats to his post, and keeps up the game till +dawn. Some persons will in this manner catch from twenty to thirty +woodcocks in a single night; but they must be favourably placed, have a +great number of snares, and, moreover, possess a considerable degree of +skill, and tread lightly, (for the most important point, in this sport, +is to make as little noise as possible,) and be very quick at putting +the snares in order the moment they have been used--no easy work, in +good sooth, seeing that it must be performed by an occasional ray of +moonlight. + +If late on the ground, and you have not sufficient time to obstruct and +barricade the road as directed above, the earth may be turned up in the +middle of the path and the snares placed across it; the woodcocks, in +the hope of finding something to eat, will immediately walk on to +it--but although this method occasionally succeeds it is far from being +as good as the first, for the soil does not offer the same resistance +as the turf, the holes get filled up, and the birds escape more easily. + +The sportsman should mind and bag his game as fast as it is snared, or +master Reynard, who has been watching the whole affair, will pounce upon +his birds and carry them off, with a dozen nooses into the bargain. + +Poachers reap an ample harvest of cash by this mode of taking woodcocks, +while other sportsmen generally reap the rheumatism; and, truth to say, +the silence and immobility that must be observed all night long, the +intense cold, and the damp fogs which cover the forest in the early +morning, are not very agreeable, and most gentlemen prefer staying at +home, enjoying the innocent diversion of playing the flute, quarrelling +with their wives, or emptying the bottle. + +To succeed well in snaring woodcocks requires both skill and experience, +and a thorough knowledge of the woods, the winds, the colour of the +clouds, the age of the moon, the state of the atmosphere; and, in fact, +short of being a poacher or a conjuror, how is it possible to know that +the woodcocks will pass one spot rather than another in a space of +several score of square miles, and amongst so many and such intricate +paths. The _braconnier_ alone is infallible on these points, and curious +specimens of the human biped are these same poachers! + +In the first place it must not be imagined that the poachers of Le +Morvan bear the slightest resemblance to those of England. They are as +much alike as Thames water and Burgundy wine. The English poacher is a +rank vagabond, who invades every one's game-preserves at dead of night, +and kills whatever he finds, whether hares, partridges, dogs, pheasants, +or gamekeepers,--while ours are men following a legitimate occupation. + +In Le Morvan, forests are open to all; there are no palings to get over, +and no keepers to fear; the public may hunt, shoot, or snare what they +please. + +The poacher commences his hard apprenticeship in early childhood. Nature +directs him to adopt this course of life, and endows him with a bold +heart, a cool head, a sinewy frame, and an iron constitution. The +incipient poachers soon leave the inhabited districts to live in the +forests, with trees for their roof, and moss for their bed. They study +alike the woods and the stars, and know the forest by heart, with its +roads and glades, beaten tracks and untrodden paths. From sunrise to +sunset they are always-a-foot, walking through the thickets, tramping +over heaths, or stooping amongst the brushwood, listening, and looking +everywhere, and by night and by day constantly making their observations +on the direction of the wind, the habits of the animals that pass them, +or the birds that fly over their heads. + +In this way they ferret out every nook and every winding in the forest, +and now here and now there build themselves a hut, live upon fruit, +chestnuts, and their game, which they roast upon embers; and never come +into a town except to purchase powder, shot and ball, or perhaps a pair +of shoes, some tobacco, and brandy. + +Such is the rough life of the youthful poacher, nor has he any companion +during this wild period of his existence, excepting a dog, the faithful +partner of his joys and dangers, and who becomes a devoted friend and +brother for life. They live together, talk to each other, understand +each other, and guess each other's slightest wish. I have seen a poacher +talking to his dog by the hour together, the man laughing fit to split +at what his canine companion was telling him in his own peculiar way, +while the dog, rolling on the grass, barked with delight at what his +master answered. + +When on their shooting expeditions, a sign from his master, a nod, a +wink, an uplifted finger, or the slightest whisper, are either of them +sufficient for his guidance; he stops, or dashes onward, takes a leap, +or crouches down, as the case may be, and never is he known to be at +fault. + +On his part the poacher has only to refer to his dog as to the pages of +a book, and he reads at once in his slightest movements what is in the +wind, what bird lies hidden in the grass, or what beast is cowering in +the thicket. By the position of his head, the manner in which he +scratches the ground, pricks his ear, or carries his tail, he +understands as plainly as if he spoke whether he announces the proximity +of a wolf, a partridge, a woodcock, a roebuck, a hare, or a rabbit. + +I have known poachers who have told me half an hour beforehand what we +were going to meet. Another would bid his dog bring him a leaf, a +branch, a flower, or a mushroom, and off he went, sought, found, and +brought back the identical article required. "Now, sing," said the +poacher, and the dog began to sing; not, indeed, exactly like Mario, but +he produced a kind of melodious growl, a sort of improvised musical +lament over his solitary life, which had its charm. Most poachers are +exceedingly fond of music, and as they are always singing in their +leisure moments, of course their dog joins them; so that when they are +both in the humour for it, they execute duets in the depths of the +forest that make the very nightingales jealous. + +By the time a poacher has acquired a complete knowledge of wood-craft, +and that he knows familiarly every path and every bush in the forest, +every hole and every stone in the mountains, together with the habits, +character, and favourite haunts of every species of game; has made a +reputation, and put by some money; that he is beginning to turn gray, +and is verging on forty, his fondness for this savage kind of life +begins to diminish, his rough exterior becomes somewhat softened, he +purchases a solitary little cottage in some secluded spot, comes oftener +into town, and occasionally partakes of its pleasures. + +In poaching, as in everything else, there are varieties of taste, and +degrees of superiority. Some fish, others hunt only the roebuck and the +boar, others shoot squirrels and wild cats, others again excel in +snaring woodcocks, while some are dead hands at scenting and tracking a +wolf. Each poacher has his peculiar line, and each line furnishes a +livelihood. + +But when it happens, once in a way, that there is a man who unites a +profound knowledge of the forest to an equally profound knowledge of the +waters--who hunts, tracks, and shoots all sorts of game with equal +success, and is also an expert fisherman, then he is a superior man of +his kind, complete at all points, a sort of Napoleon in his way, and his +countrymen bestow on him the title of the "double poacher,"--for thus +was called my worthy friend Le Père Séguin. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + The woodcock--Its habits in the forests of Le Morvan--Aversion of + dogs to this bird--Timidity of the woodcock--Its cunning--Shooting + in November--The Woodcock mates--The Woodcock fly. + + +In the last and preceding chapters, the imaginative and romantic have +predominated almost to the entire exclusion of any description of the +wild sports of Le Morvan, and I fear that the sporting reader, not +generally of a very sentimental taste, will ere this have become +impatient, and perhaps a little angry at the delay. I trust, however, +that I may be able to soften his indignation, and by the following +sketches gratify the expectations naturally raised in his mind by the +first words of the title-page. Of boar and wolf-hunting we shall speak +further on: my present object will be to give a description, not only of +the woodcock-shooting in Burgundy and Le Morvan, but also of the habits, +etc., of that bird. + +In the forests of which we are writing, the woodcock is not a mere bird +of passage, as in other European countries; it does not fly beyond sea, +like the swallow and most of the emigrating feathered tribes, nor does +it disappear like the quail, at a fixed period, and reappear at a given +moment. Here the woodcock seldom if ever deserts the forests which have +been its constant abode, and the sportsman is sure to find it nearly all +the year round. I have said nearly, for though not seeking other climes, +it requires a change of locality to secure a certain temperature. + +For instance, in the months of May, June, July, and August, woodcocks +are to be found in elevated spots, such as mountains covered with large +trees, or in warm open places on their slopes. At the first approach of +cold weather they leave the hills, and come down into the plains, +concealing themselves in the underwood, or the fern, or in the high +grass, when the snow begins to fall. The woodcock is a melancholy bird, +and somewhat misanthropic. Its habits are eminently anti-social; it +flies but little, so little indeed that its wings seem scarcely of any +use, and with the laziness already alluded to that forms its +characteristic feature, it seeks out a solitary spot, and having dug a +hole amongst the dry leaves, there it will squat for days together +without stirring. It likewise delights to cower under the gnarled roots +of an old oak, or to hide itself in a holly-bush, and apparently derives +so much satisfaction from its own meditations, and seems to hold all +other birds of the forest in such utter contempt, that it never by any +chance deigns to join their sports, or mingle in their joyous songs. The +woodcock seeks the darkest and most silent thickets, and likes a marly +soil, damp meadows, and the neighbourhood of brooks and stagnant water. + +But though motionless and torpid, so long as the sun is above the +horizon, woodcocks are always on the alert, and wake and shake their +feathers the moment night comes; leaving the shady thickets and grassy +spots, they flock to the glades and little paths of the woods, and +thrust their long beaks into the soft, damp soil--for this bird, be it +remembered, never touches either corn or fruit, but lives entirely upon +grubs and earth-worms. + +It naturally follows that the woodcock, which finds its food in slimy +marshes, with head bent, and eyes fixed upon the ground, possesses none +of the gaiety and vivacity of other birds, holds but a very low place in +the scale of animal intelligence, and possesses a large share of that +stupidity peculiar to the dull species that were formed to live in the +mire. + +The size of the woodcock varies exceedingly; they are much smaller than +the domestic fowl, but heavier and larger than the heath partridge; yet +there are some which are as small as a wood-pigeon, and even less. Their +plumage is dark, and harmonizes admirably with the trunks of the trees +and moss amongst which they dwell. Even in the daylight, and at a +distance of only twenty paces, it is impossible to distinguish a +woodcock, as it lies motionless, with closed wings, and neck extended on +the ground, amongst the withered leaves. + +When walking on the grass, there is a certain elegance in its movements, +while the beautiful _chiar' oscuro_ tints of its wings, the gray and +orange hues on its breast, its long black legs streaked with pink, its +large beak, small head, and symmetrical proportions, combine to render +it a bird of no ordinary beauty. Though its eyes are piercing and very +open, the woodcock only sees distinctly at twilight, and its flight is +never so even or so rapid, nor its motions so brisk, or its gait so +regular, as at nightfall or at dawn of day. + +The flesh is black, firm, and of a game flavour, and, with the wise, is +a most dainty morsel, a royal tit-bit. But dogs think differently, and +have such an aversion to its smell, that they hunt, seize, and bring it +back much against their will; and, difficult as it may be to account +for this antipathy, it seems to be as inherent in canine nature, as the +antipathy which all ladies show to contradiction is in the human. + +Far removed from the strife that occasionally rages amidst the feathered +tribes of the forest, or the more formidable struggles of its +four-footed inhabitants, whose howls occasionally startle the silence of +night, and quite indifferent as to whether a fox or a wolf is seated on +the sylvan throne, the woodcock, like a true philosopher, in the depths +of the thicket, leads a calm and sedentary life, requiring no other +elements of happiness than moonlight, rest, and a few worms. Its tastes +are so humble, its wants so few; it mixes so little with the world, and +is so ignorant of all intrigue, that nothing can exceed its innocence. +Like those honest country-folks who can never manage to shake off their +native simplicity, its instinct never puts it on its guard against a +snare, and consequently it falls into the first that is set for it. + +A complete stranger to the fierce emotions that excite the savage nature +of those animals that live constantly at war with one another, the +peaceful woodcock--the bird of twilight--is startled by the least noise, +and stunned by the slightest accident. Many a time, at dawn of day, when +lying in wait for the passage of a fox, a roebuck, or a wolf, have I +seen two, three, four, even five woodcocks slowly issue from their leafy +covert, and advance with measured step towards the open glade, +apparently without imagining that by leaving the shade of the trees they +were exposing themselves to being seen. On they walked, searching by the +way, plunging from time to time their long beaks into the grass, and +shaking their heads right and left to enlarge the hole, they breakfasted +luxuriously on the worms that crept out of it. + +Concealed behind an oak-tree, I have sometimes been highly amused by +watching their motions, nor had I the least wish to disturb them, not +caring to rouse the echoes of the forest for such insignificant game. So +the woodcocks went on with their manoeuvres, holding down their heads, +with eyes intent upon the grass, evidently engrossed by their own +occupation. In this manner they unconsciously advanced close to me, when +suddenly rising from the ground I gave a loud shout, at which the +startled birds were so panic-struck that they literally fell down, and +fluttering their wings, without having the power to fly, looked at me +with rolling eye-balls, while their beaks opened as if to call for help, +emitting nothing but inarticulate sounds, that seemed so many prayers +for mercy. Somewhat relieved of their worst fears, on perceiving that I +had no evil intentions, they rushed away head over heels, and sought +refuge under their favourite roots. The recollection of this scene, +which only lasted seven or eight seconds, has often made me laugh. + +Yet notwithstanding this general want of presence of mind, the woodcock +displays some cunning in extreme danger,--such as when the shot is +whistling past its feathers, or when the hawk is wheeling about in the +air above its head; its faculties then seem to awaken, its blood +circulates more freely, a spark of intelligence seems to flash across +its usually obtuse brain, and the magnitude of the peril suggests an +excellent means of escaping from its enemies. During the daytime, for +instance, when, snugly ensconced in its hole, and with its ear close to +the ground, the woodcock hears you approach from afar, instead of rising +and taking refuge amongst the trunks of the surrounding trees, it first +reflects solemnly whether it is worth while to disturb itself for so +slight a noise, and quit its leafy bed, where it lies so warm and +comfortable. After all, it may be only a hare running past--or perhaps a +roebuck grazing in the neighbourhood--so the woodcock waits, then +listens, then stands up and begins to move; on hearing your thick shoes +trampling the withered branches, it stands motionless, not daring to +stir, nor can it make up its mind to fly until it feels the breath of +your dog. Then it rises rapidly enough. + +It flies straight, but its flight is not even, and at the distance of +about fifty paces, and just as you are going to fire, the woodcock, well +aware that the sportsman's eye is upon it, and shrewdly guessing that +thunder and lightning is about to follow, changes his tactics, and +lowering its flight, so as to avoid the mortal aim, suddenly plunges +down behind a bush. The sportsman, who, not aware of this specious +manoeuvre, fires at this juncture, thinks the bird has fallen dead, +and forthwith runs to pick it up, but no woodcock can he find; for on +raising his eyes, lo! and behold, he sees the provoking bird some five +hundred paces distant, cleaving the air with sails full set; and as his +eyes follow it still further, he perceives it flying with all its might, +ever and anon prudently ducking down to avoid the second barrel. + +This is one of the woodcock's best stratagems, and it succeeds ten times +out of twelve, at least with the tyros among sportsmen. + +When fairly tired by its flight, the woodcock drops into the underwood, +and is then completely lost to the sportsman; for, once on the ground, +it runs with the greatest celerity, its wings working rapidly like a +couple of paddles, and vanishing beneath the leaves, falls fainting into +some snug corner. + +In Brittany and in Lower Normandy this ornament of the table and delight +of the sportsman is found in great numbers at a certain season of the +year. In Picardy, and in the neighbourhood of Boulogne, I have sometimes +knocked over as many as twenty woodcocks in one day, while on the morrow +and the day following I could not flush three. Such is not the case in +Le Morvan, where they are, as we have before remarked, to be found all +the year round; the proper seasons, however, for shooting them are +three. These are, the month of November, before the rains set in; the +month of April, when they mate; and the sultry months of June and July; +the period of drought and of the dog-days. In the interim of these +epochs they are allowed to enjoy themselves, and suffered to fatten +quietly in their dark thickets. I shall, therefore, only notice these +three periods. + +In foggy or cloudy nights, when the branches of the trees are dripping +wet, the woodcock, ensconced in its hole, feels no hunger, moves not, +and would not venture abroad for love or money; but should the sky +prove clear, and the moon shine forth, lighting up the forest paths, the +delighted bird steals from its dwelling, shakes its feathers, and +sallies forth on its adventures. For the woodcock, like poets and +lovers, is fond of the moonlight and the sweet perfumes of evening. +Hence it is that sportsmen in France call the full moon of November "the +woodcock's moon," and they hail its appearance with as much rejoicing as +do the foxes, wild cats, and poachers, all of whom make sad havoc +amongst the long-beaked tribe during this fatal period. + +The woodcock has been described as an idle, heavy, timid, and stupid +bird, which passes the greater portion of the day in lethargic slumbers, +in gazing at the south, at the growing grass, or the falling leaves; +rejoicing only in silence and solitude; and such is the case during nine +months of the year. In the spring, however, it is quite otherwise; the +woodcock then mates, and, ere April showers have passed away, becomes +animated, sociable, and full of life; and, more extraordinary still, its +voice, till then mute, may actually be heard. + +Yes, at this delightful season the woodcock is no longer silent, its +tongue is loosened, it breathes its tale of love, and, with joyful +notes, proclaims its happiness morning and night; and yet there are +those who would make us believe that the tender passion is useless, that +love is tom-foolery, or that it does not exist. To these blind +blasphemers, who thus deny its power, I would respectfully say, Come to +Le Morvan, and observe the woodcock, and then dare to say that love is +an untruth. Why, love is the great magician of the universe, the sun of +our minds, a path of fragrant violets, a perfect copse of _millefleurs_, +before which we all bend our hearts, aye, and, with vastly few +exceptions, our heads too. Yes, we all, at some period of our lives, +taste the delicious draught, and some drink deep of it, either to their +life-long happiness or the reverse. Love effects many a miracle, changes +everything, bows the neck of the proud, opens the eyes of the blind, and +shuts them for those who have very good sight; teaches the dumb to +speak, and those who are very loquacious to be silent. When the rosy and +naked little boy makes his appearance with his quiver, all is joy and +unreflecting happiness; when he is at home with his mamma, alas! the +world is all in shadow. The woodcocks, in like manner, are amiable, +eloquent, and engaging as long as the fumes of love affect their brain; +but when these are dissipated, they are dumb, and ten times more stupid +than they were before; and, dear me, how many human woodcocks, robed in +satin and balzarine, or sheathed in kerseymere trousers, are the same. + +But, shades of Buffon and Linnæus! we must not thus rattle on, but +proceed to describe the nuptial couch of the delicious bird under our +consideration. The woodcock, like all those of the feathered tribe that +do not perch, makes its nest on the ground, which is composed of leaves, +fern, and dry grass, intermixed with little bits of stick, and +strengthened by larger pieces placed across it. This nest, made without +much art or care, in form like a large brown ball, is generally placed +under, and sheltered by the root of some old tree. Four or five eggs, a +little larger than those of the common pigeon, of a dirty gray and +yellow colour, and marked with little black spots, are the proofs of its +maternity. The woodcock, as I have before remarked, has only the gift of +talking in the spring season, when soft breezes fan the air, and they +educate their young. Nevertheless, it is in this season that +woodcock-shooting is the most amusing. Then is the time for gentlemen to +shoot; the _braconnier_ despises it. From the middle of April to that of +May is the important epoch at which the generality of animals marry, +and the woodcocks are not behindhand in this respect; they leave their +well-concealed retreats, become humanized, solicit the attentions of +their feathered ladies, and fly with gay inspirations amongst the +neighbouring bushes. But though as much in love as a widow, the woodcock +does not on that account forget its habitual prudence; like the usurer +who lends his money, and takes every precaution, the woodcock is equally +careful, and does not leave its nest till twilight has draped the earth +in the gray mantle of evening. When the humid atmosphere descends slowly +on the trees, when the cool breezes of night ascend the valleys, when +distant objects begin to assume a fantastic shape, when the branches of +the oak near you, like the arms of a giant, wave to and fro, and seem to +ask you to approach; when the withered tree, devoid of leaves, looks +like a brigand on the watch, or your comrade, ensconced against it, +seems to form a portion of it at a hundred yards off; when, in short, +the sportsman can see only a few yards before him, then is the moment +that the circumspect and wily woodcock leaves its abode, and pays a +nocturnal visit to his friends; and man, his enemy, and still more +cunning, is on the alert. The sport which we are about to describe, and +which does not last longer than from thirty to forty minutes, has +something particularly taking in it. At the close of day a universal +silence reigns in the forest, and every sportsman is at his post with +bated breath, and eyes dilated as wide as a woman's listening to a +neighbouring gossip's tale, when, all at once--pray note this well, +reader--a little fly, which plays a prominent part in all sport _à +l'affût_ (in ambush)--a little fly, about the size of a pea, regularly +makes its appearance, and wheeling round your head, fidgets you for five +minutes with its buzzing b-r-r-r-r-r-r-oo. In this way the little insect +informs you the woodcocks have left the underwood, that they are +approaching, and that it hears them coming; and odd or marvellous as it +may seem, this signal of the little fly, which never misleads you--this +signal which falls upon your ear just at the proper and precise moment, +is as certain as that two and two make four. Be not sceptical, and +imagine that this is chance; no such thing. Go when you will to the +_chasse à l'affût_, station yourself in whichever part of the forest you +like, be assured the fly will be there; it was never otherwise. The +question is, who sends the fly? how does it know the sportsman? and by +what mysterious chronometer does it regulate with such exactness its +movements? _Chi lo sa?_ He who doth not let a sparrow fall to the ground +without He willeth it. Equally incomprehensible is the departure of this +little insect, which, the concert over, and when you are thoroughly on +the _qui vive_, ceases its buzz, and is heard no more. At this very +moment, the silence in which you have till then remained is suddenly +broken by shouts of "They come! they come!" quickly followed by bang, +bang, bang along the glade; and here indeed they are, at first by twos +and threes, and then a compact flight, whirling along with appealing +cries of love, fluttering, and flapping their wings, and pursuing one +another from bush to bush. They show now neither fear nor +circumspection, and crazy, blind, and deaf, scarcely seem to notice the +noise, the flashes, or the cries of the sportsmen. At length all is in +complete confusion. They toss and twirl about like great leaves in a +hurricane, and finally fly, with their ranks somewhat diminished, to +their several homes. This sport lasts but a short half-hour; after +which, the woodcocks having said all they had to say, made and accepted +their engagements for the following day, vanish as if by magic, like the +puff of a cigar, a shadow, or a royal promise, and the same silence that +preceded their arrival reigns once more in the forest. No gun is loaded +after their departure; the sportsmen assemble, count the dead, never so +numerous, as one might suppose, and having bagged them, also retire from +the scene. I have known one person kill four couple of woodcocks in this +manner, but it was quite an exceptional case; two or three is nearer the +usual number. Chance, as in war, in marriage, in everything, is +frequently the secret of success; but if you are not cool and collected, +and handy with your gun, you will scarce carry a _salmi_ home to your +expectant friends. To the young sportsman, the novelty, confusion, and +hubbub of these evening shooting-parties are perfectly bewildering; +Parisian cockneys, above all, are quite beside themselves, shutting +first one eye and then the other, firing, of course, without having +taken any aim, and eventually beating a retreat without a feather in +their game-bags. But to the veteran, this fevered half-hour, this brief +_chasse_, is most delightful; everything conspires to make it lively and +exciting. The party, ten or twelve jolly dogs, have generally dined +together, and the onslaught over, they all return by the pale moonlight, +shoulder to shoulder, singing snatches of some old hunting-song, the +stars overhead and the woodcocks on their backs. A young Parisian and +college friend of mine, Adolphe Gustave de----, very rich and very +witty, whom, after many unsuccessful attempts, I induced to leave the +capital, and pass six months with me in the deserts, as he called them, +of Le Morvan, loved this species of sport intensely, though he never +shot anything. His bag, however, was always better filled than that of +any of his comrades, for though a wretched shot, he had the wit to stand +near a good one, and as he was wonderfully quick with his legs, eyes, +and fingers, he was constantly picking up his neighbour's birds, vowing +all the time they were his own shooting. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + Fine names--Gustavus Adolphus and the cabbages--Gustavus Adolphus! + no hero!--The Parisian Sportsman--Partridge-shooting + despicable--Wild boar-hunting--Rousing the grisly monster--His + approach--The post of honour--Good nerves--The death--The trophy + and congratulations. + + +Few persons well acquainted with France can have failed to observe how +fond the lower orders, indeed all classes, are of giving high-sounding +names to their children; and it is sometimes truly amusing to notice the +strange upset of associations which in consequence jar the auricular +nerve, and illustrate the singularly exalted notions of the godfathers +and godmothers. "Gustave Adolphe!" I once heard an old cook vociferate +from the kitchen of a small inn to a boy in the yard. "Gustave Adolphe!" +shrieked the aged heroine of the sauce-pans, pitching her voice in A +alto, "_Coupez donc les choux!_" Cutting cabbages! What an antithesis to +the glorious victor of Lutzen. The remark will apply with equal force to +the Gustave Adolphe of the last chapter, though on a different point, +and the contrast between the great Gustavus and he of Paris, was most +diverting. My accomplished friend, a charming dancer, a _beau parleur_, +a first-rate singer, who made sad havoc among the fresh and fair +gazelles of every ballroom, this tremendous _chasseur-de-salon_, I very +soon perceived, was by no means so tremendous in the stubbles;--a covey +fairly startled him, and if a hare rose between his legs he turned quite +pale. + +"My good fellow," I said to him one day, seeing his extraordinary +trepidation, "if you are so staggered by a covey of partridges, what in +the world will you do when I set you face to face with a wolf or a wild +boar?" + +"Oh! that is a very different affair. A wolf or a wild boar? Why, I +should kill one and eat the other, of course." + +"Not so easy," I should think, "for a novice like you." + +"Novice, indeed! me a novice. Oh! you are quite in error. The fact is, +these devils of birds and rabbits lie hidden, do you see, under the +grass like frogs, one never knows where; so that I never see them till +they are all but in my eyes, or cutting capers like Taglioni's under my +feet, and your dogs putting out their tongues, and staring at me." + +"Why, of course they do; the intelligent brutes are ready to expire at +your awkwardness." + +"Much obliged to you for the compliment. Again, you say, they turn their +tails to the right by way of telling me that I am to go to the left; and +to the left, when I am to walk to the right. Who, I ask you, is to +understand such telegraphs as these? I have not yet learned how to +converse with dogs' tails--intelligence, indeed! I believe it is all +humbug; for, when my whole soul is absorbed in watching the tips of +these very tails, a crowd of partridges jump up just in front of me, +making as much noise as if they were drummers beating the retreat. If I +am hurried and stupefied".... + +"And if," I added, "you are much disposed to throw down your gun as to +fire it." + +"Well! supposing I am; what is the wonder? 'Tis no fault of mine--I am +not used to partridge-shooting! I am not a wild man of the woods, like +you! I did not cut my teeth gnawing a cartridge, as you did!" + +"Come, come! don't be affronted." + +"Affronted? No; but you have no consideration. You're a Robin Hood, an +exterminator! if you look at one partridge, you kill four! You sleep +with your rifle, turn your game-bag into a nightcap, and shave with a +_couteau-de-chasse_!" + +"May be so! but let us have the fact." + +"The fact! Then I hate your long-tailed dogs, and your detestable +flights of noisy birds! Let me have them one by one, like larks in the +plain of St. Denis, and I'll soon clear the province for you." + +"Upon my word, Adolphe, we should have something to thank you for!" + +"I tell you what, Henri; those partridges, after all, are trumpery +things to kill. 'Tis mere hurry that prevents my hitting them. Don't +imagine I am frightened! If you wish to give me real pleasure, let us go +to India and shoot a lion or a tiger;--give me a chance with an +elephant!" + +"Willingly; but allow me to suggest, that if we set out for India, we +shall not get back in time for dinner." + +"We will keep in Europe, then; but, at least, show me some game worthy +of me. A serpent--I will cut him in two at a stroke. A bull--I will soon +send a brace of balls into him." + +"Well done! just like a Parisian." + +"Parisian! Pray what do you mean by that?" + +"A boaster, if you prefer the word." + +"Ha! ha! a boaster, indeed! Do you mean to say that I'm afraid of a +bull?" + +"Of course not. However, as there are no bulls here, I will send the +head _piqueur_ upon the track of a wild boar which was seen near the +chateau last night; he will exactly suit you. I consider him as doomed." + +"Thank you, Henri; thank you; the moment I am fairly in front of him, I +shall fire at his eyes, and no doubt lodge both balls in them. Poor +Belisarius! how he will charge me in his agony! but I shall retire, +reload, and then, having drawn my hunting-knife, dispatch him without +further ceremony." + +"Never fear, you shall have the post of honour; and if you do not turn +upon your heel, why, my dear friend, you will rise at least a dozen pegs +in my estimation." + +"Turn on my heel! you little know me; and then, what a sensation I shall +create in Paris with my boar's skin. I'll have it stuffed, gild his +tusks, and silver-mount his hoofs. I shall be quite the hero of the +_salons_." + +That very afternoon orders were given to the head-keeper to send the +_traqueurs_ into the forest on the following day, and on their return, +they announced that not only traces of wild boar had been met with, but +one had actually been seen. Great were the preparations and cleaning of +rifles and _couteaux-de-chasse_ when this intelligence was received; +but, in spite of his assumed composure, Adolphe's ardour seemed +considerably to diminish, and the conversation that evening over the +fire was not calculated to inspire him with fresh courage. + +"How very soon they find the boar!" said he to me. "Tell me how the +affair commences." + +"Why these _traqueurs_ are not long in discovering him. They know +exactly where to look for one, for they study their habits; the traces +of the grisly rascal are seen by them immediately; they mark his +favourite paths, the thickets he prefers, the marshy ground in which he +delights to wallow, and then as to the times he is likely to be seen, +they can tell almost to a minute when he will pass,--for the wild boar +is very methodical, and an excellent time-piece. The animal, therefore, +having been traced, and his retreat carefully ascertained, a day is +fixed, and each person having been assigned a separate post, remains +watching for his appearance on his way to or from his haunt." + +"Oh! of course, they merely watch and wait," replied Adolphe, with a +hollow, unmeaning laugh. + +"Yes; but you don't suppose that a boar will allow himself to be killed +as easily as a squirrel. I fear, in spite of all your professions, you +will find it not so agreeable a sport as shooting larks on the plain of +St. Denis. The bristly fellow who comes trotting and grunting towards +you, showing his teeth, stopping occasionally to sharpen them against +the root of some old oak, is not generally in the best of humours; but +you can, at any rate, reckon upon the great advantage,--the want of +which you deprecate in partridge-shooting. For instance, you cannot fail +to see him; you have notice of his coming; you are not taken off your +guard, and they very seldom appear but one at a time. It is a combat +face to face, and his, with two long prominent teeth, so unfortunate in +a woman, and positively hideous in a boar, effectually warns you that it +is well you should be prepared to receive him. But the excitement is +grand; after the volley every one is at him with his knife, and, with +the exception of a few inexperienced dogs, and a Parisian novice like +yourself, who, of course, are occasionally put _hors de combat_, the +affair ends gloriously. Yes, yes, I am beginning to think you are +right, Adolphe; partridge-shooting and knocking over a timid hare is +very cowardly sport." + +The _traqueurs_ also, whom Adolphe catechised, in the hope of preserving +his own skin entire at the same time, though they gave him all sorts of +good advice, failed not to add to it, as people of their class generally +do, a budget of most fearful histories and hair-breadth escapes--of +horses and dogs ripped open, and men killed or gored; but that which put +a finishing-stroke to Adolphe's courage, was the entrance of a friend of +mine, who had himself been a sad sufferer in one of these adventures. +Wounded, but not mortally, the boar had charged him before he could +reload, tearing up with his tusk the inside of his thigh; and, as he lay +insensible on the ground, gnawing one of his calves off before any one +could come to his assistance. During the next two months death shook him +by the hand in vain, for he had fortunately an excellent constitution; +"And, though the proportions of his left leg," whispered I, "have been +restored by a slice out of a friendly cork-tree, he is, as you see, +quite recovered." + +"True enough!" said the new arrival, who had overheard the concluding +remark, "and if you have any doubts, Sir, I will show you my leg;" but +Adolphe, thoroughly convinced, declined the offer, and retired to his +room for the night. + +The dawn was yet gray, when the court-yard of the Château d'Erveau +presented a very animated appearance; horses, dogs, and beaters were +walking up and down, neighing, yelping, and conversing,--the huntsman +every now and then winding his horn, giving notice to the inmates that +all was ready. The morning was superb, and as the party filed out of the +yard, doffing their beavers to the ladies, who, screened behind their +window-curtains, dared not return their salute, Adolphe was a little +reassured. Long, however, before they reached their hunting-ground, his +chivalrous feelings had so far forsaken him, that he had serious +thoughts of returning, on the plea of indisposition. + +"Why do you lag so far behind?" said I, riding up to him at this +juncture, "why your nose is quite white. Nay, don't blush; braver men +than you have felt far from comfortable the first time they went +boar-hunting. You are afraid. Come, don't deny it; but, never mind, I +will not quit you for a moment." + +"With all my heart; for, though I cannot exactly say I am afraid, yet +that infernal cork-leg is continually dancing before my eyes." + +"I have not the least doubt of it; and, by Terpsichore! what a pretty +thing it would be to see the handsome Gustave Adolphe de M---- dancing +polkas and redowas in the drawing-rooms of the Faubourg St. Germain with +a cork-leg or a gutta-percha calf! The very idea gives me the cramp in +every toe." + +Conversing much in the same strain, the eight _chasseurs_ arrived at the +rendezvous, where they dismounted. The beaters and _gardes-de-chasse_ +were all at their posts, and on the alert to the movements of the boar, +and as we advanced deeper in the forest, the conversation, which had +been so lively on our setting forth, flagged, and at length subsided +into an occasional remark on the obstacles which impeded our progress. +Nothing renders a man more reserved than his approach to an anticipated +danger. I looked askance at Adolphe, and saw that his teeth rattled like +castanets; and when the foremost keepers, in doubt as to the track, blew +a plaintive note, which, ere it died away, was answered by another in +the distance, showing that we were in the right one, Adolphe's +breathing became stentorious behind me. And then as the branches and +hazel twigs, through which we forced our way more rapidly, flew back and +struck him in the face, he supplicated me to stop. + +"Not so fast, my dear friend, not so fast! Have mercy on my Parisian +legs! Misericorde! I cannot proceed. Do stop! There, my nose is skinned +by that last branch! Good--there, my breeches are breaking! For pity's +sake, stop!" But to stop was impossible; and I remained silent, having +quite enough to do looking out for myself. At length we arrived at the +appointed spot. Adolphe, in a state bordering on the crazy, his clothes +in shreds, his face and hands bleeding from the thorns, anger in his +blood, and perspiration on his brow, his furious eyes looked at me as if +I had been the author of his misfortunes. And here a scene would most +undoubtedly have ensued, but happily the head _piqueur_ arrived, +informing us that the boar was in a thick patch of underwood, about two +miles from thence, in which he was supposed to be taking his mid-day +_siesta_, and that a number of peasants having headed him on one side, +he could not well escape. Our measures were quickly taken. + +"Serpolet," said I to the _piqueur_, "have you seen the animal?" + +"At a distance, Monsieur." + +"What is he like?" + +"Oh! a tremendous fellow--long legs, enormous head, large tusks, and +such a muzzle!--he breaks through everything. A fortunate thing, +Monsieur, the dogs were not with us." + +"Well!" said I to my father, "of course this gentleman is to have the +place of honour." + +"The place of honour!" cried Adolphe, "which is the place of honour?" + +"Why, the most dangerous to be sure," replied my father, "the third or +fourth post from where he breaks cover. The first or second shots seldom +kill him; wounded, he continues his course, and, savage and ferocious, +generally turns upon the third or fourth _chasseur_, at whom, with +lowered head and glaring eye, he charges in full career. Oh! it is then +a splendid sight, worth all the journey from Paris! Forward, my lads, +forward! Hurrah! for the boar!" + +"And thus--" groaned Adolphe, with thickened speech, not at all charmed +with this description of his onset. + +"And thus," remarked my father, with a bow of the old _régime_, "you +shall be fourth, and you will see the sturdy grunter in all his beauty. +Come, my boys! a glass of the cognac all round; then silence, and each +to his post. Here, Serpolet, forward with them, and remember, gentlemen, +the word of command is 'Prudence and coolness!' Off! and may your stout +hearts protect you!" + +Then filing out from the glade where we had halted, each of us proceeded +to his destination, the valiant Adolphe following Serpolet like a dog +going to be drowned. + +"Monsieur," said Serpolet, "you don't seem used to this fun; let a +graybeard and an old huntsman advise you. I have seen the +animal--actually seen him--a terrible boar, I promise you, as black as +ink, clean legs, and ears well apart,--all true signs of courage. As +sure as my name is Serpolet, he will make mince-meat of us--sure to +charge. Take my advice, Monsieur; never mind what the gentlemen say +about waiting; don't you let him get nearer to you than five-and-twenty +paces; if not, in three bounds he will be at you; and in another second +you will be opened like an oyster. Take care, Monsieur!"--and, wishing +him success, Serpolet joined the beaters, who were waiting, all ready +to advance. + +"What shall we do?" said Adolphe as soon as he was gone. + +"Do, why, take a look about us." + +We were in a kind of low, open glade, about eighty paces in length, with +an immense oak in the centre--a solitary spot, full of thick rushes, +tufts of grass, brambles, and matted roots; in short, just the place +that a boar would make his head-quarters. Adolphe accompanied me step by +step, examined me from head to foot, and looked in my face as if he +would read my every thought. + +"Well, Adolphe," said I, after I had considered the principal points of +our position, "the moment has at length arrived when you must draw your +courage from the scabbard; and I hope it will shine like the light, for +something tells me you will require it ere long." + +"I'll tell you what; I beg you will not commence any of your long +orations." + +"If I talk to you now, it is because I shall not be able in a few +minutes. Pay attention, therefore, to my instructions. Remain, I advise +you, behind this oak, then you will have nothing to fear, and be sure +not to leave it. I will place myself at the angle down yonder." + +"Down there! Why you said you would not leave me for an instant." + +"Come, come, don't be absurd; the moments are precious; you see I shall +only be distant an hundred yards." + +"An hundred yards! I tell you what--if you go ten yards, I go too." + +"What! are you afraid? We are alone; come, be frank." + +"No! I am not afraid, but my nerves are shaken; I am thoroughly done up +with the scramble we have had through these woods; and then that rascal +Serpolet, who prophesied that I shall be opened like an oyster--you +shall not go, for I feel sure that when this brute of a boar makes his +appearance, I shall be unable to look him in the face." + +"My dear friend, I will do as you desire. We have still half an hour to +wait; but remember, no imprudence--and if you should see my finger +raised, mind, not a word or a sign." + +As I uttered this apostrophe, a long and harmonious note from the +head-keeper's horn, vibrating in the distance, came and died away upon +our ears; after which, a confused clamour of voices arose, and as +suddenly ceased. + +"Hurrah! hurrah!" said I; "the _traqueurs_ are on the move, the curtain +is raised, the play is about to commence--and, dear friend, be silent as +death, for the actor will soon make his appearance on the stage." + +During the next ten minutes, a murmur of voices and confused sounds were +again borne on the wind to the two sportsmen, announcing that the line +of beaters was steadily advancing, and now they could distinctly hear +them at intervals, striking the trunks of the trees with their long +iron-shod poles, thrusting them in the underwood, and shouting in chorus +the song of the boar. + +Again the horn is heard; but now its notes are sharp, shrill, jerking +and hurried. + +"That, my good Adolphe, denotes that the boar has risen, has been driven +from his lair, is in view, flying before the beaters, and I am very much +mistaken if he does not ere long pay us a visit." + +Another blast is heard, but in very different tones to the last, and +silence is again spread over the forest. + +"There, Adolphe--there's a joyous and melodious note; it tells me that +the monster is following his usual paths--we are sure to see him soon. +By St. Hubert, what lucky dogs we are!" + +But the Parisian answered not, and leaned against his oak, a perfect +picture of despair. + +"Adolphe," I reiterated, "he won't be here yet, but speak low, or we may +spoil everything. How do you feel? Do you think you can take good aim, +and pull the trigger?" + +"I feel," whispered Adolphe, "that I am not cut out for boar-hunting." + +"Bah! Why, the other day you seemed to think it would be delightful, and +now you don't appear to like the sport; keep your heart up, be cool, and +all will be well;--it is only on grand occasions--those when real danger +presents itself, as you told me the other day--that the proofs of +undoubted courage show themselves; and then the ladies of the Faubourg +St. Germain that you were to soften with your tales of forest +life--'Mademoiselles,' you were to commence, 'when I was in Le Morvan, +we had famous wolf and boar-hunting, and on one occasion'".... + +"No! no!" groaned the Parisian, "I shall commence thus: On one occasion, +nay, ladies, on all occasions, I much prefer being in your delightful +society to that of the boars of Le Morvan." + +"Nonsense, good Adolphe, you are laughing; why, you were to have the +skin stuffed, the tusks gilt, the feet silver-mounted, and the tail was +to be scarlet and curly. What! do you think no more about it?" + +"Oh, yes! and of the cork calves also." + +"Pooh! have we not two good hunting-knives and four iron bullets in the +rifles, and a magnificent oak, a perfect wooden tower, for a +breastwork." + +"Yes! we have all this." + +"And is not courage your father, and an excellent aim your mother, and +is not death to the boar in our barrels?" + +"Certainly!--death--oh! what a word at such a crisis!"--and on the +instant two shots were heard, which made him jump again. + +"Ah! ah!--good; that's the old gentleman who has led off the ball; the +music of his rifle is not to be mistaken. The grisly vagabond has by +this time two bits of iron in his flanks, which will considerably hasten +his march. Silence! and be on the _qui vive_. Listen! Hear you not the +distant crash in the bushes?" Two fresh shots were now fired, but +nearer. "Said I not so? he is running the gauntlet--one more shot. Hush +again! there he is, tearing along. Hark! not a whisper; your eye on the +open, your ear to the wind, and your finger on the trigger!" But it was +not the boar; for at the moment two roebucks and a fox broke near us, +bounding along at full speed, when Adolphe, his face as pale as his +cambric shirt, muttered, as he nearly fell upon his knees--"Oh! +Paris--oh! Chevet--oh! Boulevard des Italiens--I shall never see ye +more!" + +"Why, Adolphe! what the deuce is the matter with you? in the name of +France, be a man. If my time is to be taken up with looking after you, I +shall be in a nice situation. No nonsense--no useless fears? Do you, or +do you not feel able to take part in the approaching drama?" + +"No, I don't--I only just feel able to get up this tree." + +"What! are you in such a funk as all that? Why, what a poor creature you +must be! You are the very incarnation of fear!" + +"Fear? I have no fear. Who says that I have? I don't know how it is, but +I certainly do feel something--a sort of qualm, something like +sea-sickness--everything seems going round--no doubt a sudden +indisposition--such a thing might happen to the bravest man--Napoleon, +they say, was bilious at Borodino. We part for a few minutes only, dear +friend; I shall ascend the oak--an English king once did the same." + +Another blast of the keeper's horn was now heard on the left. + +"What does that mean?" cried Adolphe, one leg in the air. + +"That signifies, the boar is making right for us." + +"Does it? Then I am up;" and, with the agility of a cat, he was in an +instant safely lodged in the branches. "Ah! my friend! how different it +feels up here--the sickness is quite gone off, hand me the gun." + +"In the name of Fortune," said I, "hold your coward tongue--here's the +boar;" for I could now hear his snorting and loud breathing in the copse +hard by. + +"Do you hear him?" said Adolphe from his perch, his cheeks as green as +the leaves which covered him. + +"Hear him?" I exclaimed, "yes, I partly see him. What a monster! How he +tears the ground!--how he bleeds and gnaws his burning wounds!--every +hair of his back stands up, smoke and perspiration flow from his +nostrils, and his eyes, glaring with agony and concentrated rage, look +as if they would start from their sockets!" + +On came the beaters, and in a few minutes the panting beast burst from +his thicket, and rushed across the open; my eye was on every movement, +and, firing both barrels, the contents struck him full in front. It was +his death-blow, but the vital principle was yet unsubdued; and, +summoning up all his dying energies--those which despair alone can +give--he came at me with a force that I could never have withstood. +Fortunately the Parisian's gun was close to me, and the charge stopped +him in full career. This was the _coup de grâce_. He still, however, by +one grand effort, stood nobly on his haunches, opened his monstrous +mouth, all red with blood, gave out one sharp deep groan of agony from +his stifled lungs, and, falling upon his side, after many a wild +convulsion, at length stretched his massive and exhausted frame slowly +out in death. + +"Hurrah! Adolphe! you rascally acorn! shout, you _badaud_! give the +death-whoop, and come down!" + +"Is he really dead?" + +"Dead! Why, don't you see he is? Come down I say--come, descend from +your Belvedere--the farce is played out, and your legs are all right. +You are a rank coward! however, no one is aware of it but me. Don't let +others see it!" and in a minute Adolphe was at my side. + +"Listen, you fire-eater! and I will make you a hero, though you could +not manage to make yourself one. There were four shots fired; now, take +your gun, and remember that the two first, those ghastly holes in the +chest, were your handiwork--do you hear?" + +"Yes, but what a horrible morning! what a brute! what a savage country!" + +"True, it is not like the Boulevard des Italiens;" and a few minutes +after, Adolphe received, with some confusion, attributed to modesty, the +congratulations of all the party. This diffidence, as it may be +imagined, did not last long; his assurance soon returned, and the +hurrahs had scarcely died away, before he had imagined and given a very +graphic description of the last moments of the gallant boar. His toilet +made, the monstrous carcass was placed upon a litter, hastily +constructed with the branches of a tree, and the peasants, hoisting it +on their shoulders, bore the deceased monarch of the woods in triumph +to the chateau. + +In the evening, Adolphe's self-satisfaction was completed by an ovation +from the ladies, who bestowed upon him the most flattering epithets. +From the prettiest lips I heard, "What! this Parisian! this pale and +slender young man, with such delicate hands and rose-coloured nails, +fought face to face with this terrible beast? Admirable! And he was not +frightened?" + +"Frightened, ladies," said I, "why he was smoking a cigar all the time!" +And the secret was so well kept, and Adolphe so bepraised, that I am +sure had I felt disposed to throw a doubt upon the circumstances, he +would have stoutly contended that he really did kill the animal himself; +and, to say the truth, he was to a certain extent authorized to say so, +for the head, handsomely decorated, was sent to his mother, the +following words having been nicely printed on the tusks: + + "Killed by Gustave Adolphe de M. the 15th of August, 18--." + +In the course of time Adolphe's nerves improved so much that he could +manage to knock down a leash of birds, or roll over a hare; but boars +and wolves he declined to have anything further to do with; and when I +met him by accident some years after, in the presence of mutual friends, +he said, "Ah! de Crignelle, what two famous shots those were I put into +that boar! But, gentlemen," he continued, with a sigh which seemed +pumped up from his very heels, "what terrible forests those are of Le +Morvan, and how dangerous the _chasse aux sangliers_!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + The _Mares_--Manner in which they are formed in the depths of the + forest--_Mare_ No. 1.--Description of it--The appearance of the + spot--Mode of constructing the hunting-lodge--Approach of the + birds--Animals that frequent the _Mares_ in the evening. + + +Of all the various sports of Europe, that which produces the greatest +excitement, that which is, more than any other, full of deep interest, +dangerous and difficult, is without doubt hut-shooting at night on the +banks of one of our large _Mares_.[1] Here the sportsman, left to +himself, is deprived of all help; concealed in a corner of a wood, or +squatting at the foot of a tree, he requires all his courage, all his +experience; for he then finds himself engaged in a deadly conflict with +the most subtle and ferocious beasts, possibly a mouthful for the +largest and most powerful jaws, and at the mercy of the quickest ears of +the forest. Motionless in his hut, like a spider in its web, nothing can +put him off his guard--neither the view halloo of the passing huntsman, +the cheerful notes of his horn, nor the music of the dogs, can distract +his attention. All around is calm, solitude and gloom surround him, no +voice interrogates him, no eye sees him; he is alone, quite alone, his +blood circulates tranquilly through his veins, his faculties are all on +the stretch, he waits, he bides his time. The shadows lengthen, twilight +arrives, the forest puts on the garb of evening, the silence and +solitude are more deeply felt, night is at hand, the moment so ardently +desired approaches. Imagination begins to work, phantoms of every +description come across his brain, and glide before his eyes, he hears, +and fancies he sees the sylvan spirits dancing before him; his ears are +full of mysterious and unearthly sounds, plaintive and melancholy, +celestial harmonies, fairy melodies of another world, interrupted +conversations between the winds, the trees, the herbage and the earth, +as if they were offering homage to the great Creator of the universe. + +Firm at his post, and uninfluenced by this phantasmagoria of the brain, +without movement and almost without breath, the sportsman waits +hopefully; for the greatest virtue in this kind of sport is patience, +the second courage, first-rate--his heart should be of marble, his flesh +of steel, and his members should possess a power of immobility as great +as that of a sphynx in an Egyptian temple. Yes! the sport _aux mares_ is +the most stirring, the roughest that I am acquainted with, not so much +on account of the real danger attending it, but in consequence of those +fictitious, unknown, and imaginary, produced by the silence and +loneliness of the forest. It is my intention, therefore, in describing +this kind of sport, to enter into the most ample details, in order that +I may make myself thoroughly understood. I shall take, as representing +very nearly all the pieces of water to be met with in the forest, three +kinds of _Mares_ of different dimensions. I shall explain their +position, the relative value they possess in the eyes of the sportsman, +the game, large and small, to be found on their banks, and the most +propitious time for approaching them, and I shall endeavour, if +possible, to impress my readers with the pleasures and adventures which +have on several occasions agitated me. + +If the woods and forests of Le Morvan, which, by the clouds they +attract, the thunder-storms that continually fall over them, and the +moisture that generally prevails, feed a great many streams, the +district is not the less deprived, by its elevated position, of large +rivers and extensive sheets of water; for the rains, falling down the +sides of the trees, and penetrating the thick mossy grass at their +roots, do not remain for any length of time on the surface of the earth. +The whole forest may, in fact, be described as a large sponge, through +which the water filters, descending to the inferior strata, where it +finds the secret drains of Nature, and is by them conducted into the +plains. The roots being thus continually watered, the trees are fresh +and vigorous in their growth, and produce a most luxuriant foliage; the +ground itself, however, is generally dry under foot, and in some places +rocky. + +It is therefore very rare, quite an exceptional case, to find on the +elevated heaths, or in our forests, any lakes or large pieces of water; +nevertheless they are to be seen here and there, and then the cottage of +the peasant, or the hut of the wood-*cutter is sure to raise its modest +head on their banks; in time these humble edifices are augmented in +number till they sometimes become a considerable village. If the spring, +once a silvery thread, and now a brawling rivulet, changes its character +to a deep and considerable stream, farm-houses, a chateau, or a +hunting-box are soon erected near it. If it is merely a tiny source +rising from the earth, or springing from some isolated rock, and soon +lost in the moss, without even a murmur, calm and silent, as the life of +the lowly peasant, which is slowly consumed in the scarcely varying path +of labour,--then no one takes the least notice of it. + +Sometimes, however, the tears which the earth thus sheds, this crystal +thread, scorned by the unobserving passer-by, is arrested in its timid +course by some trifling obstacle--a rising path, a fallen branch or +tree. This little streamlet swells, frets the immediate spot of ground, +imperceptibly increases in size, and becomes after many efforts, the +patient work of months and years, something like the basin of a large +_jet d'eau_, a liquid cup lost in the recesses of the woods, reflecting +only a very small portion of the blue heavens above; unknown to man, but +always frequented by thousands of delighted and happy insects, and +little birds that come there in the great heats of summer to refresh +themselves, to skim across the surface, and sip, with head uplifted +towards heaven, its pellucid waters. These little springs, lost in the +thickness of the mossy turf and the dead leaves, like a gray hair in +the dark tresses of some village beauty, which accident or a lover could +alone discover, when thus interrupted and formed into a bowl of water, +such as I have described, is called a _Mare_. + +If, therefore, the sportsman in traversing the depths of the forest +should chance to discover one of these mirrors of the passing butterfly, +of the flower which inclines its slender form towards it, or of the bird +that sings and plays in the branches that overspread its surface, he +must not look contemptuously upon it, for this little liquid pearl, thus +concealed in the shade, which the hot rays of the sun would dry up like +an Arabian well, if they could reach it, may prove to him a mine of +varied reflections--a page of nature's great book, and in it he may +possibly find, if he have an observing eye and an understanding heart, a +type of this lower world, with all its hateful passions, its follies and +virtues, its wars, rivalries, injustice and oppression. + +One day, when out shooting, and following by tortuous paths, to me +unknown, the bleeding traces of a roebuck which I had wounded, I had the +good fortune to meet with one of these _Mares_. The piece of water of +which I thus became what I may term the proprietor, was from fifty to +sixty feet in circumference, though at the first glance I fancied it +was only half the size, so completely was it covered near the side by +thorns and briars, and in the centre by lilies, flags, and other aquatic +plants. By certain other signs, also, the gigantic creepers, and the +barkless and headless trees, bending and falling with age; by the deep +thickets that surrounded it, and by the solitary aspect of the pool, I +felt convinced that mine was the first footstep that had trodden its +precincts,--that I was the Christopher Columbus of the place. + +Enchanted with my discovery, I determined to mark the spot, for I +thought it a _Mare_ of peculiar beauty. It was almost surrounded by wild +fruit trees, which grow in great numbers in our forests: here were the +sorb, or service tree, and the medlar, bending to the ground under the +weight of their luxuriant fruit; intermingled with these waved the lofty +and slender branches of the wild cherry, the berries of which, now ripe, +and sweet as drops of honey, and black as polished jet, offered a +delicious repast to clouds of little birds, that hopped chirruping from +twig to twig: and lastly, I may mention a fine arbutus, which in its +turn presented a tempting collation to the notice of many a hungry +bullfinch. The soft turf around was strewed with the shining black and +bright red berries, which the last breeze had shaken from the verdant +branches. + +To describe the crystal notes, the liquid cadences, the merry songs of +the feathered inhabitants of this hive, that pursued one another +rejoicing amongst the leaves, is impossible. Besides, my unexpected +appearance threw them into perfect consternation; and this greatly +increased when, drawing from my side my hunting-knife, I began to cut +down, in all directions, the bushes which intercepted a nearer approach +to the miniature lake. + +The storm of helpless anger, menaces, and complaints from these little +creatures was quite curious. "Oh! the wretch!" a cuckoo seemed to say; +"what does he mean by coming here, showing us his ugly face?"--"Oh! the +horror," cried a coquette of a tomtit, holding up her little +claw.--"_Hélas! hélas!_ our poor trees, our beautiful leaves, and our +lovely greensward--see how he is cutting away--Oh! the wicked man! the +destructive rascal!" they all piped in chorus. But I paid no attention +to them, and went on hacking away, and whistling like one of the +blackbirds. This indeed I continued to do for several days, working like +a woodman, and all alone, for I did not wish to associate myself with +any person, lest he should claim a share in my discovery; but it was +long before I began to enjoy the fruits of my hard labour. The trunks +were sawn, the branches lopped, and after considerable trouble I at last +cleared my piece of water from the bushes and parasitic plants which +blocked it up. The evening breeze now circulated rapidly over it, and +the sun could look in upon it for at least two hours of the day. + +My friends who saw me leave the house every morning with a basket of +tools at my back and a hatchet at my side, like Robinson Crusoe, and who +witnessed my return each evening heartily tired, with torn clothes, +scratched hands, and dust and perspiration on my face, without a single +head of game in my bag, could not comprehend why I went out thus alone +into the forest, and remained there the livelong day. Often did they +persecute me with questions, and try in every way to penetrate the +mystery; all in vain, my whereabouts remained hidden like a hedgehog in +his prickly coat, and I managed matters so well that during two +successive years I was the unknown proprietor and Grand Sultan of my +much-loved _Mare_. + +But when my task was finished, a task that hundreds of birds, perched in +the oaks, the elms, and the adjoining thickets, viewed with mingled +feelings of approbation, disapprobation, curiosity, or interest,--when +the last stroke of my hatchet was given, I said to myself, while looking +on the result of my unremitting toil, "'Tis well, and what a change has +taken place in this little corner of the forest. In truth, it looks +superb." + +The little lake was now a perfect oval, and the water, not very deep, +but limpid as crystal, was full of green and coloured rushes--the +surface being partly covered by the white and rose-tinted flowers of the +water-lilies, which reposing delicately on their large flat green +leaves, looked like velvet camellias placed upon a plate of sea-green +porcelain. In the mossy turf which bordered it, beds of violets, pink +daisies, and lilies of the valley, sent forth a cloud of perfume, and on +the large forest trees hung festoons and garlands of the honeysuckle and +the clematis; so that the _Mare_ and the surrounding foliage, would, +seen from above, have appeared like a large well with leafy walls, or an +immense emerald, which some spirit of the air, returning from a marriage +of the gods, had inadvertently dropped on his way home. + +Having given a description of the lake, I must describe my picturesque +and sylvan hut. This, constructed of trunks of trees, branches and +osiers, was placed about twenty paces from the water, completely +concealed by the bushes that encircled it; the inside was fitted up in +rustic taste with seats of wood, the whole carpeted with turf, and the +entrance planted with every kind of odoriferous flower. + +This _Mare_, approached by marks known only to myself, became +thenceforward the source of all my pleasures. At that period very young, +and equally careless, I would not have parted with my large liquid +_tazza_, my little lake, my leafy castle, for all the vulgar comfortable +_chateâux_ in the neighbourhood. + +If I have lingered too much over this subject, the reader must forgive +me for elaborating this picture--this portrait I may call it of my +_Mare_. He has before him a type of all the others, and this again must +be my excuse, it is so dear to the unfortunate to stir the still warm +embers of by-gone memories,--so dear to rouse from their slumbers the +treasured recollections of early days,--to wake those sweet spirits of +the mind, those phantoms robed in azure blue, and decked with the +pearls, the joys which never can glide again across the dreamer's +path--the joys of youth. + +Oh _souvenirs_ of childhood!--of happy hours so quickly gone,--bright +visions that gild, yes, light the darkest clouds of after years, +blessed, blessed are ye! Alone, friendless, far from those I love, with +the heart steeped, drowned in sorrow, a sombre sky before my eyes, +wintry clouds, that distil but melancholy thoughts all around me,--well, +I, the poor sparrow, who has been cast from his nest by the raging +storm,--I hush my griefs to rest in tracing the picture of past +delights. Yes, memory comes to my relief; I build again in the casket of +the mind my sylvan hut, careless and full of youthful fancies. I am +again seated in the depths of my native woods, speaking to the +light-hearted thrush, and whistling to the breeze. + +Once more I bathe myself in the golden rays of the mid-day sun; I tread +again the forest paths, and am intoxicated with the delicious perfume of +its wild flowers. Hark! again I hear the cooing of the amorous doves, +and in the distance the notes of the dull cuckoo, bewailing his solitary +life.--But no more.... + +The _Mares_, very different from one another, and having each of them +very different admirers, are of three kinds; they are either small or +large, near or distant from the village or neighbouring hamlet; and +according as they are circumstanced in one or other of these respects +they are more or less valuable. The largest, the deepest, the least +known, those in short that are situated in the recesses of the forest, +are the best and most frequented by game; to balance this advantage they +are the most fatiguing and the most difficult to approach. + +In the violent heats of July and August, when the sun burns up the +herbage, when the wind as it passes parches the skin, and the sultry air +scarcely allows the lungs to play--when the earth is quite dried up--the +hot-blooded animals, whose circulation is rapid, remain completely +overpowered with the heat in their retreats all day, either stretched +panting on the leaves, or lurking in the shade of some rock; but the +moment the sun, in amber clouds, sinks below the horizon, and twilight +brings in his train the dark hours of night, and its humid vapours, the +beasts of the forest are again in movement, again their ravenous +appetite returns, and they lose no time in ranging the woods, seeking +how and where they may gratify it. Then it is these large _Mares_, +silent as a woman that listens at a keyhole--silent as a catacomb, is +all at once endowed with life,--is filled with strange noises, like an +aviary, and becomes, as night falls, a common centre to which the hungry +and thirsty cavalcade direct their steps. + +The first arrivals are hundreds of birds, of every size and colour, who +come to gossip, to bathe, to drink, and splash the water with their +wings. Next come troops of hares and rabbits, who come to nibble the +fresh grass that grows there in great luxuriance. As the shades grow +deeper, groups of the graceful roebuck, timid and listening for +anticipated danger, their large open eyes gazing at each tree, giving an +inquiring look at every shadow, are seen approaching with noiseless +footsteps; when reassured by their careful _reconnaissance_, they steal +forward, cropping the dewy rich flowers as they come, and at last slake +their thirst in the refreshing waters. + +At this instant you may, if you are fatigued, and so desire it, finish +your day's sport. You may bring down the nearest buck; and then as the +troop, wild with affright, make for the forest, the second barrel will +add a fellow to your first victim. + +But, no! pull not the trigger; stop, if only to witness what follows. +See the roebuck prick their ears; they turn to the wind; they appear +uneasy; call one to the other, assemble; danger is near, they feel it, +hear it coming; they would fly, but find it is too late; terrified, they +are chained to the spot. For the last half hour the wolves and +wolverines, which followed gently, and at a distance, their own more +rapid movements, have closed in upon them from behind, have formed the +fatal circle, have noiselessly decreased it as much as possible, and at +length come swiftly down upon the helpless creatures; each seizes his +victim by the throat, the tranquil spot is ere long full of blood and +carnage, and the echoes of the forest are awakened to the hellish yells +of the savage brutes that thus devour their prey. + +The cries of agony, of death and victory, sometimes last for a quarter +of an hour; and during the fifteen minutes that you are watching the +scene from your hut, you may fancy the teeth of these brutes are meeting +in your own flesh, and feel a cold paw with claws of steel deep in your +back or head. + +The slaughter over, these monsters pass like a flight of demons across +the turf, vanish,--and again all is silent. And when the tenth chime of +the distant village clock is floating on the breeze, though it reaches +not your cabin--when the falling dew, now almost a shower, has bathed +the leaves, with rain chilling their fibres--when the bluebells and the +foxgloves and all the wood-flowers rest upon their stems--when the +songsters of the grove, with heads comfortably tucked under their warm +wings, sleep soundly in their nests, or in the angles of the +branches--when the young fawns, lost in some wild ravine, bleat for +their mothers whom they never will see more; and the gorged wolves, +their muzzles red with blood, are stretched snoring in their dens and +lurking-places--then it is the heavy boars, shaking off their laziness, +leave their sombre retreats--take to the open country, and trotting, +grunting, and with hesitating footsteps, come and plunge their awkward +and heavy bodies in the marshy waters, and wallow in the soft mud. + + +[1] Query,--fox-hunting and stag-hunting.--TRANSLATOR. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + Appearance of the _Mare_ in the morning--Forest etiquette--Mode of + obtaining possession of the best _Mare_--Every subterfuge fair--The + jocose sportsman--The quarrel--Reveries in the hut--Comparison + between meeting a lady and watching for a wolf. + + +The _Mares_ on the borders of which these scenes of strife and carnage +take place, are found by the morning sun surrounded by a crimson circle, +and all the horrid details of the battle-field--proof that the weak have +been slaughtered and overcome by the strong; a humiliating sight! for +the desolation created by the bad passions of man is far too like it. +Sometimes these _Mares_ are from two to three hundred feet in +circumference, and these may be truly termed the diamonds of the forest. +The _Mare_ No. 1., fed by small but always flowing springs, is full, +when others are dried up, and is frequented by troops of animals, savage +and meek, which thirst and heat drive there from all points of the +compass. These _Mares_, but little known, few in number, much sought +after--become, more especially at the period of the dog-days, very +difficult to find. Considered always as the property of the first comer, +the poacher, who is better acquainted than any other sportsman with the +localities in which they are to be found, generally takes up his +quarters near them late at night, and installs himself; sleeps there, +sups there, and, determined not to leave it under any pretext, laughs in +the face of the unfortunate wight who arrives after him, in the happy +delusion that he has anticipated every one else. For it is a forest law, +and acknowledged by all, that two sportsmen cannot, without disturbing +one another, sit down at the same _Mare_; possession is in this not only +nine but ten points of the law; and, if a mere lad, with a +fowling-piece, happens to place himself first on its banks, no giant +seven feet high would think of using his superior strength to expel him. + +Such is the law--such is the custom--to act in defiance of it would +expose the culprit to the chance of receiving a charge of No. 3 in his +jacket; and as each _Mare_ has its wooden hut, in successive summers, +constructed by you, embellished by me, knocked in, cut about, injured by +some one else, and repaired by all--the first man who puts the stock of +his gun on the floor of the cabin becomes immediately and incontestibly +the lucky proprietor of it for that night. + +And how shall I explain to you the thousand cunning tricks, the +diabolical, the ingenious finesses, the Philipistic and Machiavellian +diplomacy, which sportsmen employ one towards the other to obtain +possession? Two friends, for instance, meet by accident on the same +road; with what perfect and impudent lies do they entertain each +other!--with what gusto do they try and take one another in!--what +cheating doubts do they not mutually endeavour to raise, in their desire +to induce each other to take the wrong road! With the effrontery of a +_diplomate_, with the assurance of a secretary of legation,--one +affirms, his hand on his heart, and looking towards heaven, that he is +going to the left, when it is his positive intention, well-considered +beforehand, to go to the right. No, France and England, Bresson and +Bulwer, playing their game of chess of the Spanish marriages on the +green cloth of political rascality,--never said anything comparable to +the devices of these lying chevaliers of the forest. + +Everything is permitted--every stratagem is fair, so long as either is +endeavouring to triumph over his adversary; and then, when they have +gone so far as to be able to wish one another good afternoon, and each +has convinced himself that he has put the other on the wrong road--that, +thank the stars, his rival is off, that he is far off, that he cannot +see him--what haste! what strides and leaps to get speedily to the spot, +and make himself safe! The running of the celebrated Greek, who, with +his breast laid open by a ghastly wound, ran eighty miles in ten hours +to announce to the impatient Athenians the victory of Marathon, was the +pace of a tortoise compared with the demon-racing of these _chasseurs_. + +And, after all this anxiety and rapid locomotion,--after turning and +winding in and out of the wood, and round the wood to avoid the +open--across the brook to avoid the bridge--through the brambles and +thick underwood to avoid the open path--when you think you have cheated, +or, at any rate, distanced your enemy,--when you perceive in front of +you the object of your hopes,--the well-known and much-desired hut which +seems to invite you to repose after your long day's walk--why, at that +interesting moment, even your own, your very own brother would be a +veritable Bedouin in your eyes, a man to be put out of the way any how, +if he attempted to stop you. + +At such a crisis, if a real sportsman were to hear that his house was on +fire, that his banker was off to America, taking with him his wife and +his money, he would not, I say, in such a moment turn his head round to +see which way they went;--Imagine, then, when in order to succeed you +have made yourself out a cheat of the first water, and employed every +possible subterfuge,--conceive what would be the extent of your anger +and indignation, what your disgust,--when on arriving at your coveted +_Mare_, at your oasis, at your paradise, at the spot for which you have +toiled and invented such lies, to find the hut--occupied! + +Sometimes you may find in the possessor a _chasseur_, who likes to amuse +himself at your expense,--a jocose fellow, who, hearing you at a +distance working your way through the underwood, and seeing you through +the leaves advancing with eager and rapid steps to the spot, conceals +himself behind the entrance, and as you are just on the point of +entering the hut, your foot just on the step, the droll sportsman puts +his ugly head out of the window, as a yellow tortoise would his out of +his shell, asking you, in most polite terms, what o'clock it is; or if +it should chance to be raining a deluge at the time, remark in +compassionate accents, "Why, sir, you seem rather damp!" + +Job was never so unfortunate as to arrive at a _Mare_ already occupied; +had he done so, it is not by any means clear to me that he would have +been able to contain his wrath. For my own part, I have frequently been +beside myself with vexation, and on one occasion was very nearly having +a quarrel to the death with my best friend. We had accidentally met in +the forest, as described, and had deceived each other, as two Greeks of +Pera would, when making a bargain. After our _rencontre_, my friend went +to the right, I to the left; he on the sly, turning and twisting by +footpath and wood to conceal himself from observation; I, on the +contrary, went directly to the spot, and striding away as fast as I +could go, arrived at the _Mare_ about three minutes before him, scarlet +and streaming with exertion, and quite out of breath. My friend who was +equally heated, but, in addition, disappointed and in a furious rage, +addressed me in most insulting language, declaring between the hiccup, +which his want of breath and want of coolness had produced, that I was +a Jesuit, a hypocrite; and many other affectionate epithets did he apply +to me with the utmost volubility. + +If I had not been the fortunate occupant of the hut, which gratifying +fact was as honey to my lips and oil to my bones, and had a most +soothing influence on my temper, I should naturally have revolted at +such conduct; but this constrained me, and I remained perfectly quiet, +determined to allow my lungs to regain their composure before I replied. +Seeing this, his rage increased tenfold, and he proposed a duel with our +fowling-pieces, hunting-knives, or two large sticks; he offered me, +also, an aquatic duel of a most novel character,--namely, for both of us +to undress and endeavour to drown each other in the _Mare_! In short, he +continued for at least a quarter of an hour to rave and rail without +ceasing. + +But of all this abuse I took not the slightest notice, remaining +perfectly calm, sitting in my hut like Solomon on his throne, and +fanning my heated countenance with the brim of my broad hat, as if I had +been in a glass-house. It is true I laughed in my sleeve, looked +vacantly at the blue heavens, and whistled the chorus or snatches of a +hunting song. Finding therefore, it was impossible to move me, my +adversary finished by getting tired of roaring and abusing; and having +rubbed the perspiration from his distorted face with a force which +seemed as if he would rub his nose off, he turned on his heel with the +grace of a wild boar that had received a brace of balls in his +haunches,--looking me fiercely in the face, and pouring forth as a last +broadside, a dozen of oaths in the true _argot_ style, which seemed to +dry up the very plants near him, and silenced the frogs that were +croaking in the _Mare_. + +Such, however, is the force of habit and of this rule; and so truly does +every one feel that on the strict observance of it depends the +tranquillity of all, that the law of first possession is never violated; +although it is but simply acknowledged by the justice and good sense of +every sportsman, it is quite as well established in their manners and +customs as if it were written on tables of iron. The consequence is, +that however enraged a person may be, he sees, and generally at the +outset, that his best course is to give way; he may fume and strut, look +big and villify, but he bows his head and is off with as embarrassed a +face as yours, gentle reader, would certainly be, if a friend whom you +knew to be ruined came and asked you to lend him twenty thousand francs. + +But also, by St. Hubert, if you remain the lord and master of this +_Mare_, how your heart leaps, how all fatigue is forgotten! and when the +twilight approaches, what a fever there is in your veins!--what anxiety! +I have heard of the delirious and suffocating emotions of a lover +waiting for his mistress at the rendezvous. Fiddlesticks! I say, gruel +and iced-water. The most volcanic Romeo that ever penned a letter or +scaled a wall, is to the sportsman waiting amidst the howling storm on a +dark night for the wolves, what a cup of cream is to a bottle of +vitriol. As for myself, I would give,--yes, ladies, I am wolf enough to +say,--that I would willingly give up the delightful emotions of ninety +rendezvous, with the loveliest women in the world, black or white, for +twelve with a boar or a wolf. In return for this bad taste, I shall +probably be devoured some day or other,--a fate no doubt duly merited. + +I will suppose, therefore, that the sportsman is squatting quietly in +his hut, like a serpent in a bush. With what ardour and nervous anxiety +does he not await the propitious and long-expected hour! He throws open +the ivory doors of his castle in the air,--his hopes are multiplied a +thousandfold. What shall I shoot?--what shall I not shoot? Will it be a +she-wolf, or a roebuck? No, I prefer a boar. Will he be a large one? But +if by chance I should kill a sow?--what a capital affair that would be; +the young ones never leave their mother; perhaps I should bag three or +four,--perhaps the whole fare. But then, how shall I carry them off? +Perhaps the wolves will save me the difficulty of contriving that, and +dispute my title to them,--perhaps they will attack me, eat me, the sow, +the pigs, and my sealskin cap. + +How, I beseech you, is the following _monologue_ to stand comparison +with the fierce excitement of such anticipations? Will she come this +evening, the darling--will my sweetest be able to come?--shall I be +blessed with one kiss?--shall it be on the left cheek or the right, or +shall I press her lips to mine? Bah! there can be no comparison in the +hunter's mind; and then you barricade yourself in your hut as evening +approaches, strengthen the weak points, study the best positions, look +to your arms; the day seems as if it would never close,--nothing is +left for you to do but to muse in the interval, and think of the poor +maudlin lovers, who at this very hour are squatting under a wall like so +many young apes; or of him who, half concealed, stands on the watch at +the angle of a dirty street, waiting with a fluttering heart the arrival +of some sentimental little chit of a girl, who is nevertheless coquette +enough to keep him waiting for half an hour. And again, with what +disdain and contempt you regard such birds as pigeons, turtle-doves, +buzzards, wild duck, and teal; hares and foxes, too, which make their +appearance from time to time,--to kill these never enters your head. + +What, not the fox, with his splendid bushy tail? + +Why what do you take me for, good reader?--what can I possibly want with +that?--I, who am about to knock over two roebucks and three wolves? +Peace, peace, my friends; skip and skuttle about, young rabbits; nibble +away, middle-aged hares,--don't put yourselves the least out of the way, +you won't have any of my powder. Besides, to fire would be very +imprudent, and to a great extent compromise the sport; for at this +period the sun is sinking, the shadows are slowly lengthening, the +roebuck are on their way, and the she wolf in the neighbouring thicket +is raising her head and listening for the sounds which indicate that +her prey is not far off. And you listen also to catch the slightest +noise that comes on the wind,--for each and all are a vocabulary to the +huntsman,--a gust of wind, the note of a bird disturbed, a weasel +running across the path, a squirrel gnawing the bark, a breaking branch, +startles you, circulates your blood, and puts you anxiously alive to +what may follow. Everything that surrounds you at this still tour of +twilight courts your attention,--the waving branches speak to you,--the +hazel thicket, bending to the weight of some advancing animal, puts you +on your guard; the heart beats, not for the rustling of a silk gown, nor +for the hurried footfall of woman treading with fairy lightness on the +fallen leaves. The syren voice is not about to whisper softly in your +ear, "Are you there, violet of my heart!" nor are you about to reply, +"Angelic being, moss-rose of my soul, let me press your sweet lips?" +What you are waiting for are the wild beasts of the forest,--you are +listening for their distant and subdued tones, their bounding spring, +their near approach, their bodies as a mark for your rifle, their yells, +and cries, and death agony for your triumph. + +Then the inexplicable charms of danger excite the sportsman's feelings; +his physical faculties, like those of the Indian, are doubled; he +grasps his rifle with a firmer clutch, and looks down the blade of his +hunting-knife with anxiety and yet with satisfaction. It grows dark, but +his eyes pierce the gloom--his life is at stake, but he forgets that it +is so; for the love of the chase, the wild pleasures of the huntsman, +have taken possession of his soul. Breathless, his heart thumping +against his chest, as if it would break its bounds, he listens, the +cloudy curtain rises, and with it the moon; the roebucks are heard in +the distance, then the stealthy steps of the wolves, afterwards the rush +of the boar: and now, gentlemen, the tragedy is about to +commence--choose your victims. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + _Mare_ No. 2.--Description of it--Not sought after by the sportsman--The + sick banker--The doctor's prescription--The patient's disgust at it--Is + at length obliged to yield--Leaves Paris for Le Morvan--Consequences to + the inmates of the château--The banker convalescent. + + +If the great _Mares_ No. 1, situated in the dark and silent depths of +the forest, far from every habitation, and where you find you are left +as much to yourself as the poor shipwrecked sailor supporting his +exhausted frame upon a single plank on the angry billows, are so +attractive, and so much coveted, though dangerous and difficult to +secure, the same cannot be said of those which lie in the vicinity of a +village, and which I shall call _Mare_ No. 2. + +These last are to be met with easily enough; but being so very readily +discovered, it is therefore rare to find near them the larger +descriptions of game,--though the sportsman may see a few thrushes, some +dozen of water-wagtails, and flocks of little impudent chaffinches, +greenfinches, &c., which come there to imbibe, hopping from stone to +stone, and singing in the willows; beyond these he will see nothing +worth the cap on the nipple of his gun. Nevertheless to him who is +without experience,--to the hunter who cannot read the language of the +forest on the bark of the trees, on the freshly trodden ground, or the +bent grass and broken flowers,--these pieces of water seem quite as +beautiful and well situated, indeed quite as desirable, as the others. + +Perhaps such an ignoramus might prefer them; for they are always more +open, more free from weeds, rushes and flags, and less dark; and at the +hour of _la chasse au poste_, the hour of twilight, they are as solitary +as the _Mare_ No. 1. But the savage beasts of the forest are not to be +deceived; their instinct tells them that at a quarter, or perhaps half a +mile from them, there is, though unseen and hidden in the thickness of +the trees, a farm, or two or three houses; and when they are not pressed +onward by the winter snows, or by maddening hunger, they stop,--for the +smell of man is not pleasant to their nostrils, the neighbourhood is not +agreeable to them, and they immediately withdraw from the spot. + +It is thus that these _Mares_ are always at any person's disposal; the +passing sportsman rarely makes more than a circuit round them; and if +one is occasionally found on their banks, he may at once be set down as +a beginner, who, having found the _Mares_ No. 1 in the vicinity all +occupied, has here installed himself for the evening in sheer vexation +and despair. Over these pools of troubled water, frequented during the +whole day by the inhabitants of the adjoining cottages, that eternal +stillness and imposing solitude, which are the delight of the wolf and +the boar, never reigns. + +The day has scarcely dawned ere the wood-cutters' wives, in their red +petticoats, with brown jugs on their heads, come to fill them there, or +to wash their vegetables; the cows to drink, the children to play at +ducks and drakes, or the men to water the horses. But a little before +nightfall all this going and coming, this trampling of heavy _sabots_, +the bellowings, oaths, and cracking of whips subside, and cease, as if +by magic, when the sun is down. The poultry and the peasants are equally +silent, their huts are closed, their beds are gained, and their dogs, +stretched motionless behind the door, snore and sleep soundly with open +ear, and every leaf without is still. + +The _chasseur à l'affût_, if inexperienced or not acquainted with the +country, while reconnoitring the spot during the last few minutes of the +twilight that remain, would never imagine that he was near an inhabited +spot; not a bark, not a sound, not one twinkling light in a cottage +window, not one wreath of ascending smoke is to be heard or seen. +Thinking therefore that he has made a grand discovery, he rubs his hands +with no little satisfaction, squats down at the foot of some tree, or in +the temporary shed on the bank, and believes he is going to kill a dozen +wolves at least. + +But, alas! it is in vain for him to open his eyes and his ears; nothing +is to be seen but one or two hideous bats, which flap their wings in his +face, and frighten him in the midst of a reverie. Nothing is on the +move; no newt or tadpole is playing in the water, and nothing can be +descried there but the rays of the moon, as she moves slowly o'er its +surface; nor is anything to be heard except the wind whistling through +the trees, or an occasional shot from the rifle of a brother sportsman, +who, more happy, more clever, and better placed than himself, may be +heard in the distance. I should not have thought of mentioning the +_Mares_ No. 2, so little do they deserve attention, if one of them had +not been the scene of a very strange adventure of which I was witness; +and as the description of it will give me an opportunity of speaking of +the _Mares_ No. 3, and of the third mode of taking woodcocks, I shall +profit by the circumstance to relate it. + +One day a _millionnaire_, a Lucullus, a rich banker of Paris, found +himself dreadfully ill: his body grew larger every twenty-four hours; +his neck sunk into his shoulders, his breathing became difficult, and +three or four times in the course of a week he was within a little of +being suffocated; as many times in the course of a month the gout, which +in the morning had been tearing his toes and his heels as if with hot +pincers, in the evening twisted his calves and his knees as if they were +being made into ropes. What was to be done under these circumstances? +The best physicians consulted together, and recommended him to order a +pair of hob-nailed shoes from a country shoemaker, and instantly leave +the capital. + +"Hob-nailed shoes, with donkey heels!" cried the banker, all amazed; +"and for what, in the name of goodness?" + +"Why, to run with in search of health over the wild moors and heaths, +and improve your figure by long walks in the mountains," was the reply. + +And as the only hope of health was obedience, he prepared his mind to +set off. It is true the doctors permitted him to carry with him his +cane, his flute, and his eye-glass; but he was obliged to leave behind +his carriages, his horses, his luxurious arm-chairs and his cooks; in +short, he was informed that, under the penalty of being quickly placed +under ground, and obliged to shake hands with his respectable ancestors, +and enjoy with them the nice white marble monuments under which they +reposed, he must, for the next year at least, make use of his own legs, +forget there were such things as _Rentes_, eat only when he felt hungry, +and drink when he was thirsty. + +What a sentence for a rich Parisian banker! to leave his splendid hotel +and his apartments, redolent with delicious perfumes, and play the +pedestrian up and down the footpaths in the woods, the mossy glades and +highway of the forest, or sit on a large stone at the top of a hill +under the mid-day sun, and inhale from the valleys the soft breezes, +laden with the odours of the new-mown hay, or the clover-fields in full +blossom. His box at the grand opera, lined with velvet, must too be left +behind, and many an adieu be given to the gauze-clad sylphides and +painted nightingales of that gay establishment. + +Yes, all these were to be exchanged for morning walks to the summit of +some mountain; to make his bow to Aurora, and listen to the joyous carol +of the larks chanting high in the air their hymns of praise, or +listening to their blithe little brothers of song, awakening in the +bushes, and fluttering, amidst a shower of pearls and rubies--those dewy +gems which hang in the sunny rays upon every branch. "Ah, it is all over +with me!" wheezed the plethoric banker, when the junior doctor of the +consultation of three informed him of their unanimous opinion. + +"It is all over with me, gentlemen; in the name of mercy what will +become of me, if I am put on the peasant's daily fare of buck-wheat and +roasted beans? Consider again, gentlemen." + +"It is a matter of necessity, sir," replied the trio; "your life is at +stake." + +"Dear doctors, withdraw these unwholesome words; open the consultation +afresh; pass once more in review all your scientific acquirements, your +great knowledge of chemistry, your hospital experience. Press, dear +gentlemen, between both your hands the pharmacopean sponge, and in the +name of mercy squeeze out for me some more agreeable remedy." + +"There is no other," replied the funereal-looking physicians. + +"What, is the house then really in danger?" + +"Danger! sir, why it is nearly on fire. Your heart is getting diseased, +your lungs are touched, your blood is actually scented and coloured with +the truffles you have eaten. Why, your very nose (pray excuse the +freedom of our remark), your roseate nose bears testimony to what we +say." + +"Alas, alas! this is I fear the truth; but, gentlemen, if I leave Paris, +what on earth will become of the Great Northern and the Orleans +Railways, and the funds,--my dividends, rents, and bad debts?" + +"And your feverish pulse, sir, your wrinkled liver, and your digestion, +which scarcely ever allows you to close your eyes?" + +"Yes! yes,--but my Spanish fives and Mexican bonds?" + +"And your bilious eyes and eyelids full of crows' feet, and the gout and +the rheumatism which excruciate you?--those horrid spiders which are +weaving their threads in the muscles of your calves?" + +"But my carrier-pigeons, gentlemen, source of my tenderest care; the +brokerage, the speculation for the account, and my good friend, the +Minister of the Interior, and of the _Travaux Publics_; and the snowball +of my fortune, which must stop unproductive till I recover;--how can I +leave all these to fate?" + +"Think of your respiration, which is disorganized, and the vital +principle, the torch of life, which flickers up and down in the socket, +and ere many weeks will be extinguished, unless you at once take our +advice." + +"What!" continued the votary of wealth,--"what! cannot gold purchase +health, most sapient doctors?" + +"No, sir; doctors are paid, that's all, and people cure themselves." + +"You persist, then, in saying that I am not even to take my head cook +with me?" + +"On no account whatever." + +"Then I am defunct already." + +"That you will be so, sir, in two months, if you remain here, there +cannot be a doubt." + +"Then, good heavens! where can I go? What am I to do without carriages, +without opera nightingales, and, above all things, without a head cook?" + +The night succeeding the consultation, the banker felt as if twenty +cork-screws had been driven into his calves, and he made, ere dawn, a +vow that he would leave the capital. This determination taken, the next +point to be decided was in what direction to go,--for it was not a +journey of pleasure he was about to take, but one of health; and for +once his riches were of no further use to him than to provide the means +of transit. His physicians, fashionable men, strange to say, were +sincere, and did not order him to Nice or Lucca, hot-baths, or mineral +waters, or even to the orange-groves of Hyères, to which, when a rich +man cannot recover, they send him, in order that he may die comfortably +under Nature's warm blanket, the sun, inhaling with his last +inspirations the delicious scent of her flowers. To Spain, where, said +the invalid, they talk so loud and drink water, he would not go; nor to +Germany, the land of meerschaums and sour crout. Which direction +therefore was he to take? to which point of the compass was he to turn +the vessel's prow? + +Several times did the unhappy banker pass his geography in review, but +his knowledge of this science was indeed finite, and the Landes, +Picardy, and such like spots, alone presented themselves to his +imagination. In this predicament the light of friendship suddenly threw +a ray over his thinking faculties; he remembered my father, the +companion of his boyhood, with whom he had been brought up,--his great +friend, without doubt, but of whom he had not thought for the last ten +years. + +"By all the blue devils that dance in my brain!" said the unhappy +_millionnaire_, starting up on his bed of pain, as if he had a spring in +his back, and throwing at the nose of his astonished apothecary, who was +watching him, the draught presented to him,--"by the wig of my respected +grandfather,--by the beard of Æsculapius, I have found the real friend +who will pour over my head the oil of health." + +"My good sir," said his attendant, "pray calm yourself, and take this +pill" ... + +"Yes, that dear friend, he will set me all to rights--he will bring to +my heavy eyelids those peaceful slumbers which now, alas! I never +enjoy." + +"But, Sir," repeated the apothecary, "pray be so good as to lay down and +swallow this." + +"Back, felon of hell! horse-leech, son of a poultice! go, doctor of the +devil, and join your friend in black below." + +"But _Monsieur le Banquier_"---- + +"Off I say, off!--sinister raven, cease your croaking! Silence--take the +abominable drugs yourself--poison yourself, you wretch. Give me my +trousers, and let me dress myself. Hey, Bilboquet!--bring my hot water, +razors, and shaving soap. Hurrah! Phoebus, light the sun and put out +the stars; arise day! Into the saddle, postillions,--here, bring some +cigars. Hurrah! the wind is up; now, my stout boatmen, down to your +oars." "Halloo! halloo!" shouted his attendant, "help! help!" and he got +at both bells and rang away with might and main; but before any one came +the banker was out of bed, struck his attendant a blow in the eye, which +made him see one hundred and forty-six suns, and laid him upon the +floor, after which he commenced waltzing _en chemise_ in his delirium, +all round the room with a chair, dragging after him the unfortunate hero +of the pestle and mortar, and roaring at the top of his voice these +lines of Racine: + + Peut-être on t'a conté la fameuse disgrâce + De l'altière Vasthi dont j'occupe la place, + Lorsque le Roi, centre elle enflammé de dépit,-- + +followed by-- + + Quel profâne en ces lieux ose porter ses pas? + Holà, gardes!-- + +At this moment a reinforcement most luckily arrived; but as in this +access of fever he defended himself against all comers like a bear, and +boxed away like an Englishman, they had no little difficulty in +securing him; at length, in spite of his violence, he was replaced in +his bed, like a sword into its sheath. There, however, he would not lay +quiet; first he tore the satin curtains, then he hugged his +richly-worked pillow to his breast, calling it his best and dearest +friend, and performed fifty other such antics. He obtained, in short, no +repose, until his secretary, who entered at his bidding half-dressed and +with one eye half shut, had written the following note to my father, +under his dictation,--a letter evidently written in a paroxysm of high +fever: + +"Friend of my heart, jessamine of my soul, bright party-coloured tulip +of my _souvenirs_, may the Creator pour upon your gray and venerable +head a stream from his flower-pot of blessings! + +"Dear Friend,--Several atrocious doctors, with pale noses, the very +sight of which gives one the cholic, and with black searching eyes, that +make one tremble, say that I am very ill,--that I shall die. They say +too that there is only one mode of cure, and that is to take my valuable +body into your beautiful province. It is the east wind they say, and +blue-bottles, corn-flowers, field-poppies, and the green turf; the song +of the nightingale and the beautiful moonlight nights; the hum of bees +and the bleating of sheep, which will effect this marvellous cure. It is +amongst the rocks and streams of your mountains, in long walks in your +forests, and in your valleys; in the innocent candour of your pretty +peasant girls, the pure water of your fountains, and the cream cheeses +of your dairies that I am told resides the power to retain here below my +soul, just ready to fly away. Alas! yes, I am forced to admit the fact; +I must say I am very ill, and it is my own fault;--yes, my own undoubted +fault. I have drank too deeply of voluptuous ease; I have tasted too +often the luscious grapes of forbidden pleasures. I am no longer +virtuous enough to wish to see the sun rise, and hence it is that I am +suffering intensely in the capacity of a human pincushion, in which, one +after the other, the sharpest and most pointed pins have stuck +themselves, namely, every infirmity and every disease that mortal man is +heir to. + +"In this delicate and distressing position, dear friend, I thought of +you: yes, to you, to you only, shall I owe my restoration to health. Do +not therefore be surprised if, in the course of a few days, you should +see my shadow approach your hospitable door; and prepare for it, I beg +you, a small room and a bed of dried leaves, coarse bread, and a jug of +water. It seems that in order to regenerate my blood I shall want all +these; and I shall be fortunate if, in seeking a perfect restoration to +health, I am not obliged to be a swine-herd or keep sheep, to dig, cut, +and saw wood, pick spinach, or weed the flower-beds! Quick, my friend; +light with all convenient haste the altar on which we will burn again +the incense and benjamin of friendship. Blow again the sparks now so +nearly extinguished of our happy boyish days; revive again the holy +flames of our youthful affections; and, above all things, have the +scissors ready which are to cut the Gordian knot of my complicated +diseases. Soon, in shaking you by the hand, my shadow shall say much +more." + + Yours, &c., + + +Fifteen days after the receipt of this extraordinary composition, the +banker, escorted by a lean and cadaverous-looking doctor, arrived at our +_château_, half strangled with a churchyard cough, and in a state of +apparently hopeless debility. He was evidently very, very ill; and if it +had not been for the sincere friendship my father had for him, I really +do not know how we could have supported the dark cloud which his +presence seemed to throw upon our house for nearly nine mortal weeks. + +No one dared either to move or speak: if you wished to laugh, it could +only be on the terrace; if to blow your nose, it was to be done in the +cellar; and as to sneezing, one was obliged to go to the bottom of the +garden. The horses' feet were wrapped up in hay-bands, so that no sound +should be heard in the court-yard; the servants went about the house in +list shoes, and all the approaches to it were knee-deep in straw. There +was an end to the _fanfares_ of the huntsman's horn, and the rollicking +chorus; guns, shot and powder, were all placed under lock and key; the +kennel was mute, and the muzzled dogs looked piteously at one another, +and hung their heads, as if they had given themselves up to the certain +prospect of being drowned. The very hares knew how matters were, and +passed to and fro before the garden-windows; and a stray wolf, which +came one evening into the court-yard, sat on his hind-quarters and +looked us impudently in the face; as to the birds, they ate up very +nearly every peach and apricot we had. The silence of the grave reigned +everywhere--the house seemed a very sepulchre, in which nothing could be +heard but the monotonous liquid bubblings of the fountains, the ticking +of the clocks, and the sighing breezes that whistled through the +casements. + +Fairly worn out with this state of things, I was thinking seriously of +leaving for the gay swamps of Holland, when a crisis occurred in the +banker's disorder, and after a severe struggle, in which every bone of +his body seemed to twist itself round, he was declared by his pallid +doctor out of danger--saved. Surrounding his bed, we drank with no +little joy to his perfect recovery, and during one entire week we +suspended on the walls of his bed-room, according to the custom in Le +Morvan, garlands of lilies and _vervenia_, interwoven with green foliage +and wild thyme. From this time he improved daily, and three months after +no one would have recognized the sick man; his face became quite rosy, +and his eyes looked full of returning health. With a gun on his +shoulder, he followed us nimbly through the vineyards, never flinched +from his bottle, sang barcarolles with the ladies, made declarations of +love to all the young girls, promised to marry each, once at least, and +danced away in the evening under the acacias with the nymphs of the +village, to whom he had always some secret to tell behind the trees, or +in some snug little corner. The woodcock season having arrived during +his stay, which was now nearly over, we determined that he should be +introduced to _la chasse aux Mares_. + +Pardon me, kind reader, for all this gossip by the way, but this is the +point at which I wished to arrive. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + Summer months in the Forest--_Mare_ No. 3--Description of it--The + Woodcock fly--The Banker has a day's sport--Arrives at the + _Mare_--Difficult to please in his choice of a hut--Proceeds to a + larger _Mare_--His friends retire--The Banker on the alert for a + Wolf or a Boar--Fires at some animal--The unfortunate + discovery--Rage of the Parisian--Pays for his blunder, and recovers + his temper. + + +During the months of June, July, and August, the great heats in our +forests are suffocating, and the woodcock, which during the livelong day +has been squatting under some mossy root, is impressed with the idea +that a bathe in a clear pool of cold fresh water would be very conducive +to its health. Thus directly the sun, red as a shot which leaves the +furnace, falls below the horizon, and that the clouds surrounding the +spot where it disappears, at first lurid and bright like fire, then +yellow like a sea of gold, become cool, pale, and at length sink into +more sober hues, the woodcock,--which waits only for this moment to open +its wings and promenade the neighbourhood,--comes forth and commences a +study of the winds. Guided by instinct, and by the fresh currents of +air that float unseen in the atmosphere, she follows the sweet upland +breezes, and soon arrives at the spring or piece of water of which she +is in search. + +The _Mares_ No. 3, in which the woodcock more especially loves to take a +bath, are almost as difficult to find as the one that I discovered, for +they are hidden in the depths of the forest; like it, also, they are for +the most part small, encircled by the thick foliage of the surrounding +trees, and consequently very dark; and the more this is the case, the +more solitary they are, and therefore the more sought after by this +bird. A woodcock never bathes in the _Mare_ No. 1; for to them resort +one after another all the large game, or those No. 2, as these are too +open. The woodcocks are discreet and bashful, and, like the wives of the +Sultan, love a retired bath-room, where they may disport themselves on +banks ever fresh and green, perfumed with wild flowers, and immerse +their fair persons in pellucid waters that have never been tainted with +a drop of blood, or covered with feathers torn from the victim of the +sportsman's gun. Thus it is therefore that the _Mares_ frequented by the +woodcock are so entirely hidden by the thick and falling branches, so +enveloped in deep shade, that you must have eyes made on purpose to be +able to discover their large brown bodies plunging in the crystal water +and wading amongst the flags. In aid of the sportsman, now as in the +spring, a little fly comes buzzing and wheeling about in the air to warn +the sportsman of the arrival of the birds, which, directly the moon's +white horn is seen glancing between the trees, arrive flapping their +wings in small parties of two and three at a time. One afternoon, when +the wind blew soft, and the sun was refulgent in the azure above, we +proposed an excursion in the forest to our friend the banker, who was +now quite convalescent. + +"What! do you wish to give me up to the beasts?" cried he, jumping up +from his seat. + +"Not at all, dear sir, pray don't be alarmed; we are merely desirous of +making you acquainted with the most innocent, the least dangerous sport +of the _chasse à l'affût_," and having convinced him, we started. +Everything went well as far as the entrance to the forest; but there the +_millionnaire_, little accustomed to walk over the stumps of underwood +and amongst the thorns, he began to drop into the rear, stopping every +now and then to rest against some tree, or disentangle his legs from +some yards of bramble, puffing and blowing, and ejaculating Oh's! and +Ha's! by dozens. + +"Courage! sir," we said, "courage! we shall arrive too late; one brisk +half-hour's walk, and we are at our posts." + +"Upon my word, gentlemen, you are really considerate; I walk, I suspect, +quite as fast as you. But"--and how was he delighted to find an excuse +for a halt--"you spoke of a _chasse a l'affût_, hiding for what I should +like to know--for bears, panthers, or crocodiles? is it this kind of +game we are to watch for?" + +"Oh! no--for woodcocks." + +"Woodcocks!--what, have you made me walk since the morning through +perfect beds of briars and over miles of large stones, escalade the +mountains, descend precipices, and brought me through water-courses and +dark ravines, to kill a few woodcocks?" + +"Would you prefer confronting a wild boar?" + +"Certainly," said the puffing convalescent; "if there was no chance of +danger, I should infinitely prefer killing a boar." + +"For to-day this is impossible." + +"Why so?" + +"Why, in the first place, there are no boars in this wood, and it is too +late to take you to those which they frequent." + +"Then we shall find only woodcocks in the place we are going to?" + +"Nothing else; at least during the half-hour we shall remain." + +"And if we were to remain more than half an hour?" + +"Oh! then we might perhaps by accident see a roebuck--perhaps a hungry +wolf." + +"A hungry wolf!--the deuce! And if there should come by chance a wolf to +the _Mare_ when I shall be all alone, what must I do?" + +"Why kill it, to be sure." + +"To be sure, why of course I should kill the ferocious animal,"--and the +banker, though smacking his fingers and whistling as if quite +unconcerned, looked very grave. Continuing our walk, we arrived at the +_Mares_. + +"Goodness," said my companion, "how dark it is here,"--looking into each +hut that was shown him. "Misericorde! if I were to ensconce myself in +this leafy cabin, this gloomy sombre hole, I should fancy myself seated +at the bottom of a blacking-bottle--I respectfully decline the honour of +occupying the hut." + +"Very well, let us proceed to another," we exclaimed. But the second +was pronounced more lugubrious and melancholy-looking than the first, +and the third not more agreeable than the preceding one. + +"It is no longer a matter of doubt," said the Parisian; "you are a +family of owls. What! place myself in these holes, these mouse-traps, in +these tumuli of leaves, where the archfiend himself, habituated to every +kind of darkness, could not distinguish anything?--thank you, gentlemen. +As to you, you can see clear; but by the great telescope of the +observatory, if I were to get into one of these rustic ovens, I should +not in five minutes be able to distinguish the end of my nose--I should +not be able to find my way to my breeches-pocket." + +"But, my dear sir," said I to him, when alone, for my two friends were +now snugly seated in the rejected huts, "you are very difficult to +please, and it becomes embarrassing, for these cabins are all alike; +when you have seen one you have seen a dozen. Now this, believe me, is a +capital one; come, seat yourself here." + +"I am much obliged to you, not that one; for this pool of water in +particular has something very sinister about it; the spot feels raw, and +has an unpleasant wolfish air." + +What was to be done? While debating thus, I remembered that at some +little distance from the place where we then were, stood two large +farms, Les Fermes des Amandiers, and that, at a distance of half a mile +beyond them, there was a magnificent _Mare_, in the style, it is true, +of _Mare_ No. 2, large and open, and yet it would be as useless to wait +for woodcocks there as it would be to hope to catch a trout in the +basins of Trafalgar-square. Such a spot seemed to me admirably +calculated for the banker; I resolved, therefore, to conduct him to it. + +"If this hut does not please you," said I, "follow me, and quickly." + +"Where are you going to take me?" + +"Oh! do not alarm yourself, I have just thought of a place that will +suit you exactly: a charming spot, delightfully scented by a thicket of +honeysuckles; but you must be on the alert. See, the sun is nearly below +the summit of the tallest oaks--we shall not have more than one hour of +daylight; and I must return here." + +When we arrived at the _Mare_ of which I was in search, the immediate +neighbourhood of it was already silent and deserted. "Heavens!" said the +enchanted banker, "what a delightful spot! Quick!--where shall I place +myself? Let us look for the hut--ha! here it is, but half in ruins;" for +it had not, in all probability, been occupied three times in the last +three years; we were obliged therefore to cut some branches, and roughly +repair it; and the banker, having crept into the interior, like a sweep +up a chimney, requested to have his last instructions. + +"Well, when night has nearly closed in," said I, laughing under my +moustache, "be on the _qui vive_. The woodcocks will be here, but move +not; be like a statue for a few minutes; let them approach--let them +come, fly and whirl, and look about them; then, when reassured by your +silence, they will fall into the shallow water, paddle in the grass, and +plunging throw their legs into the air. At that moment they are yours. +Take your time and a deliberate aim, and miss them not. The sport over, +remain where you are, and on our return we will join you." + +"All you say is very clear and very pretty," replied the banker; "but I +feel already a horrid cramp in my left leg; and if I am to remain +crumpled up in this hut, like a Turk taking his coffee, or like a monkey +gnawing an apple, when you come for me I shall have lost the use of my +limbs." + +"Oh! if that is likely to be your fate, walk about--stretch your legs; +you have yet twenty minutes before dark. Adieu, sir, adieu; and good +luck attend you; for myself, I must be off to my post." But I had gone +scarcely thirty yards when he shouted after me, "Oh! Henri--my dear +young friend--come back. Here! see, a pack of wolves! What do I say? no; +a whole family of bears has passed this way! Look! the border of the +_Mare_ is ploughed up by the feet of these savage brutes." + +"Bears, sir! those marks are merely the trampling of the shepherds' +dogs." + +"Shepherds' dogs! Stoop down--look closer; do you mean to tell me that +the shepherds' dogs have made these prints of cloven feet in the mud?" + +"No! those are holes made by the young calves from some neighbouring +farm, that came to drink here," I replied, repressing a laugh. + +"Nonsense! Henri; calves, indeed! they are the marks of buffaloes and +wild boars. You cannot deceive me; for I know something about such +things. Why, this _Mare_ is, I have no doubt, the rendezvous of all the +beasts of the forest for ten miles round. Thank you, I don't intend to +remain here." + +"Not remain! why you will, if you are correct, have far better fun than +we shall. Come, get into the hut." + +"Remain with me, and divide the honour of the sport." + +"Me? no: I thank you,--adieu! and keep your eyes about you." + +"Halloo! Henri, come back. By the spectacles of my grandmother, what +will become of me? I am a fool! I have lost my sight--I have forgot my +eye-glass." + +"Try to do without it." + +"Impossible! it is useless--without an eye-glass I cannot see a yard +before me; I shall most certainly leave this _Mare_. I shall be off with +you." + +"My dear sir," said I to him, "you must know and feel that if I thought +there was the most remote chance of danger, I would not leave you alone; +you really have nothing to fear--if you come with me, you will be +dreadfully in the way, and without doing the least possible good. The +huts are so very small, that there is only sufficient room for one: we +shall kill nothing, and be laughed at into the bargain." + +"But these terrible quadrupeds; what if they should come and devour me +when you are gone?" + +"I tell you you have nothing to fear." + +"Very well, then I will believe you; after all, I am not a coward, but +a man: a royal tiger would not frighten me, and in spite of these sombre +looking trees waving to and fro, this silence, and the solitary look of +the place, I remain; yes, by Jupiter, I remain; only barricade me in the +rear, cut some thick branches, palisade me well round--there, now I +think you may leave me, I require nothing more--and yet one word; if I +were in danger, do you think you would hear me if I called?" + +"Certainly, a whisper may almost be heard in the forest at night--the +trees conduct the slightest sound." + +"Well, then, give me a shake of your hand. Adieu." + +"Adieu, sir; be patient, and, above all, wait for our return." + +"Let me alone for that; never fear my leaving this hut alone." + +"And cover your head well, for nothing is so likely to give one cold as +the night air rushing into the ears." + +"And mind, now, don't pray forget me. If you are not here in +three-quarters of an hour, I shall fire signals of distress, and make +the forest ring again with my maledictions." + +But without waiting to hear anything further, I was off, and soon +reached my post. The sport, as usual, was pretty good; my friends and +myself killed four couple of woodcocks, and the _affût_ over, we turned +our steps towards the banker's cabin. No report of a gun had yet been +heard in his direction, but suddenly, and when we were scarcely five +hundred paces from the hut, and I was on the point of announcing our +arrival by a shrill whistle--two barrels were discharged one after the +other--then followed a long and heavy groan, and after that a cry of +distress. In a few seconds we bounded to the spot, and found our friend +stretched on the grass outside his hut, without his hat, his eyes +staring wildly about him, and his hair in disorder. He was trembling +with emotion, and pointed to a black animal, half hid in the water and +the rushes, which seemed very large, and was rolling from side to side +in the agonies of approaching death. Fright, downright fright, had tied +the banker's tongue; and while he is collecting his senses, allow me to +tell you, good reader, what had occurred in our absence. + +Dumb and motionless, as directed, he had, during half an hour, waited +anxiously for the woodcocks; but the woodcocks had for a very long time +forgotten the road to this _Mare_; not one came--there was no sport for +him. He had already fancied he heard us returning in the distance, and +that his cramped legs would be set at liberty, and his twisted body +again assume the perpendicular, when all at once a cold perspiration +stood upon his brow, terror seized him; for behind, nay, almost close to +him, he heard advancing the heavy tramp and loud breathing of a wild +beast, and before he had time to observe what kind of an animal it was, +the brute passed so close to the hut that he pressed it down, and rushed +on to the _Mare_. More dead than alive, the banker lay half-squeezed in +a corner of his cabin, and panting for breath, dared scarcely move. +After a few minutes, however, he hazarded a careful glance outside, and +not twenty paces from him saw the immense quadruped bathing, and rolling +himself quietly in the water. + +"It is a gigantic boar," said he to himself, "as large as a horse, and +as old as Methuselah--no doubt the patriarch of the forest--what tusks +he must have! Let us observe." And with a courage which did him credit, +he, after some time, suppressed his fear, and felt in the pocket of his +game-bag for two balls, which, with trembling hands, he slipped into +his gun. After this he again looked out, and reconnoitred the movements +of the enemy; but so great was the obscurity, that he could discover +nothing--unless, indeed, it was a dark mass which walked and jumped +hither and thither, rolled, frolicked, and rejoiced in his refreshing +bath. The heart of the Parisian was greatly agitated, and beat as if it +would split his flannel waistcoat; nevertheless, he took good and +deliberate aim at the black object in front, and though exceedingly +terrified, he cocked his gun, and in a perfect fever of excitement let +fly both barrels, falling immediately backwards in a corner of his hut, +perfectly bewildered with his own courage. A deep groan followed, and at +the end of a few minutes of agony and suspense, our friend, seeing no +tiger in the act of springing upon him, hazarded another look, when he +still heard the creature moaning, and groaning, and floundering in the +water. + +The fact was, he had by a miracle, and without seeing, done that which +he never could have done at mid-day,--his two balls had perforated the +animal's head and neck. Observing the monster raising itself with +difficulty, and endeavouring to withdraw its legs from the sticky mud in +which they were fixed, the courage of despair rushed into his heart--he +left the hut, upsetting everything in his way, and precipitated himself +upon his adversary with a view of despatching him with the butt end of +his gun, or making him retreat further into the _Mare_, when imagine his +consternation and fear,--at the very moment his uplifted arm was +stretched out, like Jupiter's in the act of hurling a thunderbolt, the +animal raised himself on his haunches, looked him full in the face, +opened two enormous jaws, put up two very long ears, and instead of a +roar full of rage and ferocity, sent forth the most agonizing and +dolorous bray that was ever heard from the throat of any ass, French, +English, or Spanish! Yes! it was an ass the banker had mortally wounded; +an unfortunate ass, which, driven by thirst and the heat of the weather, +had left his shed at the neighbouring farm-house, to quench it and +refresh himself with a bath. + +Surprise, shame, horror, and confusion began to dance a polka in the +banker's brain, and made him utter the hoarse cry which we had heard. +While we were yet gazing at each other the poor creature, by a last +effort, raised his bleeding head once more above the water, and +collecting all the strength he had left, scrambled from the _Mare_, +gave a half-suffocating and plaintive bray, and casting a look full of +reproach upon the gasping banker, which seemed to say, "I die, but I +forgive you," fell dead at our feet. + +A convulsion of laughter from the party, now all assembled, followed; +even the birds, awakened from their slumbers, began to sing and partake +of the general hilarity. + +"Halloo! Mr. Three per Cent.," said one, "this is what you call +sporting, is it--killing starved woodcocks? Fie! sir." + +"You are three infamous vagabonds," replied the Parisian, catching his +breath, and picking up his hat. + +"What! sir." + +"Why, you are a trinity of rascals, I repeat." + +"Why, what's the matter?" + +"Abominable hypocrites, I say; this is a piece of acting, a trick which +you have kindly put upon me--this ass was driven here by you, or by some +one at your suggestion; I see clearly how it is." + +"See clearly, do you? it is a pity, then, you did not a few minutes +ago." + +"It is an infernal plot, I say; think you that I came into this wretched +country of forests to kill donkeys?" + +"Well! but whose fault is it, sir; why did you not bring your +eye-glass?" + +"My eye-glass; I don't require one, gentlemen, to enable me to see that +you have made a fool of me." + +"My dear sir, reflect for a moment." + +"No, gentlemen, I feel indignant at the paltry joke you have played upon +me--you knew that my sight was weak, and on that infirmity you have +practised a very shameful trick; you have said to yourselves, 'Send an +ass to this Parisian, he will no doubt take it for a wild boar.' Be off, +gentlemen, depart; let me have a clear horizon, or I shall proceed to +extremity." + +"Monsieur le Banquier, if you do not become a little more reasonable, we +shall leave you to your reflections and to yourself, and pretty pickings +you will be for the wolves." + +"So much the better; I wish to remain, I desire it; and after the gross +insult you have offered me, I shall certainly not be beholden to you as +a guide, or return to the town in your company." And he kicked the dead +carcass before him in his rage. + +"But, Monsieur le Banquier, the night is getting chilly and damp, and +remember you are only just convalescent; come, let us be off." + +"Gentlemen, I have already told you I shall not accompany you." + +"Why, this is madness, sir." + +"Anything you please; but thus it shall be. I will not leave this wood +until I have killed a wolf; yes, I must have a wolf; it is only in the +blood of a wolf that I can wash out the insult I have received; and I +will remain in the forest eight days, fifteen, three months, if +necessary. I will live on acorns, ants, toad's eggs, and roots, but by +the soul of that stupid brute that lays there," and he gave the deceased +ass a second kick, "I will not budge until I have killed a wolf: enable +me to slaughter a wolf, and I will follow you; nay, what is more, +forgive you." + +"Monsieur le Banquier, let us in the first place tie a stone round the +neck of this unfortunate animal, and throw his body into the _Mare_, and +then, as we are the only witnesses of this adventure, we swear that we +will never divulge it to any one, or make the slightest allusion to it; +and, as we are men of honour, you will of course believe us;--the secret +shall be kept inviolable. On the other hand, as we are to a certain +extent responsible for your health, and as your remaining here any +longer in this cold wind will seriously endanger it, do not feel +discomposed if we defer to another day the pleasure of seeing you kill a +wolf, and request you will accompany us back to the _château_." + +With various flattering speeches and consoling words, to heal his +mortification, we at length succeeded in bringing him away with us; many +a laugh had we on our road home, and many were the promises given that +we would never reveal the events of the evening. But, alas! the secret +came out on the following day, for before twelve o'clock had struck, a +peasant came knocking at the door, howling, crying, bawling like a blind +beggar, and demanding who had killed his ass. His importunity succeeded; +the murderer was brought to light, the banker cheerfully paid for his +shot, and laughed heartily at the adventure; but in spite of his +apparent philosophy, I remarked that from that moment he never met an +ass that he did not turn away his head; and this is the kind of game +that one finds in _Mare_ No. 2. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + The _Curé_ of the Mountain--Toby Gold Button--Hospitality--The + _Curé's_ pig--His hard fate and reflections--The _Curé_ of the + plain--His worth and influence--The agent of the Government--Landed + Proprietors--Their influence--The Orator--Dialogue with a Peasant. + + +If the Burgundian curates dwelling in the richest parts of the province +are fat, sleek, and jovial members of the Establishment,--if in their +cellars are to be found the best and most generous wines, and on their +tables the most exquisite dishes,--the _curés_ of that portion of Le +Morvan which is immediately adjacent to Burgundy enjoy the same +abundance, and appreciate the advantages of good living equally with +them. But this is not the case with their _confrères_ who reside in the +uplands, amongst the arid and volcanic mountains, without roads, and the +thickly timbered hill-district which joins the Nivernais. There the +village pastors are poor, thin, and badly fed; fairly buried in the +forest, and surrounded by a population more wretched and squalid than +the rats of their own churches;--they seem as it were abandoned by +everybody. That which I am about to relate will prove this, and show +what a deplorable existence theirs is, and the ingenious methods to +which they are obliged to have recourse to keep up a fair outside. + +One of them thus exiled to a most deserted part of our forests, and who, +the whole year, except on a few rare occasions, lived only on fruit and +vegetables, hit upon a most admirable expedient for providing an animal +repast to set before the _curés_ of the neighbourhood, when one or the +other, two or three times during the year, ventured into these dreadful +solitudes, with a view of assuring himself with his own eyes that his +unfortunate colleague had not yet died of hunger. The _curé_ in question +possessed a pig, his whole fortune: and you will see, gentle reader, the +manner in which he used it. + +Immediately the bell of his presbytery announced a visitor, (the bell +was red with rust, and its iron tongue never spoke unless to announce a +formal visit,) and that his cook had shown his clerical friend into the +parlour, the master of the house, drawing himself up majestically, said +to his housekeeper (_curés_ fortunately always have, cousins, nieces, or +house-keepers), as Louis XIV. might have said to Vatal, "Brigitte, let +there be a good dinner for myself and my friend." Brigitte, although she +knew there were only stale crusts and dried peas in her larder, seemed +in no degree embarrassed by this order; she summoned to her assistance +"Toby, the Carrot," so called because his hair was as red as that of a +native of West Galloway, and leaving the house together, they both went +in search of the pig. + +Toby the Carrot, a youth of seventeen, was the presbyter's page, a poor +half-starved devil that the _curé_ had taken into his service, who +lodged him badly, boarded him worse, and gave him no clothes at all; but +who, nevertheless, in his moments of good-humour--they were rare--and no +doubt to recompense him for so many drawbacks, would call him "Toby +Gold-button." At this innocent little pleasantry, this touch of +affability, Toby grinned from ear to ear, made a deep reverence, and put +the compliment carefully into his pocket, regretting however, no doubt, +that he had nothing more substantial and savoury than this to eat with +his coarse dry bread. Toby was a very useful servitor to the _curé_; he +was always on the alert; fat did not check his rapid movements, and from +the time the Angelus rang in the morning to Vespers in the evening, his +long skinny legs were constantly going. He drew the water, peeled and +washed the onions, blacked the shoes--and how _curé's_ shoes do +shine!--rang the chapel-bell, gathered the acorns for the pig, intoned +the Amen when his master said mass, swept and weeded the garden, snared +the thrushes--which he cooked and eat in secret--and, dressed in a white +surplice, carried the cross and the Viaticum, and accompanied the _curé_ +at night when on his way to offer the last consolations of religion to +some dying poacher in the forest. These expeditions were sometimes +across the mountains, and along the dry bed of some torrent, in which, +according to Toby's notion, they would have certainly perished had not +the _Bon Dieu_ been with them. + +But we must return to our parson's pig, which after a short skirmish was +caught by Brigitte and her carrotty assistant; and notwithstanding his +cries, his grunts, his gestures of despair and supplication, the inhuman +cook, seizing his head, opened a large vein in his throat, and relieved +him of two pounds of blood; this, with the addition of garlic, shallots, +mint, wild thyme and parsley, was converted into a most savoury and +delicious black-pudding for the _curé_, and his friend, and being +served to their reverences smoking hot on the summit of a pyramid of +yellow cabbage, figured admirably as a small Vesuvius and a centre dish. +The surgical operation over, Brigitte, whose qualifications as a +sempstress were superior, darned up the hole in the neck of the +unfortunate animal, and he was then turned loose until a fresh supply of +black-puddings should be required for a similar occasion. This wretched +pig was never happy: how could he be so? Like Damocles of Syracuse, he +lived in a state of perpetual fever; terror seized him directly he heard +the _curé's_ bell, and seeing in imagination the uplifted knife already +about to glide into his bacon, he invariably took to his heels before +Brigitte was half way to the door to answer it. + +If, as usual, the peal announced a diner-out, Brigitte and Gold-button +were soon on his track, calling him by the most tender epithets, and +promising that he should have something nice for his supper, skim-milk, +&c.; but the pig, with his painful experience, was not such a fool as to +believe them; hidden behind an old cask, some faggots, or lying in a +deep ditch, he remained silent as the grave, and kept himself close as +long as possible. + +Discovered, however, he was sure to be at last, when he would rush into +the garden, and running up and down it like a mad creature, upset +everything in his way; for several minutes it was a regular +steeple-chase--across the beds, now over the turnips, then through the +gooseberry-bushes; in short, he was here, there, and everywhere; but in +spite of all his various stratagems to escape the fatal incision, the +poor pig always finished by being seized, tied, thrown on the ground, +and bled: the vein was then once more cleverly sewn up, and the inhuman +operators quietly retired from the scene to make the _curé's_ far-famed +black-pudding. Half dead upon the spot where he was phlebotomized, the +wretched animal was left to reflect under the shade of a tulip-tree on +the cruelty of man, on their barbarous appetites; cursing with all his +heart the poverty of Morvinian curates, their conceited hospitality, of +which he was the victim, and their brutal affection for pig's blood. + +I shall now endeavour to give the reader a description of the curate of +the plain; but he should clearly understand that I do not present this +character to him as the general standard of ecclesiastical +excellence,--quite the contrary; I am sorry to say I think it an +exception. My sketch, therefore, applies only to those _curés_, who +reside in a remote rural district like that of Le Morvan; I advance +nothing that I have not seen myself, and if I should ever have the +pleasure of meeting any of my English friends in Le Morvan, I could +introduce them to ten _curés_ one and all similar in every respect to +the ecclesiastic I am about to pourtray. + +In the interior of this district, that is to say in the midst of her +rich plains, and in the hilly but not mountainous parts of it, the +_curés_ are quite of another stamp; less poor than the herbivorous +gentleman we have just described, but not so well to do as those of +Burgundy; living under a state of things altogether peculiar to +themselves, far from the great cities, and yet in direct communication +with them, they are obliged by a common interest to identify themselves +with the events of the day. Every curate of the plain possesses an +immense influence in his parish and neighbourhood, and as at a moment +their support may be of great use in a political point of view, the +government, which is alive to everything, caresses, smiles on, and +cajoles them. + +In the moorland districts, also, and in the little villages which border +the great forests, the _curés_ are everything, and do everything. They +perform the part of judge, doctor and apothecary, banker and architect, +carpenter and schoolmaster; they give the designs for the cottages, mark +the boundaries of estates, receive and put out the savings of their +flocks, marry, baptize, and bury, offer consolation to the afflicted, +encourage the unfortunate, purchase the crops, and sell a neighbour's +vineyard. They represent the sun, by the influence of whose rays +everything germinates and lives; it is their hand--the hand of +justice--that arrests and heals all quarrels; the unselfish source from +whence good counsels flow--the moral charter from which the peasant +reads and learns the duties of a citizen. + +Ask not the population of our plains and forests, and secluded +agricultural districts, to which political party they belong; if they +are republicans, royalists, socialists or communists, reds or blues, +whites or tricolor,--they know nothing of all this. Their +opinions--their religion--are those of _Monsieur le Curé_. They know his +prudence, his charity, his good sense; they know he loves them like a +father; that he would not leave them for a bishopric--no, not for a +cardinal's scarlet hat;--that as he has lived, so will he die with them: +that is enough for them. Thus they consult him when they wish to form +an opinion for themselves, much in the same way as a sportsman, anxious +to take the field, looks up at the chanticleer on some village-steeple +to know what he ought to think of the cloudy sky above; and when they +see the good man sauntering past their cottages, with head erect and +animated step, smiling, and evidently full of cheerful, charitable +thoughts, and on good deeds intent, kissing the little children, giving +a rosy apple to one, and a playful tap to another; offering a sly word +of hope to the young girls, and a few kind ones to the aged and +infirm,--all the village is elated; and the old maids fail not to +present him with a fat fowl, or some such substantial expression of +their respect. But if, alas! the good _curé_ should appear walking with +a slow and solemn step, his hands behind his back, his eyes fixed upon +the ground, and an anxious and thoughtful look upon his brow, his flock +gaze at one another, and whisper in an under tone that something is +amiss. + +At the epoch of political convulsions and revolutions, when systems and +governments, men and ideas, arise and disappear, as if they went by +steam,--when the authorities in the great towns wish to interfere with +the police regulations and customs that govern the agricultural +classes,--when they attempt to force them to gallop at full speed on the +high road of progress as they call it, and that to attain this desirable +end, handsome young men arrive from Paris in black coats and white +neckcloths, furnished with a marvellous flow of eloquent sophisms, +pretending to prove to the simple and honest peasants that in order to +be more free, happy, and rich, they must, without further ado, kill, +burn, and destroy,--the villagers, quite mystified, listen with open +mouth; but as to understanding what the gentleman in black--the dark +shadow of the government of progress--so glibly states, he might as well +be talking Turkish or Japanese. Every one looks at _Monsieur le Curé_, +they scan his face, and ask him what they are to do; and let him only +feel angry or disgusted with the wordy nonsense, and just make one sign, +or raise one finger, and 1200--aye, 2000 men would in a trice surround +him, and send the orator and all his staff to preach their pestilential +doctrines under the turf, and this without more ceremony and remorse +than if they were so many mad dogs. Poor fools! who think it possible to +change a people in a few weeks, and imagine that a fine discourse from +lips unknown and unloved will have a deeper effect upon men's minds +than the admonitions of a pastor, whose life has been without reproach, +and adorned with every practical virtue. + +Yes, the influence exercised in our rural districts by the _curés_ is +great, and this influence is well merited, for it is never abused--and +never used unless for the benefit and happiness of the flock confided to +their care. Without any motive of a personal nature, without ambition in +any sense to which that word can apply, they preach the Catholic +religion in all its simplicity, accepting and considering as brothers +all those who really desire to follow the example of their Saviour +Christ--all those who really love to do good; unworldly and unselfish, +they would think themselves dishonoured, their reputation sullied, if +the gown, which gives them in the eyes of the people a sacred character, +served as a cloak, a pretext to cover a dishonourable or disgraceful +action. + +It is also remarkable, and speaks volumes in their favour, that the +bishops are almost always at war with these poor and self-denying +_curés_, and would wish to see them take more interest in temporal +affairs, which they do not in the least understand; they would fain put +into their mouths the language of anger and bitter feeling, alike +foreign to their natures and the religion of their Divine master. The +large proprietors also, those who live on their estates and do not press +hard upon their dependants, enjoy great consideration, and share largely +with the _curés_ the hold they have on the affections of the people. +They frequently direct the opinions of the masses, and, with the +exception of their pastors, are the only class our rural population know +and revere. As to the generality of our statesmen, good, bad, or +indifferent, their names, brilliant as they may be, are not half so well +known in our villages as that of the most obscure labourer, the humble +artizan who knows how to file a saw or make a wheel. + +"Who is that gentleman, sir?" said a Morvinian of the plain to me one +day, pointing to a tall thin man, with a bald head, and a pair of gold +spectacles on his nose,--a notability of the legislative assembly who +was going to step into the village tribune. + +"That gentleman?" I replied; "he is an orator." + +"Ah! an orator: and pray what sort of a bird is that? what is he going +to chirrup about?" + +"An orator is not a bird, my good fellow; he does not sing, he makes +very fine speeches." + +"And what of them?" + +"What of them? why they teach men their duty." + +"Their duty in what?" continued the peasant, with his pinching logic. +"Is it the duty of a father, of a son, of a soldier, of a baker?" + +"Not at all; the duty of a citizen." + +"Citizen? I don't understand, sir," said the peasant. + +"Well, your political duties, if you like it better." + +"I am still none the wiser. And so this fine gentleman, with his yellow +spectacles and bald head, is not going to tell us anything about crops, +vineyards, planting, or sowing?" + +"No; but he will teach you your duty as a man, as a Frenchman, a +citizen--a member of the great human family; he will teach you your +rights; what you can and should demand of your government under the +articles 199, 305, 1202, 9999 of the charter--the last charter." + +"Sir, I am ashamed to have troubled you; I thank you much for your +explanation; I wish you a very good morning; for mathematics you see, +sir, do send me to sleep, and our _curé_ will tell me all about it on +Sunday. I shall go back to the forest, and finish my job of yesterday." + +And are not these simple-minded men much in the right? is not all the +good sense on their side?--they, who living by the axe, the plough, and +the produce of the earth, think only of their trees and their fields, +and ask of God but health and strength to work, rain and sun to nourish +the vines and gild their harvests. They leave to those who possess their +confidence, because they have never deceived them, the care of their +political interests; the care of setting and keeping them in the right +path, and of directing them in that current of life, slow it is true, +but which nevertheless is more effectual towards ameliorating the +condition, and eventually increasing the happiness of the human race, +than all the new-fangled doctrines promulgated by the statesmen and +philosophers of France. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + The wolf--His aspect and extreme ferocity--His cunning in hunting + his prey--His unsocial nature--Antiquity of the race--Where found, + and their varieties--Annihilated in England by the perseverance of + the kings and people--Decrees and rewards to encourage their + destruction by Athelstane, John, and Edward I.--Death of the last + wolf in England--Death of the last in Ireland. + + +The wild and furious wolf, both prudent and cowardly, is, from its +strength and voracity, the terror and the most formidable pest of the +inhabitants of those districts of France in which it is found. Provided +by Nature with a craving appetite for blood, possessing great muscular +powers, and an extraordinary scent, whether hunting or laying in ambush; +always ready to pursue and tear its victim limb from limb, the +wolf,--this tyrant,--this buccaneer of the forest lives only upon +rapine, and loves nothing but carnage. + +The aspect of the wolf has something sinister and terrible in its +appearance, which his sanguinary and brutal disposition does not belie. +His head is large, his eyes sparkle with a diabolical and cannibal look, +and in the night seem to burn like two yellow flames. His muzzle is +black, his cheeks are hollow, the upper lip and chin white, the jaws and +teeth are of prodigious strength, the ears short and straight, the tail +tufty, the opening of the mouth large, and the neck so short that he is +obliged to move his whole body in order to look on one side. His length +in our forests, from the extreme point of the muzzle to the root of the +tail, is generally about three feet; his height two and a half feet. The +colour of his hair is black and red, mingled with white and gray; a +thick and rude fur, on which the showers and severe cold of winter have +no effect. The limbs of this animal are well set, his step is firm and +quick, the muscles of the neck and fore part of the body are of unusual +strength,--he will easily carry off a fat sheep in his mouth, without +resting it on the ground, and run with it faster than the shepherd who +flies to its rescue. His senses are delicate and sensitive in the +extreme; that of smelling, as I have before remarked, particularly: he +can scent his prey at an immense distance,--blood which is fresh and +flowing will attract him at least a league from the spot. When he +leaves the forest, he never forgets to stop on its verge; there turning +round, he snuffs the breeze, plunges his nostrils deep into the passing +wind, and receives through his wonderful instinct a knowledge of what is +going on amongst the animals, dead or alive, that are in the +neighbourhood. + +The declared and uncompromising enemy to almost everything that has +life, the wolf attacks not only cows, oxen, horses, sheep, goats, and +pigs, but also fowls and turkeys, and especially geese, for which he has +a great fancy. In the woods also he destroys large quantities of game, +such as fawns and roebucks; and even the wild boar himself, when young, +is sometimes brought to his larder, for the wolf is one of that +voracious tribe which professes a profound contempt for vegetable diet, +and cannot do without flesh; hence the number of his devices for +supplying his table and varying his bill of fare is astonishing. But +mankind, it must be said in all justice, are not behindhand with him; +they are always on the alert; they meet him with tricks as clever as his +own, heap snare on snare to take him, and the result is that Mr. Lupus, +in spite of his strength, his agility, his practical experience, and +cunning instincts, often stretches out his limbs in death in the dark +ravines of the forest--the victim of his enemy's superior intelligence. + +Obliged during the day to hide himself in the most solitary parts of the +woods, he finds there only those animals whose rapid flight enables them +to escape his clutches. Sometimes, however, after the exercise of +prodigious patience on his part, by lying in wait the whole day, at a +spot where he knows they will be certain to pass when the sun goes down, +a defenceless roebuck will occasionally fall into his jaws. + +This chance on the sly producing nothing, when night has set in he seeks +the open country, approaches the farms, attacks the sheepfolds, +scratches his way under the doors, and entering wild with rage, puts +everything to death--for, to his infernal spirit, destruction is as +great a pleasure as the satisfaction of his hunger. + +When the dogs growl in an under tone, when they are restless and +agitated, and snuff the wind as it drives in eddies through the +shutters, "The wolf is abroad," say the peasants. + +If these runs in the open country by the light of the moon afford no +supper, he returns to the depths of his lair, or takes up the scent of +some roebuck, tracks it like a hound, and though his hope is small +indeed of ever catching it, he perseveringly follows the trail, trusting +that some other wolf, famished like himself, will head the timid animal +in its flight, and seize it as it passes, and that, like staunch +friends, they will afterwards divide the spoil between them. + +But the reverse more often occurs,--and foiled and disappointed, he then +becomes, though naturally a dastard and full of fear, absolutely +courageous; the fire of hunger consumes his stomach, he fears nothing, +and braves every danger; all prudence is forgotten, and his natural +ferocity is wound up to such a pitch, that he hesitates not to meet +certain destruction, attacks the animals that are actually under the +care of man, man himself,--throws himself suddenly upon the poor +benighted traveller, and gliding slowly and softly, with the stealthy +movements of a serpent, seizes and carries off with him to the depth of +the forest the infant sleeping in its cradle, or the little, helpless, +innocent child which, ignorant of danger, laughs and plays at the +cottage-door. + +Unsociable as well as savage, with a heart harder than the ball which +drills the ghastly hole in his side, loving only himself and his dark +solitudes, the wolf never associates with its own kind; and when, by +accident, it happens that a few are seen together, be sure the meeting +is not a Peace Congress, or a party of pleasure. The assembled wolves +represent a society of reds, preparing the arrangements for a combat, in +which many a stream of blood shall flow, amidst the most fearful and +horrible cries. If a wolf intends to attack a large animal,--for +instance, an ox or a horse,--or if he desires to put a watch-dog, whose +strength disquiets him, or whose vigilance incommodes him, out of his +way, he roves about the lonely paths of the forest, raising a sharp +prolonged cry, which immediately attracts other wolves in the +neighbourhood; and when he finds himself surrounded by a numerous troop +of his colleagues, bound together by no other tie than the common object +they all have in view for the moment, he conducts them to the attack, +and should the farmer be not there to out-manoeuvre them, it will be +odd indeed if the animal that they have agreed to destroy does not fall +a victim to their plans. The expedition over, the valiant brotherhood +separate, and each returns in silence to his thicket, whence they emerge +to reunite, when slaughter and blood call them forth again to make +common cause. + +Wolves attain their full size in three years, and live from fifteen to +twenty; their hair, like that of man, grows gray with years, and like +him also they lose their teeth, but without the advantage of being able +to replace them; the race of wolves is as old as the flood,--even older, +for their bones have been found in antediluvian remains. They are found +in all countries on the New Continent as well as the Old. "They exist," +observes Cuvier, "in Asia, Africa, and America, as well as in Europe; +from Egypt to Lapland; everywhere, in fact, excepting in England." How +an animal so detestable and so universally hated should have continued +to perpetuate itself, when every other species of savage beast on the +face of the earth diminishes in an infinitely greater proportion, is a +problem difficult to solve. + +Fourrier, in his "_Théorie Harmonique et comparative des espèces_," +remarks truly, that each species of the human race corresponds with some +species of the brute creation. The wolves in the forest represent the +Jews in the towns; and he asserts, that it being possible only to +compare the voracity of the one with the rapacity of the other, these +two races, which are identical by reason of their several +characteristics, will never perish, never become extinct, except +together. But the Jews decline to acknowledge the relationship thus +assumed and the paradoxical connexion between themselves and this race +of animals; they deny that the idiosyncrasies are in any degree similar, +and persist in placing this luminous idea of Fourrier's on a level with +that of the sea of lemonade, which will, according to the same author, +one day surround our planet. + +The bones and teeth of wolves are often discovered, as I have already +said, amongst the _débris_ of the antediluvian world. + +In the Holy Scriptures, too, there are several observations respecting +the wolf,--in them it is stated that he lives upon rapine, is violent, +cruel, bloody, crafty, and voracious; he seeks his prey by night, and +his sense of smell is wonderful. False teachers are described as wolves +in sheep's clothing; and the Prophet Habakkuk, speaking of the +Chaldeans, says, "Their horses are more fierce than the evening wolves." +And again, Isaiah, describing the peaceful reign of the Messiah, +writes,--"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard +shall lie down with the kid: and the calf and the young lion and the +fatling together, and a little child shall lead them." + +The wolf varies in shape and colour, according to the country in which +it lives. In Asia, towards Turkey, this animal is reddish; in Italy, +quite red; in India, the one called the beriah is described as being of +a light cinnamon colour; yellow wolves, with a short black mane along +the entire spine, are found in the marshes of all the hot and temperate +regions of America. The fur of the Mexican wolf is one of the richest +and most valuable known. In the regions of the north the wolf is black, +and sometimes black and gray: others are quite white; but the black wolf +is always the fiercest. The black is also found in the south of Europe, +and particularly in the Pyrennees. Colonel Hamilton Smith relates an +anecdote illustrative of its great size and weight. At a _battue_ in the +mountains near Madrid, one of these wolves, which came bounding through +the high grass towards an English gentleman who was present, was so +large that he mistook it for a donkey; and whatever visions of a ride +home might have floated across his brain for the moment, right glad was +he on discovering his error, to see his ball take immediate effect. + +In former days, the Spanish wolves congregated in large packs in the +passes of the Pyrennees; and even now the _lobo_ will follow a string of +mules, as soon as it becomes dusk, keeping parallel with them as they +proceed, leaping from bush and rock, waiting his opportunity to select a +victim. Black wolves also are found in the mountains of Friuli and +Cattaro; the Vekvoturian wolf of Siberia, described by Pallas, is one of +the darkest variety. In Persia and in India wolves are trained and made +to play tricks and antics as monkeys and dogs are in Europe. At Teheran, +Bankok, and Arracan, a well-trained wolf that can dance a polka of the +country, sing a national air, and preserve a grave face during five +minutes, with a pair of spectacles on his nose, will fetch as much as +500 dollars. + +"In China," remarks Colonel Smith, "wolves abound in the northern +province of Shantung;" and Buffon, quoting from Adanson, asserts, that +"there is a powerful species of the wolf in Bengal, which hunt in packs, +in company with the lion." "One night," says Adanson, "a lion and a wolf +entered the court of the house in which I slept, and unperceived, +carried off my provisions; in the morning my hosts were quite satisfied, +from the well-marked and well-known impressions of their feet in the +sand, that the animals had come together to forage." Colonel Smith +observes, that "the French wolves are generally browner and somewhat +stronger than those of Germany, with an appearance far more wild and +savage: the Russian are larger, and seem more bulky and formidable, from +the great quantity of long coarse hair that cover them on the neck and +cheeks." + +"The Swedish and Norwegian are," he says, "similar to the Russian; but +appear deeper and heavier in the shoulder; they are also lighter in +colour, and in winter become completely white. The Alpine wolves are +yellowish, and smaller than the French. This is the type of wolf that is +commonly found in the western countries of Europe; and it was, in all +probability, this species that once infested the wild and extensive +woodland districts of the British Islands; for that wolves were once +exceedingly numerous in England, is as certain as that the bear formerly +prowled in Wales and Scotland, and with the former was the terror of the +inhabitants. How dangerous to them, and how very common they must have +been, is evident from the necessity that existed in the reign of +Athelstane, 925, for erecting on the public highway a refuge against +their attacks. A retreat was built at Flixton, in Yorkshire, to protect +travellers against these ravenous brutes. King John, in a grant quoted +by Pennant, from Bishop Littleton's collection, mentions the wolf as one +of the beasts of the chase that, despite the severe forest laws of the +feudal system, the Devonshire men were permitted to kill. Even in the +reign of the first Edward, they were still so numerous that he applied +himself in earnest to their extirpation, and enlisting criminals into +the service, commuted their punishment for a given number of wolves' +tongues;--he also permitted the Welsh to redeem the tax he imposed upon +them, by an annual tribute of 300 of these horrid animals." + +That Edward, however, failed in his attempt to extirpate them, is +evident from a _mandamus_ of that monarch's successor, to all bailiffs +and legal officers of the realm, to give aid and assistance to his +faithful and well-beloved Peter Corbet, whom the King had appointed to +take and destroy wolves (_lupos_) in all forests, parks, and other +places in the counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, and Salop, +wherever they could be found. In Derbyshire, certain tenants of lands, +at Wormhill, held them on condition that they should hunt the wolves +that harboured in that county. The flocks of Scotland appear to have +suffered a great deal from the ravages of wolves in 1577, and they were +not finally rooted out of that portion of the island till about the year +1686, when the hand of Sir Evan Cameron made the last of them bite the +dust. + +Wolves were seen in Ireland as late as the year 1710, about which time +the last presentment for killing them was found in the county of Cork. +The Saxon name for the month of January, "wolf-moneth," in which dreary +season the famished beasts became probably more desperate; and the term +for an outlaw, "wolfshed," implying that he might be killed with as much +impunity as a wolf, indicate how numerous wolves were in those times, +and the terror and hatred they inspired. In every country the +inhabitants have declared this ferocious brute the enemy of man; and in +order, if possible, to annihilate him, have employed every device;--the +result in England has been most satisfactory. The Esquimaux, that +distant and half-frozen people, have their own peculiar way of trapping +wolves; and it is somewhat singular that their ice wolf-trap, as +described by Captain Lyon, resembles exactly, except in the material of +which it is made, that of France, though it is very certain no Morvinian +ever went so far as the Melville peninsula to take a hunting lesson from +an Esquimaux. The very birds of prey, those flying thieves of the air, +are used for wolf-hunting amongst some of the savage nations of the +earth. The Kaissoks take them with the help of a large sort of hawk, +called a _beskat_, which is trained to fly at and fasten on their heads, +and tear their eyes out; and the Grand Khan of Tartary has eagles tamed +and trained to the sport in the same way as we have our packs to hunt +the roebuck and wild boar. + +In the sombre forests of the Nivernais and Burgundy, where wolves are +still numerous, and where they occasion the farmers great loss by the +destruction of their cattle, they are destroyed in every way imaginable. +General _battues_ are held, and private hunting parties meet, a +multitude of traps set, pits dug, the sportsman and the peasant lie in +wait for them, and dogs and cats, well stuffed with deadly poison, are +placed near their haunts in the thick underwood. Nevertheless, and in +spite of all these crafty inventions and open war with them, the wolves +scarcely diminish in number; they still present the same formidable +phalanx, and seem determined to defy their destroyers. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + The _battues_ of May and December--The gathering of + sportsmen--Distribution in the forest--The _charivari_--The fatal + rush--Excitement of the moment--The volley--The day's triumph, and + the reward--The peasants returning--Hunting the wolf with + dogs--Cub-hunting--The drunken wolf. + + +In the first days of May, that interesting epoch in which in the forest, +the woods, and the plain, the majority of all animals are with young; +and in the commencement of December, the period of storm and tempest and +the heavy rains, which precede the great snows, two general _battues_ +take place in Le Morvan. To these all the tribe of sportsmen--the good, +the bad, and the indifferent--are invited; in short, every one in the +neighbourhood who loves excitement attends. Gentlemen, poachers, and +_gens-d'armes_, young conscripts and old soldiers, doctors and +schoolmasters, every one who is the fortunate possessor of a gun, a +carbine, a pistol, a sabre, a bayonet, or any other weapon, presents +himself at the rendezvous. Bands of peasants, also, armed with +bludgeons, spears, broomsticks, cymbals, bells, frying-pans, sauce-pans, +and fire-irons (it is impossible to make too much noise on the +occasion), arrive from every point of the compass, and add their numbers +to those already assembled. On the day agreed upon, therefore, and at +the spot indicated, a small army is on foot, which, full of ardour and +thirsting for the combat, brandish with shouts their various weapons and +kitchen utensils, drink to the success of the enterprise, and wait with +no little impatience the signal to place themselves in march, and attack +the enemy. The commander of these assembled forces,--generally the head +ranger of the forest,--having under his orders a battalion of sub +_gardes-de-chasse_, directs their movements. + +This mode of taking the wolf is conducted with very great order and +circumspection; everything is well arranged beforehand; the ravines and +deep underwood, which the wolves are known to resort to, have been +carefully ascertained; the number of guns and rifles necessary to +surround this or that wood are told off, and the whole plan is so well +prepared, the execution of it is so prompt, every one is so well aware +of what he has to do, that in one day a large tract of country is +carefully beaten. + +In these _battues_, those who have fire-arms form two sides of a +triangle, and are placed with their backs to the wind, along the roads +which border the wood the _traqueurs_ are about to beat. On no account +ought they to fire to their rear, but always to the front; and in order +to prevent, in this respect, misunderstanding and accident, the _garde_, +whose duty it is to place each sportsman at his post, breaks a branch, +or cuts a notch in the tree before him, in order that in a moment of +hesitation and excitement this broken bough or barked spot may remind +him of his real position. The base of the triangle or the cord of the +arc (for this curved line had more the shape of a great bow slightly +strung than any other geometrical figure) is formed of the peasants, +who, side by side, wait only for the last signal to advance, when they +commence their euphonious concert--a _charivari_ not to be described. + +The arrangements and preparations, conducted in profound silence, being +terminated, the signal is given, when the tumult, which at once breaks +forth, produces intense excitement. The forest, hitherto silent, and +apparently without life, is suddenly awakened with confused noises, +metallic and human--the peasants shout, halloo, sing, and bang together +their pots, kettles, and pieces of iron, striking every bush and thicket +with their staves, and scaring every animal before them. Flights of +wood-pigeons, coveys of partridges, birds of every size, species, and +plumage, pass like moving shadows above their heads. The owls, too, +suddenly aroused from sleep, leave their dark holes, and, blinded by the +light, fly against the branches in their alarm with cries of +terror--probably imagining the order of night and day is reversed, and +that the unusual and unearthly noises proclaim that the end of the world +has arrived for the owls. Then come the roebuck and the foxes, bounding +and breaking through the underwood, and the hares and rabbits, which +jump up under the feet of the beaters. + +Motionless as a mile-stone at your post, and rifle ready, this flying +legion of animals gives you a twinge of impatience, for you must allow +them a free passage, as in these _battues_ one dare not fire at +anything, save and except the great object of the day, the wolf. Wolves +alone have the honour on these important occasions of receiving the +contents of your double-barrel. But the cowards, divining what is in +preparation for them, are the last to show themselves; as the line +advances, they trot up and down the portion of the wood thus enclosed, +seeking for an outlet, or some break in the line; and they never make up +their minds to advance to the front until the tempest of sounds behind +them is almost ringing in their ears. But now the thunder of voices, +till then distant, approaches, and the cries and hallooing of the +peasants, like a flowing tide, forces them to draw nearer to the +huntsmen. + +Whether or no, that fatal line must now be passed, and the few minutes +that precede the last movement of the wolves towards it brings to every +sportsman sensations impossible to describe. He knows the brutes are in +his rear, approaching, and a feeling like an electric current runs at +this exciting moment from one to the other; every man's finger is on his +trigger, his pulse throbs at a feverish pace, his heart beats like the +clapper of a bell in full swing--all, to take a surer aim, kneel, or +place their back against the nearest tree, and each offers up a prayer +for aid to his patron saint. This nervous moment has sometimes such an +effect upon ardent and excitable imaginations, that I have observed many +young sportsmen look very queer, some actually tremble and one shed +tears. But the _traqueurs_ are at hand, and the largest and boldest of +the wolves, placing themselves in front, are preparing for the fatal +rush--one more _charivari_ from the peasants and their sauce-pans +decides them, when the whole troop bound forward, yelling and howling +upon the line, in passing which a storm of balls and buck-shot salute +and assail them in their course. + +The death of from thirty to forty wolves is generally the result of the +day's exertions, without counting the wounded, which always escape in +greater or less numbers. The Government give a reward of twenty francs +for every wolf, and twenty-five for every she-wolf, and these sums being +immediately divided amongst the peasants, they return to their homes not +a little pleased, singing their old hunting ballads, stopping +occasionally by the way at some village inn for a glass, where they may +be seen cutting capers, with the true peasant notions of the dance. On a +fine day, with the blue sky above, the forest breathing perfume, and the +sun shedding over it its golden rays, the passing game, the distant +halloo! of the _traqueurs_, the gun-shots which suddenly rattle around +you, the watching for and first view of the wolves, put the head and the +heart in such a state of excitement, as once felt can never be +forgotten. The May and December _battues_ are, therefore, looked forward +to with immense impatience; and nothing short of sudden death, or an +injured limb, prevents the country-people from hastening with alacrity +to the rendezvous. + +Wolves are likewise hunted all the year round, with dogs, by gentlemen, +in the neighbourhood of the forest. But this sport is very fatiguing and +weary work, if that animal alone is employed; for nothing is so +difficult as to get up with a cunning old wolf, whose sinewy limbs never +tire, and whose wind never fails--who goes straight ahead, ten or +fifteen miles, without looking behind him; if he meets with a _Mare_, or +stream of water on his road, then your chance is indeed up,--for into it +he plunges, and makes off again, quite as fresh as he was when he left +his lair. + +The best and most expeditious mode of taking a wolf is, to set a +bloodhound on him, bred expressly for this particular sport; large +greyhounds being placed in ambush, at proper distances, and slipped, +when the wolf makes his appearance in crossing from one wood to another. +These dogs, by their superior swiftness, are soon at his haunches, and +worry and impede his flight, until their heavy friend the hound comes +up; for the strongest greyhound could never manage a wolf, unless he was +assisted in his meritorious work by dogs of large size and superior +strength. The huntsmen, well mounted, follow and halloo on the hounds; +every one runs, every one shouts, the forest echoes their cries, and +wolf, dogs, and sportsmen pass and disappear like leaves in a whirlwind, +or the demon hounds and huntsmen of the Hartz. And now the panting +beast, with hair on end and foaming at the mouth, bitten in every part, +is brought to bay--his hour is come--no longer able to fly, he sets his +back against some rock or tree, and faces his numerous enemies. + +It is then that the oldest huntsman of the party, in order to shorten +his death-agony, and save the dogs from unnecessary wounds, dismounts, +and, drawing a pistol from his hunting-belt, finishes his career before +further mischief is done. When a ball hits a wolf and breaks one of his +bones, he immediately gives a yell; but if he is dispatched with sticks +and bludgeons, he makes no complaint. Stubborn, and apparently either +insensible or resolute, Nature seems to have given him great powers of +endurance in suffering pain. Having lost all hope of escape, he ceases +to cry and complain; he remains on the defensive, bites in silence, and +dies as he has lived. In a sheepfold the noise of his teeth while +indulging his appetite is like the repeated crack of a whip. His bite is +terrible. + +The months of September and October, the period for cub-hunting, afford +capital sport. The young wolves are not like the old ones, strong enough +to take a straight course, and they consequently can rarely do more than +run a ring; when tired, which is soon the case, they retire backwards +into some hole or under a large stone, where they show their teeth and +await, with a juvenile courage worthy of a better fate, the onset of +their assailants. The mode of separating the cubs from their mother, +who, with maternal tenderness (for that feeling exists even in a wolf), +always offers to sacrifice her life for her young, is by turning loose +two or three bloodhounds. These first distract her attention, and then +pursue her so closely that at last she thinks it prudent to decamp, and +seek safety in flight; when these dogs have fairly got her away, and +their deep music dies away in the distance, others are laid on the scent +of the cubs, and the sport ceases only with the death of the litter. A +young wolf may be tamed; but it is not wise to place much confidence in +his civilization: with age he resumes his nature, becomes ferocious, and +sooner or later, should the occasion present itself, will return to his +native woods;--for as water always flows towards the river, so the wolf +always returns to his kind. + +In the summer, the wolves, like the gypsies, have no fixed residence; +they may then be met with in the standing barley or oats, the vineyards +and fields; they sleep in the open country, and seldom seek the friendly +shelter of the forest, except during the most scorching hours of the +day. Towards the end of August I have often met them in the vineyards, +apparently half drunk, scarcely able to walk, in short, quite unsteady +on their legs, almost ploughing the ground up with their noses, and +staring stupidly about them. Every well-kept vineyard ought to be as +free from stones as possible, and therefore the peasants, when they +weed, dig a trench about the vines, or prune them, always remove at the +same time whatever stones or flints they may meet with; these are piled +at the end of the vineyard in a heap of about twenty feet square and six +feet high, called a _meurger_. + +On these _meurgers_ the breezes of summer waft every description of +seed, and they are consequently soon covered with verdure, shrubs, +brambles, and wild roses, which from a distance give them the appearance +of a small copse or thicket. These elevated and shady spots are the +favourite retreats of game in the middle of the day; here they love to +repose and take their _siesta_ in the cool--here the red partridges meet +to have a gossip--hither the young rabbits scuttle to recover their +various alarms, and the trembling hare also squats and conceals herself +the moment a dog or a gun appears in the adjoining vineyard. Of course +these green mounds have a corresponding value in the eyes of the +sportsmen, who always find in them something to put up. + +Often, therefore, walking gently on the soft ground, have I stolen to +one of these _meurgers_, and throwing in a stone, generally turned out +some partridges and rabbits that were there quietly ensconced; I have +also, and greatly to my surprise, heard there the growl of a wolf, +which, rising lazily amongst the bushes, stumbled and fell, and was +evidently incapable of getting further. A salute from both barrels, with +small shot, scarcely tickled his skin; but it brought him once more on +his legs, though only to fall again,--when, having reloaded, I advanced +on him and administered a double dose in his ear, which had the desired +effect. The fact was, he was quite drunk, though not disorderly. + +These wolves, during the ardent heats of August, suffer dreadfully from +thirst; and finding no water, take to the vineyards, and endeavour to +assuage it by eating large quantities of grapes, very cool, and no doubt +very delightful at the time; but the treacherous juice ferments, +Bacchanalian fumes soon infect their brain, and for several hours these +gentlemen are for a time entirely deprived of their senses. What a field +for Father Mathew; but never, I am certain, has the worthy Apostle of +Temperance ever dreamed of offering the pledge to the wolves of Le +Morvan--the rub would be to hang the medal round the necks of these +Bacchanals of the forest. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Wolf-hunting, an expensive amusement--The _Traquenard_--Mode of + setting this trap--A night in the forest with Navarre--The young + lover--Dreadful accident that befell him--His courage and efforts + to escape--The fatal catastrophe--The poor mad mother. + + +Wolf-hunting in the forests is an expensive amusement, whether they are +killed by the method I have described,--namely, of employing beaters, +and shooting them when breaking through the line of sportsmen, or +running them down with dogs. The peasants and _traqueurs_ have to be +paid, in the first case; hunters and hounds have to be purchased and +maintained, in the second, without counting the innumerable incidental +expenses which a kennel of hounds always brings in its train. This kind +of establishment is too extravagant for our country-gentlemen, and thus +it is that for one wolf killed in the great meetings, or with the dogs, +thirty are taken in pits and snares, or by some species of stratagem. + +Every small farmer or large proprietor, to protect his family and his +cattle,--every shepherd, to protect himself and his flock, invokes to +his aid the genius of strategy; and as the mind of man is a sponge full +of expedients, from which once pressed by the hard fingers of necessity +many an ingenious device is extracted, innumerable are the various +seductive baits that in our plains and forests are placed in the way of +the gluttonous appetite of the wolf; and I shall now describe the +inventions that are more generally adopted. + +The favourite trap employed in Le Morvan is the _Traquenard_. This is +the most dangerous, and the strongest that is made, requiring two men to +set it; it has springs of great power, which once touched, the jaws of +the trap close with tremendous force. Each jaw, formed of a circle of +iron, four or five feet in circumference, is furnished along its whole +length with teeth shaped like those of a saw, but less sharp, which shut +one within the other. To these redoubtable engines of destruction is +attached an iron chain, six feet in length, and at the other end of it +is a bar of iron with hooks; these hooks or grapnel, which catch at +everything that comes in their way, impede the escape of the wolf when +once seized, and prevent him from going any great distance from the spot +where he has been caught. The trap should not be tied or fixed in any +way, for then the wolf would probably in his first bound, his first +frantic movement of terror, either break some part of it, or in his +violent endeavours to escape, succeed, only leaving a leg behind him. + +In placing the trap and chain, a little earth is taken away, so that +both are on a level with the turf; after which, the jaws being opened, +they are covered with leaves in as natural a manner as possible. Great +care must be taken by the person who sets the trap that he does not +touch it with his naked hand; this should invariably be done with a +glove on, otherwise the wolf--always extremely difficult to catch by +reason of his delicate sense of smell--would be awakened to his danger. +The mode of taking the wolf by means of the _Traquenard_, is as +follows:--A spot having been selected in the depths of the forest, and +in a sombre pathway unfrequented by the beasts of prey, the trap is set +about an hour before the sun goes down, and a dog, young pig, a sheep, +or some other animal which has been dead a few days, is divided into +five parts; one of the portions is suspended to the lower branch of the +tree, under which the trap is set; and the other four, being each +attached to a withe or the band of a faggot,--not rope, for in that the +wolf detects the hand of man, and he hates the smell of the +material,--are drawn by men along the ground in the direction of the +four points of the compass. These men are mounted either on horseback, +or on an ass, or they put on a pair of _sabots_ and walk, each of them +dragging after him, through the wood and along the unfrequented paths, +his portion of the bait, stopping every now and then to let the soil +over which it passes be as much as possible impregnated with the smell +of the flesh on the verge of corruption. + +The _traineur_ should always walk as much as possible through those +parts of the forest that are the clearest of underwood, for in these +spots the wolf is least on his guard; and when he has thus traversed +from 2,500 to 3,000 paces--the distance required in order to give the +animal, (who will at first follow his track with caution and even +suspicion,) time to regain his confidence--he stops, throws the bait +over his shoulder, and walks home, leaving the result to chance, and the +hunger of the savage game. When four or five other traps have been set +for the same night, in a radius of three or four miles thus prepared, it +rarely happens that some of these various lines--which intersect each +other on every side and in every direction, taking in a considerable +surface of ground--are not hit upon during the night by the roving +wolves: and be sure that each wolf whose olfactories discern the scented +line, and who at length arrives at the trap, is a wolf taken. + +Well do I remember the fever of impatience with which I was seized, the +first time I was present at the preparations for this sport, and the +desire I had to know what would be the result of our machinations; so +much so, indeed, that the arrangement being completed, I positively +refused to return to the _château_;--climbing into a thick tree, distant +about a hundred paces from the trap, I passed the whole night there on +the watch, shivering in my jacket, sitting astride upon one branch, my +feet on another, and Navarre at my side. Poor Navarre! he had in the +beginning of the evening brought all his astronomical knowledge to bear +upon me, with a view of proving that the night would be terribly +unwholesome; that we should have a furious hurricane and be deluged with +rain, blinded by the lightning, and terrified by the thunder; and that, +in the way of eating and a cordial, the only thing he had in his +game-bag was a sorry piece of black bread, hard enough to break the +tooth of a boar. I had a stiff tustle with him before he gave in; but +finding he could not damp the burning curiosity which devoured me, and +that my ears were deaf to the somewhat rough music of his reasoning and +his predictions, the worthy man at length closed the fountain of his +eloquence, and, though growling and mumbling in an under tone at my +juvenile obstinacy, which had deprived him of his bed and his supper, +quietly took his seat in the tree; then drawing from the bottom of his +pocket some tobacco and a short pipe--his consolation in his greatest +misfortunes--he whiffed away, burying his irritated countenance in his +breast by way of showing his vexation. + +It seems to me but yesterday these eight hours passed in the forest in +the silence of that starlight night, hid in the branches, and waiting +for the wolves! We caught three, and nine galloped under the very oak in +which we were seated. This midnight scene was exciting beyond +description; and the worthy Navarre, notwithstanding his pipe, his +fox-skin cap, and his goat-skin riding-coat, caught such a melancholy +cold, that he did nothing but sneeze and hoop the whole of the next day, +making more noise than all the dogs and cattle in the farm put together. + +Wolf-hunting with traps has its dangers and its inconveniences, and the +_Traquenard_ must be used with great caution. Every morning it should be +visited and shut; otherwise a man, a horse, a dog, or some other animal, +may fall into it, and be taken. In order, therefore, as much as possible +to prevent accidents, our peasants, farmers, and poachers, when using +this kind of trap, always tie stones, or little pieces of dead wood, to +the bushes and branches of the trees near the spot in which it is set; +they likewise place the same kind of signal at the extremity of the +pathway which leads to the trap, as a warning to those who may walk that +way; and the peasants, who know what these signals dancing in the air +with every puff of wind mean, turn aside, and take very good care how +they proceed on their road. + +In spite of all these precautions, however, very sad occurrences will +sometimes happen in our forests. Some years ago a trap was placed in a +deserted footway, and the usual precautions were taken of hanging stones +and bits of wood in the approach to the path at either end. The same +day, a young man of the neighbourhood, full of love and imprudence--upon +the eve, in fact, of being entangled in the conjugal "I will"--anxious +to present to his _fiancée_ some turtle-doves and pigeons with rosy +beaks, with whose whereabouts he was acquainted, left his home a little +before sunset to surprise the birds on their nest; but he was late, the +night closed in rapidly, and with the intention of shortening the road, +instead of following the beaten one he took his way across the forest. +Without in the least heeding the brambles and bushes which caught his +legs, or the ditches and streams he was obliged to cross, he pressed on; +and after a continued and sanguinary battle with the thorns, the stumps, +the roots, and the long wild roses, came exactly on the path where the +trap was set. The night was now nearly dark, and, in his agitation and +hurry, thinking only of his doves and the loved one, he failed to +observe that several little pieces of string were swinging to and fro in +the breeze from the branches of a thicket near him. Dreadful indeed was +it for him that he did not; for suddenly he felt a terrible shock, +accompanied by most intense pain, the bones of his leg being apparently +crushed to pieces--he was caught in the wolf-trap! + +The first few moments of pain and suffering over, comprehending at once +the danger of his position, he with great presence of mind collected all +the strength he had, and by a determined effort endeavoured to open the +serrated iron jaws which held him fast: but though despair is said to +double the strength of a man, the trap refused to give up its prey; and +as at the least movement the iron teeth buried themselves deeper and +deeper with agonizing pain into his leg, and grated nearly on the bone, +his sufferings became so intense that in a very few minutes he ceased +from making any further attempts to release himself. Feeling this to be +the case, he began to shout for help, but no one replied; and as the +night drew in he was silent, fearing that his cries would attract the +notice of some of the wolves that might be prowling in the +neighbourhood, and resolved to wait patiently and with fortitude what +fate willed--what he could not avert. He had under his coat a little +hatchet, a weapon which the Morvinians constantly carry about with them, +and thus in the event of his being attacked by the dreaded animals, he +trusted to it to defend himself; but he was still not without hope that +the wolves would not make their appearance. + +The night lengthened; the moon rose, and shed her pale light over the +forest. Immovable, with eyes and ears on the _qui vive_, his body in the +most dreadful agony, he listened and waited: when, all at once, +far--very far off, a confused murmur of indistinct sounds was heard. +Approaching with rapidity, these murmurs became cries and yells; they +were those of wolves--and not only wolves, but wolves on the track, +which must ere a few minutes could elapse be upon him. A pang of horror, +and a cold perspiration poured from his face;--but fear was not a part +of his nature, and by almost superhuman efforts, and, in such an awful +moment, forgetting all pain, he dragged himself and the trap towards an +oak tree, against which he placed his back. + +Here leaning with his left hand upon a stout staff he had with him when +he fell, and having in his right his hatchet ready to strike, the young +man, full of courage, after having offered up a short prayer to his God, +and embraced, as it were, in his mind his poor old mother and his bride, +awaited the horrible result, determined to show himself a true child of +the forest, and meet his fate like a man. A few minutes more, and he was +as if surrounded by a cordon of yellow flames, which, like so many +Will-o'-the-wisps, danced about in all directions. These were the eyes +of the monsters; the animals themselves, which he could not see, sent +forth their horrible yells full in his face, and the smell of their +horrid carcases was borne to him on the wind. Alas! the _denouément_ of +the tragedy approached. The wolves had hit upon the scented line of +earth, and following it; hungry and enraged, were bounding here and +there, and exciting each other. They had arrived at the baited spot.... + +What passed after this no one can tell--no eye saw but His above: but on +the following morning when the Père Séguin, for he was the unfortunate +person who set the _Traquenard_, came to examine it, he found the trap +at the foot of the oak deluged with blood, the bone of a human leg +upright between the iron teeth, and all around, scattered about the turf +and the path, a quantity of human remains: bits of hair, bones,--red and +moist, as if the flesh had been but recently torn from them,--shreds of +a coat, and other articles of clothing were also discovered near the +spot; with the assistance of some dogs that were put on the scent, three +wolves, their heads and bodies cut open with a hatchet, were found dying +in the adjacent thickets. The bones of their victim were carried to the +nearest church; and on the following day these mournful fragments, which +had only a few hours before been full of life and youth and health, were +committed to the earth. + +When the venerated _curé_ of the village, after previously endeavouring +in every possible way by Christian exhortation to prepare his aged +mother to hear the sad tale, informed her that these remnants of +humanity was all that was left of her boy, she laughed--alas! it was the +laugh of madness--reason had fled! Many a time have I met the aged +creature strolling in a glade of the forest, or seated basking in the +sun outside the door of her cottage. Her complexion was of the yellow +paleness of some old parchment, she was always laughing and +singing--always rocking in her arms a log of wood, a hank of hemp, or +bundle of fern--objects which to her poor crazy eyes represented her +child;--her child as it was in its tender years: she called it by his +name, she kissed, embraced and dandled it, rocked it on her knees; and +when she thought it should be tired, sang those lullabies which had +soothed the slumbers of him who was now no more. I have witnessed the +horrors of war, I have heard many a tragic story, but never has my heart +been more touched with feelings of profound grief than the day on which +I first met this poor creature--this widowed mother, then seventy years +of age--singing and walking in the forest, carrying and dandling in her +shrivelled arms a shawl rolled up; kissing and talking to the silent +bundle, smiling on it,--sitting at the foot of a tree, and opening that +bosom in which the springs of life had for years been dried, to nurse +and nourish once more what seemed to her still her baby boy. + +The morning after the dreadful catastrophe of which I have just spoken, +the path in which this terrible tragedy took place was closed, and trees +were planted along its length, so that no person could in future pass +that way. But the Père Séguin has often shown me the oak, at the foot of +which during that fearful night the young peasant suffered such agonies, +made such incredible efforts, and drew with such indomitable courage his +last breath. This tree is still called by the peasants, "The Widow's +Oak," or, "The Oak of the Wolves." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + Shooting wolves in the summer--The most approved baits to attract + them--Fatal error--Hut-shooting--Silent joviality--The approach of + the wolves--The first volley--The retreat--The final slaughter--The + sportsman's reward--The farm-yard near St. Hibaut--The dead + colt--The onset--Scene in the morning--Horrible accident--The + gallant farmer--Death of the wolves, the dogs, and the peasant--The + wolf-skin drum--Anathema of the naturalists. + + +When the sportsman does not absolutely care about sleeping in his own +bed, and will not be denied the pleasure of shooting a wolf himself, a +drag is run similar to those we have already mentioned, but other parts +of the proceedings are conducted in a manner widely different. In the +first place, there is no trap; then, instead of the piece of flesh, the +great attraction, being put in an obscure and hidden path, it should, on +the contrary, be placed in an open spot, on the border of a wood, in a +glade, or in a field on the verge of the forest, in order that the +sportsman who is laying in wait, in ambush, may be able to see what is +passing; he must, too, conceal himself as much as possible, either in a +thicket under the foliage, in a hut made with the boughs of trees, or +in a hole dug in the ground; but he should always be so placed that he +is against the wind, and if the moon is up he ought to take especial +care that he is in the shade. + +But it sometimes happens that the sportsman, at a moment when there is +no time to run a drag,--for instance, after dinner when smoking a cigar, +he suddenly takes it into his head to kill a wolf, and it is too late to +bait the spot; nevertheless the hunter will have nothing less than his +wolf. Before leaving home, therefore, he orders his servant to bring him +a duck; this he puts into his pocket, and shouldering his gun, seeks the +depths of the forest alone. Having found a favourable spot,--a place +where four roads meet is that, if possible, generally chosen,--he hangs +the unfortunate duck by the leg to the branch of a neighbouring tree, +which, as if divining the part that he is intended to play in the piece, +flaps his wings, and begins to cry and quack most vehemently. + +Extraordinary as it may appear, it is well known that the cries of the +duck and the goose are those most readily heard by a wolf, and +consequently it is by no means a rare occurrence to see one of these +animals arrive. An unweaned lamb, which is always bleating for its +mother, is also an excellent decoy-bait to attract them. + +In the months of May and June, when the sportsman happens to tumble upon +a she-wolf, the cubs of which are suckling, a drag may be run with one +of them; the mother will for certain follow the track, and, if you are +not properly on your guard, and well prepared to receive her, it is +equally certain she will play you a very unpleasant trick, and make you +feel that it is not wise to excite the maternal tenderness of a wild +animal. But it is in winter that the wolves are more especially +dangerous, and it is in this rough season that war to the knife is +declared against them. The peasants, as well the wood-cutters and +charcoal-burners of the forest, having then no employment, assemble in +small bands, furnish themselves with provisions for several days, and +armed with ponderous and clumsy fowling-pieces, go in search of the wild +cat and the wolf, the roebuck and the boar. + +On these occasions, as in all those where fire-arms are used, the +chapter of accidents is seldom without a page relating some sad history. +Two young men of the village of Akin, near Vezelay, one of whom was +engaged to the sister of his companion, having made their arrangements, +set out to hunt together in this manner, trusting that a heavy bag might +pay for the expenses of the wedding fête. As luck would have it, they +soon fell upon the traces of a boar, and separating at the entrance of a +dark ravine, to beat for and watch the animal, were lost to view. But a +short time had elapsed when the young man who was about to be married +observing, though not clearly, between the trees and bushes a large +black mass, which moved to and fro, and which he imagined was the boar +listening, brought his gun to his shoulder, and, firing, lodged two iron +slugs in the body of his comrade, who, advancing towards him, his +shoulders being covered with a black sheepskin, had stooped down for a +few seconds to tie the strings of his leggings, or his shoes. + +When the trees are devoid of foliage and the snow covers the ground, +when the forest is melancholy and cold, and the wolves famished with +hunger, a rather original mode of taking them by night is adopted. A few +days previously to the one appointed for the purpose, a large glade in +the very thickest part of the forest having been selected, a carpenter +and his assistant, with a well-furnished bag of tools, start for the +spot. There, choosing some suitable trees, or branches of young +pollards, they cut down a sufficient number, place them in the ground so +as to form a hut of twelve yards square, leaving between each tree an +interval of about four inches; strengthening the edifice by beams at the +base, and boards nailed transversely seven feet from the ground. + +This open hut thus prepared, and which, at fifty paces distance, ought +not, if well constructed, to be distinguishable from the trees, is left +open to the inspection of the beasts of the forest for several nights in +succession, in order that they, always suspicious of the most trifling +circumstance, may get accustomed to it. Two or three ducks, a goose, and +sometimes a sheep, are fastened during these nights near the hut, with a +view of alluring the wolves and inducing them to visit the mansion. + +The day, or rather the appointed evening, having arrived (a star or +moonlight night being selected), the assembled huntsmen, and a long line +of servants, betake themselves to the forest, leading by the head four +calves, and carrying with them a cask of cold meat, a hamper of wine, a +box of cigars, and a horse-load of pale _cogniac_--a few camels and +dromedaries added to this cavalcade, and one would have a complete +picture of a tribe of Bedouins preparing to pass the Great Desert. +Arrived in the forest about nightfall, and well and duly shut up in +their Gibraltar of wood, the sportsmen may eat, drink, and smoke, and +converse in an undertone; but a heavy fine is invariably inflicted on +those who make the least noise. No one is permitted to sneeze, talk +loud, or laugh; as to blowing one's nasal organ vigorously, the thing is +absolutely forbidden; no one is allowed to have a cold, much less an +influenza, for at least eight hours, and every sportsman is careful that +the wine and the viands take each their proper line of road; if either +should unfortunately diverge, the gentleman must choke rather than +cough--as to the servants, they do every thing by gesture and signal; +and woe betide the John that speaks--chance may be, his tongue is thrown +to the wolves. + +When night has set in, the four calves are led out from the stockade and +fastened to strong posts which have been fixed in front of each face of +the hut. Silence now reigns supreme, and the wolves,--the spur of famine +in their insides, mad in short with hunger,--begin to sniff the breeze +and run their noses over the rank dewy grass of the underwood. At this +point of my narrative I must bespeak the forbearance of the Society for +the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and beg them to read on to the +end, and weigh well the question and the result, before they bring an +action against me for what follows. The calves in question having been +placed, they each--must I write it?--receive an incision in the neck, +the effect of which is that the blood flows slowly, and they bleat +without ceasing;--such is the custom, as it is said, with butchers to +make veal white and pleasing to the eye of the epicure; a really inhuman +habit--but when the deed is done with a view to the extermination of +wolves, I think there is little doubt but Mr. Martin himself would have +used a fleam in the cause. + +This operation over, the sportsmen divide, post themselves, with their +guns ready, on each side of the hut, and wait with beating hearts the +arrival of the expected four-footed visitors. Nine o'clock passes--ten, +half-past--not a sound is heard in the forest; the sportsmen who look +out on the snowy scene around them observe nothing; all without is +dreary silence, broken at intervals by the poor ruminating creatures in +front, the cry of a solitary owl, the fall of some dead branch which age +and the tempest has separated from the giant oak, the sudden spring of +the squirrel awakened by the noise, and, in the interior of the cabin, +by the soft gurgling of the ruby wine escaping joyfully from its glass +prison-house, to cheer the heart of the impatient _chasseur_--and who +knows better than he how to empty a flask of genuine Burgundy? + +We will, therefore, imagine some of the party enjoying themselves after +this fashion; when suddenly the calves are heard to rise, to bellow and +groan, strain at the ropes with which they are fastened, and endeavour +to escape; every cigar is at once extinguished, the comic changes to the +serious--the wolves are on the scent. A few minutes more, and black +spots are seen dotted about here and there on the snow; these increase +in number and approach,--they are the wolves that observe and listen; +the frantic terror of the calves is redoubled; the black spots become +larger, they advance still nearer, and at length the animals may clearly +be distinguished. The wolves imagine the calves have come astray. What a +charming thing if they could carry them off to the dark ravines they +inhabit! The great square hut, silent as Harpocrates, and the smell of +man, make them hesitate; but a hunger of many days (and we know that +man, the image of his Maker, will eat man, his fellow, in his +extremity) and the smell of blood prevail and overcome their fears. Four +or five wolves rush forward, and endeavour to remove the calves; the +attempt is vain, the ropes are strong, and so are the posts to which the +animals are fastened: unable, therefore, to succeed, and stretched +across their dying victims, they plunge their ravenous jaws into the +palpitating flesh, forget their alarm in so delicious a supper, and eat +and drink to their heart's content. The rest of the pack thus +encouraged, and afraid of being too late, now advance at a gallop to +share in the repast. + +It is then, and amid the yells, the disputes, and the bloody encounters +occasioned by a division of the spoil, that the sportsmen open their +fire. The first volley puts the wolves to flight, and they retire to a +short distance. But again all is silent, they soon return to the +carcases they cannot make up their minds to desert; other wolves also, +that have been in the rear, attracted by the cries and smell of their +wounded companions, and the blood of the calves, arrive and take part in +the strife, so that during several hours the forest echoes with repeated +volleys. At length the calves are fairly eaten up, when the fortunate +survivors of the fray, gorged and satiated, take to flight, and +disappear like a band of black demons into the recesses of the forest. +It is then the sportsmen leave their hut, stretch their limbs, count the +dead, dispatch their wounded enemies, and, clothed in thick fur cloaks, +sit as if at the bivouac round a large fire, passing the remaining hours +of the night in emptying more bottles, excavating more pies, drinking +more punch, and telling better stories than those which I have had the +pleasure of laying before the reader. + +The morning has scarcely dawned and the party is on the road home, when +a crowd of peasants arrive with their dogs, who, following the bloody +traces of the wolves in the snow, dispatch those which, though wounded, +have been able to leave the spot--for the sight of a dead wolf is to a +Morvinian as delightful as the possession of one is profitable. Having +killed his ferocious enemy, the peasant cuts off his head and his four +feet, which he fastens crosswise at the end of his staff; then arraying +himself in his best and most showy clothes, his hat ornamented with +flowers and ribbons streaming in the breeze, like those in the cap of an +English recruit, he is off, the left foot foremost, to the mayor of his +parish to receive the reward offered by the government. But his road to +his worship is anything but direct; he performs what he terms the grand +tour, visits every village in his way, makes his bow to the women, calls +at the sheep-farms and the _chateâux_, showing, with no little pride and +exultation, his wolf's head, and receives at each some acknowledgment +for the service he has rendered the community,--money, a dozen of eggs, +a pound of lard, a bit of pork, bread, flour, flax, or salt, &c. He who +kills the wolf, and carries the spoils as a trophy in this manner, is +accompanied by the musician of the neighbourhood, who marches before him +blowing his bagpipe with the force of an ox; behind him is one of the +strongest men of the village, with a large bag on each shoulder, who +carries the presents, and imitates the cry and yells of a wolf when the +piper is tired. It will not therefore be considered astonishing if it is +always with renewed pleasure that a peasant of Le Morvan kills a wolf; +and though one becomes tired, _blazé_ with almost everything in this +mortal world, it is not the case when a gallant fellow is seen entering +a village carrying the head of this hideous monster on his pole. This +trophy, with tongue distended and mouth kept wide open by a piece of +wood to show his long yellow teeth, frightens all the little children +that see it. + +There are many other methods of taking the wolf, with a hook, a net, +with tame she-wolves _à la loge_, the poacher's method, in pits, and in +a washing-tub by the side of a pond, &c. But a description of these +several modes would occupy too much space. I cannot, however, before +taking a final leave of this subject, resist the temptation to relate +one last and most fearful incident--a frightful illustration of the +horrors to which a country infested by this animal is liable. It +happened during my sojourn at St. Hibaut, at a farm in that +neighbourhood. + +It was in the month of February, the winter was exceedingly severe, and +three feet of snow still covered the mountains; all communication +between the villages had ceased, and bands of hungry wolves besieged the +farms in the heart of the woods. + +The forest of La Madeleine, particularly full of ravines and dark +thickets, small hamlets, and solitary houses, was overrun with these +insatiable and remorseless brutes. Travellers had been devoured in the +passes of La Goulotte, and mangled and torn in the ravines of Lingou. No +one dared venture into the country when night approached. + +The farm of which I am about to speak stands just on the borders of the +forest of La Madeleine, in the midst of pastures and patches of furze; +it was full of cattle and sheep, and by the time the stars were +brilliantly illuminating the dark arch of heaven, was frequently +surrounded by troops of wolves, scratching under the walls, and loudly +demanding the trifling alms of a horse, an ox, or a man. It so happened +that at this time one of the farmer's colts died, and he determined, if +possible, to use it as a bait, which would provide him the opportunity +of destroying some of his nocturnal visitors. + +For this purpose he placed the dead body in the middle of his +court-yard, and having fastened weights to its neck and legs, to prevent +the wolves from dragging it away, he set the principal gate open, but so +arranged with cords and pulleys that it could be closed at any required +moment. Night came on; the house was shut up, the candles extinguished, +the stables barricaded, the dogs brought in-doors and muzzled to prevent +them from barking, and, in the bright starlight, on some clean straw, +the better to attract attention, lay the dead body of the colt--the +gate, as we have said, being open. All was ready, all within on the +watch, when about ten o'clock the wolves were heard in the distance; +they approached, smelt, looked, listened, grumbled, and distrusting the +open gate, paused; not one would enter. Profound was the silence and +excitement in the house. Hunger at last overcame prudence and mistrust. +Their savage cries were renewed; they became more and more impatient and +exasperated,--how was it possible to resist a piece of young horseflesh? +The most forward, probably the captain of the band, could hold out no +longer, and to show his fellows he was worthy to be their leader, he +advanced alone, passed the Rubicon, went up to the colt, tore away a +large piece of his chest, and, proud of his achievement, set off at +speed with his booty between his teeth. The other wolves, seeing him +escape in safety, regained their confidence, and one, two, three, six, +eight wolves were soon gathered round the animal, but, though eating as +fast as they could, they remained with ears erect, and each eye still on +the gate. + +Eight wolves! The farmer thought it a respectable number, and whistled, +when the four men at the ropes hauling instantly, the large +folding-gates rolled to, and closed in the stillness with the noise of +thunder,--the wolves were prisoners. Startled and terrified at finding +themselves caught, they at once deserted the small remains of the colt, +creeping about in all directions in search of some outlet by which they +might escape, or some hole to hide in, while the farmer, having secured +them, sent his household to bed, putting off their destruction till +sunrise. + +The morning dawned, and with the first rays of light master and men, for +whom the event was a perfect _fête_, set some ladders against the walls +of the court, and from them, as well as the windows, fired volleys on +the entrapped wolves. Unable to resist, the animals for some time +hurried hither and thither, crouching in every nook and corner of the +yard: but the wounds from balls which reached them behind the stones, or +under the carts, soon turned their fear into rage. They began to make +alarming leaps, and the most dreadful yells. The work of destruction +went on but slowly;--the men were but indifferent shots, the wolves +never an instant at rest;--and the rapidity and perseverance with which +they continued to gallop round, or leap from side to side of the yard, +as if in a cage, essentially baffled the endeavours of their enemies. + +The affair was in this way becoming tedious, when an unlooked-for +misfortune threw a dreadful gloom over the whole scene. + +The ladder used by one of the party being too short, the young man +placed himself on the wall, as if in a saddle, to have a better +opportunity of taking aim; when one of the wolves, the largest, +strongest, and most exasperated, suddenly bounded at the wall, as if to +clear it, but failed; subsequently the animal attempted to climb up by +means of the unhewn stones, like a cat, and though he again failed, +reached high enough almost to seize with his sharp teeth the foot of the +unfortunate lad. Terrified at this he raised his leg to avoid the +brute--lost his balance--and the same moment fell with a heart-rending +scream into the court below. Each and all the wolves turned like +lightning on their helpless, hopeless victim, and a cry of horror was +heard on every side. + +The storm of leaden hail ceased: no man dared fire again, and yet +something must be done, for the monsters were devouring their unhappy +fellow-servant. Listening only to the dictates of courage and humanity, +the noble-hearted farmer, gun in hand, leaped at once into the yard, and +his men all followed his heroic example. A general and frightful +conflict ensued. The scene which then took place defies every attempt at +description. No pen could adequately place before the reader the awful +incidents that succeeded. He must, if he can, imagine the howling of the +wolves, the piteous cries of the lacerated and dying youth, the +imprecations of the men, the neighing of the horses and roaring of the +bulls in the stables; and, more than all, the crying and lamentations of +the women and children in the house--a fearful chorus--such as happily +few, very few persons were ever doomed to hear. At last the farmer's +wife, a powerful and resolute woman, with great presence of mind +unmuzzled the dogs, and threw them from a window into the yard. This +most useful reinforcement with their vigorous attacks and loud barking +completed the tumult and the tragedy. In twenty minutes the eight wolves +were dead, and with them half the faithful dogs. The poor unfortunate +lad, his throat torn open, was dead; his courageous, though unsuccessful +defenders, were all more or less wounded, and the gallant farmer's left +hand so injured, that as soon as surgical assistance could be procured +for him, amputation was found to be necessary. + +The monsters, stretched side by side in the yard, were also stone dead, +every one of them; but not a voice on the farm raised the heart-stirring +shout of victory. Consternation and gloom reigned over it, and it was +long indeed ere the voice of mourning deserted its walls. + +The skin of the wolf is strong and durable; the woodmen, _braconniers_, +and mountaineers, make cloaks and caps of it, the tail being left on the +latter to fall over the ear by way of ornament; they likewise cover with +it the outside of their game-bags. They tan it also, and excellent shoes +are made of the leather, soft and light for summer wear,--it is likewise +made into parchment, not to write the history of their ancestors upon, +but to cover small drums, the rattle of which, on fairdays and _fêtes_ +is sure to set the peasants dancing. This fact is alluded to in a song +of our province, written by a shepherd-poet, in the pleasing dialect of +Le Morvan, of which the following is a free translation: + + Hark! 'tis the wolf-skin drum, + We come! We come! + Yes, come with me sweet girl, and fair + As rosebud wild that scents the air. + The heavens are bright, the stars are shining, + Thy lovely form my arms entwining; + Together let us lead the dance + Deep in thy sylvan haunts, dear France! + Hark! I hear those sounds again, + The wolf-skin drum, the pipers' strain. + +Wealthy persons use a wolf-skin for a carriage-rug, and in the rainy +season as a mat at the door of a room. "There is nothing good in the +wolf," says Buffon, "he has a base low look--a savage aspect, a terrible +voice, an insupportable smell, a nature brutal and ferocious, and a body +so foul and unclean that no animal or reptile will touch his flesh. It +is only a wolf that can eat a wolf." "No animal," writes Cuvier, "so +richly merits destruction as the wolf." With these two funeral orations +on these incarnate fiends of Natural History, I shall close this +chapter, remarking that the anathema bestowed on them by Buffon is not +quite correct, for if wolves are dangerous, and enemies to the public +weal, and "there is nothing good" in them during their lives, they, at +least, become useful after their death. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + Fishing in Le Morvan--The naturalists--The _Gour_ of Akin--The + English lady--The mountain streams--Château de + Chatelux--Sermiselle--New mode of killing pike--Pierre Pertuis--The + rocks and whirlpool there--The syrens of the grotto--Château des + Panolas--The Cousin--The ponds of Marot and lakes of Lomervo--Mode + of taking fish with live trimmers--The Scotch farmer. + + +Having disposed of the quadrupeds of Le Morvan, I must enlarge a little +upon the finny tribe of my native province, who would, I feel sure, be +not a little annoyed if after having mentioned nearly every other +creature capable of affording amusement to the sportsman I were to pass +them over in silence. Besides, the shade of Izaak Walton would haunt me, +and his disciples no doubt wish me well hooked, if I omitted to give +them a chapter on angling,--but it shall be short, and I will avoid all +scientific discussion. Theories sufficient have been hazarded, and books +written without number from the days of old Aristotle, who arranged them +in three great divisions, the Cetaceous, the Cartilaginous, and the +Spinous; down to Gmelin, who divided them into six orders, the Apodal, +the Jugular, the Thoracic, the Abdominal, the Branchiostagous, and the +Chondropterygious. + +How men, learned and scientific men, can be so barbarous as to invent +such grotesque names as these is surprizing, or why Apicius should be +remembered for having been the first to teach mankind how to suffocate +fish in Carthaginian pickle; or Quin, for having discovered a sauce for +John Dories; or Mrs. Glasse, for an eel pie; or M. Soyer, celebrated for +depriving barbel of their sight, in order to make them grow fatter, and +be more acceptable to the epicure. Into this wilderness of discoveries, +I have no intention of introducing you, gentle reader. The wisest plan +is to cook and eat your fish in the ordinary mode--fry, broil, bake, +boil, or grill; and call a perch, a perch, not a thoracic; a pike, a +pike, &c., and pay little attention either to cooks or naturalists. + +Le Morvan, intersected by numerous rivers, streams, and runs of water, +in the liquid depths of which the various species of the fresh-water +fishy-family are found from the powerful, swift, and travelled salmon, +to the modest little gudgeon that stays quietly at home, is a country +where the angler may live in a state of perpetual jubilee; the carp, the +eel, and the pike attain an enormous size, particularly near the dams +and flood-gates, where the depth of water is great, and in the _Gours_ +or water-courses which, diverging at several points on the stream, are +constructed for supplying the flour and paper-mills with water. + +The punters of Richmond, Hampton Court, and Chertsey, with their +magnificent tackle, gentles, ground-bait, and comfortable chair, &c., +would be astonished to see the quantities of fish that are taken in one +of these _Gours_ by a half-naked peasant, with a line as thick as +packthread, during a sultry tempestuous evening in the month of June; +from thirty to forty pounds' weight of carp and eels is by no means an +unusual take,--Apodal and Abdominal, as the learned Gmelin would say. + +These _Gours_ are perfect jewels in the eyes of our fishermen; on very +great occasions, for instance, when the miller marries, or an infant +miller makes his appearance, if the occurrence should happen during the +summer season, the flood-gates of the _Gours_ are opened, when the +waters being let off to within a few inches of the bottom, the quantity +of fish taken with the casting-net is enormous. In the large _Gour_ of +Akin, the longest, the deepest, and containing more fish than any on the +Cure or the Cousin, which I mention as representing the ten or twelve +second-rate rivers of Le Morvan, I have seen as much as four horse-loads +of fish taken, though every fish under two pounds was thrown back. The +average depth of water in these rivers is from three to four feet, +except near the dams and flood-gates, where it is from twelve to +thirteen. With rivers so well supplied, sport is invariably obtained; so +that patience, a virtue generally considered absolutely necessary in the +angler, is scarcely required here, and fishing is actually a pastime of +the _beau sexe_. + +Well do I remember the astonishment, the pleasure, the delicious joy of +a young English lady we had the good fortune to have with us at Vezelay, +some few years since (where, by-the-bye, she made quite a sensation), +when for the first time, and seated comfortably upon the soft turf by +the river side, she gracefully threw her line into the great _Gour_ of +Akin; the bait had scarcely sunk, when the float was dancing about like +a dervish, and finally disappeared; the lady pulled, the fish resisted; +excited beyond measure, she redoubled her efforts, and tugging away with +both hands, at length drew from his watery home a large carp, which +flying through the air, described a splendid parabola, and landed in the +adjoining field, to the great joy of the young lady, who showed her +white teeth and laughed with might and main. But the poor devil of a +servant to whom was confided the delicate task of impaling the bait, +disentangling the line, and searching for the fish, when thus projected +over the lady's head into the long grass behind her, had plenty to do I +can aver, and did anything but laugh. + +Near the forests and the hills the rivers are much more shallow, more +clear and limpid, and flow, dance, and bubble over a gravelly bottom or +golden sands. In these the voracious trout abounds; he may be seen +allowing himself to be lazily rocked by the eddy, by the twirling +current, or reposing under the shadow of the large rocks, which, +detached from the adjacent mountains, have fallen into the river, and +been arrested in their course; here he waits for the delicious May-fly, +and the fisherman's basket is soon filled--so soon that a celebrated +doctor in our neighbourhood, whose house is situated near one of these +streams, used to send his servant every morning to take a fresh dish for +his breakfast. The largest and the best trout are found near Chatelux, +in the heart of the Morvan,--an old _château_, on the summit of a high +rock, ornamented with towers and turrets, and surrounded by thick and +solitary woods, in itself a lion worth seeing. + +The present Count de Chatelux was aide-de-camp to Louis Phillipe, and a +great friend of that sovereign. The river Cure flows at the foot of the +hill on which the castle is situated, and its bed at this part is +frequently divided, and forms many little islets, full of flowering +shrubs and forest trees, which give the landscape a pleasing and +picturesque appearance. From hence, for nearly twelve miles, roach, +dace, chub, and trout are numerous, and take the fly well. + +Besides the _Gours_ we have mentioned, there are three spots in the +Morvan that deserve attention in connection with fishing. These are +Sermiselle, Pierre Pertuis, and the Château des Panolas. Sermiselle, at +the junction of the Cure and the Cousin, at which point the road from +Paris to Lyons passes, is a charming village, full of life and gaiety. +At this spot the river begins to make a respectable figure; deep, +solemn, and silent, it seems proud of its boats and ferries; but its +waters have not that transparent appearance, that vivacious, laughing, +and brawling character which distinguished them some miles further up. +The fish in like manner resemble the stream; there are in this part +monstrous carp, majestic eels, and solemn pike; and the line should be +doubly strong if the angler is desirous of ever seeing a fish, or his +hooks again. + +At some distance above Sermiselle, where the silence and solitude of the +country still reign, a very curious mode of fishing is adopted during +the burning heat of the summer months. About mid-day, when the sun in +all its power shoots his golden rays perpendicularly on the waters, +illuminating every large hole even in the profoundest depths, the large +fish leave them, and, ascending to the surface, remain under the cool +shade of the trees, watching for whatever tit-bit or delicacy the stream +may bring with it, while others prefer a quiet saunter, or, with the +dorsal fin above the water, lie so still and stationary near some lily +or other aquatic plant, that they seem perfectly asleep. + +The enthusiastic sportsman, who fears neither storms nor a +_coup-de-soleil_, makes his appearance about this time, without, it is +true, either fishing-rod, lines, worms, flies, or bait of any +description, but having under his left arm a double-barrel gun, in his +right hand a large cabbage, and at his heels a clever poodle. The +fisherman, or the huntsman, I scarcely know which to call him, now duly +reconnoitres the river, fixes upon some tree, the large and lower +branches of which spread over it, ascends with his gun and his cabbage, +and having taken up an equestrian position upon one of the projecting +arms, examines the surface of the deep stream below him. He has not been +long on his perch when he perceives a stately pike paddling up the +river; a leaf is instantly broken off the cabbage, and when the +Branchiostagous has approached sufficiently near, is thrown into the +water; frightened, the voracious fish at once disappears, but shortly +after rises, and grateful to the unknown and kind friend who has sent +him this admirable parasol, he goes towards it, and after pushing it +about for a few seconds with his nose, finally places himself +comfortably under its protecting shade. The sportsman, watching the +animated gyrations of his cabbage-leaf, immediately fires, when the +poodle, whose sagacity is quite equal to that of his master, plunges +into the water, and if the fish is either dead or severely wounded fails +not to bring out with him the scaly morsel; thus so long as the heavens +are bright and blue, the water is warm, the large fish choose to +promenade in the sun, and the sportsman's powers of climbing hold out, +the sport continues. Sometimes the poodle and the fish have a very sharp +struggle, and then the fun is great indeed, unless by chance the +sportsman should unfortunately miss his hold in the midst of his +laughter, and drop head-foremost into the water with his cabbage and his +double-barrel. + +Pierre Pertuis on the Cure, is also a famous place for fishing, and an +extraordinary spot, and the Morvinian peasant, a highly +poetically-flavoured individual, has made it the theatre of some very +fantastic scenes. Imagine a yellow rock, of gigantic height, terminating +in a point, with its sides full of fissures, holes, and crevices, +inhabited by crows, owls, and bats, having its base in the river and its +summit crowned with a rough _chevelure_ of brambles and large creeping +plants. The lower part of this rock is intersected by holes, through +which the water rushes, tumbles, and whirls. The peasants pretend that +the river near the rock cannot be fathomed, and that this particular +spot is inhabited by fairies, nymphs, syrens, and other amiable ladies +of this description, who have superb voices, and sing from the interior +of their grottos delicious melodies of the other world, with the +charitable intention of attracting the passing traveller or fisherman, +and drowning him in the whirlpool beneath--a fate that would certainly +be inevitable, if the attraction in question could bring them within +its vortex, for certain it is that neither sheep-dogs or cattle which +have fallen in, or been drawn within reach of its power, have ever been +seen again. When the tempest rages here, the wind, rushing into the +holes and fissures, produces a kind of moaning Æolian noise, and this +with the cries of the owls and the rooks when the _mistral_ blows and +they have the rheumatism, produces, and no wonder, a superstitious +feeling of awe in the mind of the ignorant peasant. + +On the Cousin, which flows majestically through some of the most +magnificent pastures in the world, and on the summit of a large hill, +stands the charming Château des Panolas, the towers and walls of which, +covered with pointed roofs and weather-cocks, and surrounded by domes, +belvederes, and old-fashioned dovecots, give it at a distance the +appearance of some oriental building. The weather-cocks in particular +are of the most fanciful and grotesque designs, and it is said, and I +should think there can be no doubt of the fact, that in no other +structure have so many been seen together: it is calculated there are no +less than three hundred. In going and returning from the forest, many a +time have I and my friends, in the hey-day of youthful iniquities, +knocked one of them off with a ball from our guns, to the great anger +of the proprietor, who threatened us with his mahogany crutch from the +hall door. + +In the great ponds of Marot, and in the lakes of Lomervo--immense liquid +plains, deep and surrounded in their whole circumference by a forest of +green rushes, water-lilies, flags, and many other aquatic plants, +forming a wall of verdure--the enormous quantity of fish of every kind +is almost incredible. Nor is this extraordinary, for the waters of at +least a dozen streams from the mountains, which swarm with life, fall +into these vast reservoirs, and they are only fished once in every five +years. This is a delectable spot for fishermen; but, on the other hand, +as the value of these sheets of water is well understood by their +proprietors, they are sharply looked after by them and their keepers, +and it is almost as difficult to find an opportunity of throwing a line +during the day, as it is for a poacher to throw a casting net on a +moonlight night. + +Nevertheless, as the appropriation of other people's property has an +exquisite charm for some temperaments,--as a stolen apple to a child's +palate is much more delightful than one that is not--the demon of +acquisitiveness is always leaning over a man's shoulder,--that is to +say, a poacher's shoulder, or even that of a gentleman with poaching +tastes and inclinations,--to breathe in his ear bad advice. As to the +peasants in the neighbourhood, they are always consulting together, or +inventing some method by which they may circumvent the proprietors and +appropriate their fish to themselves. + +One of the happiest discoveries of the kind I ever heard of,--not the +most recent but the best,--is the following. Every person in the +possession of a cottage, possesses also a few ducks and geese, which +paddle about their humble habitations. A man who has an itching for the +thing, and who desires to become a pond-skimmer, as they are called, +carefully selects from his squadron of _palmipedes_, the strongest, the +most intelligent duck or goose of the party; his choice made, he +immediately sets to work to give him the education befitting a bird +destined for so honourable and diplomatic an employment. + +After very many trials, lessons, and lectures, more or less difficult +and tedious, the bird is taught to swim to a distance right ahead--to +turn to one side when his master sings, and return to him when he +whistles. These two primary and elementary movements, which appear so +very natural, demand, nevertheless, wonderful patience, and no little +cleverness and tact in the professor to instil--for his pupils, be it +remembered, are ducks and geese--and furnishes an example of how the +hope and love of gain has its effect on mankind. These very peasants, +who never would take the trouble to learn their letters--only +twenty-four--who would not many of them go two miles to learn how to +sign their own names, pass whole days in the gray waters of these +marshes, more often than not up to their waists in mud, whistling and +singing and twitching the legs of their unfortunate birds, and nearly +pulling them off with a string, when they either do not comprehend, or +obey as quickly as they might, the orders they receive. + +Dozens of ducks and geese that would in London or Paris be considered +highly curious and infinitely wiser than any of their species--even +those of the Capitol--are thus trained every year in Le Morvan, without +any one giving them a thought, and may be purchased, education included, +for two shillings a piece. When these winged students are so thoroughly +qualified for their duties, that they can go through their exercise +without a mistake, and are considered worthy of taking the field, the +peasant puts them into his bag, and setting off very early in the +morning to one of the great ponds I have mentioned, conceals himself +behind a thick tufty curtain of flags, from whence he can see without +being seen. + +Here, opening his bag, he takes out the half suffocated ducks or geese, +which are glad enough to find themselves once more on their favourite +element; and the intelligent birds have scarcely regained their liberty +when the peasant commences his ballad, and immediately the anchor is +apeak and they are off; he sings, he whistles, and they turn, like two +well-manned frigates, and come back to him without a moment's delay. The +act is so natural, so simple, that no one can be attracted by it; nor is +it possible to suspect a goose or a duck with its head down searching +for food, that paddles about in the weeds or on the shore, or dabbles +amongst the rushes. Should the keeper appear, the peasant is sure to be +found lying on his back half asleep, or singing or whistling, as if +mocking the lark in the clear blue sky above him. + +Nevertheless, this goose, this duck, and this man are first-rate +thieves,--cracksmen of their class; for the peasant, before he confides +his poultry to the waves, makes their toilette; sliding under the left +wing and over the right, across the body, like a soldier's belt, a +strong and well-baited pike-hook. Thus equipped and ready for the start, +the pirate birds leave on their buccaneering expedition; but they are +scarcely a stone's throw from the shore, and well clear of the little +islands of flags, when a hungry pike, observing the delicious frog +towing in the rear, seizes it, and makes off to his hole, to gorge the +bait at his leisure. More easily thought than done;--the goose stoutly +resists, and refuses to accompany the fresh-water shark to his weedy +home. A warm and obstinate engagement is the result; the peasant +watches, with approving eye, the embarassment of his feathered +accomplice, until he thinks it time to put an end to the scrimmage, when +he whistles like an easterly wind in a passion. The goose, rather +encumbered by the carnivorous gentleman below him, endeavours for some +time but in vain to obey the signal; he flaps his wings, works away with +his legs, and cackles without ceasing. The poacher encourages him with +another whistle, and at length the bird, in spite of all his adversary's +attempts to the contrary, leads the "greedy game of the deep" to the +shore, and delivers it to his master. This is, certainly, a very curious +mode of taking pike, and the live trimmer looks very puzzled when the +voracious fish is hooked; but the following anecdote, taken from the +scrap-book of Mr. M'Diarmid, shows that a Scotchman once adopted the +same method, though for a different reason. "Several years ago," he +writes, "a farmer, living in the immediate neighbourhood of Lochmaben, +Dumfriesshire, kept a gander, who not only had a great trick of +wandering himself, but also delighted in piloting forth his cackling +harem, to weary themselves in circumnavigating their native lake, or in +straying amidst forbidden fields on the opposite shore. Wishing to check +this flagrant habit, the farmer one day seized the gander just as he was +about to spring upon the blue bosom of his favourite element, and tying +a large fish-hook to his leg, to which was attached part of a dead frog, +he suffered him to proceed upon his voyage of discovery. As had been +anticipated, this bait soon caught the eye of a ravenous pike, which +swallowing the deadly hook, not only arrested the progress of the +astonished gander, but forced him to perform half-a-dozen summersets on +the surface of the water! For some time, the struggle was most +amusing--the fish pulling, and the bird screaming with all its +might,--the one attempting to fly, and the other to swim, from the +invisible enemy--the gander one moment losing and the next regaining his +centre of gravity, and casting between whiles many a rueful look at his +snow-white fleet of geese and goslings, who cackled out their sympathy +for their afflicted commodore. At length Victory declared in favour of +the feathered angler, who, bearing away for the nearest shore, landed on +the smooth green grass one of the finest pike ever caught in the Castle +Loch." + +This adventure is said to have cured the gander of his desperate +propensity for wandering. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + Village _fêtes_--The first of May--The religious festivals--The + _Fête Dieu_--Appearance of the streets--The altars erected in + them--Procession from the church--Country fairs--The book-stalls at + them--Pictures of the Roman Catholic Church--Before the + _Vendange_--Proprietors' hopes and fears--Shooting in the + vineyards--The first day of the _Vendange_--Appearance of the + country--Influx of visitors at this season--The + consequences--Herminie--Her sad history--Le Morvan--Recommended to + the English traveller--Lord Brougham and Cannes--Contrast between + it and Le Morvan. + + +One of the happiest and most useful customs established by our +ancestors, was, without doubt, the village _fête_--the periodical +festival that takes place in every hamlet, and at which the inhabitants +of the adjoining _communes_ assemble on a specified day to foot it gaily +in the dance and drink each other's health glass to glass in brimming +bumpers. These joyous _fêtes_, a kind of fraternal and social +invitation, which are given and accepted by the rural population when +spring and verdure made their appearance, are held all over France, and +rejoice every heart. In our day, though much shorn of its ancient +revelry, and neglected, _la fête du village_ is still kept up, for it +is, so to speak, indigenous,--a part of our social habits, and like +everything which carries within it a generous sentiment, is loved and +cherished by the people. As the day approaches every village is suitably +decorated, the women are all on the tip toe of excitement to see and be +seen, the peasant throws dull care behind him, and the artizans in the +nearest town work with renewed energy in order that they may do honour +to the occasion. Every one, in short, makes his way to the rendezvous, a +merry laugh on his lip and joy in his heart, and, lost in the tumult and +general gaiety that prevail, all forget, for some few hours, their hard +work and privations. + +These festivals offer to each either profit or amusement; the peasants +find in them a refreshing and salutary rest from toil, the tradesman +fails not to fill his pockets with their hard earnings, the clown shows +off his summersets, the young men are touched with the tender passion, +and the young girls, with their white teeth and sparkling eyes, await +with feigned indifference the proposals of their admirers. The village +_fête_ forms a bright epoch in rustic life, and the gay hours passed at +them are the happiest, the most joyous, and the most enchanting of the +year. + +Our ancestors, who knew and more thoroughly understood these matters +than we do, who loved a laugh, the dance, and the merry outpourings of +the heart, endeavoured by every means in their power to multiply them, +and, after having seized upon the name of every saint in paradise, they +managed to appropriate, and always for the same motive, all the various +occupations known in the cultivation of the fields as a good excuse for +holding more of these saturnalia. The season for sowing was one, the +hay-harvest another, the wheat-harvest, the period of felling the oaks +in the forest were excellent opportunities for establishing a new +_fête_, and consequently buying a new coat, singing a carol, drinking to +France, and skipping _des Rigodons_. For, be it said, one really does +amuse oneself in my beautiful country; yes, one amuses oneself, perhaps, +much more than one works; there are more Casinos built than acres +grubbed up, and is not this partly the reason why the land is so badly +tilled and produces only one half of what it should. But what signifies +it, after all, if this half is sufficient for us. England, they say, is +more opulent and better cultivated; be it so,--she is richer, she +manufactures more; but is she happier? + +Independently of these _fêtes_, the number of which is infinite, but +which occur only, in each locality, once a year, there exist also those +merry meetings, which, like the Sunday, are understood by the peasantry +as a general holiday. Amongst these, the most animated and attractive, +and more usually marked by happy incidents, is that of the first of May. +At the earliest dawn of day, the tones of the bagpipe may be +distinguished in the distance, coming up the principal street of the +village. He who has heard this rustic sound in the happy days of his +childhood, under the shade of the elms, will always love the unmusical +and melancholy wailing of the bagpipe. The strain has scarcely died away +when all the village is alive, every one is up and dressed in his +best--the children, with enormous nosegays in each little hand, go and +present them to their delighted parents, and wish them "_un doux mois de +Mai_." + +Each house, perfumed like a parterre of flowers, opens its doors, and, +during the live long day, it is between friends and acquaintance a +series of happy smiles, and a mutual exchange of nosegays and hearty +shaking of hands. Then in the evening, when the moon has risen in the +west over the fir woods, the young lads and lasses, with their fathers +and mothers, saunter along the streets arm in arm. At short distances, +on the roofs of the houses, are seen, elevated in the air, gigantic +chaplets of flowers, illuminated by large torches of rosin. Within these +chaplets are others of smaller size. A dance, _grand rond_, is formed by +the young lovers that have carried the May to their sweethearts, who, +rising before the dawn, had already gathered the mysterious declaration +of love, perfumed and still covered with the tears of night. In this +large circle is formed another of children, about ten years of age, and +within this again, a third of quite little things; small human garlands +within the greater one. And the bagpipe plays, and all the world dance, +and every one is happy, and the evening breeze shaking the large +chaplets above showers of lilac and hawthorn bloom fall on the dancers +and rustic ballroom beneath. + +To these village _fêtes_ must be added, to complete the list of our +popular holidays--the religious festivals, established by the Roman +Catholic church, which, in the eyes of our rural population, are the +most imposing and magnificent ceremonies of the year. These _fêtes_ are +very little known in Protestant countries; a few details, therefore, of +one of them, taken at hazard, may please, or at least offer some point +of interest to the reader. + +In the month of June, when the heavens are all azure, when the sun +smiles on us here below, and the summer flowers are all in bloom, the +long-expected _fête_, the _Fête Dieu_, _la fête des Roses_, the feast of +Corpus Christi, one of the most brilliant festivals of the Roman +Catholic church takes place. + +Several days before, all the houses appear in a new toilette, decked out +with evergreens and branches of the vine and tamarisk, festoons of which +are suspended from window to window. All the streets of the village are +washed and swept, like a drawing-room. On the preceding evening every +garden is opened, the borders are ravaged, baskets-full of roses, +armfulls of jasmine, bunches of gilly-flowers and sweet-pea fall under a +little army of scissars and white hands. The camellias complain, the +heliotropes murmur, all the tribe of tulips are in low spirits, for each +family gathers in a perfect harvest of flowers--every one remarks to the +other--"To-morrow is the _fête Dieu_, the feast of roses--the favourite +festival of the year." And when aurora, pale with watching, rises in the +cloudless sky, when the cock, herald of the morn, proclaims the birth of +another day, when the first golden ray, traversing space, lights the +eastern casement, behind which many a lovely bosom heaves, with +anticipated conquest and excitement, the bells of the village church +are heard, and at this merry signal every one is up and soon busily +engaged superintending the preparations for the day. + +The streets, as if by enchantment, are carpeted with verdure; the pine, +the oak, and the birch, from the neighbouring forest, contribute their +young shoots and leaves; the prickly broom its yellow flowers. The +façades of the houses are hidden under their various hangings, the rich +suspend from their windows their splendid carpets; the poor, sheets as +white as driven snow. All ornament them, here and there, with roses, +pinks, and carnations. Then, at short distances down the principal +street, the young _demoiselles_ of the village erect what are termed +_reposoirs_, a kind of chapel or altar, improvised for the occasion, +which lead to an emulation and an animated rivalry perfectly terrible. +It is whose shall be the largest, best, and most elegantly decorated, +and these young nymphs, usually so reserved and so easily frightened, +become, for this week, as bold and free as so many dragoons. They enter +the house, without being announced, open the drawers, visit the +secretaries, ransack the cupboards. Pirates, with taper fingers, they +put into their baskets and reticules all the valuables they can lay +their hands on. Objects of art they are sure to seize, more especially +if they are made of the precious metals. It is who shall adorn her +_reposoir_ with gold and bronze vases, with enamelled cups, pictures, +and rich crucifixes. Important meetings are held, in some secret spot, +to determine of what form the altar shall be; if the dominating colour +shall be blue, purple, or lilac. Then there is a consultation whether +the drapery, that is to cover this temporary chapel, shall be with or +without a fringe,--a discussion which becomes more entangled with +difficulties than those in the Parliamentary Club of the Rue des +Pyramides, as to the continued existence or demise of our poor +constitution. Silk, satin, and velvet ornament the interior of the +elegant edifice; the most delicate perfumes burn in each of its corners, +and, in order further to embellish the altar on which the Holy Eucharist +is to rest for a few minutes, there is a perfect coquetting with +chaplets, festoons of gauze, crystal lamps of various colours, and +transparencies through which the subdued rays of the sun shed their +softened light. + +And, when everything is ready, when the mass has been said, when the +moment has arrived for the procession to move through the streets, the +bells ring a still merrier peal, the great folding-doors of the +principal entrance of the church are thrown open, and emerging from +thence one sees beneath the vaulted arch, first, the great silver +cross, then the banner of the blessed Virgin, carried by a beautiful +young girl, dressed in a robe of spotless white; after her come several +little children with flaxen heads, their hair parted and flowing on +their shoulders, carrying in their hands baskets ornamented with lace, +and full of poppies and corn-flowers; behind them are the children of +the choir, with their silver-chased incense burners; then two deacons, +one carrying on a silver plate the bloom of the vine, the other a head +of corn; then four men supporting a large shield, on which are twelve +loaves and a lamb, symbolical of the day; and lastly, under a canopy +enriched with gold lace and fringe, the old priest, calm and grave, who +carries in his hands the Holy Eucharist, followed by a long line of his +faithful parishioners, with the mammas and young girls two and two, +singing psalms and canticles. In this order they move along the crowded +streets, which are strewn with fennel, green branches, and leaves. + +From time to time the whole procession halts before some _reposoir_--the +little girls drop three curtsies before the beautiful altar, and scatter +high in the air handfuls of broken flowers, which shed a delicious +fragrance around; the children of the choir wave their censers to and +fro, the old priest blesses the crowd who kneel before him, and the +smoke of the incense, and the perfume of the roses, ascend towards +heaven as the adorations and prayers of all present ascend to God. This, +the holiest and most imposing _fête_ of our rural districts, is also the +one the most loved. Pity not the peasant, pity not those who are from +necessity obliged to live in these retired spots. They have their +_fêtes_ as well as the rich, happier and much more magnificent, at which +they can be present and form part without paying anything. Nature, too, +source of so many marvels, whether she covers the earth with a robe of +verdure, or fields of golden corn, or that she shelters it under a +mantle of snow, presents to the husbandman some interesting scene. Have +they not also the shade and silence of the forest, the eternal freshness +of the fountains? + +It is true the peasants know nothing of Beethoven's symphony in C, they +are not familiar with the melodies of Rossini, Madame Grisi has never in +her terrible finale "_Qual cor tradisti_" made them weep, nor has the +orchestra of Monsieur Jullien made them deaf. But what are these +splendid wonders of the town to them? Have they not a melodious choir of +birds to arouse them each morning from their slumbers? have they not as +scenes, the woods, the bubbling waters, verdant valleys, real sunrises +and sunsets? Can they not, seated on the summit of some hill, round +which the breeze of evening plays, gaze upon the glorious sky above them +spangled with stars, those unfading flowers of Heaven? Say, reader, is +not this hill a charming pit-stall, and much preferable to the narrow +crimson section of the bench at the Opera? These are some of their +enjoyments; then how could they with any degree of pleasure stick +themselves up like logs of wood or trusses of hay before a row of lurid +lamps, to admire some painted men and women mincing up and down the +stage, or peer through two telescopes at forests of painted calico and +moons cut out of pasteboard, or listen to hackneyed airs which have been +sung and resung a hundred times--worn up, in short, like an old rope? + +The peasant farmer or yeoman of France, who in the midst of the most +pleasing circumstances, never forgets his own interests, has also found +it desirable for the advancement of his worldly prosperity, to establish +fairs, at which he can sell his hemp and beasts, his wine and his crops; +purchase clothes for his family, and coulters for his ploughs. + +These fairs, which are held once in each month in all the towns of +Burgundy and large villages of Le Morvan, attract a great concourse of +people, and as there is much variety in the costumes, head-dresses and +colours, the effect is highly picturesque. The mountaineer brings with +him for sale wild boar and venison, wood and wild fruits of the forest; +the inhabitant of the plain, the thousand productions of the +neighbouring manufactories. Second-rate jewellers arrive with their +boxes full of gold crosses and buckles, holy chaplets blessed at some +favourite shrine, and silver rings. + +Book-stalls are also to be seen, kept by Jesuits in disguise, the +shelves of which are loaded with inferior literature, with a perfect +deluge of breviaries, almanacks, abridgments of the Lives of the Saints, +with "Letters fallen from Heaven," in which, "Ladies and gentlemen," +shouts the proprietor, "you will read the details, truthful and +historical, of the last miracle at Rimini; also a new and marvellous +account, equally authentic, of several pictures of Christ that have shed +tears of blood. Buy, ladies and gentlemen, buy the history of these +astonishing miracles--only a penny, ladies, for which you will have into +the bargain the invaluable signature of our Holy Father the Pope, and +the benediction of our Lord the Bishop." + +But ought one to be surprised at such announcements, at such a traffic, +or that in these so-called enlightened days, not only auditors but +purchasers should be found?--that there should, in fact, be a sale for +these printed mystifications, when officers of the government and +officers of the armed force, attest on their honour the truth of these +impudent impositions upon the credulity of mankind, affirm the accuracy +and _bonâ fide_ character of these winking, blinking, blasphemous, +lachrymal representations? + +Yes--a sub-prefect, a mayor, and an officer of the _gendarmerie_, have +signed a document stating that they had seen a picture of Christ +shedding tears of blood! + +When archbishops order public prayers and thanksgivings for the renewal +of these pasquinades, this ridiculous mockery, can one be astonished, I +say, at the state of religious ignorance and blindness of our peasantry? +Such, with a few wretched prints representing Napoleon passing the Alps +seated on an eagle; Poniatowsky and his white horse attempting to cross +the Oder; Cambronne, with imperial moustachios, on his knees repeating +the celebrated _mot_ which he never said: "_La garde meurt et ne se rend +pas_," &c.,--such, I am grieved to confess, is the miserable +intellectual food, the wretched mental and moral stock of human and +religious knowledge that supplies the literary and artistic wants of +the greater portion of the peasants of our departments. + +At these fairs all the farm servants are engaged; those who wish to try +a change of masters, or hire themselves merely for the harvest, assemble +in the open space near the church, and then offer to those who require +them, their brawny arms, and their farming acquirements. The most +celebrated of these fairs is that held on the First of September, to +which whole hamlets send all their able-bodied men and women, who hire +themselves to the great proprietors for the _vendange_--for this in +Burgundy and Le Morvan is the great work, the chief event of the year; +it is on the _vendange_ that depend the commerce, the tranquillity and +happiness of the country. + +Monsieur B.... is ruined if the sun is obscured by clouds. Monsieur +D.... who has cunningly laid his hands upon all the barrels within +thirty miles round, will put a pistol to his head if he cannot sell his +army of hogsheads. This one relies upon his vineyard for paying his +debts--another cannot marry unless he makes three hundred tierces of +wine. Eight out of twelve, in short, reckon upon the produce of their +vines to buy a new carriage or to be saved from prison; and the agonised +mariners of the wrecked _Medusa_ never cast their eyes with more +intense anxiety towards the horizon than do these proprietors of our +vineyards every morning before the vintage. + +If it looks like rain no sunflower is more yellow than their +countenances; if the cold is unusual every face is pale, and should a +frost appear imminent, those whose affairs are the most compromised, +pack up their effects and make ready for a start. But on the other hand, +if the sky is serene and the wind warm, husbands are actually seen +embracing their wives, and promising them any toilette they may fancy. +Should the heat become Bengalic and insupportable oh! then all Burgundy +is dancing and running to the vineyards,--all the Morvinians fly to the +hills to enjoy the cool breezes and admire the luxuriant panorama +beneath and around them. + +But for some months previous to the _vendange_, no one but a proprietor +has the right to enter a vineyard; at this period a perfect calm and +silence reigns, and they become an asylum, a veritable land of Goshen, +an oasis for all the partridges, hares, and rabbits of the +neighbourhood. In order to prevent gentlemen and professional poachers +from cruising in these delightful latitudes, killing the game and +injuring the vines, a number of _gardes champêtres_, generally old +soldiers, are chosen, who armed with an old sabre, post themselves on +some height which commands the vineyard, ready to lay violent hands on +any delinquent that may make his appearance. But in spite of the _garde +champêtre_, his long sabre, their interminable cut and thrust, and his +eternal _de par la loi, arretez!_ there is a sport in the early morning, +called _à la traulée_, which is not without its charms. + +The vineyards of Burgundy are for the most part divided into sections, +that is to say, at from two to three hundred paces the contiguity of the +vines is interrupted, and a small road, which serves during the +_vendange_ to facilitate the communication and transport of the grapes, +is cut in the vineyard. At daylight, therefore, before the sun is above +the horizon, or the white fog hanging in the valleys has been dispersed +by his rays, and the fashionable gentleman of the town is on the point +of going to bed, the sportsman, always keen and on the alert, arrives, +walks slowly and carefully along the roads I have just mentioned, +looking cautiously right and left, and between the intervals of the +vines on either side of him. + +The rabbits hopping under the leaves, the covey of partridges bathing +amidst the dew, the hares gravely discussing among themselves the +respective merits of the heath and wild thyme, are thus surprised in +their matutinal occupations, and become the prey of the delighted +sportsman. But the moment approaches when the comparative calm and +protection which the poor animals enjoy will cease--their days of fun +and festival are numbered; their enemies up to this period have been +few--the rich proprietors, the privileged, but now the masses are +preparing, they are cleaning up their clumsy blunderbusses, and +to-morrow "the million" will take the field and assail and pop at them +from every road and pathway--for the mayor, after due consultation with +the principal personages in the village, has sent his drummer, his +Mercury, his crier, to beat a tattoo in all the public places, and +crossways, and announce in front of the _cabarets_ that the grapes being +ripe the _vendange_ is opened. + +The following day, when the last star in the heavens is disappearing, +when the doors of morning are scarcely opened, every road is covered +with long lines of waggons drawn by oxen, and a cavalcade of horses and +mules, and great asses carrying panniers may be seen galloping along in +all directions. Voices, shouts, squeaking wheels, and neighing horses +are also heard on every side, and parties of _vendangeurs_ and +_vendangeuses_, arm in arm, with baskets on their backs, and grape +knives in their belts, their broad-brimmed hats encircled with ribbons +and flowers, are seen marching along, singing many a Bacchanalian chorus +in honour of the occasion. They are on their way to the vineyards, and +like so many fauns and Bacchantes, only well draped, are with joyous +hearts ready to gather in the harvest of the ruby grape. + +In advance of this delighted and merry crowd, and always like the lark, +the first on the wing, the sportsman is already at his post,--for the +first day of the _vendange_ is, as Navarre used to say, a day of powder, +the _fête du fusil_. And now is formed a line of sometimes three hundred +_vendangeurs_ and _vendangeuses_ who starting at the same moment, ascend +the hill-side cutting the grapes, filling and emptying their baskets. +The young men strike up some jovial song in praise of wine, the girls +reply; and before this soul-stirring chorus, this burst of gay and +animated feeling, the game, astounded at the concert, break and retire +before them. Then is the moment for the sportsman, who, concealed in a +large thicket and comfortably seated at the summit of the hill, listens +and laughs in his sleeve as he hears the affrighted partridge call, and +the timid hare rushing through the vines towards him; they approach, are +within range of his gun, and ere long the shot-bag is emptied, and the +sportsman is in that rare but agreeable dilemma of not knowing what to +do with his game or his gun. + +In a wine country the _vendange_ is certainly the most exciting and +merriest season of the year--it is a succession of delightful _fêtes_ in +the open air, of repasts amongst the vines and under the shade of the +peach-trees, riding-parties in the forest, whose echoes are awakened by +the melancholy notes of the horn, water-parties on the lakes, dances in +the field and round the wine-press, &c. + +Every _château_ is full to overflowing in Le Morvan during the month of +August,--bands of Parisians, Picards, and Normans, acquaintances +scarcely made, friends, friends'-friends, with their wives, children, +dogs, nurses, and luggage arrive each hour and by every road. Every +family is invaded, beds are doubled, plates are not to be found,--there +is only one glass for two, one knife for three; the servants, stupified +and astonished, know not how to reply or which way to turn themselves; +the cooks, half-roasted and lost amidst an army of sauce-pans, know not +what they are doing; they put mustard into the _méringues_, cruets of +vinegar in the soup--every one is on the laugh, except however the heads +of families, who rendered almost crazy by this tide of human beings +always rising, by the bell of the _porte cochère_ always ringing, pass +on from one to the other the new arrivals, with a note as follows: + +"Mons. de G.... presents his compliments to Mons. de V...., and has the +honour to inform him that not possessing in his house one bed or one +arm-chair that is not occupied, he has the pleasure of sending him two +Normans and three Parisians." + +P.S. "The two Normans are first-rate waltzers, the Parisians perfect +singers." The reply will perhaps be couched in the following strain: + +"Mons. de V.... presents his compliments to Mons. de G...., and has the +honour to inform him that being himself under the necessity of sleeping +in his cellar, he cannot, though most anxious to oblige him, receive the +two Norman dancers and the three Parisian warblers." Thus it sometimes +happens that very charming, elegant, and sensitive gentlemen, who under +ordinary circumstances would be very difficult to please, are obliged +to sleep in a barn or loft, on a very nice bed of clean straw, with a +dark lantern to light them there, and the luxury of a truss of hay for a +pillow. + +The peasants, generally speaking, do not witness the arrival of these +visitors with much pleasure,--the dandies more especially, who shod in +varnished leather, always over-dressed, musked, and starched, attract, +so they think, too much the attention of the young girls. Fathers, +mothers, and, above all, lovers, are at once on the look out. They +mistrust these fine gentlemen, whom they always designate by the +appellation of "gilded serpents." + +My friends from other departments often remarked the looks of aversion +with which the natives sometimes met them; and not comprehending the +reason, have asked me for an explanation. Do you observe, I said, that +little white house, half-hidden yonder in the poplars--there, on the +banks of the Cure? That house, a few years ago, was the abiding-place of +a happy and honest family,--a father, and his three daughters. + +The father, who in his youth was in very good circumstances, was ruined +by bad harvests, an epidemic disease in his cattle, and by other +disasters that cause the downfall of many farmers. Nevertheless, and +though his losses were great, he lived happy and even contented with his +children, who, all three of irreproachable conduct and character, and +excellent needlewomen, did their utmost to ameliorate his position. They +made dresses for the ladies in the town, worked by the day, and +sometimes, when they found their earnings during the summer months fall +short of what they thought sufficient to meet the expenses of the coming +winter, they hired themselves to some proprietor during the period of +the _vendange_. + +The youngest of the three,--Herminie, she might be about sixteen,--was a +charming girl, a true child of Nature, fresh as a wild flower, awaking +and rising every day of the year from her peaceful happy couch with the +birds of heaven, always smiling and singing. Herminie was the joy, the +favourite of the old man,--she was the linnet, the darling, and the life +of the house. One autumnal day, (the period at which, as I have before +remarked, our province abounds with strangers,) her figure attracted the +attention of one of those cursed beings, with a false heart and lying +lips, that the great cities send into our rural districts, carrying with +them desolation and mourning. I know not in what manner it occurred, +what falsehoods, what arts he used, or what traps he laid,--but he +succeeded too well in his base purpose. The poor girl was deceived. +Easily convinced,--she was too pure, too young to doubt; and her mother, +who would have been there to watch over her, was alas! sleeping in the +very churchyard in which, in the shade of the evening, she first met her +seducer. Enough,--the heartless man of the world obtained the love of +the poor and simple Herminie,--and his whim, his heartless selfish whim +gratified,--he disappeared. + +The fault, the fault of confiding woman, soon became public. Abandoned +and betrayed, the poor girl sought death as a refuge in her distress, +and threw herself into the river; but her father, who watched every +action of his daughter, was near, and saved her. A man of unusual +intelligence, and an excellent heart, his maledictions fell entirely +upon the head of him who had wronged her; for his child he had only +tears and consolation. Herminie became a mother; her sisters and friends +were earnest and devoted in their attentions, and anticipated her every +thought; but broken-hearted, she bent her head like some beautiful lily, +which has at the parent root some corroding worm. Her gaiety fled, her +songs ceased; pale and silent, she might be seen standing on some rock, +listening to the howling of the storm, or, her little boy on her lap, +seated for hours at her father's cottage door, picking some faded rose +to pieces leaf by leaf, and looking vacantly on the fragments as they +lay at her feet. + +But at the bottom of her cup of grief was still one more bitter +drop,--oh! how much more bitter than the rest! Her child, as if +inheriting the melancholy of its mother, ceased to prattle, to smile; it +did not thrive, it sickened; and in spite of all her care and watchings, +of whole nights passed in prayers to the Virgin, to her patron Saint, +and God, in spite of many an hour of repentant and sorrowing tears,--it +died! Bowed to the earth by this fresh, this overwhelming misfortune, +Herminie complained not, but she became more pale: she was sometimes +found plunged in silent but profound grief, looking towards heaven as if +seeking there the little precious being the Almighty had taken from her; +as if she was anxious to follow,--to be at rest, united with her baby +boy again. + +The _vendange_ returned once more; but the perfumed gentleman, the +villain from the capital, came not again. Herminie was desirous of +assisting in the labours of the season. "I am," said she, "strong +enough;" and though her sisters endeavoured to dissuade her, she +persisted in accompanying them to the vineyard, but there she found her +strength was unequal to the task, a smile to one, and a kind answer to +another, was all that she could give,--nevertheless it was remarked, +during the course of the day that she spoke several times out loud, as +if conversing with some invisible being. Evening arrived, and the +waggons carried off their ripe and luscious loads, leaving the young men +and girls racing up and down the pathways, and amongst the vines, +endeavouring to smear each other's faces with the purple fruit. + +Behind these laughing groups came Herminie, the expression of her dark +blue eye floating in space, and, like the flight of the swallow, resting +on nothing. Onward she slowly stepped, idly pushing before her the first +faded leaves of autumn, withered by the hoar frost; and, instead of the +intoxicating grape, she carried in her hand a _bouquet_ of the arbutus +and the _alize_, fruits without perfume, like her own heart, now without +hope or love. Night came: every eye weary with toil was closed,--the +chimes alone telling the hours of the night vibrated on the air. Towards +morning a startling cry of horror was heard from a cottage on the banks +of the Cure--Herminie was dead! that is to say, her face was paler than +usual in her sleep; but she awoke no more! I shall ever remember that +beautiful face, for I had never till then contemplated the countenance +of one whose spirit had taken its way to that country from which no +traveller returns. + +A few days, and the withered rose-leaves which the poor girl had pulled +at the cottage door were scattered by the wind; a few more, and the poor +old father followed his favourite child; and his surviving daughters, +half-crazed with grief and sorrow, left the neighbourhood. As to him who +was the original cause of this domestic tragedy,--rich, happy, perhaps a +deputy and making laws himself,--he lives, and is probably respected. We +call ourselves a civilized people; we throw into prison a man who +strikes another,--and we do not punish, we do not cast from society, we +do not even reproach the base hypocrite, who, with a smile on his lips, +and for the infamous gratification of his bad, ungovernable, selfish +passions, becomes the murderer of a whole family. Bad and rotten are the +laws which permit such infamous practices. Unworthy of trust are the +legislators who dream not--who never think of preventing these impure +and festering diseases of our social system. My friends, who had +listened attentively to the sad tale, turned from me to inspect more +closely the white cottage by the Cure, and no longer expressed any +astonishment at the severe countenances of the peasants. + +But how does it happen, will the reader say, that so delightful a +province of France as that of Le Morvan should have remained for +nineteen centuries unknown to England,--that nation of travellers who +are to be found in every corner of the globe inhabitable and +uninhabitable? How is it that such a pearl,--a sporting country +too,--should have remained buried for so long a period as it were under +the dark mantle of indifference? And is it to be credited that in a +district in which are to be found simultaneously wolves and health, wild +boar and simplicity, the best wines in the world, and all the +theological virtues, should have remained up to this day hidden--lost in +the deep shadows of its woods and the solitude of its mountains? + +In the first place, then, I must remind you that in order to reach Le +Morvan it is not necessary to traverse either the Indian Archipelago or +the Cordilleras, or black or ferocious populations. Those who have by +accident passed through it, have not been induced by its appearance to +inscribe its name in their note-books. But Le Morvan is close at hand; +Le Morvan, so to speak, touches England,--a sufficient reason, as every +one knows, for taking no interest in it. + +Every year caravans of tourists leave for Italy and the East; they go to +gaze upon the remains of what was once the palace of the famous Zenobia, +Queen of Palmyra, or to kill the lizards on the steps of the mouldering +Coliseum; one invites the scorpions of Greece to bite his leg; another +seeks the yellow fever in the Brazils; a third prefers being robbed in +Calabria, or dying of thirst in the Deserts of Lybia;--the more distant +and perilous the journey, the greater the pleasure of accomplishing it. +Such is English taste. + +Yet Le Morvan is a charming and picturesque country--a lovely region, +clad with verdure, flowers, and forest-trees, and watered by fresh, +sparkling, and silvery streams, which every one can reach without +fatigue, much expense, and without the slightest chance of danger, but +perhaps, as I have before said, its proximity is its misfortune. + +Should any one after perusing this volume desire to visit Le Morvan, he +should be aware that to do so with any degree of pleasure or profit it +is absolutely necessary to speak French fluently,--for half our +peasants are not in the least aware the earth is round, and that on it +there are other nations besides their own. To see its thousand beauties, +to fish its rivers and enter into its delightful, exciting and perilous +sports, to plunge without hesitation into the depths of its forests, the +traveller should also be accompanied by an experienced guide, and +piloted by a friendly hand. + +Le Morvan, unknown to all to-day, would come forth quickly from the +shell of obscurity in which it lies concealed, if some man of rank in +England, led thither by hazard or caprice, were to spend a few weeks +amidst its glades and vineyards, its mountains and its streams. + +What was Cannes twenty years since? who ever mentioned it in England, +who knew its beauties? Nobody. Lord Brougham passes there, stops, +selects a hill, crowns its top with a white _château_, scatters the gold +from his purse, and sheds over the little town the lustre of the renown +won by his versatile genius--Cannes immediately becomes the +vogue--Cannes is charming, magnificent! Cannes, certainly, with her +fields of jasmine and roses, her groves of orange-trees, her burning +sun, blue skies and sea, and her warm pine-woods, is a delightful +spot;--but Cannes is also a place of languor and sloth, a lavender-water +country. If you have the gout, if you are old and rich, if you have +delicate lungs, go to Cannes, your life will be agreeable but +enervating. + +But Le Morvan is certainly not a country for a _petit-mâitre_ or a +delicate lady to live in; to enjoy yourself there you must have the fire +and energy of youth in your veins, a stout heart, the lungs of a +mountaineer, and a sinewy frame. You must love a forester's life, the +hound and the rifle; you must be a Gordon Cumming in a small way. To the +English invalid, I would recommend the ex-Chancellor's retreat; but to +him who in the full sense of the term is a sporting man, or a lover of +nature, I would say: Go--explore Le Morvan! + + + + + LIFE OF BEAU BRUMMELL. + + A FEW COPIES OF THIS WORK ARE STILL ON HAND. + + Price 10s.; Published at £1 8s. + + SAUNDERS AND OTLEY; or CAWTHORNE'S LIBRARY, + Cockspur-street. + + + SHORTLY WILL BE PUBLISHED, + + A NEW AND VERY EASY METHOD + + OF ASCERTAINING + + THE GENDER OF FRENCH NOUNS, + + Translated from the Manuscript in French + + OF THE + + LATE MONS. FOUCAULT, + MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, + + BY + + CAPTAIN JESSE, + AUTHOR OF "NOTES OF A HALFPAY;" "LIFE OF BRUMMELL;" + "MURRAY'S HAND-BOOK FOR RUSSIA," ETC., ETC. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Le Morvan, [A District of France,] Its +Wild Sports, Vineyards and Forests; with Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches, by Henri de Crignelle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LE MORVAN [A DISTRICT OF FRANCE] *** + +***** This file should be named 28573-8.txt or 28573-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/5/7/28573/ + +Produced by Julia Miller, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Le Morvan, [A District of France,] Its Wild Sports, Vineyards and Forests; with Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches + +Author: Henri de Crignelle + +Translator: Captain Jesse + +Release Date: April 21, 2009 [EBook #28573] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LE MORVAN [A DISTRICT OF FRANCE] *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="tn"> + +<p class="center"><big><b>Transcriber’s Note</b></big></p> + +<p class="noin">The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been faithfully preserved. Only obvious +typographical errors have been corrected.</p> + +</div> +<hr /> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 376px;"> +<img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width="376" height="526" alt="Frontispiece" title="" /> +</div> + + +<hr /> +<h1>LE MORVAN,</h1> + +<p class="center">[A DISTRICT OF FRANCE,]<br /> + +<small>ITS</small><br /> + +<big>WILD SPORTS, VINEYARDS AND FORESTS;</big><br /> + +<small>WITH</small></p> + +<p class="t1"><big>Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches.</big></p> + +<p class="center"><br /><br /><small>BY</small><br /> + +<big>HENRI DE CRIGNELLE,</big><br /> + +<small>ANCIEN OFFICIER DE DRAGONS.</small><br /><br /><br /> + +TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT IN FRENCH,<br /> + +<small>BY</small><br /> + +<big>CAPTAIN JESSE,</big><br /> + +<small>AUTHOR OF "NOTES OF A HALFPAY;" "LIFE OF BRUMMELL;"<br /> +"MURRAY'S HAND-BOOK FOR RUSSIA," ETC., ETC.</small><br /><br /><br /> + +SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT-STREET.<br /> + +1851. +</p> + +<hr /> +<p class="center"> +<small>LONDON:</small><br /> +PRINTED BY WILLIAM TYLER,<br /> +<small>BOLT-COURT.</small> +</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Born</span> in one of the most beautiful provinces of France, in a country of +noble forests and extensive vineyards; brought up in the open air amidst +the blue hills, and ever wandering over the fields and mountains with a +gun on my arm—all the hours of my youth, if I may so say, were spent in +search of partridges and hares in the dewy stubbles, and in the pursuit +of the wild cat and the boar in the shady depths of the woods.</p> + +<p>When relating the adventures of these different shooting rambles to a +friend, talking over with him our mode of sporting so different from +that of England, and when in imagination I carried him along with me +into the dells and dark ravines, and described to him the chase and +death-struggle of the ferocious wolf, or the odd characters and +antediluvian customs of the primitive people amongst whom I passed the +days of my happy boyhood, astonished, he could hardly believe that such +sports and such singular personages existed within so short a distance +of his own country.</p> + +<p>"Why not scribble all this?" he would say, "your sketches would make +capital light reading."</p> + +<p>"But to write is not easy; and, besides, what a poor figure I and my +dogs and wolves, woodcocks and vineyards, would cut after the terrible +Mr. Gordon Cumming. How could any description of mine interest the +public in comparison with those of that famous shot and his three +coffee-coloured Hottentots, with his bands of panthers and giraffes, his +troops of yellow lions dancing sarabands round the fountains, and his +jungles and swamps swarming with elephants and hippopotami?"</p> + +<p>"But we might be able to go to Le Morvan," said my friend, "whereas few +indeed, if they wished it, can go to the South of Africa to shoot +elephants through the small ribs; neither is it probable that many of us +would like to pass several years of their valuable lives shut up in a +loose, rolling, sea-bathing-machine-like wagon, with their own beloved +shadow alone for all Christian company. Let us have a narrative of your +exploits?"</p> + +<p>"You do not consider what you ask," I replied; "my gossip may have +amused you, but the effusions of my pen would to a certainty make you +yawn like graves."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," whispered the flatterer, "you will open to us a new country, +you will confer a real service upon hundreds of restless Englishmen, who +when summer comes know not for the life of them where to go, or where +not to go;—write your work, and advise them to turn their steps to Le +Morvan at the time of the vintage."</p> + +<p>But now another, a huge difficulty, sprung up. Printers do not lend +their types for nothing any more than they give gratis their time and +paper. To publish a book is always an expensive affair; misfortune, +which had touched me with its wing, which has been the sad guest of my +house, deprived me of the power of undertaking it myself: and where to +find a person so generous as to take upon himself the responsibility of +the undertaking? Happily I was in England, in the land of kind hearts +and warm sympathies. A noble lady, the mother of a distinguished English +nobleman, who passes her life in doing good, took an interest in my +forlorn history, and was pleased to honour me with her patronage. With +this mantle of protection thrown around me, and my generous friend +having undertaken to bear the responsibilities of publishing, the +difficulties were soon swept away, and Le Morvan was written.</p> + +<p>I had hoped that I should in this Preface be permitted to mention her +name, which would have been less a compliment to her than an honour to +me; but her modesty has refused this public acknowledgment of my +unbounded gratitude,—a veil of respectful reserve shall therefore +remain suspended over her name. As for me and mine, we shall treasure it +in our thankful hearts—every day shall we pray that the Great Giver of +all good may confer upon her His most precious and gracious blessings.</p> + +<p class="right"> +HENRI DE CRIGNELLE. +</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">London</span>, <i>August</i>, 1851.</p> +<hr /> + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> + +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +English propensity to ramble—Where and how—Le Morvan—Vezelay—Description +of the town—Historical associations connected +with it—Charles IX.—Persecutions of the Protestants—View +from Vezelay—Scenery and wild sports—The Author—Object +of the Work</div></td> + <td align='right'><i>p.</i> 1</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +Le Morvan—Forests—Climate—Patriarchs and Damosels—Peasants +of the plain and the mountains—Jovial Curés—Their love of +Burgundy—The Doctor and the Curé</div></td> + <td align='right'>14</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +Geology—Fossil shells—Antediluvian salmon—The Druids—Chindonax, +the High Priest—Roman antiquities—Julius +Cæsar's hunting-box—Lugubrious village—Carré-les-Tombes—The +Inquisitive Andalusian</div></td> + <td align='right'>26</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +Le Morvan during the Middle Ages—Legendary horrors—Forest +of La Goulotte—La Croix Chavannes—La Croix Mordienne—Hôtel +de Chanty—Château de Lomervo—A French Bluebeard—Citadel +of Lingou</div></td> + <td align='right'>35</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +Castle of Bazoche—Maréchal de Vauban—Relics of the old +Marshal—Memorials of Philipsburg—Hôtel de Bazarne—Madame +de Pompadour's maître d'hôtel—Proof of the <i>curés'</i> +grief—Farm of St. Hibaut—Youthful recollections—Monsieur +de Cheribalde—Navarre the Four-Pounder—His culverin</div></td> + <td align='right'>43</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a>.</big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +Bird's-eye view of the forests—The student's visit to his uncle +in the country—Sallies forth in the early morning—Meets a +cuckoo—Follows him—The cuckoo too much for him—Gives +up the pursuit—Finds he has lost his way—Agreeable vespers—Night +in the forest—Wolves—Up a beech tree—A friend in +need—The student bids adieu to Le Morvan</div></td> + <td align='right'>55</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +Charms of a forest life to the sportsman—The Poachers—Le +Père Séguin—His knowledge of the woods and of the rivers—The +first buck—A bad shot</div></td> + <td align='right'>65</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +Le Père Séguin's collation—The young sportsman and the hare—The +quarrel—The apology—The reconciliation—The cemetery—Bait +for barbel—Le Père Séguin's deceased friends—The return +home</div></td> + <td align='right'>75</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +Passage of the woodcock in November—Laziness of that bird—Night +travelling—Mode of snaring them at night—Numbers +taken in this way—This sport adapted rather for the poacher—The +<i>braconnier</i> of Le Morvan—His mode of life—The +poacher's dog—The double poacher</div></td> + <td align='right'>88</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +The woodcock—Its habits in the forests of Le Morvan—Aversion +of dogs to this bird—Timidity of the woodcock—Its cunning—Shooting +in November—The Woodcock mates—The Woodcock<br /> +fly</div></td> + <td align='right'>100</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +Fine names—Gustavus Adolphus and the cabbages—Gustavus +Adolphus no hero!—The Parisian Sportsman—Partridge +shooting despicable—Wild boar-hunting—Rousing the grisly +monster—His approach—The post of honour—Good nerves—The +death—The trophy and congratulations</div></td> + <td align='right'>117</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +The <i>Mares</i>—Manner in which they are formed in the depths of +the forest—<i>Mare</i> No. 1.—Description of it—The appearance +of the spot—Mode of constructing the hunting-lodge—Approach +of the birds—Animals that frequent the <i>Mares</i> in the +evening</div></td> + <td align='right'>141</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +Appearance of the <i>Mare</i> in the morning—Forest etiquette—Mode +of obtaining possession of the best <i>Mare</i>—Every subterfuge +fair—The jocose sportsman—The quarrel—Reveries +in the hut—Comparison between meeting a lady and watching +for a wolf</div></td> + <td align='right'>157</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +<i>Mare</i> No. 2.—Description of it—Not sought after by the sportsman—The +sick banker—The doctor's prescription—The patient's +disgust at it—Is at length obliged to yield—Leaves Paris for +Le Morvan—Consequences to the inmates of the château—The +banker convalescent</div></td> + <td align='right'>170</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +Summer months in the Forest—<i>Mare</i> No. 3.—Description of it—The +Woodcock fly—The Banker has a day's sport—Arrives at +the <i>Mare</i>—Difficult to please in his choice of a hut—Proceeds +to a larger <i>Mare</i>—His friends retire—The Banker on the alert +for a Wolf or a Boar—Fires at some animal—The unfortunate +discovery—Rage of the Parisian—Pays for his blunder, and +recovers his temper</div></td> + <td align='right'>188</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +The <i>Curé</i> of the Mountain—Toby Gold Button—Hospitality—The +<i>Curé's</i> pig—His hard fate and reflections—The <i>Curé</i> of +the plain—His worth and influence—The agent of the +Government—Landed Proprietors—Their influence—The +Orator—Dialogue with a Peasant</div></td> + <td align='right'>207</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +The wolf—His aspect and extreme ferocity—His cunning in +hunting his prey—His unsocial nature—Antiquity of the +race—Where found, and their varieties—Annihilated in +England by the perseverance of the kings and people—Decrees +and rewards to encourage their destruction by Athelstane, +John, and Edward I.—Death of the last wolf in +England—Death of the last in Ireland</div></td> + <td align='right'>221</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +The <i>battues</i> of May and December—The gathering of sportsmen—Preparations +in the forest—The <i>charivari</i>—The fatal rush—Excitement +of the moment—The volley—The day's triumph, +and the reward—The peasants returning—Hunting the wolf +with dogs—Cub-hunting—The drunken wolf</div></td> + <td align='right'>236</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +Wolf-hunting, an expensive amusement—The <i>Traquenard</i>—Mode +of setting this trap—A night in the forest with Navarre—The +young lover—Dreadful accident that befell him—His +courage and efforts to escape—The fatal catastrophe—The +poor mad mother</div></td> + <td align='right'>248</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +Shooting wolves in the summer—The most approved baits to +attract them—Fatal error—Hut-shooting—Silent joviality—The +approach of the wolves—The first volley—The retreat—The +final slaughter—The sportsman's reward—The farm-yard +near St. Hibaut—The dead colt—The onset—Scene in +the morning—Horrible accident—The gallant farmer—Death +of the wolves, the dogs, and the peasant—The wolf-skin drum—Anathema +of the naturalists</div></td> + <td align='right'>261</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +Fishing in Le Morvan—The naturalist—The <i>Gour</i> of Akin—The +English lady—The mountain streams—Château de +Chatelux—Sermiselle—New mode of killing pike—Pierre +Pertuis—The rocks and whirlpool there—The syrens of the +grotto—Château des Panolas—The Cousin—The ponds of +Marot and lakes of Lomervo—Mode of taking fish with live +trimmers—The Scotch farmer</div></td> + <td align='right'>280</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='center' colspan='2'><big><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.</a></big></td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td align='left' width='90%'><div class="hang"> +Village <i>fêtes</i>—The first of May—The religious festivals—The <i>Fête +Dieu</i>—Appearance of the streets—The altars erected in them—Procession +from the church—Country fairs—The book-stalls +at them—Pictures of the Roman Catholic Church—Before the +<i>Vendange</i>—Proprietor's hopes and fears—Shooting in the vineyards—The +first day of the <i>Vendange</i>—Appearance of the +country—Influx of visitors at this season—The consequences—Herminie—Her +sad history—Le Morvan—Recommended to +the English traveller—Lord Brougham and Cannes—Contrast +between it and Le Morvan</div></td> + <td align='right'>297</td> +</tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="LE_MORVAN" id="LE_MORVAN"></a>LE MORVAN.</h2> + + + +<hr /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">English propensity to ramble—Where and how—Le +Morvan—Vezelay—Description of the town—Historical associations +connected with it—Charles IX.—Persecutions of the +Protestants—View from Vezelay—Scenery and wild sports—The +Author—Object of the Work. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Every</span> nation has its characteristics, and amongst those which are +peculiar to the genius of the English people, is their ardent and +insatiable love of wandering.</p> + +<p>To locomote is absolutely necessary to every Englishman; in his heart is +profoundly rooted a passion for long journeys; each and all of them, old +and young, healthy and sickly, would if they could take not merely the +grand tour, but circulate round the two hemispheres with all the +pleasure imaginable. At a certain period of the year, when the +weathercock points the right way, the sun burns<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> in the sign of the +Lion, and the husbandman bends his weary form to gather in the golden +corn, the legs of the rich Englishman begin to be nervously agitated, he +feels a sense of suffocation, and pants for change—of air, of place, of +everything; he girds up his loins, and without throwing a glance behind +him, it is Hey, Presto! begone! and he is off. Where?</p> + +<p>It is autumn, blessed autumn, the season of harvest and sunny days; the +English are everywhere—they fly from their own dear island like clouds +of chilly swallows, light upon Europe as thick as thrushes in an +orchard, and are soon mingled with every nation of the earth, like the +blue corn flowers in the ripe barley fields. Yes, from north to south, +from east to west, go where you will, you cannot proceed ten miles +without meeting a smiling rosy English girl coquettishly concealed under +her large green veil, and a grave British gentleman, whistling to the +wide world in the sheer enjoyment of having nothing to do but to look at +it.</p> + +<p>I have seen green veils climbing the Pyramids; I have seen green veils +diving down into the dark mines of the Oural; I have seen an English +gentleman perched like a chamois on the top of St. Bernard, hat in hand, +roaring "God save the Queen." I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> seen some sipping Syracusan wine, +puffing a comfortable cloud from obese cigars, most irreverently seated +in the big nose of St. Carlo Borromeo. One-half of England is gone to +China, the other half to Africa; these will speak to you of Kamschatka, +those of the mountains of the Moon, just as a London cockney or a +Parisian <i>badaud</i> would speak to you of Greenwich or of Bagnolet. Some +have boxed with the bears of the Pyrenees; others have killed lions and +tigers by dozens; one has crossed the Nile on a crocodile, another vows +he waltzed with a dying hippopotamus, and several have bagged +camelopards and elephants by scores. In short, they have trodden with a +bold disdainful step all the high-roads and by-roads of our wondrous +planet, displaying, in every quarter of the compass, the daring and +devil-may-care spirit of their youth and the spleen of their mature age, +as well as the yellow guineas from their long and well-filled purses.</p> + +<p>Well, then, ask of all this wandering tribe, who boast of having been +everywhere, and seen everything; ask those travelling birds who have +flown through France and Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Palestine; +who have sledged in Russia and fished in Norway; who have lost +themselves in the prairies of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> far West, or in the Pampas, the +gorges of the Andes, or the Alleghanies; who have bronzed their +epidermis in the fierce heat of the tropics, or moistened their fair +<i>chevelure</i> in the diamond spray of Niagara; who have, in fine, +journeyed through calm and hurricane, snow-storms, sirocco, and simoom; +who have rubbed noses—male noses—of the tattooed savage; mounted +donkeys, ostriches, camelopards, lamas, and dromedaries; mules, wild +asses, negroes, and elephants; ask them all if once in their lives—one +single once—they have seen or even heard of <span class="smcap">Le Morvan</span>?</p> + +<p>Not one of these thousands will answer yes. Le Morvan, where is it? what +is Le Morvan? Is it a mountain, a church, a river, a star, a flower, a +bird? Le Morvan, who knows anything about Le Morvan? Echo answers, "Who +knows?" Paddy Blake's replies, "Nobody." And yet all of you roving +English, who delight in athletic sports and rural scenes—the forest +glade and murmuring streams, a view halloo and the gallant hound; who +love the bleak and healthy moors, the cool retreats, the flowery paths, +and mountain solitudes, how happy would you be in Le Morvan. Where, +then, is Le Morvan?</p> + +<p>Le Morvan is a district of France, in which are included portions of the +departments of the Nièvre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> and the Yonne, having on the west the +vineyards of Burgundy, and on the east the mountains of the Nivernois. +Its ancient and picturesque capital, Vezelay, crowns a hill 2,000 feet +in height, and commands a panoramic view of the country for thirty miles +round. It has all the characteristics of a town of the feudal times, +with high embattled and loopholed walls, numerous towers, and deep and +strong gateways, under which are still to be seen the grooves of the +portcullis, the warder's guard-room, and the hooks that supported the +heavy drawbridge.</p> + +<p>The capital of Le Morvan partially owed its rise to a celebrated +nunnery, founded by Gerard de Roussillon, a great hero of romance and +chivalry, who lived, loved, and fought under Pepin, the father of the +grand Charlemagne. This nunnery, which was sacked and burnt to the +ground by the Saracens, those terrible warriors of the East, was +restored in the ninth century, and fortified; and as the sainted inmates +were believed to have amongst their relics a tress of the golden hair of +the beautiful and repentant Magdalen, troops of the faithful—and people +were ready to believe a great deal in those days—flocked to Vezelay, +when it soon became a large and flourishing town.</p> + +<p>In the tenth century, when the people, in their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> endeavour to shake off +a few links of their fetters, refused to bend their bodies in the dust +before their lords and their minds before their priests—when the seeds +of liberty, till then lying in unprofitable ground, though watered for +centuries by the tears of tyranny and oppression, first germinated and +rose above the earth, who gave the signal of resistance in France?—the +inhabitants of Vezelay. Yes; it is to her citizens that the honour +belongs of having first refused to submit to the power, the domineering +power, of political and ecclesiastical rule; it was her brave +inhabitants who, assembling in secret, thought not of the peril, but, +having promised help and protection one to the other, flew to arms. A +short and desperate struggle ensued, but the victory remained in the +hands of the abbot of Vezelay. Hundreds of brave men were put, without +mercy, to the sword, and many, with less mercy, burnt alive or died by +the torture in the dark dungeons of the abbatical palace. Vezelay still +preserves in its archives the names of twelve of these martyrs.</p> + +<p>Again in the twelfth century, when the cry to the rescue of the Holy +Sepulchre shook all Europe, and every nation poured forth her tens of +thousands to drive the infidel from that land in which their Redeemer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +had lived and died an ignominious and cruel death, it was at Vezelay +that Pope Eugenius III. assembled a great council of the princes of the +church, the great barons, and chivalry of those times. It was in her +immense cathedral, one of the oldest and largest in the kingdom, amidst +the clang of arms, war cries, and religious chaunts, and in the presence +of Louis le Jeune, King of France, that St. Bernard preached, in 1146, +the Second Crusade.</p> + +<p>Vezelay is celebrated as having been the birth-place of Beza, the great +Protestant Reformer (1519), who succeeded not only to the place but to +the influence of Calvin, and was, after that eminent man's death, +regarded as the head and leader of the Genevese church.</p> + +<p>It was to Vezelay, the only town that dared to offer them the protection +of its walls, that the unfortunate Protestants fled after the horrible +massacre of St. Bartholomew's—the base political cruelty of the brutal +homicide, Charles IX. Tracked and hunted down like wild beasts, and a +price set upon their heads, they found staunch and noble hearts in the +inhabitants of Vezelay; but, ere long, an army of their insatiable foes +arrived and besieged the town, and treachery at a postern one stormy +night made them masters of it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> when scenes of horror followed under the +mask of religion that even at this distance of time make one recoil with +terror and disgust at the dogmas of the corrupt faith which dictated +them.</p> + +<p>Roasting men alive, and boiling women, dashing out the brains of many a +cherub boy and prattling girl, was the pleasing and satisfactory pastime +with which Pope Gregory, Catherine de Medicis, and her congenial son +gladdened their Christian hearts. The blood of their victims still cries +to us from the ground of their Golgotha; for on the south side of the +town there is a large green field, called <i>Le Champ des Huguenots</i>. The +damning fact, from which this spot received its name, has been handed +down to us by the historian. It is as follows:</p> + +<p>The Catholics, having instituted a strict search in the woods and +caverns of the environs, made so many prisoners that they were puzzled +what to do with them—nay, in what manner they should take their lives. +Among many ingenious experiments, it was suggested that they should bury +them alive up to their necks in the field to which we have alluded; and +this was accordingly done with nine of them, whose heads were bowled at +with cannon-balls taken from the adjoining rampart, as if they had been +blocks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> of wood instead of live human heads. The shrieks of the +miserable beings excited no compassion; on the contrary, it afforded +amusement to their executioners: so that games of skittles upon the same +principle were played the whole length of this meadow.</p> + +<p>Turning aside from these execrable deeds of man to the works of Nature +and of Nature's God, which have always been and always must be lovely +and worthy of our deepest admiration, let us dwell for a moment upon the +splendid view from the castle-terrace, which forms the principal +promenade of Vezelay. Shaded by large and venerable trees, through the +lofty branches of which many a storm has howled for nearly four hundred +years, the sight from hence is one of the finest panoramic views in +France.</p> + +<p>All around, whether on the slope of the hills by the river-side, in the +middle distance, or near the mountains which form the horizon, are seen +hundreds of little villages, and many a white villa scattered among the +green vines as daisies on the turf. To the left and right are St. Père +and Akin, two hamlets, which seem like faithful dogs sleeping at the +foot of the mountain crowned by Vezelay. The province in which this +cloud-capped fortress-town is situated is a retired spot out of the +beaten track of the tourist,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> the man of business, or the man of +pleasure—lost, as it were, in the very heart of beautiful France, like +a wild strawberry in the depth of the forest—encircled by woods, and +unknown to the foreigner, who, in his rapid journey to Geneva or to +Lyons, almost elbows it without dreaming of its existence.</p> + +<p>Le Morvan rears in its sylvan depths a population of hardy and honest +men and lovely women, fresh as roses, and gay as butterflies. There the +soft evening breezes are charged with the songs of ten thousand birds, +the odours of the eglantine, the lily of the valley, and the violet, +which, shaking off its winter slumbers, opens its dark blue eye and +combines its perfume with that of its snowy companion.</p> + +<p>Le Morvan is a country that would delight an Englishman, for it is full +of game; here the sportsman may vary his pleasures as fancy dictates. +The forest abounds with deer; the plain with rabbits and the timid hare; +and in the vineyards, during the merry season of the vintage, the fat +red-stockinged and gray-clad partridges are bagged by bushels. Here the +sportsman may watch in the open glades the treacherous wild cat and the +bounding roebuck; and, should these sports appear too tame, he may, if +foot and heart are sound, plunge into the dark recesses of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> the forest +in pursuit of the savage and grisly boar, or the fierce and prowling +wolf.</p> + +<p>When evening comes, bringing with it peace and rest to the industrious +peasant, when the moon shall light her bright lamp in the star-spangled +heavens, and shed her silvery rays across the plain, the hunter may lead +forth the village belle, and foot it merrily on the mossy greensward, to +the sound of the bagpipe and the rustic flute, by fountains which never +cease their monotonous but soothing plaint, and under the long shadows +of the ancient oaks and tall acacias.</p> + +<p>Happiness, says Solomon, consists not in the possession of that gold for +which men toil so unremittingly and grave deep wrinkles on the heart and +brow. Happiness lights not her torch at the crystal lustres in the halls +of royalty; she rarely chooses for her home the marble palaces of the +wealthy, nor is she often the companion of the great, robed in costly +apparel; rarely does she braid her hair with pearls, or wear the rosy +lightning of the ruby on her fair bosom.</p> + +<p>Happiness is known only to him who, free and contented, lives unknown in +his little corner, deaf to the turmoil and insensible to the excitements +of the selfish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> crowd, and ignorant of the sorrows and sufferings of +great cities. She is found in the enjoyment of the sunshine and the open +air, in the shady groves and flowery fields, by the side of the +murmuring brooks, and in the society of the gay, frank, and +simple-minded peasant of my own dear country. Oh! my white and pretty +<i>pavillon</i>, whose walls are clad with fragrant creepers and the luscious +vine, whose porch is scented with the woodbine and the rose—oh! lovely +valleys, dark forests, deep blue lakes which sleep unruffled in the +bosom of the hills, beautiful vine-clad hills, where in the morning of +my youth I chased those flying flowers, the bright and painted +butterflies—oh! when, when shall I see you all again—like the bird of +passage, which, when the winter is over, returns to his sunny home? When +shall I see thee again? Oh! my sweet Le Morvan! Oh! my native land! +Happy, thrice happy they who cherish in their hearts the love of nature, +who prefer her sublime and incomparable beauties to the false and +artificial works of man, accumulated with so much cost and care within +the walls of her great cities. Happy, too, are those who have not been +carried away by the fatal flood of misfortune from the paternal hearth, +who have always lived in sight of that home which sheltered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> their merry +childhood, and whose lives, pure and peaceful as the noiseless stream of +the valley, close in calmness and serenity like the twilight of a bright +summer's day.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Le Morvan—Forests—Climate—Patriarchs and Damosels—Peasants of +the plain and the mountaineer—Jovial Curés—Their love of +Burgundy—The Doctor and the Curé. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Le Morvan</span>, anciently Morvennium, or Pagus Morvinus, as Cæsar calls it in +his Commentaries, comprises, as we have before remarked, a portion of +the departments of the Nièvre and the Yonne, lying between vine-clad +Burgundy and the mountains of the Nivernois. Its productions are +various; in the plains are grown wheat, rye, hemp, oats, and flax: on +the mountain side the grape is largely cultivated; and in the valleys +are rich verdant meadows, where countless droves of oxen, knee-deep in +the luxuriant grass, feed and fatten in peace and abundance.</p> + +<p>But the real and inexhaustible wealth of Le Morvan is in its forests. In +these several thousand trees are felled annually, sawn into logs, +branded and thrown by cart-loads into the neighbouring torrent, which, +on reaching a more tranquil stream, are lashed into rafts, when they +drift onwards to the Seine, and are eventually borne on the waters of +that river to the capital. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> forests of the Nièvre are some of the +most extensive in France; thick and dark, and formed of ancient oaks, +maple, and spreading beech, they cover nearly 200,000 acres of ground. +Those of the Yonne are larger but of a character far less wild.</p> + +<p>The climate of this part of France is delightful; with the exception of +occasional showers, very little rain falls; the sky is serene, and +scarcely ever is a vagabond cloud seen in the ethereal blue to throw a +shadow upon the lovely landscape beneath. For six months of the year the +sun is daily refulgent in the heavens, and sets evening after evening in +all his glorious majesty. But in the woods it is not thus; the storms +there are sometimes terrible, and, like those of the tropics, arise and +terminate with wonderful rapidity. These tempests, which purify the +atmosphere, leave behind them a delicious coolness, the trees and +shrubs, as they shake from their trembling leaves their sparkling tears, +appear so bright—the flowers which raise again their drooping heads, +load the air with such delightful odours—the whole forest, in short, +seems so refreshed and full of life, that every one hails their +approach, the toil-worn peasant breathes without complaint the sultry +air, and observes with pleasure the dark and lowering clouds gathering +in the far horizon.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p><p>From the mountains, those huge ladders of granite that God has planted +upon the earth, as if to invite ungrateful man to come nearer to him, +descend many a stream and dancing rill of pure and crystal waters. No +part of France can be said to be more salubrious. "Centenarians" are by +no means uncommon, and a patriarch of that age may be found in several +families.</p> + +<p>When Sunday comes, always a <i>jour de fête</i> as well as a day of prayer, +it is very pleasing to see one of these venerable men, dressed in his +best clothes, walking to church at the head of his children, +grand-children, and great grand-children. Long and of snowy whiteness is +his hair, and glossy white as threads of purest silver is his beard—his +hat, of quaker broadness in the brim, is generally encircled, in the +early days of Spring, with a wreath of the common primrose, and his dark +cloth mantle, of home-spun fabric, hangs gracefully on his shoulders, +showing underneath it the dark red sash that girds his still healthy and +vigorous frame. Tall and grave, erect and majestic as the oaks of their +native forests, these patriarchs bespeak every one's respect, and when +looking on them you might imagine they were men of another age, a +generation of by-gone years, you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> might fancy them some ancient Druids +that have escaped from their dusty tombs, from centuries of night, to +tread once more the pathways of this planet.</p> + +<p>And the women, heaven and earth! how sweetly pretty, how amiable and +adorable; and such eyes, dark and lustrous!—full of witchcraft, burning +and humid as an April sun after a shower. Some there are, also, of +pensive blue, pregnant with promises, soft and almond-shaped, like the +divine eyes of the Italian Cenci. Supple as the young and slender +branches of willow, are these divinities, fresh as new opened tulips, +and brisk and gay as the golden-speckled trout in the sparkling current. +In their charms is found a terrestrial paradise, a compound of delicious +qualities which intoxicate the senses, hook the heart, and like the bite +of the Sicilian tarantella, steep the loved one in delirium.</p> + +<p>Yes, the women of Le Morvan are lovely, ardent, and tender-hearted as +the dove, especially those who dwell within the forest districts; for +nothing contributes so much to bring forth the loving principle of the +affections as the silent melancholy of the umbrageous woods, and the +soft and perfumed breezes that pervade them. Here, in the dusk and +stillness of the summer evenings, these wood-nymphs hear in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> lofty +branches of the linden, the endearing love songs of the feathered tribe, +and when night throws its charitable gloom over their blushing cheeks, +they whisper at the trysting place what they have heard and seen to +their rustic admirers.</p> + +<p>We have just briefly sketched the two extremes, the old men of Le Morvan +and its sprightly damosels: we must now mention the inhabitants +generally, and these vary like its productions according to locality. +The peasant of the plains is civil, gentle, and industrious, but cunning +and dangerous as an old fox; and if he thinks money may be squeezed from +your pocket, be sure there will be no sleep for him till he has taken +some out of it. Full of fun, he loves above all the dance, the song, the +merry laugh, and good cheer—and the uncorking of a bottle would be for +him a supreme delight, if this excellence itself was not superseded, by +the far greater blessedness of emptying it.</p> + +<p>The inhabitant of the mountain, on the other hand, is sober, severe and +roughly barked—clothed with silence and gravity, smiling but once a +year—the day he has cheated a good man of the plain; he does not please +so much at first sight: but if in any danger, if you are surprised by a +hurricane, surrounded with wolves; or you have lost your way, in a night +as dark<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> as the grave itself, you call and ask his help, oh! it is then +that his sterling qualities shine forth in all their splendour. Always +ready, always on the look out, the ear for ever bent to catch the +well-known sounds of the forest, the slightest indication of distress +awakes his vigilance; it is then he comes, it is then he flies, and his +arm, gun, and eyes—his cabin, dog, and lean horse are all at your +command.</p> + +<p>Admirable example of courage and of devotedness: money for him is +nothing; happy to be useful, he obliges for the mere pleasure of +obliging. Many, many times have I seen poachers, cottagers, +charcoal-burners, and wood-cutters, poor as Job, hardly breeched, hungry +as a whole Irish borough, leave their work, their sport, their field, +their tree half down,—abandon in the roads, under the guard of the +dogs, their carts and oxen, and go some dozen of miles, through storm +and tempest, through rush, rock, and swamp, to set a sportsman in his +right way again. Without saying a word, with steps attendant on his +weary progress, they trudge on before, making a sign for him to follow; +and when they have placed him once more on his road, a nod, a shake of +the hand, a smile, a kind word falling from his lips, pays them the full +price of all their troubles.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> Never have I seen one of them accept the +least pecuniary reward for such services—they do nothing but their +duty, they say; and as they are happy in the firm conviction that the +whole forest belongs to them, they think they are only doing the honours +of their green drawing-rooms. Thus it always happens, that when, by +their good care, you have escaped certain danger, it is with great +difficulty, and only after a deluge of rhetoric, that they consent to +accept for their daughters or wives a red wool dress, a gold cross, or a +row of large blue Pundaram beads; or for themselves a few dozen of iron +bullets, a bag of shot, or a flask of powder. This abnegation, this +frankness of the heart, this kind sympathy for every stranger, is +universal among the mountaineers; these benevolent and kindly feelings +are a portion of their holy traditions, and as such are most religiously +grafted by every mother into the soft wax-like hearts of her dear little +ones.</p> + +<p>But while delighting to describe the virtues of these denizens of the +forests, these amiable fauns and jolly satyrs, I must not forget those +jovial trencher-men, the <i>curés</i> of Le Morvan. Every sportsman +possesses, or should possess, the digestion of an ostrich; for his +appetite is generally prodigious,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> and the viands that fall in his way +are not always the most savoury. When, however, the venison pasty, the +truffled turkey, or the <i>pain de gibier</i> is within his reach, no one is +so capable of enjoying and doing justice to these delicacies of the +table, of knocking off so dexterously the neck of the champagne bottle +when the corkscrew is absent, or whose legs are stretched out so +gracefully at the sight of brimming glasses and <i>recherché</i> viands.</p> + +<p>In these, his fallen moments, and after a good day's sport, a Morvinian +would tell you he could drink all the Burgundian cellars dry,—aye, and +those of Champagne too; and as to smoking, why, he would smoke a whole +crop of tobacco.</p> + +<p>To all keen sportsmen, therefore, who love good eating and wine, and +intend to pay a visit to Le Morvan, I would give this piece of advice, +and I would say to them, place it in the secret drawer of your memory; +nay, carry it written, and, if necessary, painted on your knapsack or +scratched upon your gun—fail not to make the acquaintance of the <i>curé</i> +the darling <i>curés</i>. Ask who are they that love the best <i>cuisine</i>—who +dote upon the most delicious morsels—who will have the oldest, purest, +and most generous wines?—you will be answered, the <i>curés</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> For whom +are destined the largest trout, the fattest capons, and the best parts +of the venison?—for whom the softest and most choice liqueurs, wine of +the best <i>bouquet</i>, the largest truffles, the most luscious honey, the +best vegetables, and finest fruits?—for the <i>curés</i>. And the most +clever men-cooks, the happiest receipts, and latest culinary +inventions—for whom are they? the answer is always, <i>for messieurs les +curés</i>. Forget them not, therefore, for they are really worth +remembering; besides, they have excellent hearts and are capital +fellows, boon companions, full of <i>bonhommie</i> and good-nature: in fact, +such <i>curés</i> it is impossible to find anywhere else.</p> + +<p>But the great Architect of the universe has said, nothing is +perfect—everything human has its weak point. Well, it cannot be helped, +and it must be told, the <i>curés</i> of Le Morvan have their weak points; +trifles, to be sure—mere bagatelles—but still they have them. They are +rather <i>too</i> fond of old wine and good cheer. These two charming little +defects excepted,—you have in the Morvinian <i>curé</i> goodness double +distilled, and the essence of generosity, and, be it said, abnegation. +This love of the bottle they imbibe from their dear colleagues of +Burgundy; for it is well known, and has never been disputed, that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +Burgundian <i>curés</i> are the greatest exterminators, uncorkers, and +emptiers of wine-bottles in all Christendom. The first thing these +jovial clergymen think of when they open their eyes in the morning, is +an invocation to Bacchus, somewhat in the following strain: "O Bacchus! +son of Semele, divine wine-presser! O vineyards! full of the purple +grape! O wine-press! inestimable machine!" &c. Their second movement is +to extend the right arm, and clasp within their digits a flask of old +Pouilli, the contents of which they swallow without once stopping to +take breath. "An infallible remedy," say they, "against the devil and +all future indigestions."</p> + +<p>Fortified thus with this their first orison, they throw on their +cassock, and descend to the cellar, to count the bottles, or tap and +taste the barrels of some doubtful vintage. The thorough-bred Burgundian +<i>curé</i>, particularly one who has lived and got old and fat in the +solitude of a retired presbytery,—whose rubicund nose reveals his +admiration for the vineyards of his native province, and whose three +chins tell you that with pullets, and venison, and clouted cream he has +lined his scrip,—is certainly one of the most jovial and best of men.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p><p>Ask him for indulgences, absolution, masses and prayers for the living +and the dead; he will grant them all. Ask him for his niece in marriage; +ask him to marry you, to baptize you, to bury you; he will do it +all—yes, all for nothing! It is not in his nature to refuse anything. +Ask him for his new cassock, his cane, or his hat, his black silk +stockings, or his silver buckles, and they are yours. No one so ready to +forgive an insult or forget an injury as he. But, by the blood of the +Mirabels, give him not a bottle of bad or sour wine, for he will neither +forget nor forgive it; and above all things, never give him a hint that +it would be well if he gave up his favourite fluid, for be assured, you +would forfeit his friendship for ever. Sooner would he consent to lose a +leg or all his teeth, than give up his life-loved Burgundy! Tell him he +will have an attack of apoplexy; tell him that he will be taken off +suddenly by inflammation, and that water therefore should be his +beverage; he will reply with a smack of his lips, and a castanet noise +with his fingers. "Nonsense, my boy—stuff and rubbish! Pass the wine, +my son; pass it again. Pass the ham, gentlemen. Fill a bumper. Hurrah +for old Burgundy! hurrah for her wines! Confound the pale fluid, and a +fig for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> gout!" Such are the ebullitions of his heart in his jovial +moments; and the following lines, which would spoil in the translation, +give a lively picture of them:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Pour trop bien boire un curé de Bourgogne<br /> +De son pauvre œil se trouvait déferré,<br /> +Un docteur vint:—Voici de la besogne<br /> +Dit-il, pour plus d'un jour;—Je patienterai!<br /> +Ça vous boirez:—Eh bien! soit, je boirai!<br /> +Quatre grands mois:—Plutôt douze, mon maître.<br /> +Cette tisane!—A moi? hurla le prêtre,<br /> +<i>Vade retro!</i> Guérir par le poison!<br /> +Non, par ma soif! perdons une fénètre,<br /> +Puisqu'il le faut, mais—<i>Sauvons la Maison</i>."<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Geology—Fossil shells—Antediluvian salmon—The Druids—Chindonax, +the High Priest—Roman antiquities—Julius Cæsar's +hunting-box—Lugubrious village—Carré-les-Tombes—The Inquisitive +Andalusian. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Le Morvan</span>, independently of its hunting and fishing, its lovely climate +and fine wines, pretty girls and jolly <i>curés</i>, possesses a more +important class of beauties and perfections, secrets and enigmas, over +which the <i>savans</i> would pore and ponder through many a day and many a +night: those men who, like Eve, long to grasp the fatal apple—the apple +which destroys while it attracts—the apple whose flavour, alas! is so +bitter,—the apple of science. Let the geologists, who are ever bending +in earnest study over the mysteries of nature, and breaking stones by +the road-side,—who are ever seeking to analyse the <i>matériel</i> of +creation,—who are always contemplating the internal and geognostic +constitution of the globe, the red or the blue clay, the yellow gravel, +the trappe, the limestone, the granite, or the slate, to satisfy +themselves what this poor planet is made of,—let them come and ransack<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +Le Morvan. Let them bring their hammers and chisels, their compasses and +barometers, and above all, their passport,—precious document! an +hundredfold more useful in France, in these liberty days, than a pair of +shoes or a shirt,—let them come, and I promise them endless +discoveries, a rich and ample harvest.</p> + +<p>In the meadow lands, when, for the purpose of sinking wells, the soil is +penetrated to an immense depth, the workmen often come to thick strata +of schist, in which they find imbedded trunks and roots of trees, and +stalks of plants and ferns, which now grow in tropical climates only.</p> + +<p>In the highest and steepest parts of the mountain chain may be found +marine petrifactions of every variety—the sea-hedgehog, the oyster, the +mussel, and the star-fish; and in the beds of trachytic rock, deposited +in such order that one might fancy they had been placed there by a +careful and tasty housewife, are layers of the most curious shells, +univalve, bivalve, sublivalve and multivalve, madrepors, and shapeless +remnants of creatures now no longer known, and petrified fish.</p> + +<p>Some few years ago, an engineer, who was carrying a road through a rock +in the mountain called the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> Val d'Arcy, found a salmon in the most +perfect condition, even with head and tail, the unhappy wretch enclosed +in the heart of a large stone. I should certainly have pronounced this +fish to be a cod, had not science decided it was a salmon of a large +species—<i>genus salmo</i>, sixty vertebræ. It is now to be seen in the +Natural History department, section <i>Salmonidæ</i>, of the Museum in the +Jardin des Plantes, at Paris.</p> + +<p>Poor old salmon! said I, and I took off my hat when I had the honour of +being presented to him; Poor old salmon! what wouldst thou have said, +some twelve or fifteen thousand years ago, when, free and glorious thou +didst pierce the briny waves,—when, perhaps, thou wast gambolling +amongst the pointed summits of the Alps, plunging in ecstacy into the +emerald depths of oceans now vanished,—what wouldst thou have said, +could the thought have crossed thy brain, that one day thou shouldst be +<i>here</i>? Under a glass! ticketted, numbered, pasted to the wall! forming +an item in a collection of things fabulous, and exhibiting thy venerable +form, thine antediluvian physiognomy, to thousands of <i>badauds</i>, who +either pass thee without a glance, or examine thee with unfeeling +curiosity, bestowing not a thought upon thy great age or thy cruel fate, +or with a whit more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> respect for thee and thine awful history, than a +cockney would show to a whitebait caught but yesterday in the Thames, +and served up to him as a fraction of his fishy feast at Blackwall.</p> + +<p>Le Morvan, abounding in forests, was a district most congenial to the +gloomy spirit of the religion of the ancient Druids; and therefore, in +the earliest days of the history of France, they consecrated its groves +of splendid oaks to the performance of their terrible rites. Remains of +many of their massive monuments still exist, in the fields, in the deep +valleys, and on the tops of the hills. Antique and mysterious all of +them—three-pointed stones, three-cornered stones, and massive groups of +stones in mystic circle ranged, round which, the peasant will tell you +with bated breath, <i>les Gaurics</i>—the spirits of the giants—come to +weep and bewail on the first night of each new moon. During the last +century, a peasant, who was at work in a deep ditch in a beautiful field +of this district, came, in the course of his excavations, upon a stone +which indicated, that he was not far from one of those monuments with +which he was so familiar; and, upon further investigation, it proved to +be the black granite tomb of the famous Chindonax, the high-priest of +the Druids. It contained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> many relics—the sickle and the collar of +gold, the holy bracelets, the metal girdle, the sacrificial axe, the +knife of brass; and, in the midst, was a glass urn, containing a pinch +or two of grey powder—human dust! proud dust—sad and last remnant of +the Druid Chindonax.</p> + +<p>Tumuli were, a century ago, very numerous in the uncultivated and desert +tract of Les Bruyères; but these little artificial hillocks are +disappearing very fast, for the peasants throw them down when they wish +to clear and level the ground. These tumuli always contain collars in +baked clay, arrow-heads, battle-axes of stone, pieces of crystal, and +other articles of a similar description.</p> + +<p>Even Julius Cæsar, the cruel conqueror of Gaul, the pitiless victor of +Vercingetorix—Cæsar, who cut off the hands of the Gauls as the only +means of preventing them from fighting—Cæsar admired Le Morvan. He +loved that savage country, he delighted in it; in the deep gorges of its +mountains he pursued the large wolves and the wild boar, and in it he +established the custom of relays of dogs the whole length of the woods.</p> + +<p>In this our day, on the summit of a mountain near the one on which is +built the town of Chinon, may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> be seen the thick strong walls of ancient +Roman buildings—buildings that have been fortified, bristling with +palisades, and surrounded by moats—where Cæsar had his principal +kennel, his hunting-box; in short, the spot which, in the third book of +his 'Commentaries,' he calls <i>Castrum Caninum</i>.</p> + +<p>In the darkest and most sombre part of this forest, the lovers of +antiquity will arrest their steps, delighted, at the very curious +village of Carré-les-Tombes, so called from the immense number of tombs +formerly found in its environs. So very numerous were they, that in 1615 +the Count de Chatelux, seigneur of the parish, had some of them sawn up +to build and pave the present church and tower of the steeple, and also +to roof the choir. They were seven or eight feet in length, and hollowed +out like troughs. Tradition says they were all found empty, with the +exception of five; in these reposed tall skeletons, blanched by time, +each having a helmet on his head, and a Roman sword by his side. The +stones of three only of these five tombs bore any inscription, name, +mark, or sign. On one was a double cross, very coarsely engraved; on the +second, a very large escutcheon, which the antiquaries, in spite of +their magnifying glasses, their science, and their patience, could never +decipher; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> on the other, the most curious of the three, a Latin +inscription, in a legible, but very ancient character.</p> + +<p>Having one day had the simplicity to translate this inscription to a +young and beautiful Andalusian widow, smart was the rap of the fan that +I had for my pains. I had parried her curiosity as long as I could, for +her dark and dangerous eyes and clear olive complexion, which betrayed +every pulse of her southern blood, combined to put me on my guard. +Reader, will you wonder?—here is the inscription:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Qui Dæmone pejus? Mulier rixosa: fug ..." </p></div> + +<p>"But what does it mean?" said my curious brunette.</p> + +<p>"Señora, that you are lovely."</p> + +<p>"Stuff, sir! not at all;" and she tossed her graceful head pettishly; "I +really wish you to translate it."</p> + +<p>"Well—here, then: '<i>Qui Dæmone pejus</i>'—dark women; '<i>mulier +rixosa</i>'—are the loveliest."</p> + +<p>"No, no! I say; I am sure that is not it. Say it, word for word, or I +shall be angry—I vow I shall."</p> + +<p>"Word for word!" What was I to do?</p> + +<p>"Word for word," reiterated Dona Inez.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, Señora, I don't know ... you would not forgive me."</p> + +<p>"It is, then, something dreadful?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p><p>"No, not exactly dreadful, but——"</p> + +<p>"Dios! Dios! worlds of patience!" and she stamped her tiny foot; "will +you go on? You kill me with vexation. Translate it, I say, word for +word." And here the Dona, with discreet carelessness opening her fan, +prepared to blush.</p> + +<p>"'<i>Qui Dæmone pejus</i>'—who is there worse than the devil? Hum!"—now for +the pinch, thought I.</p> + +<p>"Go on! go on!—the next words."</p> + +<p>"'<i>Mulier rixosa</i>'—is—a——"</p> + +<p>"Well, go on, will you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—a quarrelsome woman!"</p> + +<p>Like lightning the fan closed, fell upon the unlucky index of my left +hand, which was thoughtlessly reposing upon the arm of the <i>causeuse</i>, +and nearly knocked off the first joint, by way of reward for my +reluctant compliance with her feminine wishes.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, Señora," I said, after I had recovered my breath, "but you +are very unjust. I had nothing to do with writing this ungallant phrase; +it was a brutal Roman, no doubt."</p> + +<p>"You are making game of me,—I know you are."</p> + +<p>"No, indeed; you insisted upon my translating it word for word, and I +have done your bidding."</p> + +<p>"Then the man was a wretch who wrote them."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p><p>"I think so too, Señora."</p> + +<p>"A brute—an animal!"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, Señora."</p> + +<p>"A fool—an old horror!"</p> + +<p>"Most probably."</p> + +<p>"An ignorant slanderer!"</p> + +<p>"Oh! surely."</p> + +<p>"A monster!"</p> + +<p>"I wager anything you like of it." But it was of no use; unconditional +assent failed to pacify her. So she went on for hours; and it cost me +untold pains to earn the brunette's permission to offer her an ice, or +to win one single smile.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Le Morvan during the Middle Ages—Legendary horrors—Forest of La +Goulotte—La Croix Chavannes—La Croix Mordienne—Hôtel de +Chanty—Château de Lomervo—A French Bluebeard—Citadel of Lingou. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">But</span> I must return from my Andalusian belle to the rugged Le Morvan,—a +patriotic, but, in spite of the broken finger, by no means so +captivating a subject.</p> + +<p>In feudal times—indeed, even so late as the last century—the district +was a perfect nest of cut-throats, where no one could venture in safety +for any honest purpose; without roads, and without police; full of dark +caverns and half-demolished castles, affording all kinds of facilities +for retreat and concealment; and thus it became the favourite rendezvous +of the worst and most ferocious characters of those lawless times. It is +widely different now. The hunter or the traveller—a woman or a +child—may ramble through the length and breadth of its forests, equally +in vain hoping for the excitement or fearing the danger of any +adventure, beyond the common one of seeing a wolf or wild boar threading +his way amongst the trees—a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> matter of no consequence at all. If, +however, you love to collect wild and mournful tales—tales, even, of +horror, with which to rivet the attention of the family group over the +fire in the winter evenings,—stop at every ruined wall over which the +lizard is harmlessly creeping; stop at every massive tower in which the +owl is screeching—at every large isolated stone under which the serpent +is hissing; linger along each tortuous path, and your peasant guide will +tell you a tradition for each—for all.</p> + +<p>Thus, for instance: you are perhaps a few paces in front of him, in the +forest of La Goulotte; and as the mid-day sun glances through the boughs +above you, you see its rays rest upon a cross at a little distance; it +was, you think, placed there for the rude worshippers of the province, +and you contemplate it with complacent reverence, till Pierre comes up +with you. "'Tis La Croix Chavannes, Monsieur, <i>la croix sinistre</i>. See! +in the narrow pass between the two mountains, its black and moss-covered +arms extended; at the end of each is a large knob, resembling a +threatening hand." You walk on, and find the cross riddled with ball, +chipped and notched, and carved with odd names. By the time you have +reached it, Pierre has told you it was set on the spot where, many a +long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> year ago, the Marquis de Chavannes was found, deluged in blood and +quite dead; he had been pierced through the heart by a treacherous +rival, who had joined his hunting party, and who basely took advantage +of a moment when, in ardent pursuit of the grisly boar, De Chavannes was +utterly unsuspicious of his evil intentions.</p> + +<p>A little further on is another cross, at the entrance of a deep, dark +gorge: What does that cross mean? "That one is called La Croix +Mordienne, Monsieur; at its foot our forefathers knelt to recommend +their souls to God, before they ventured their lives in the dangers of +Les Grand Ravins, where too many had been greeted by the bullet or the +dagger." The granite steps of this cross—this cross which was erected +for worship—are worn deep by the knees of suppliants for protection +against the cruelty of their fellow-men; and it is even a more +melancholy monument of the ferocity of those times, than the one which +records the assassination of the unsuspecting Marquis de Chavannes.</p> + +<p>Pursue your way, and, crossing a wild and marshy heath, you notice a +lonely house surrounded by thorny broom, the aspect of which is +forbidding, though it is gaily painted. Surely, you think, it can only +be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> the gloomy tales with which my guide has beguiled this morning's +walk, that make one suspect there is a history connected with that +house; and you ask him its name. "That is Chanty, Monsieur; that was +once an inn. The landlord was a frightful character, even for his own +times. When the doomed traveller halted at his door to seek shelter from +the storm, or to refresh himself and steed the better to encounter the +scorching heat, the villain drugged his wine, and, at nightfall, +following him into the forest, despatched and robbed his then helpless +victim. Or perhaps he would detain him with stirring tales of forest +life, till he found himself too late prudently to go further that night; +and, on his guard against every person but the right, ordering a bed of +his treacherous host, would fall into that slumber from which the +miscreant took safe means to prevent his ever awaking. When, after many +years of impunity in the commission of these fearful crimes, the +officers of justice were at last set upon him, and his house was +searched, in the cellar were found fifteen headless skeletons!"</p> + +<p>Such a mass of silent, awful testimony perhaps never was produced to +substantiate the allegation of similar villany against any man; and +atrocities like these, of the early and middle ages, have given their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +character to the legends of Le Morvan, which, still carefully related +from one generation to another, are so impressed on the minds of the +people, that the honest peasant of the present day would rather make a +circuit of a dozen or twenty miles, than pass in the deepening twilight +near the scenes to which they relate. Not all the gold of Peru—no, nor +even of California—would tempt <i>Les Pastoures</i> to graze their flocks or +herds near the scene of these horrid events, or pass them when the stars +are spangling the dark arch of heaven.</p> + +<p>Here also may be seen the solid walls, the array of towers, the high +belfry, the iron gates, and the ponderous drawbridges of the Château de +Lomervo; and many are the dependent buildings, courts, and gardens, +surrounded by the thick copse wood that covers its domain, which extends +over three neighbouring hills. Under the principal façade is a large +lake, whose blue waves bathe the walls; an immense mirror, ever +reflecting the numberless turrets, and the grotesque birds and beasts +which decorate the extremity of every waterspout; wherein, too, the +tranquil marble giants, who support the broad balcony on their heads, +seem to contemplate and admire their own imperturbable +countenances—countenances that betrayed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> no shade of feeling at all +that must have passed before their eyes. The gathering of armed knights +for war or revelry; the rejoicings for the birth of an heir, or the +lamentations for the death of the stern gray-headed lord; the bridal of +one lovely daughter of the house of Lomervo, or the solitary departure +of the mail-clad lover of another for the Crusades. But, it is said, +they saw much more than all this: according to popular rumour, these +calm deep waters are the cold and mute depositories of frightfully +tragic secrets. One bright spring morning in the very olden time, says +the tradition, a Lord of this domain left his castle. It was when the +sweet violet first cast its odours on the breeze, when the bright and +abundant bloom of the lilac and laburnum gracefully decorated the +gardens, and the country was reclad in all the charming freshness of the +season. After a short absence, he returned, accompanied by a lovely +bride;—but ere long she died. He went again, returning with another, +and was again received by his vassals with acclamations of joy; but +gloomy suspicions at last arose, for in this way, in succeeding years, +were brought to the Castle eleven young and beautiful damsels. One by +one, they all disappeared. What became of them? No one knew, or, if they +did, dared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> to tell. When, however, the long-dreaded lord was dead, some +old women declared, that as he became tired of each wife, he stabbed her +at midnight in one of his dungeons, took a sack from a heap which he +kept in the corner, and, sewing her up with his own hands, carried her +noiselessly to the water-gate, and laid her in the bottom of his boat. +Silently and rapidly he rowed to the centre of the lake, and coolly +dropped in his hapless victim amongst the sheltering reeds.</p> + +<p>"Ah! Monsieur," the village gossips will still tell you, as they make +the sign of the cross, and tremble till you see their very stuff gowns +shake again; "'tis all true, Monsieur; twenty times have we seen them in +the moonlight—twenty times have we seen the poor souls, in their long +white robes, with their pale faces, and the spot of blood on the left +side, wandering over the lake." Poor Bluebeard, for whom in childhood we +used to feel such awe, was a fool to this baron bold.</p> + +<p>There, a little in front of you, is the fortified village of Chamou, +which in former years defended the eastern opening of Les Grand Ravins; +also Lingou, an old citadel, three stories high, whose walls, now +cracked and ivy bound, guarded them on the south. This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> piece of feudal +architecture, full of trap-doors and dungeons, subterranean passages, +and secret stairs, is another of the places dreaded and abhorred by the +peasantry of Le Morvan; for near the walls, they say, at certain +periods, sounds can be distinctly heard under ground, funeral chaunts, +and the tolling of bells; and if you have the daring to apply your ear +to the sod, you will be able to distinguish sighs and sobs, and the dull +rattle of the earth thrown upon the victim's coffin.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Castle of Bazoche—Maréchal de Vauban—Relics of the old +Marshal—Memorials of Philipsburg—Hôtel de Bazarne—Madame de +Pompadour's maître d'hôtel—Proof of the <i>curés'</i> grief—Farm of +St. Hibaut—Youthful recollections—Monsieur de Cheribalde—Navarre +the Four-Pounder—His culverin. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Each</span> of the Radcliffian horrors narrated in the last chapter, though +vastly marvellous, most probably originated in some dreadful deed of +blood, on which the vulgar and superstitious admiration of excitement of +those days delighted to enlarge. We shall now turn to the castle of +Bazoche, where, in former days, dukes, counts and barons assembled every +September with their hunting-train, to enjoy the pleasures of <i>la grande +chasse</i> and all its attendant revelry. The château in later years +belonged to the renowned engineer, Sebastian-le-Prêtre, Maréchal de +Vauban, who was a native of Le Morvan, and born in 1633 in the village +of St. Leger de Foucheret. The humble roof under which this celebrated +man first saw the light is now inhabited by a <i>sabot</i>-maker.</p> + +<p>Brought up, like Henry IV., amongst the peasants<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> of his native +province, like him he loved the remembrance of all connected with it and +them; and when he died in Paris (1707), he desired that he might be +buried at his beloved Château de Bazoche, where he had so often, +sauntering under the noble <i>platanes</i>, sought and found relaxation from +the turmoil and fatigue of a soldier's life, and forgotten the +jealousies and injustice of the court. In the southern part of the +building is the gallant old veteran's sleeping apartment—there still +stands his bed: and his armour, with several swords and other articles +which belonged to him, are still preserved. On the rampart, now probably +silent for ever, are four pieces of cannon of large calibre, which +thundered at the siege of Philipsburg, and were subsequently presented +to the Marshal by Monseigneur, the brother of Louis XIV.</p> + +<p>Great were the works accomplished by the genius and perseverance of this +famous general—famous, not only in his own profession, but as one of +the honest characters of an age when honesty was rare indeed. He +improved and perfected the defences of three hundred towns, and entirely +constructed the fortifications of thirty-three others; was present at +one hundred and forty battles, and conducted fifty-three sieges. The +body of this eminent man was,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> in literal compliance with his orders, +interred in a black marble tomb, under the damp flagstones of the castle +chapel; but his heart, in melancholy violation of the spirit which +dictated them, is enclosed in a monument, surmounted by his bust, in the +church of the Hôtel des Invalides. Opposite to it is the tomb of +Turenne, and under the same roof at last repose the mortal remains of +Napoleon. Could their spirits perambulate this church at the hour when +the dead only are said to be awake, and we could muster the courage to +listen to their whispered communings, what should we hear? How severely +would this tremendous triumvirate judge some of the so-called great men +of our own time!</p> + +<p>But there are more modern edifices in Le Morvan, with far more agreeable +episodes attached to them: take, for example, the Hôtel de Bazarne, a +celebrated hostel, built among the green lanes on the borders of a wood +of acacias—a beautiful flowery wood, which, when the merry month of May +has heralded the perfumed pleasures of spring, dispenses them on every +breeze over the adjacent country.</p> + +<p>Bazarne, in its healthy situation and splendid environs, boasts the best +of cookery. The last owner of Bazarne was—Reader, the utmost exercise +of your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> lively imagination will never supply you with the right +name—was an <i>ancien maître d'hôtel</i> of Madame la Marquise de +Pompadour—Madame de Pompadour's steward! What could he have to do in +the wilds of Le Morvan? Grand Jean was a curious little man, lively and +brisk as a bird or a squirrel, powdered, curled, and smelling of rose +and benjamin as if he were still at Versailles or Choisi. Grand Jean +decorated the back of his head with a little pigtail, which much +resembled a head of asparagus, and was always jumping and frisking from +one shoulder to the other. His snuff-box was of rare enamel, his ruffles +of point-lace, and his artistic performances in the culinary art were +all carried on in vessels of solid silver. He was, from the point of his +toe to the tips of his hair, the aristocrat of the saucepan and the +stove.</p> + +<p>Grand Jean acquired, in our provincial district, a reputation perfectly +monumental for the richness of his venison pasties, the refined flavour, +the smoothness and the exquisite finish of his <i>omelettes aux truffes</i> +and <i>au sang de chevreuil</i>. All the world of Le Morvan used to visit +him. And the good <i>curés</i>? The good <i>curés</i>?—ah! they all went to visit +him by caravans, as the faithful wend their way across<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> the deserts to +Mecca to pray at the tomb of the Prophet. And, when he died, they +mourned indeed; the worthy divines, incredible as it may be, drank water +for three days, in proof of the sincerity of their woe. Who would have +doubted it?</p> + +<p>To the north of Bazarne, and on the road to the best district for sport, +is seen at the foot of the gray mountains peeping cheerily, and like a +white flower amidst the sombre foliage of the chestnut-trees, St. +Hibaut, an immense farm, situated in an isolated spot, and built of the +lava from an extinct volcano. Saint Hibaut, ah! the moment the pen +traces that dear name my aching heart beats and throbs within my +breast—before my eyes pass to and fro the memories of a vanished +world—I seem to feel the fresh and odorous breezes from thy flowers, +thy mossy banks and scented shrubs, and hear thy murmuring rills and the +dash of thy wild torrents. St. Hibaut! lovely spot where flew so swiftly +and so sweetly the brightest and gayest hours of my early years—St. +Hibaut, the memory of thee burns within my heart: but those within thy +walls, do they still think of me?</p> + +<p>Alas! in this world of tears and deception, of moral tortures and often +of physical suffering—what is there more delightful, more consolatory +than to sip, nay<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> plunge the lips, and drink, yes, drink deep from that +fresh and blessed spring, the memory of by-gone days. How great the +burden of the man who has been the sport of fortune, whose life has been +one continued sorrow, who, never satisfied with the present moment, is +always hoping for better and happier days, and always regretting those +which have been and are now no more. O! Reader—if many griefs have been +your portion, if it has been your sad fate to tread with naked feet the +thorny paths of life, if the foul passions of envy, rage, and hatred +have found a place in your heart, close your eyes, forget your +miseries—open, open for a moment that golden casket called the memory, +in which are preserved, embalmed and imperishable, all those happy +incidents which were the delight of your youth. Yes! open wide that +casket, ponder well, and with renewed fondness o'er these treasures of +the mind, and believe me after such holy reflections you will feel +yourself more able to meet the contumely of the world, and find yourself +a happier and a better man.</p> + +<p>Saint Hibaut, situated in a wild country, surrounded by lonely heaths +and deep ravines, and water-courses whose sides are covered by almost +impenetrable thickets, was at the time I speak of, that is to say, when +I was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> eighteen years of age, the property of Monsieur de Cheribalde, +the most intrepid, determined and ardent sportsman, who ever winded a +horn, wore a huntsman's knife, or whistled a dog.</p> + +<p>Distant very nearly twenty miles from any human habitation, it was at +times, the favourite rendezvous, the head-quarters of a great number of +chevreuil, boar and other denizens of the forest. In winter, when the +snow covered the earth for several weeks, the famished and furious +wolves assembled in the neighbourhood in packs, carrying off in the +broad daylight everything they could lay their teeth on; sheep and +shepherd, dogs and huntsman, horse and horseman, bones, hair, and skins +half-tanned, old hats and shoes—even the corrupt bodies of the dead +were torn from their resting-places, and eaten by these horrid animals.</p> + +<p>On moonlight nights, these brutes would come fearlessly up to the very +walls of the farm, dancing their sarabandes in the snow, howling like so +many devils, shrieking and showing their long white teeth, and demanding +in unmistakable terms something or somebody to devour; their yells, +their cries of rage, of victory, and of love, intermingled with the +funereal song of the screech-owl, and the lugubrious melodies which the +current from the blast without caused in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> the large open chimneys,—was +the concert, which from December to April lulled the inmates of St. +Hibaut to sleep; music that would I doubt not have reduced even the +formidable proportions of the inimitable Lablache, and made Mario sing +out of tune.</p> + +<p>But these were the good old times, the good old times! Well do I +remember, when the shadows of those winter evenings lengthened, when +nightfall came, and when at last the moon arose, bringing out in light +and shade every object within the court-yard, and at some distance from +the house, then it was that Monsieur de Cheribalde went his rounds. I +see him in my mind's eye now, with his gun on his shoulder, followed by +his five enormous bloodhounds strong and fierce as lions, and Navarre, +surnamed the Four-Pounder, who walked a few paces to the right and left, +opening his large saucer eyes, poking and squinting into every bush and +corner.</p> + +<p>Navarre, for forty years the head gamekeeper of the domain, was his +master's right hand, his <i>alter ego</i>. He had never in his whole life +been beyond his woods,—had never seen the church-steeple of a great +town. To him, the dark belt of firs that skirted the horizon, was the +limit of the world; and when told that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> the sun never set, and that when +it sank behind the mountains, it was only continuing its course, to beam +bright in other skies and on other lands, and to ripen other +harvests,—Navarre smiled, and did not believe a word. Happy Navarre! +what did it signify to him what was done, or what happened behind those +hills? He was thin and dry as a match, and tall as a Norwegian spruce, +with a face covered with hair; he smoked, and tossed off glass after +glass of brandy, like a Dutchman. In addition to these peculiarities, +Navarre was lame of the right leg, a boar having one day kindly applied +his tusky lancet to his thigh, and gored him seriously, before, hand to +hand, he managed to finish him with his hunting-knife.</p> + +<p>At the first glance, Navarre's aspect appeared strange and forbidding, +and savage as the locality in which he lived. The fact was, that, like +Robinson Crusoe, he was frequently arrayed in a suit of skins of which +he had been the architect, on a fantastic pattern, that his own queer +imagination had created.</p> + +<p>On great occasions the veteran keeper donned a helmet, or a gray +three-cornered hat, of so ridiculous a shape—so royally absurd—that +for my life, when he was thus attired, I could not, even in the presence +of his master, refrain from laughter; then he would tell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> you, with a +gravity it was impossible to disturb, that it had taken him fifteen +days, eight skins of wild cats, and twelve squirrel's tails, to achieve +this happy <i>chef-d'œuvre</i> of the tailoring art. But I once said to +him, "My good Navarre, in the name of heaven tell me, from what Japanese +manuscript did you fish out that odious hat? Why, with such a shed, you +might very well be mistaken for Chin-ko-fi-ku-o, high-priest of the +temple of Twi. Do give me the address of your hatter, my dear friend." +Navarre, furious, gave no reply.</p> + +<p>But the time really to admire him—to see the head gamekeeper in all his +splendour—was in winter, in a hard frost, when, covered with skins and +motionless, he lay in ambush in a black ravine, waiting for a boar. Oh! +then, for certain, the sight of him was anything but encouraging; for he +looked like some unknown animal, some variety of the species <i>Bonassus</i>, +a crocodile on end, a crumpled-up elephant, or a great bear on the +watch. And when he loaded his rifle—a sort of culverin or wall-piece, +which no one but himself knew how to manage—gracious powers! he was +something to see. His first movement was to seize the gigantic weapon in +the middle, as a policeman would fasten upon a favourite thief; and then +he set himself to blow into the barrel with such fury, that had there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +been an ounce of wadding left, the blast would have blown it all through +the enormous touch-hole. Being well assured after this that neither an +adder nor a slow-worm had taken up his domicile within the barrel, he +began to load. One charge—two charges—then a third, "as a compliment," +and after this, a fourth, "for good luck." On this infernal +charge—imperial, as he called it—this Vesuvius, this volcano of +saltpetre, he threw half-a-dozen balls, or, if he was out of them, a +handful of nails; and then he rammed—rammed—rammed away, like a +pavior.</p> + +<p>My hair stood on end, and every limb trembled when he fired it off—holy +St. Francis!—the very forest bent, and coughed, and sighed; and it made +as much flame, smoke, noise, and carnage, as a battery of horse +artillery. One might have heard it all over Burgundy, or Provence for +what I know; and hence, no doubt, his <i>sobriquet</i> of "the Four-Pounder." +I always thought his shoulder must be made of heart of oak. On one +occasion he did me the incomparable favour of loading my gun in this +fashion, but luckily for me, informed me of this piece of civility +before we started; and greatly was he chagrined when I declined to fire +it. In the common occurrences of life, Navarre was a right good fellow; +he had great good sense,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> could take a joke, was simple and modest in +his manners, and very kind-hearted and retiring. But once in the forest, +the dogs uncoupled, and the business of the chase commenced, he bounded +to the front; his eyes flashed, his nostrils dilated, he took a deep +breath, listened, and snuffed the air; he limped no longer; and as his +courage was unequalled, and his knowledge of wood-craft profound, the +proudest of every rank were content to follow where he led.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Bird's-eye view of the forests—The student's visit to his uncle in +the country—Sallies forth in the early morning—Meets a +cuckoo—Follows him—The cuckoo too much for him—Gives up the +pursuit—Finds he has lost his way—Agreeable vespers—Night in the +forest—Wolves—Up a beech tree—A friend in need—The student bids +adieu to Le Morvan. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">We</span> have alluded in the opening chapters to the inexhaustible wealth +drawn by the inhabitants from the woods of Le Morvan, though we have as +yet touched but slightly on their beauties. To see them at one <i>coup +d'œil</i>, in all the splendour of their extent, one ought to call for +the veteran, Mr. Green, and, safely (?) lodged in his car, with plenty +of sandwiches and champagne, fly and soar above these forests of La +Belle France. By St. Hubert, gentle reader, your eyes would be feasted +with a glorious sight. Beneath your feet you would, in autumn, behold a +verdant expanse in every variety of light and shade—a sea of leaves, +which, though sometimes in repose, more often moan and murmur, while the +giant arms they clothe rock to and fro in the gale, like the restless +waves of the troubled deep.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p><p>Here Nature displays all her sylvan grandeur; here she has scattered, +with a liberal hand, every charm that foliage can give to earth, and +many a lovely flower to scent the evening breeze. Descend, and in this +immense labyrinth you will find a tangled skein of forest paths, in +which it is never prudent to ramble alone; as will be seen by the +following adventure, which befell a young student who once went to Le +Morvan, anticipating infinite pleasure in spending a few weeks at the +house of an old uncle, a rich proprietor and owner of a large farm in +the forest of Erveau.</p> + +<p>Residing from his infancy in the department of the Seine, he was quite +ignorant of a forest life; and the morning was yet early when he arose +from his bed and sallied forth to enjoy the fresh and fragrant air, of +which he had a foretaste at his open window, and take a ramble till the +hour of breakfast summoned him to his uncle's hospitable fare. All +without was life and sweetness; every bush had its little chorister; the +sun brilliant, but not as yet high in the heavens, threw his bright rays +in chequered light and shade between the trees, and made the pearly +tears of night, which hung quivering on each bending blade of grass, +sparkle like diamonds of the purest water. The student was in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> raptures, +and after a brief survey of the garden, he cast a longing eye upon the +woods which he so much wished to penetrate. On he walked, stopping +occasionally to muse on the enchanting scene around him, when all at +once he espied, on the lofty branches of an ash, a cuckoo! At the sight +of this splendid bird, our Parisian sportsman felt his heart pit-a-pat +and jump like a girl's in love; and without stopping any longer to +admire the marvels of Nature, he turned hastily back to his uncle's +abode, in search of a gun, with which to annihilate the luckless +harbinger of spring. He soon found one, ready loaded, in the hall; and, +with his heart full of hope and his legs full of precaution, he glided +mysteriously from one tree to another, endeavouring, by all possible +means, to conceal his approach from the wily cuckoo, which, perched on +high, was throwing into space his two dull notes, regular and monotonous +as the tick-tick of an old-fashioned clock.</p> + +<p>Warily and stealthily did the student approach; bent nearly double, he +scarcely drew his breath, as his distance from the tree grew less; but, +says the song of the poacher,—</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"If women smell tricks, cuckoos smell powder."<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noin">And again,—</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> +<p class="poem"> +"'Tis a difficult thing to catch woman at fault,<br /> +More difficult still, an old cuckoo with salt."<br /> +</p> + +<p>Without appearing to do so, from the height of his leafy turret, the +prudent cuckoo kept a wary eye upon the tortuous movements of his enemy; +but as he saw at a glance what sort of a customer he had to deal with, +he evidently did not feel any particular hurry to shift his quarters: +only every time he saw the double barrel moving up to the Parisian's +shoulder, and that hostilities on his part were about to be opened, he, +as if just for fun, dropped his own dear brown self on the branch below +him, flapped his wings, and soon perching himself on a tree a little +further off, gravely re-opened his beak and resumed his monotonous +chant.</p> + +<p>The young student, piqued and mortified at this discreet behaviour of +the cuckoo, which, like happiness, was always on the wing, perseveringly +followed the provoking bird—one walked, the other flew, the distance +increased at every flight, and thus they got over a great deal of +ground; the young man still believing his uncle's farm was close behind +him—the cuckoo perfectly easy, knowing full well he could find his +leafy home whenever he might please to return to it. So, for the +fiftieth time, perhaps, the cuckoo was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> vanishing in the foliage, when a +sudden thought cramped the legs and cut short the obstinate pursuit of +the young lawyer; he then, for the first time, remembered the wholesome +advice his uncle had given him on his arrival.—"Beware, my fine fellow, +beware of going alone in the forest, for to those who know not how to +read their way, that is, on the bark of the trees, the mossy stones, and +dry or broken twigs, the forest is full of snares and danger, of +deceitful echos and strange noises that attract and mislead the +inexperienced sportsman."</p> + +<p>"By Juno," thought our hero, "as it is most certain that in Paris they +are not yet clever enough to teach us geography on the bark of trees, I +am an uncommonly lucky fellow to have just remembered the dear old +gentleman's warning. Hang the infernal cuckoo! Go to the devil, you +hideous cuckoo! Good morning, sir, my compliments at home." And then, +with his terrible carbine under his arm, he retraced his steps, +expecting every moment to see peeping through the trees in front of him, +his uncle's large white house and lofty dove-cote.</p> + +<p>But, alas! no such thing met his hungry eyes; still on he walked, trees +after trees were passed, glade after glade, and many a long avenue, but +neither white<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> farm-house nor gay green shutters greeted his anxious +sight. "How odd," thought he, "how very odd; this, I feel confident, is +the identical spot near which I first noticed that odious cuckoo; here +is the self-same little regiment of white daisies that my feet pressed +not half an hour ago; see now, this chestnut, this immense chestnut, +whose monstrous roots lie twisting about the ground like a black brood +of ugly snakes—certainly this was the way I came, surely I saw these +roots, and yet no house appears." And thus, from time to time, he +reasoned with himself, looking on either side for some object that he +could recognize with certainty; at last, grown thoroughly hungry and +impatient, he hallooed and shouted, but no voice replied, not the +slightest sound was floating in the air. It was then he felt he had lost +his way,—that he was alone, yes, alone in the forest of Erveau, in a +leafy wilderness stretching many miles.</p> + +<p>Many a vow he made and many a blackberry he picked as he walked hither +and thither, in every direction. The day wore on, the sun had long +passed the meridian, and with the coming evening rose a gentle breeze, +which moaned in the dry ferns; and this and the rustling of the giant +creepers that reached from tree to tree, and swung between the branches, +fell mournfully<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> on the student's ear. A vague fear, a fatal +presentiment of evil began to creep over him; again he shouted, the echo +from a dark wild ravine alone replied; he fired his gun again and again, +the echo alone answered his signal of distress, and nothing could he +hear, except at intervals, far, far away in the green depths of the +forest, the notes cuckoo—cuckoo.</p> + +<p>Faint and weary, from hunger and fatigue, the young man, no longer able +to proceed, fell down at the foot of a spreading beech, and gave way to +an agony of grief; drops of cold sweat stood upon his brow; the clammy +feeling of fear took possession of his heart, and though, perhaps, he +would have had no objection to try the fortune of the pistol or the +sword, in any college broil or senseless riot of the populace, the +circumstances under which he then stood were so new to him, that he was +quite unmanned and incapable of further exertion.</p> + +<p>In blood-red streaks sank the setting sun, his large yellow orb glancing +through the trees like the dimmed eye of some giant ogre; twilight came, +and soon after every valley lay in shadow; the breeze, as if waking from +its gentle slumbers, whistled in the highest branches, and, increasing +in force, rocked the lower<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> limbs, which moaned mournfully as the night +closed in.</p> + +<p>Hungry and alarmed, and now quite worn out with his lengthened walk, the +young Parisian lay stretched on the moss, listening with painful anxiety +to this melancholy conversation of the woods, when, suddenly, and as +night fell, spreading over the earth her sable wings and shaking from +the folds of her robe the luminous legions of stars, he heard a +prolonged and sonorous howl in the distance—a strolling wolf—</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Cruel as Death! and hungry as the grave!<br /> +Burning for blood! bony and gaunt and grim,"<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noin">had scented the Parisian and was inviting his good friends with the long +teeth, to come and sup on the dainty morsel. Touched as if by a hot +iron, up got the terrified youth, and striking his ten nails into the +friendly tree near him like an Indian monkey, he was in an instant many +feet above its base. Here, astride upon a branch, shivering and shaking, +each hair on end, and murmuring many a Pater and Ave Maria, unsaid for +years, he passed the most horrific night that any citizen of the +department of the Seine had ever been known to spend in the middle of +the forest of Erveau.</p> + +<p>The following morning, but not until the sun had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> already run nearly +half his course, for he never dared to leave his timber observatory +before, <i>le pauvre diable</i> dropped down from his perch like an +acorn—and, marching off with weary steps, and scarcely a hope that ere +another night fell he should gain the shelter of some cottage, he +dragged himself along. On he rolled from side to side, torn with the +thorns and bitten by the gnats that swarmed around him, sometimes +calling upon his mother, sometimes upon the saints—when a wood-cutter +happily met, and seeing his exhausted condition, threw the slim student +over his shoulders like a bundle of straw, and carried him to a +neighbouring village. There, he was put to bed and attended with every +care, when he soon recovered—and received the charming intelligence +that he was about forty miles from his uncle's house—that he had been +wandering for that distance in the most beautiful part of the forest of +Erveau, and that if by any chance he had deviated a little more to the +right in his unpleasant steeple-chase across the woods, he would have +gone, in a straight line, eighty-six miles without meeting house or +cottage or human soul until he found himself at the gates of Dijon, +chief town of the Côte-d'Or, where he might and would, no doubt, have +been able to refresh himself with a bottle of Beaune<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> and inspect the +Gothic tombs of the great Dukes of Burgundy.</p> + +<p>Grateful was the unlucky lad to think that he had not taken this road, +and truly glad was he when, under the woodcutter's care, he reached his +uncle's white house. No sooner, however, was he fairly recovered from +his misadventure, than he packed up his superb cambric shirts, his Lyons +silk socks, patent leather boots, and white Jouvin gloves; squeezed the +hand of his aunt, gave a doubtful shake to that of his uncle, and +started in the <i>malle poste</i> for the capital. His father's brother and +Le Morvan never saw him more.</p> + +<p>Such adventures, however, as these are rare, and you must have, indeed, +a double dose of bad fortune to be lost in such a woful way, and spend, +without meeting any mortal soul, thirty long hours in the woods: for +though the tract of forest is very extensive, there are strewed, here +and there, several merry villages, large farms, and hunting-boxes, +snugly hidden, it is true, beneath the trees,—but which an experienced +huntsman very soon discovers when he stands in need of assistance or a +night's lodging.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Charms of a forest life to the sportsman—The Poachers—Le Père +Séguin—His knowledge of the woods and of the rivers—The first +buck—A bad shot. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">However</span> dangerous the forests of Le Morvan may be, and certainly are, to +the citizen of Paris, whose knowledge of wood-craft, whatever may have +been his delightful visions of forest life, of fairy revels, and +hair-breadth escapes, is about equal to his proficiency in navigation, +they are no labyrinth to the true sportsman of this province; in his +mind, they are mapped with an accuracy perfectly astonishing to the +uninitiated in the countless indications of nature, of which the eye of +man becomes so keenly observant when thrown constantly into her +fascinating society. Let a man of a vigorous health, active frame, and +contemplative mind once enter, even for a short time, upon the +enjoyments of sporting, wild and varied as are those of Le Morvan, it +would be difficult to withdraw him from its delights, and persuade him +that it is in any way desirable to return to the crowded haunts of men, +and condemn himself to resume the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> harassing struggle for wealth or a +competence in his own legitimate sphere.</p> + +<p>No; there scarcely breathes the human being who could be so insensible +to the charms of scenery like that of Le Morvan as to do so without a +pang. 'Tis a chalice of gold, brimful of real pleasures for those who +love the joys of the open air; 'tis alive with fish and game, and has +its vineyards and its cornfields too.</p> + +<p>But we are thinking of the forests only, of the boar—that potentate of +the solitudes—and the wild cat: of the ravines and caves, to which the +hardy and venturous hunter, through bush, brake, or briar, over +streamlet or torrent, will chace the ravenous wolf,—who, bearing the +iron ball in his lacerated side, ever and anon gnaws the wound in his +rage, and slinks on weeping tears of blood. The roebuck and the hare, +the feathered and the finny tribe, are ever presenting an endless +alternation of amusement more or less exciting; and the sportsman has +but to settle with himself, when the rosy morn appears, whether he will +bestride his gallant steed, or throw the rod or rifle over his +shoulder,—his day's pleasure is safe.</p> + +<p>It matters not whether the falling leaf announces<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> that the woods are +clearing for him, the deep snow warns him to look to the protection of +his flocks from the dangerous intrusion of the wolves, or the genial air +and the brilliant flies tell him that the silvery tenants of the many +streams and rivers that intersect the forest are ready to provide him +sport.</p> + +<p>Arouse thee, sportsman! when the dark clouds of night fly before the +rays of Phœbus as a troop of timid antelopes before the +leopard,—when the lark abandons his mossy bed, and soaring sends forth +his joyous carol,</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"——blythe to greet<br /> +The purpling East,"<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noin">then, O sportsman, up, and to horse! Away! bending over the saddle-bow, +follow the wild deer across the heath—inhale the perfume of the +trampled thyme. Draw bridle for a moment, and pity the thousands of thy +fellow-men to whom the pure air and light are denied, and let thy +heartfelt thanksgivings for thy free and happy lot ascend to the azure +battlements of heaven. Beneath your gaze lie valleys whence rise the +morning mists as do the clouds from the richly-perfumed censer, and +float over the bosom of the plain ere they wreathe the mountain side; +all the bushes sing, every leaf is shining to welcome the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> glorious sun +as he rises majestically over that high dark range, and the bright blue +dome of day is revealed in all its purity.</p> + +<p>Plunge onward to the forest—you will perhaps fall in with one of the +<i>braconniers</i>—must I call them poachers?—of which there are many; all +alike, in one sense, yet each having the most whimsical characteristics. +The reader knows my friend Navarre, but I must now introduce him to +another of the cronies of my youth, the Père Séguin, the thoughts of +whom revive all the sweet recollections of my home when my family lived +in the ancient and picturesque Vezelay.</p> + +<p>Séguin's "form and feature" are as well impressed upon my memory as +those even of Navarre. Could any one forget him? I should think not; for +he was so fantastic and mysterious, such a determined sportsman and +eccentric desperado, that he was known to all Le Morvan.</p> + +<p>As well as I remember, he was about fifty-five years of age when I first +knew him; from his earliest boyhood he had fancied and loved a +forester's life, and for more than forty years had realized his dreams +of its wild independence. The woods, the rocks, the streams had no +secrets for him; he understood all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> their murmurs and their silence—he +knew the habits of every bird and beast of these forests and the +whereabouts of every large trout in his clear cold hole.</p> + +<p>But it is of no use to describe Père Séguin; to know him you must hunt +with him, and that pretty often, too—as I have done from my earliest +youth. I am now with him, on one of those joyous mornings of my boyhood, +and having threaded the woods for an hour, he has placed me in ambuscade +at the corner of a copse. Here, after a short delay, he pulls out his +watch, a time-piece weighing about two pounds, and after a mute +consultation with the hands, says in a low decided tone:</p> + +<p>"Good! Three o'clock. Stop here, youngster, and in an hour I shall send +you a buck."</p> + +<p>"A buck at four o'clock? How are you to tell that?" And I felt that I +opened my eyes as an oyster does his bivalve domicile at high water. "A +buck! you are joking."</p> + +<p>"I never joke," said the Père Séguin with a hoarse grunt, walking away, +and his face did not belie his words.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, but how can you possibly—Stop, do, for one moment. Hear +me! holla! Père Séguin! I say, you old humbug.—By Socrates, he is off."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p><p>But Père Séguin was already striding fast and far through the bending +branches, wilfully, if not really out of hearing, and I had nothing to +do but to watch for the promised game. I had no watch, and it seemed to +me long after the appointed hour, when my reverie was disturbed by a low +voice, from I knew not where,—from heaven, from earth, from a murmuring +brook, from a tree,—which dropped these words in my ear.</p> + +<p>"Silence—four o'clock—the buck."</p> + +<p>At that moment I saw the ears of the roebuck, and soon after the animal +itself, pausing for a moment in his leisurely course, just where he +ought to be for a good shot. But amazement and trepidation seized me. I +fired in a hurry, and the deer bounded off unscathed. "How clumsy," said +I to the Père Séguin, as he emerged from the thicket, "and how +unfortunate, for I have some friends coming to dine with me this week."</p> + +<p>"Never mind, never mind," replied the poacher; "I will fill your larder +to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Well, you are a good fellow, but remember I require also some fish—a +fine dish of trout."</p> + +<p>"Very well," growled the Père, "you shall have one;" and without a word +more the <i>braconnier</i> is off;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> and soon after I meet him with his rod, a +young fir-tree, on his shoulder, a box of worms as large as snakes, and +with the most entire confidence in his piscatory powers, proceeding on +his way to the stream that will suit his purpose. In the evening he +reappears, taking from the fresh grass in which he has carried them, +three or four magnificent fish studded with drops of gold. White wine +and choice aromatic herbs flavour them, and you rejoice in the pleasure +and praises of your friends as they partake of the savoury meal.</p> + +<p>And now for a sketch, if possible, of this excellent purveyor. Père +Séguin was tall as an obelisk, strong as a Hercules, <i>vif</i> as gunpowder, +thin and sinewy as any wolf in his beloved forests. His ear large, flat, +and full of hair; his teeth long, white, regular, and sharp as those of +his favourite and extraordinary dog; his eyes yellow, calm, and piercing +as those of a mountain eagle, and his chin had never been desecrated +with a razor. A kind of brushwood covered his face, and through it +peeped, with the tip of his hooked nose, the features I have described. +This immense uncultivated beard, tucked carefully within his waistcoat, +reached nearly to his waist. Did I say it had never been shaved? I might +add, it had never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> been combed. Lurking in it you might see leaves, +white hairs, red hairs, bits of a butterfly's wing, two or three jay's +feathers, a nutshell, some tobacco, a blade or two of grass, the cup of +an acorn, or a little moss. Indeed, so strangely was it garnished that, +when asleep on the grass under the trees, a robin was once seen to hover +over him undecided as to whether she would build her nest in it, or pick +out materials to make one elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Of uncommon intelligence, peculiarly taciturn, brave, frank, loyal, and +incapable of a bad action, his mind was of a gloomy cast; he was always +alone, he had no friends, he wanted none, and, if not hunting, reading +the Bible or muttering to himself, with his eyes fixed on the ground. He +lived like the woodcock, sad and solitary in his hole.</p> + +<p>The peasants dreaded him, and never spoke of him but as the <i>Sorcier</i>, +the <i>Vieux Diable</i>; when naughty little children refused to learn their +letters or to go to bed, it was only necessary to threaten them with +sending for the Père Séguin and his red dog, and the whole of the rosy +troop would scamper off to their nursery in an instant.</p> + +<p>I need scarcely say that amongst his other perfections he was a perfect +shot—the best in the department,—and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> the moment he touched the +trigger death winged his charge at two hundred paces. With a single ball +from his rifle would he bring down the wild cat from the highest +branches, and cut the poor squirrels in two, stop the howl of the wolf, +or shiver the iron frontal bones of the wild boar.</p> + +<p>In short, his gun was his joy, his friend, his mistress, his all; he +spoke to it, caressed it, rocked it on his knees as a mother would her +sick child, and took a thousand times more care of it than he would have +bestowed upon the most lovely wife, had he ever done anything so rash as +to marry. It was a singular accident that brought us acquainted; and if +I had had any respect for chronology, I should have related it before.</p> + +<p>One day, when rambling over the mountain in search of game, I put up and +fired at a hare; she was evidently hit, and I gave chase, yet though +puss had but three legs effective I could not overtake her,</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"I follow'd fast, but faster did she fly;"<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noin">at last, a bank stopped and turned her, and I was on the point of taking +possession when a large red brindled dog dashed past and anticipated my +purpose, carrying off my hare, without bestowing so much as a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> glance +upon me,—no, not even appearing to see that I was there. Electrified +with astonishment, my left leg seemed pinned to the spot, while the +right, extended on a level with my shoulder, emulated that of Cerito in +"Giselle;" but recovering myself, I followed the thief, who made off +with the speed of a greyhound, in the direction of a neighbouring wood, +and on arriving at a little green knoll almost as soon as he did, I came +suddenly upon a strange and uncouth-looking figure who was reclining +comfortably on the grass beneath the shade of a large walnut-tree.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Le Père Séguin's collation—The young sportsman and the hare—The +quarrel—The apology—The reconciliation—The cemetery—Bait for +barbel—Le Père Séguin's deceased friends—The return home. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">The</span> extraordinary personage in whose presence I so suddenly found myself +was the celebrated Père Séguin, who, tired with his morning's sport, was +taking his noontide meal; that is, appeasing his appetite, always +enormous, with a loaf of black rye bread, into which he plunged his +ivory teeth with hearty rapidity, now and then taking a mouthful out of +a turnip he had pulled in a field hard by. The abominable quadruped was +there too, planted on his haunches, just in front of his master, looking +as innocent as a lamb, though still holding my hare between his teeth, +probably not daring to lay it down without permission.</p> + +<p>Père Séguin ate, drank, twisted his wiry moustache, dipped his turnip in +the coarse salt, and from time to time cast a glance at his vile dog, +without deigning to speak a word, or even to acknowledge my presence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +Furious at this behaviour, I bowed and said to him, "So, you are the +owner of this precious cur?"</p> + +<p>The poacher signified his assent by a slight movement of the head.</p> + +<p>"Well, if the dog belongs to you, the hare in his mouth belongs to me."</p> + +<p>"Does it?" said the Père Séguin, and he looked at his dog, who winked +his eye and shook his paw: "my dog tells me he caught this hare +running."</p> + +<p>"I know it, the rascally vagabond! and with no great trouble either, +seeing that the hare was half dead, and had but three legs to go upon."</p> + +<p>Père Séguin threw his yellow eye on the cur again, and, as if he had +understood all we said, he once more shook his paw, and gave a sort of +sneeze.</p> + +<p>"My dog repeats, he coursed the hare well, and has a right to her."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by saying he has a right to her, when I tell you the +hare belongs to me?"</p> + +<p>"And my dog says the reverse."</p> + +<p>"Go to Dijon with your dog!" I exclaimed, "I tell you the hare is mine."</p> + +<p>"My dog never told a lie," rejoined the <i>braconnier</i>, and he dipped the +remnant of his turnip for the twentieth time in the salt. "Never."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p><p>"Then <i>I</i> am the liar," said I, beginning to feel hot, "I am the liar, +ah! am I? By Jupiter! your dog, you bearded fool—your cur of a dog? I +do not care a <i>sous</i> for his carcass any more than I do for yours. I'll +have my hare."</p> + +<p>"Don't get excited, young man—don't be savage, I beg of you; for, as +sure as I am a sinner, you'll have a crop of pimples on your nose +to-morrow,—and red pimples on the nose are not pretty."</p> + +<p>"Keep your jokes to yourself, old man, or on my honour you shall repent +it!"</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha! ha!" grinned the Père Séguin, "Ha! ha! ha! capital turnip."</p> + +<p>"Houp! houp! houp!" went the dog.</p> + +<p>I was bewildered; such a strange adventure had never befallen me before.</p> + +<p>"Once, twice—will you give me my hare?"</p> + +<p>"Have I any hare of yours?"</p> + +<p>"You? No, but your dog."</p> + +<p>"Ha! that's another affair. You must settle that with him. Take your +hare, and let me eat my turnip in peace."</p> + +<p>Enraged at this, I rushed at the carroty dog, but he was off in an +instant, jumping first behind the tree, and then behind his master, +keeping my hare all the time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> fast in his mouth till I was fairly out of +breath, and aggravated beyond expression.</p> + +<p>I looked towards the poacher. He was quietly plucking the top off a +fresh turnip, but under the air of icy indifference which pervaded his +whole exterior I detected a sarcastic smile, which fully convinced me +that I was the laughing-stock of man and beast. I took my resolution, +and Père Séguin, who had followed my movements with his eye, said drily, +as I was going to put a cap on, "What are you going to do young man?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing! just to kill your dog for taking my hare."</p> + +<p>"Bah! you're joking."</p> + +<p>"Joking! am I? You shall see;" and I proceeded quietly to raise my gun.</p> + +<p>"Gently, my lad," roared the Père Séguin, and he seized the weapon in +his iron grasp.</p> + +<p>"I may be but a 'lad,' but I'll not give up my rights; the hare is mine, +and I'll have her. Let go my gun!"</p> + +<p>"No!"</p> + +<p>"By——"</p> + +<p>"No!"</p> + +<p>"Then look out for yourself," said I, and with a rapid movement I +attempted to draw my <i>couteau de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> chasse</i>; but long before I could get +it out, he had seized me with both hands, and in a twinkling I measured +my length upon the turf, and the knife was in his possession.</p> + +<p>"Child of violence!" he said, as he set me again on my legs, and pushed +me from him, "Do you then already love to shed blood? Would you kill a +man for a hare? Have you not the sense to distinguish a joke from an +insult? There," he added, giving me back my knife, which had fallen from +its sheath in the struggle, "young man, do your worst!"</p> + +<p>But I was now as angry with myself as I had been with the old man, and +heartily ashamed of my conduct. I turned on my heel, and walked off, +vexed beyond expression at my intemperate folly.</p> + +<p>The very next day, as good fortune would have it, I met him again in the +forest, and lost not a moment in asking his forgiveness for my brutal +conduct of the previous day.</p> + +<p>"Ah! you acknowledge your fault, do you?" replied the Père Séguin, +"enough, that shows you have a heart. I bear you no ill-will; you are +<i>vif</i> as the mountain breeze, but that comes of being young. Give me +your hand, and when you want a dove or lilies of the valley for your +sister, venison or wild boar for your friends,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> I, my gun, and my dog, +are at your service; but"—and he whispered in my ear—"no more knives."</p> + +<p>"See! see!" and I opened my jacket, "it is gone. I threw it into the +moat this morning."</p> + +<p>"'Tis well! very well! You have had a happy escape, young man. <i>Au +revoir.</i> Now, Faro, take your leave of Monsieur;" and instantly obeying +a sign from his master, the red dog licked my boots. A moment more, and +they were both lost to view in the forest.</p> + +<p>From that time I was frequently with the Père Séguin, for he seemed to +have a fancy—a sort of affection for me, and on my part I had an +incomprehensible pleasure in his society, though in the early part of +our acquaintance I could not divest myself of an undefined dread of him; +and had some difficulty in reconciling myself to the harsh and guttural +tones of his voice, and his peculiarly severe physiognomy. Nevertheless, +many an evening did I slip away from the paternal hearth, much to the +distress of my poor mother, to seat myself on one of his wooden stools, +and eat the chestnuts he was roasting in the embers, while he related, +by the pale light of his small charcoal fire, which but dimly showed the +extent even of his small room, frightful stories of ghosts, suicides, +drownings, and fearful murders, with which he delighted to terrify me; +and, dear reader, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> succeeded to perfection, for all the time I sat +listening to them I was cold, and trembled like a leaf in the northern +blast.</p> + +<p>Well do I remember—yes, as well as if it had been yesterday—going out +with him to fish for barbel, and joining him over-night to go in search +of bait. I found him crouched by his fire, eating potatoes out of the +same plate with his dog. This frugal meal over, he took up a small +lantern, a large box, and a long spade, and beckoned me to follow him.</p> + +<p>The moon was rising as we left the hut, but red as blood, lightning +streaked the sky at short intervals, and the wind howled as if a storm +was approaching. Père Séguin rubbed his hands, and an expression of +satisfaction passed across his extraordinary countenance; for, living as +he did a lonely wandering life, he had become superstitious, and firmly +believed that worms caught at certain hours of the night, and in a +breeze that foretold an approaching tempest, were more likely to attract +the fish than those taken in the daylight. To this article of his creed +I offered no objection, but I own my heart shrunk within me when I +observed that he took the direct road to the burial-ground. "Père +Séguin," said I, "we need go no further; the turf in this lane is +capital; we shall find all we want here without a longer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> walk." "Since +when," he inquired in a voice that seemed to come from between his +shoulders, "since when have young fawns taught the old roebuck the way +to the forest-glades?" And he strode on without a word more, still in +the direction I so much abhorred.</p> + +<p>Arriving at the cemetery, Père Séguin walked leisurely round it, paying +as much attention to me as if I had not been with him, and I followed +like a criminal going to the scaffold. After having made a careful +examination of the wall, he stopped suddenly, gave me the lantern and +the spade, and leaped upon the top, desiring me to do the same. I +hesitated, and fell back, for I felt more inclined to throw them down +and run away, and Père Séguin saw it.</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha!" he exclaimed, fixing his yellow eye upon me. "I thought you +were heart of oak, young Sir; are you only a man of straw?"</p> + +<p>I gave no answer, but I leaped on to the wall like a rope-dancer.</p> + +<p>"Hum!" he muttered; "good legs, but a faint heart." And he begun rapidly +to turn up the rank grass, and pick the large red worms from amongst the +roots, when, looking up in my face, he said, with infinite coolness, +"Why, you are as pale as my mother was on the day of her death! What +ails you?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p><p>"Ails me!" I replied, repressing my fears, "why to tell you the truth, +I'd just as soon be anywhere else as here."</p> + +<p>"Pooh! pooh! young man; one must accustom one's self to everything in +this world. We must learn—be always learning. Remember, for instance, +for I'll be bound that you never heard of such a thing before, that +worms taken in a burial-ground are the finest possible bait for barbel, +do you hear?—taken by moonlight from the roots of the hemlock."</p> + +<p>"Good heavens! Père Séguin, I would rather never catch a fish for the +rest of my days than touch one of those worms!"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, my lad—nonsense; they are admirable bait—fine fat +fellows—sure to take. We shall have a wonderful day to-morrow. You will +soon see how the giants and gourmands of the streams will snap at these +beauties."</p> + +<p>"Hang the barbel, Père Séguin!—let us leave this cold churchyard. I +feel sick, and a clammy cold creeping over me already—do let us be +gone;" but he would not move.</p> + +<p>"Don't feel unwell, pray don't; it is a well-known fact, that any person +who feels ill in a churchyard is sure to die within the year."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p><p>"Let us leave then, for I do feel very ill;" but the purveyor of worms +was now too much occupied to listen to me.</p> + +<p>Hopeless, therefore, of inducing him to leave till he had filled his +box, I sat down on a tombstone, and the noise he made with the spade in +the silence, the darkness, and the peculiar and sickening odour of the +place, filled me with an indescribable sense of fear and horror.</p> + +<p>At length the poacher paused, and having disentangled a very long worm +from the twisted roots of a large clod, he said, "This makes one hundred +and thirteen—a holy number. Now I've done, my lad; let us be off."</p> + +<p>"Yes—oh, yes!"—for the minutes seemed hours—"let us go instantly;" +and I sprang from the tombstone, while Père Séguin proceeded +deliberately to fill up the holes, and replace the turf, whistling +through his moustache just as if he had been in the middle of his +garden.</p> + +<p>"One hundred and thirteen!—I like that number."</p> + +<p>"So do I, Père Séguin; but do let us be going. If we remain here, they +will think that we have killed and buried some one. Do, pray, be off;" +and I made for the wall.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p><p>"Stop!" he said suddenly, drawing himself up to his full height, six +feet three, "Stop!" and throwing out his long arms, which made his +shadow on the stones resemble an immense black cross, "Hold there! Look! +Do you see that tomb—that large gray stone?"</p> + +<p>"I see nothing, Père Séguin, I will see nothing. I close my eyes, and +only desire to be gone."</p> + +<p>"As you please," said the poacher; "but you are wrong. I could have told +you a curious history—a most interesting history."</p> + +<p>"Thanks for your histories—much obliged to you; but I have had enough +of them." Still Père Séguin would persevere: "A woman, who has appeared +to me three times—yes, three following days—spoken to me, pulled me by +the fingers and by the beard eight days after her death."</p> + +<p>"Yes! yes! I know; but which way are we to get out of this infernal +place?"</p> + +<p>"Why, what a hurry you are in!—I say stop, and let me say good night to +her!"—and Père Séguin approached the tall gray stone, the moon shining +full upon it, and struck it with the handle of his spade, calling each +time in a solemn voice, "Madeleine! Madeleine! Madeleine!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p><p>Had I been at that frightful moment cut in four quarters, not one drop +of blood would have been found in my veins; my teeth chattered with +terror, and I would have given every acre of my inheritance for strength +enough to run away. "Madeleine! Madeleine!" le Père Séguin continued in +a low and churchyard tone, "Madeleine!" he cried, leaning on the gray +tomb, "'tis me, Séguin—le Père Séguin; good night, good night, +Madeleine!"</p> + +<p>I could not speak, I could not move; and certainly had the lady +whispered only one single little word in reply, I should have fainted.</p> + +<p>"Well, it is all over; she is dead for certain now!" said the poacher, +shaking his head. "Alas! poor Madeleine! Gone in the flower of her age! +Dead at two-and-twenty, for having offered me a violet! Dead! Let us +begone."</p> + +<p>I beg you to understand I did not put him to the necessity of repeating +his words, but found my legs in excellent running order in a moment.</p> + +<p>"Hold! not so fast!" said my companion, just as I was springing at the +wall, and thought myself out of danger, "Hold! Down there, my young +gentleman, in that dark corner amongst the brambles. You see that little +heap of earth, which one might fancy a dead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> man alive had pushed up +with his knees; well, there also is one of my comrades. Ho! halloo, +Jerome!"</p> + +<p>"Père Séguin," said I, "this is unworthy of you; you have no right thus +to mock at and disturb the dead; you only want to torment me; and I have +already told you, and I repeat it, I feel exceedingly ill."</p> + +<p>"Come, come along then—let us go. I shall return here presently to +sleep. Good night, Madeleine!—good night, Jerome!—good night, all of +you who are sleeping so quietly under the green turf!"—and it seemed to +me, as these adieus were uttered, that icy breezes passed from every +tomb across my face, whispering in my ears, "Good night!" and that the +firs, the yews, the cypress bending across our path seemed to salute us +as we left the horrible precincts.</p> + +<p>We soon regained the town, and on the road there I would not have turned +my head for a crown of rubies; Père Séguin, meanwhile, coolly carrying +his box of worms, which I would not have touched for the best place in +Paradise.</p> + +<p>The next morning, instead of fishing for barbel, I was unable to rise +from my bed; and for fifteen nights I never closed my eyes without +seeing in my dreams ghosts, and all the horrid details of the churchyard +and the charnel-house.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Passage of the woodcock in November—Their laziness—Night +travelling—Mode of snaring them at night—Numbers taken in this +way—This sport adapted rather for the poacher—The <i>braconnier</i> of +Le Morvan—His mode of life—The poacher's dog—The double poacher. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">The</span> object of this chapter will be to give the reader some little +insight into the habits of the woodcock, and the mode of snaring them in +the forests of Le Morvan, during the month of November. At the close of +this month, Dame Nature's barometer, their instinct, far better than the +quicksilver, tells them the December rains are close at hand; and that +if they remain in their hiding-places in the low grounds, they will be +driven out by the approaching deluge. They at length make up their minds +to set forth on their travels. With a long-drawn sigh, therefore, the +woodcock bids farewell to the old oaks that have sheltered it all the +summer, and taking leave of its friendly comrades, the squirrels, it +sets out on the first fine night for a more genial climate, to the +delight, no doubt, of the neighbouring worms, who pop their heads out of +window to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> witness its departure; and the moment their enemy is fairly +out of sight, perform many a pirouette on the tip of their tails, and +dance upon the grass in honour of the joyous event.</p> + +<p>If a woodcock was not a woodcock, that is, one of the laziest birds in +the creation, it might easily reach, in a few days' flight, the dry +heaths, the hills, and elevated regions, which it loves; but woodcocks +abhor all violent exercise, always preferring the use of their feet to +that of their wings, which latter they never agitate, except when +necessity requires. Well, they have now set out, and after marching all +night by slow and easy stages, when morning comes our woodcocks make a +halt wherever they happen to be, breakfast as best they may, and then +ensconce themselves in some snug spot, where they doze the livelong day, +till, refreshed by their twelve hours' rest, they set off again with +renewed strength the moment the sun has gone down.</p> + +<p>Thus it is that during the middle of November there is no regular +flight, but a kind of circulation, of woodcocks, perambulating from the +lower to the higher regions, and the <i>gourmet</i> and the sportsman fail +not to stop them on their way.</p> + +<p>As it is necessary in this kind of <i>chasse</i> to spend the night under the +trees and on the damp moss,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> those who wish to enjoy it prepare for it +accordingly by dressing themselves like Navarre, in a suit of +sheepskins, and lay in a good store of cold meat and brandy.</p> + +<p>During their nocturnal peregrinations, instinct leads the woodcock to +follow ascending roads and open pathways, especially such as are +completely exposed to the mild winds of the south and south-east only; +they avoid walking through the woods, where the road is encumbered with +brambles and other obstacles, which would oblige them to hop or fly far +oftener than they like, occasionally leaving a portion of their feathers +behind them. Moreover, their feet are tender, and they in consequence +prefer the paths that are overgrown with grass, the open glades, or +roads cut through the moss.</p> + +<p>It is now that the sportsman who is well versed in the private history +of the woodcock prepares his snares; for at this period of the year it +is by them that they are taken.</p> + +<p>Penetrating, therefore, the depths of the forest, the experienced +<i>chasseur</i> soon discovers, in some secluded spot, a path well carpeted +with verdure, lighted by a few stray moonbeams and sheltered from the +wind, where he forthwith begins to lay his snares. Should the path be +broad, he proceeds to contract it, strewing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> it partially with stones, +brambles, and thorns; he likewise cuts down some twigs and branches, and +sticks them into the ground at intervals, so as to present as many +impediments and <i>chevaux de frise</i> as he can to thwart the progress of +the lazy bird. The middle of the path should be left quite free, and +wide enough to allow a couple of woodcocks to walk abreast. Into this +narrow passage they all walk without suspicion, and their further +progress is prevented by their falling into the trap which is laid to +receive them.</p> + +<p>This snare is placed across a hole about the size of a crown piece, and +consists of a strong noose made of horsehair, which is fixed to a peg, +and so arranged that the slightest touch causes it to rebound and catch +them by the leg.</p> + +<p>In the hole is laid a fine, fat, red worm, healthy and tempting, and, in +order to prevent the poor prisoner's escaping, the sportsman has devised +a method of keeping him down in spite of himself, by pinning him to the +ground at one end with a long thorn—it is presumed worms do not feel; +his miserable contortions attract the attention of the hungry woodcock, +who immediately seizes this irresistible tit-bit.</p> + +<p>Every preparation completed and the snare baited, the hole, the worm, +and the noose are carefully covered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> over by a withered leaf—a second +snare, similarly concealed, is set on the right, a third in the middle, +and so on at a distance of three or four feet from each other. All is +now in readiness, and twilight finds the sportsman covered up in his +skins at some fifty paces from his traps. Here, after having comforted +his inward man, and sharpened his sight by swallowing two or three +glasses of cognac, addressing between them an invocation to his patron +saint, he listens and waits.</p> + +<p>On come the long-bills, looking right and left, pecking the ground, +peering at the moon and the stars, and eating all they can find in their +way. They now approach the dangerous defile, and some of the younger +ones fly over the traps; others, more prudent, turn back; but the main +body hold a council of war, when the staff officers having decided that +these Thermopylæ must be passed, first one woodcock and then another +taking heart proceeds, and the sportsman hugs himself in his success on +perceiving the whole troop making towards the baits he has spread for +them. Before long one of the birds gets its leg entangled, totters, +falls, rises again, but in doing so is made fast by the noose, and in +spite of its efforts is unable to advance a step further. Another, +hearing the sound of a worm struggling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> at the bottom of a hole, darts +in its beak, with the charitable intention of ending the prisoner's +sufferings, and on raising its head is suddenly seized by the neck. The +sportsman now steals softly from his hiding-place, and, stooping down, +smashes the woodcock's brain with his thumb nail, and so on with the +next, after which he retreats to his post, and keeps up the game till +dawn. Some persons will in this manner catch from twenty to thirty +woodcocks in a single night; but they must be favourably placed, have a +great number of snares, and, moreover, possess a considerable degree of +skill, and tread lightly, (for the most important point, in this sport, +is to make as little noise as possible,) and be very quick at putting +the snares in order the moment they have been used—no easy work, in +good sooth, seeing that it must be performed by an occasional ray of +moonlight.</p> + +<p>If late on the ground, and you have not sufficient time to obstruct and +barricade the road as directed above, the earth may be turned up in the +middle of the path and the snares placed across it; the woodcocks, in +the hope of finding something to eat, will immediately walk on to +it—but although this method occasionally succeeds it is far from being +as good as the first, for the soil does not offer the same resistance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +as the turf, the holes get filled up, and the birds escape more easily.</p> + +<p>The sportsman should mind and bag his game as fast as it is snared, or +master Reynard, who has been watching the whole affair, will pounce upon +his birds and carry them off, with a dozen nooses into the bargain.</p> + +<p>Poachers reap an ample harvest of cash by this mode of taking woodcocks, +while other sportsmen generally reap the rheumatism; and, truth to say, +the silence and immobility that must be observed all night long, the +intense cold, and the damp fogs which cover the forest in the early +morning, are not very agreeable, and most gentlemen prefer staying at +home, enjoying the innocent diversion of playing the flute, quarrelling +with their wives, or emptying the bottle.</p> + +<p>To succeed well in snaring woodcocks requires both skill and experience, +and a thorough knowledge of the woods, the winds, the colour of the +clouds, the age of the moon, the state of the atmosphere; and, in fact, +short of being a poacher or a conjuror, how is it possible to know that +the woodcocks will pass one spot rather than another in a space of +several score of square miles, and amongst so many and such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> intricate +paths. The <i>braconnier</i> alone is infallible on these points, and curious +specimens of the human biped are these same poachers!</p> + +<p>In the first place it must not be imagined that the poachers of Le +Morvan bear the slightest resemblance to those of England. They are as +much alike as Thames water and Burgundy wine. The English poacher is a +rank vagabond, who invades every one's game-preserves at dead of night, +and kills whatever he finds, whether hares, partridges, dogs, pheasants, +or gamekeepers,—while ours are men following a legitimate occupation.</p> + +<p>In Le Morvan, forests are open to all; there are no palings to get over, +and no keepers to fear; the public may hunt, shoot, or snare what they +please.</p> + +<p>The poacher commences his hard apprenticeship in early childhood. Nature +directs him to adopt this course of life, and endows him with a bold +heart, a cool head, a sinewy frame, and an iron constitution. The +incipient poachers soon leave the inhabited districts to live in the +forests, with trees for their roof, and moss for their bed. They study +alike the woods and the stars, and know the forest by heart, with its +roads and glades, beaten tracks and untrodden paths. From sunrise to +sunset they are always-a-foot, walking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> through the thickets, tramping +over heaths, or stooping amongst the brushwood, listening, and looking +everywhere, and by night and by day constantly making their observations +on the direction of the wind, the habits of the animals that pass them, +or the birds that fly over their heads.</p> + +<p>In this way they ferret out every nook and every winding in the forest, +and now here and now there build themselves a hut, live upon fruit, +chestnuts, and their game, which they roast upon embers; and never come +into a town except to purchase powder, shot and ball, or perhaps a pair +of shoes, some tobacco, and brandy.</p> + +<p>Such is the rough life of the youthful poacher, nor has he any companion +during this wild period of his existence, excepting a dog, the faithful +partner of his joys and dangers, and who becomes a devoted friend and +brother for life. They live together, talk to each other, understand +each other, and guess each other's slightest wish. I have seen a poacher +talking to his dog by the hour together, the man laughing fit to split +at what his canine companion was telling him in his own peculiar way, +while the dog, rolling on the grass, barked with delight at what his +master answered.</p> + +<p>When on their shooting expeditions, a sign from his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> master, a nod, a +wink, an uplifted finger, or the slightest whisper, are either of them +sufficient for his guidance; he stops, or dashes onward, takes a leap, +or crouches down, as the case may be, and never is he known to be at +fault.</p> + +<p>On his part the poacher has only to refer to his dog as to the pages of +a book, and he reads at once in his slightest movements what is in the +wind, what bird lies hidden in the grass, or what beast is cowering in +the thicket. By the position of his head, the manner in which he +scratches the ground, pricks his ear, or carries his tail, he +understands as plainly as if he spoke whether he announces the proximity +of a wolf, a partridge, a woodcock, a roebuck, a hare, or a rabbit.</p> + +<p>I have known poachers who have told me half an hour beforehand what we +were going to meet. Another would bid his dog bring him a leaf, a +branch, a flower, or a mushroom, and off he went, sought, found, and +brought back the identical article required. "Now, sing," said the +poacher, and the dog began to sing; not, indeed, exactly like Mario, but +he produced a kind of melodious growl, a sort of improvised musical +lament over his solitary life, which had its charm. Most poachers are +exceedingly fond of music, and as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> they are always singing in their +leisure moments, of course their dog joins them; so that when they are +both in the humour for it, they execute duets in the depths of the +forest that make the very nightingales jealous.</p> + +<p>By the time a poacher has acquired a complete knowledge of wood-craft, +and that he knows familiarly every path and every bush in the forest, +every hole and every stone in the mountains, together with the habits, +character, and favourite haunts of every species of game; has made a +reputation, and put by some money; that he is beginning to turn gray, +and is verging on forty, his fondness for this savage kind of life +begins to diminish, his rough exterior becomes somewhat softened, he +purchases a solitary little cottage in some secluded spot, comes oftener +into town, and occasionally partakes of its pleasures.</p> + +<p>In poaching, as in everything else, there are varieties of taste, and +degrees of superiority. Some fish, others hunt only the roebuck and the +boar, others shoot squirrels and wild cats, others again excel in +snaring woodcocks, while some are dead hands at scenting and tracking a +wolf. Each poacher has his peculiar line, and each line furnishes a +livelihood.</p> + +<p>But when it happens, once in a way, that there is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> man who unites a +profound knowledge of the forest to an equally profound knowledge of the +waters—who hunts, tracks, and shoots all sorts of game with equal +success, and is also an expert fisherman, then he is a superior man of +his kind, complete at all points, a sort of Napoleon in his way, and his +countrymen bestow on him the title of the "double poacher,"—for thus +was called my worthy friend Le Père Séguin.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">The woodcock—Its habits in the forests of Le Morvan—Aversion of +dogs to this bird—Timidity of the woodcock—Its cunning—Shooting +in November—The Woodcock mates—The Woodcock fly. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">In</span> the last and preceding chapters, the imaginative and romantic have +predominated almost to the entire exclusion of any description of the +wild sports of Le Morvan, and I fear that the sporting reader, not +generally of a very sentimental taste, will ere this have become +impatient, and perhaps a little angry at the delay. I trust, however, +that I may be able to soften his indignation, and by the following +sketches gratify the expectations naturally raised in his mind by the +first words of the title-page. Of boar and wolf-hunting we shall speak +further on: my present object will be to give a description, not only of +the woodcock-shooting in Burgundy and Le Morvan, but also of the habits, +etc., of that bird.</p> + +<p>In the forests of which we are writing, the woodcock is not a mere bird +of passage, as in other European countries; it does not fly beyond sea, +like the swallow and most of the emigrating feathered tribes,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> nor does +it disappear like the quail, at a fixed period, and reappear at a given +moment. Here the woodcock seldom if ever deserts the forests which have +been its constant abode, and the sportsman is sure to find it nearly all +the year round. I have said nearly, for though not seeking other climes, +it requires a change of locality to secure a certain temperature.</p> + +<p>For instance, in the months of May, June, July, and August, woodcocks +are to be found in elevated spots, such as mountains covered with large +trees, or in warm open places on their slopes. At the first approach of +cold weather they leave the hills, and come down into the plains, +concealing themselves in the underwood, or the fern, or in the high +grass, when the snow begins to fall. The woodcock is a melancholy bird, +and somewhat misanthropic. Its habits are eminently anti-social; it +flies but little, so little indeed that its wings seem scarcely of any +use, and with the laziness already alluded to that forms its +characteristic feature, it seeks out a solitary spot, and having dug a +hole amongst the dry leaves, there it will squat for days together +without stirring. It likewise delights to cower under the gnarled roots +of an old oak, or to hide itself in a holly-bush, and apparently derives +so much satisfaction from its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> own meditations, and seems to hold all +other birds of the forest in such utter contempt, that it never by any +chance deigns to join their sports, or mingle in their joyous songs. The +woodcock seeks the darkest and most silent thickets, and likes a marly +soil, damp meadows, and the neighbourhood of brooks and stagnant water.</p> + +<p>But though motionless and torpid, so long as the sun is above the +horizon, woodcocks are always on the alert, and wake and shake their +feathers the moment night comes; leaving the shady thickets and grassy +spots, they flock to the glades and little paths of the woods, and +thrust their long beaks into the soft, damp soil—for this bird, be it +remembered, never touches either corn or fruit, but lives entirely upon +grubs and earth-worms.</p> + +<p>It naturally follows that the woodcock, which finds its food in slimy +marshes, with head bent, and eyes fixed upon the ground, possesses none +of the gaiety and vivacity of other birds, holds but a very low place in +the scale of animal intelligence, and possesses a large share of that +stupidity peculiar to the dull species that were formed to live in the +mire.</p> + +<p>The size of the woodcock varies exceedingly; they are much smaller than +the domestic fowl, but heavier<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> and larger than the heath partridge; yet +there are some which are as small as a wood-pigeon, and even less. Their +plumage is dark, and harmonizes admirably with the trunks of the trees +and moss amongst which they dwell. Even in the daylight, and at a +distance of only twenty paces, it is impossible to distinguish a +woodcock, as it lies motionless, with closed wings, and neck extended on +the ground, amongst the withered leaves.</p> + +<p>When walking on the grass, there is a certain elegance in its movements, +while the beautiful <i>chiar' oscuro</i> tints of its wings, the gray and +orange hues on its breast, its long black legs streaked with pink, its +large beak, small head, and symmetrical proportions, combine to render +it a bird of no ordinary beauty. Though its eyes are piercing and very +open, the woodcock only sees distinctly at twilight, and its flight is +never so even or so rapid, nor its motions so brisk, or its gait so +regular, as at nightfall or at dawn of day.</p> + +<p>The flesh is black, firm, and of a game flavour, and, with the wise, is +a most dainty morsel, a royal tit-bit. But dogs think differently, and +have such an aversion to its smell, that they hunt, seize, and bring it +back much against their will; and, difficult as it may be to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> account +for this antipathy, it seems to be as inherent in canine nature, as the +antipathy which all ladies show to contradiction is in the human.</p> + +<p>Far removed from the strife that occasionally rages amidst the feathered +tribes of the forest, or the more formidable struggles of its +four-footed inhabitants, whose howls occasionally startle the silence of +night, and quite indifferent as to whether a fox or a wolf is seated on +the sylvan throne, the woodcock, like a true philosopher, in the depths +of the thicket, leads a calm and sedentary life, requiring no other +elements of happiness than moonlight, rest, and a few worms. Its tastes +are so humble, its wants so few; it mixes so little with the world, and +is so ignorant of all intrigue, that nothing can exceed its innocence. +Like those honest country-folks who can never manage to shake off their +native simplicity, its instinct never puts it on its guard against a +snare, and consequently it falls into the first that is set for it.</p> + +<p>A complete stranger to the fierce emotions that excite the savage nature +of those animals that live constantly at war with one another, the +peaceful woodcock—the bird of twilight—is startled by the least noise, +and stunned by the slightest accident. Many a time, at dawn of day, when +lying in wait<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> for the passage of a fox, a roebuck, or a wolf, have I +seen two, three, four, even five woodcocks slowly issue from their leafy +covert, and advance with measured step towards the open glade, +apparently without imagining that by leaving the shade of the trees they +were exposing themselves to being seen. On they walked, searching by the +way, plunging from time to time their long beaks into the grass, and +shaking their heads right and left to enlarge the hole, they breakfasted +luxuriously on the worms that crept out of it.</p> + +<p>Concealed behind an oak-tree, I have sometimes been highly amused by +watching their motions, nor had I the least wish to disturb them, not +caring to rouse the echoes of the forest for such insignificant game. So +the woodcocks went on with their manœuvres, holding down their heads, +with eyes intent upon the grass, evidently engrossed by their own +occupation. In this manner they unconsciously advanced close to me, when +suddenly rising from the ground I gave a loud shout, at which the +startled birds were so panic-struck that they literally fell down, and +fluttering their wings, without having the power to fly, looked at me +with rolling eye-balls, while their beaks opened as if to call for help, +emitting nothing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> but inarticulate sounds, that seemed so many prayers +for mercy. Somewhat relieved of their worst fears, on perceiving that I +had no evil intentions, they rushed away head over heels, and sought +refuge under their favourite roots. The recollection of this scene, +which only lasted seven or eight seconds, has often made me laugh.</p> + +<p>Yet notwithstanding this general want of presence of mind, the woodcock +displays some cunning in extreme danger,—such as when the shot is +whistling past its feathers, or when the hawk is wheeling about in the +air above its head; its faculties then seem to awaken, its blood +circulates more freely, a spark of intelligence seems to flash across +its usually obtuse brain, and the magnitude of the peril suggests an +excellent means of escaping from its enemies. During the daytime, for +instance, when, snugly ensconced in its hole, and with its ear close to +the ground, the woodcock hears you approach from afar, instead of rising +and taking refuge amongst the trunks of the surrounding trees, it first +reflects solemnly whether it is worth while to disturb itself for so +slight a noise, and quit its leafy bed, where it lies so warm and +comfortable. After all, it may be only a hare running past—or perhaps a +roebuck grazing in the neighbourhood—so the woodcock<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> waits, then +listens, then stands up and begins to move; on hearing your thick shoes +trampling the withered branches, it stands motionless, not daring to +stir, nor can it make up its mind to fly until it feels the breath of +your dog. Then it rises rapidly enough.</p> + +<p>It flies straight, but its flight is not even, and at the distance of +about fifty paces, and just as you are going to fire, the woodcock, well +aware that the sportsman's eye is upon it, and shrewdly guessing that +thunder and lightning is about to follow, changes his tactics, and +lowering its flight, so as to avoid the mortal aim, suddenly plunges +down behind a bush. The sportsman, who, not aware of this specious +manœuvre, fires at this juncture, thinks the bird has fallen dead, +and forthwith runs to pick it up, but no woodcock can he find; for on +raising his eyes, lo! and behold, he sees the provoking bird some five +hundred paces distant, cleaving the air with sails full set; and as his +eyes follow it still further, he perceives it flying with all its might, +ever and anon prudently ducking down to avoid the second barrel.</p> + +<p>This is one of the woodcock's best stratagems, and it succeeds ten times +out of twelve, at least with the tyros among sportsmen.</p> + +<p>When fairly tired by its flight, the woodcock drops<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> into the underwood, +and is then completely lost to the sportsman; for, once on the ground, +it runs with the greatest celerity, its wings working rapidly like a +couple of paddles, and vanishing beneath the leaves, falls fainting into +some snug corner.</p> + +<p>In Brittany and in Lower Normandy this ornament of the table and delight +of the sportsman is found in great numbers at a certain season of the +year. In Picardy, and in the neighbourhood of Boulogne, I have sometimes +knocked over as many as twenty woodcocks in one day, while on the morrow +and the day following I could not flush three. Such is not the case in +Le Morvan, where they are, as we have before remarked, to be found all +the year round; the proper seasons, however, for shooting them are +three. These are, the month of November, before the rains set in; the +month of April, when they mate; and the sultry months of June and July; +the period of drought and of the dog-days. In the interim of these +epochs they are allowed to enjoy themselves, and suffered to fatten +quietly in their dark thickets. I shall, therefore, only notice these +three periods.</p> + +<p>In foggy or cloudy nights, when the branches of the trees are dripping +wet, the woodcock, ensconced in its hole, feels no hunger, moves not, +and would not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> venture abroad for love or money; but should the sky +prove clear, and the moon shine forth, lighting up the forest paths, the +delighted bird steals from its dwelling, shakes its feathers, and +sallies forth on its adventures. For the woodcock, like poets and +lovers, is fond of the moonlight and the sweet perfumes of evening. +Hence it is that sportsmen in France call the full moon of November "the +woodcock's moon," and they hail its appearance with as much rejoicing as +do the foxes, wild cats, and poachers, all of whom make sad havoc +amongst the long-beaked tribe during this fatal period.</p> + +<p>The woodcock has been described as an idle, heavy, timid, and stupid +bird, which passes the greater portion of the day in lethargic slumbers, +in gazing at the south, at the growing grass, or the falling leaves; +rejoicing only in silence and solitude; and such is the case during nine +months of the year. In the spring, however, it is quite otherwise; the +woodcock then mates, and, ere April showers have passed away, becomes +animated, sociable, and full of life; and, more extraordinary still, its +voice, till then mute, may actually be heard.</p> + +<p>Yes, at this delightful season the woodcock is no longer silent, its +tongue is loosened, it breathes its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> tale of love, and, with joyful +notes, proclaims its happiness morning and night; and yet there are +those who would make us believe that the tender passion is useless, that +love is tom-foolery, or that it does not exist. To these blind +blasphemers, who thus deny its power, I would respectfully say, Come to +Le Morvan, and observe the woodcock, and then dare to say that love is +an untruth. Why, love is the great magician of the universe, the sun of +our minds, a path of fragrant violets, a perfect copse of <i>millefleurs</i>, +before which we all bend our hearts, aye, and, with vastly few +exceptions, our heads too. Yes, we all, at some period of our lives, +taste the delicious draught, and some drink deep of it, either to their +life-long happiness or the reverse. Love effects many a miracle, changes +everything, bows the neck of the proud, opens the eyes of the blind, and +shuts them for those who have very good sight; teaches the dumb to +speak, and those who are very loquacious to be silent. When the rosy and +naked little boy makes his appearance with his quiver, all is joy and +unreflecting happiness; when he is at home with his mamma, alas! the +world is all in shadow. The woodcocks, in like manner, are amiable, +eloquent, and engaging as long as the fumes of love affect their brain; +but when these are dissipated, they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> are dumb, and ten times more stupid +than they were before; and, dear me, how many human woodcocks, robed in +satin and balzarine, or sheathed in kerseymere trousers, are the same.</p> + +<p>But, shades of Buffon and Linnæus! we must not thus rattle on, but +proceed to describe the nuptial couch of the delicious bird under our +consideration. The woodcock, like all those of the feathered tribe that +do not perch, makes its nest on the ground, which is composed of leaves, +fern, and dry grass, intermixed with little bits of stick, and +strengthened by larger pieces placed across it. This nest, made without +much art or care, in form like a large brown ball, is generally placed +under, and sheltered by the root of some old tree. Four or five eggs, a +little larger than those of the common pigeon, of a dirty gray and +yellow colour, and marked with little black spots, are the proofs of its +maternity. The woodcock, as I have before remarked, has only the gift of +talking in the spring season, when soft breezes fan the air, and they +educate their young. Nevertheless, it is in this season that +woodcock-shooting is the most amusing. Then is the time for gentlemen to +shoot; the <i>braconnier</i> despises it. From the middle of April to that of +May is the important epoch at which the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> generality of animals marry, +and the woodcocks are not behindhand in this respect; they leave their +well-concealed retreats, become humanized, solicit the attentions of +their feathered ladies, and fly with gay inspirations amongst the +neighbouring bushes. But though as much in love as a widow, the woodcock +does not on that account forget its habitual prudence; like the usurer +who lends his money, and takes every precaution, the woodcock is equally +careful, and does not leave its nest till twilight has draped the earth +in the gray mantle of evening. When the humid atmosphere descends slowly +on the trees, when the cool breezes of night ascend the valleys, when +distant objects begin to assume a fantastic shape, when the branches of +the oak near you, like the arms of a giant, wave to and fro, and seem to +ask you to approach; when the withered tree, devoid of leaves, looks +like a brigand on the watch, or your comrade, ensconced against it, +seems to form a portion of it at a hundred yards off; when, in short, +the sportsman can see only a few yards before him, then is the moment +that the circumspect and wily woodcock leaves its abode, and pays a +nocturnal visit to his friends; and man, his enemy, and still more +cunning, is on the alert. The sport which we are about to describe, and +which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> does not last longer than from thirty to forty minutes, has +something particularly taking in it. At the close of day a universal +silence reigns in the forest, and every sportsman is at his post with +bated breath, and eyes dilated as wide as a woman's listening to a +neighbouring gossip's tale, when, all at once—pray note this well, +reader—a little fly, which plays a prominent part in all sport <i>à +l'affût</i> (in ambush)—a little fly, about the size of a pea, regularly +makes its appearance, and wheeling round your head, fidgets you for five +minutes with its buzzing b-r-r-r-r-r-r-oo. In this way the little insect +informs you the woodcocks have left the underwood, that they are +approaching, and that it hears them coming; and odd or marvellous as it +may seem, this signal of the little fly, which never misleads you—this +signal which falls upon your ear just at the proper and precise moment, +is as certain as that two and two make four. Be not sceptical, and +imagine that this is chance; no such thing. Go when you will to the +<i>chasse à l'affût</i>, station yourself in whichever part of the forest you +like, be assured the fly will be there; it was never otherwise. The +question is, who sends the fly? how does it know the sportsman? and by +what mysterious chronometer does it regulate with such exactness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> its +movements? <i>Chi lo sa?</i> He who doth not let a sparrow fall to the ground +without He willeth it. Equally incomprehensible is the departure of this +little insect, which, the concert over, and when you are thoroughly on +the <i>qui vive</i>, ceases its buzz, and is heard no more. At this very +moment, the silence in which you have till then remained is suddenly +broken by shouts of "They come! they come!" quickly followed by bang, +bang, bang along the glade; and here indeed they are, at first by twos +and threes, and then a compact flight, whirling along with appealing +cries of love, fluttering, and flapping their wings, and pursuing one +another from bush to bush. They show now neither fear nor +circumspection, and crazy, blind, and deaf, scarcely seem to notice the +noise, the flashes, or the cries of the sportsmen. At length all is in +complete confusion. They toss and twirl about like great leaves in a +hurricane, and finally fly, with their ranks somewhat diminished, to +their several homes. This sport lasts but a short half-hour; after +which, the woodcocks having said all they had to say, made and accepted +their engagements for the following day, vanish as if by magic, like the +puff of a cigar, a shadow, or a royal promise, and the same silence that +preceded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> their arrival reigns once more in the forest. No gun is loaded +after their departure; the sportsmen assemble, count the dead, never so +numerous, as one might suppose, and having bagged them, also retire from +the scene. I have known one person kill four couple of woodcocks in this +manner, but it was quite an exceptional case; two or three is nearer the +usual number. Chance, as in war, in marriage, in everything, is +frequently the secret of success; but if you are not cool and collected, +and handy with your gun, you will scarce carry a <i>salmi</i> home to your +expectant friends. To the young sportsman, the novelty, confusion, and +hubbub of these evening shooting-parties are perfectly bewildering; +Parisian cockneys, above all, are quite beside themselves, shutting +first one eye and then the other, firing, of course, without having +taken any aim, and eventually beating a retreat without a feather in +their game-bags. But to the veteran, this fevered half-hour, this brief +<i>chasse</i>, is most delightful; everything conspires to make it lively and +exciting. The party, ten or twelve jolly dogs, have generally dined +together, and the onslaught over, they all return by the pale moonlight, +shoulder to shoulder, singing snatches of some old hunting-song, the +stars overhead and the woodcocks on their backs. A young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> Parisian and +college friend of mine, Adolphe Gustave de——, very rich and very +witty, whom, after many unsuccessful attempts, I induced to leave the +capital, and pass six months with me in the deserts, as he called them, +of Le Morvan, loved this species of sport intensely, though he never +shot anything. His bag, however, was always better filled than that of +any of his comrades, for though a wretched shot, he had the wit to stand +near a good one, and as he was wonderfully quick with his legs, eyes, +and fingers, he was constantly picking up his neighbour's birds, vowing +all the time they were his own shooting.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Fine names—Gustavus Adolphus and the cabbages—Gustavus Adolphus! +no hero!—The Parisian Sportsman—Partridge-shooting +despicable—Wild boar-hunting—Rousing the grisly monster—His +approach—The post of honour—Good nerves—The death—The trophy +and congratulations. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Few</span> persons well acquainted with France can have failed to observe how +fond the lower orders, indeed all classes, are of giving high-sounding +names to their children; and it is sometimes truly amusing to notice the +strange upset of associations which in consequence jar the auricular +nerve, and illustrate the singularly exalted notions of the godfathers +and godmothers. "Gustave Adolphe!" I once heard an old cook vociferate +from the kitchen of a small inn to a boy in the yard. "Gustave Adolphe!" +shrieked the aged heroine of the sauce-pans, pitching her voice in A +alto, "<i>Coupez donc les choux!</i>" Cutting cabbages! What an antithesis to +the glorious victor of Lutzen. The remark will apply with equal force to +the Gustave Adolphe of the last chapter, though on a different point, +and the contrast between the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> great Gustavus and he of Paris, was most +diverting. My accomplished friend, a charming dancer, a <i>beau parleur</i>, +a first-rate singer, who made sad havoc among the fresh and fair +gazelles of every ballroom, this tremendous <i>chasseur-de-salon</i>, I very +soon perceived, was by no means so tremendous in the stubbles;—a covey +fairly startled him, and if a hare rose between his legs he turned quite +pale.</p> + +<p>"My good fellow," I said to him one day, seeing his extraordinary +trepidation, "if you are so staggered by a covey of partridges, what in +the world will you do when I set you face to face with a wolf or a wild +boar?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! that is a very different affair. A wolf or a wild boar? Why, I +should kill one and eat the other, of course."</p> + +<p>"Not so easy," I should think, "for a novice like you."</p> + +<p>"Novice, indeed! me a novice. Oh! you are quite in error. The fact is, +these devils of birds and rabbits lie hidden, do you see, under the +grass like frogs, one never knows where; so that I never see them till +they are all but in my eyes, or cutting capers like Taglioni's under my +feet, and your dogs putting out their tongues, and staring at me."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p><p>"Why, of course they do; the intelligent brutes are ready to expire at +your awkwardness."</p> + +<p>"Much obliged to you for the compliment. Again, you say, they turn their +tails to the right by way of telling me that I am to go to the left; and +to the left, when I am to walk to the right. Who, I ask you, is to +understand such telegraphs as these? I have not yet learned how to +converse with dogs' tails—intelligence, indeed! I believe it is all +humbug; for, when my whole soul is absorbed in watching the tips of +these very tails, a crowd of partridges jump up just in front of me, +making as much noise as if they were drummers beating the retreat. If I +am hurried and stupefied"....</p> + +<p>"And if," I added, "you are much disposed to throw down your gun as to +fire it."</p> + +<p>"Well! supposing I am; what is the wonder? 'Tis no fault of mine—I am +not used to partridge-shooting! I am not a wild man of the woods, like +you! I did not cut my teeth gnawing a cartridge, as you did!"</p> + +<p>"Come, come! don't be affronted."</p> + +<p>"Affronted? No; but you have no consideration. You're a Robin Hood, an +exterminator! if you look at one partridge, you kill four! You sleep +with your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> rifle, turn your game-bag into a nightcap, and shave with a +<i>couteau-de-chasse</i>!"</p> + +<p>"May be so! but let us have the fact."</p> + +<p>"The fact! Then I hate your long-tailed dogs, and your detestable +flights of noisy birds! Let me have them one by one, like larks in the +plain of St. Denis, and I'll soon clear the province for you."</p> + +<p>"Upon my word, Adolphe, we should have something to thank you for!"</p> + +<p>"I tell you what, Henri; those partridges, after all, are trumpery +things to kill. 'Tis mere hurry that prevents my hitting them. Don't +imagine I am frightened! If you wish to give me real pleasure, let us go +to India and shoot a lion or a tiger;—give me a chance with an +elephant!"</p> + +<p>"Willingly; but allow me to suggest, that if we set out for India, we +shall not get back in time for dinner."</p> + +<p>"We will keep in Europe, then; but, at least, show me some game worthy +of me. A serpent—I will cut him in two at a stroke. A bull—I will soon +send a brace of balls into him."</p> + +<p>"Well done! just like a Parisian."</p> + +<p>"Parisian! Pray what do you mean by that?"</p> + +<p>"A boaster, if you prefer the word."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p><p>"Ha! ha! a boaster, indeed! Do you mean to say that I'm afraid of a +bull?"</p> + +<p>"Of course not. However, as there are no bulls here, I will send the +head <i>piqueur</i> upon the track of a wild boar which was seen near the +chateau last night; he will exactly suit you. I consider him as doomed."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Henri; thank you; the moment I am fairly in front of him, I +shall fire at his eyes, and no doubt lodge both balls in them. Poor +Belisarius! how he will charge me in his agony! but I shall retire, +reload, and then, having drawn my hunting-knife, dispatch him without +further ceremony."</p> + +<p>"Never fear, you shall have the post of honour; and if you do not turn +upon your heel, why, my dear friend, you will rise at least a dozen pegs +in my estimation."</p> + +<p>"Turn on my heel! you little know me; and then, what a sensation I shall +create in Paris with my boar's skin. I'll have it stuffed, gild his +tusks, and silver-mount his hoofs. I shall be quite the hero of the +<i>salons</i>."</p> + +<p>That very afternoon orders were given to the head-keeper to send the +<i>traqueurs</i> into the forest on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> the following day, and on their return, +they announced that not only traces of wild boar had been met with, but +one had actually been seen. Great were the preparations and cleaning of +rifles and <i>couteaux-de-chasse</i> when this intelligence was received; +but, in spite of his assumed composure, Adolphe's ardour seemed +considerably to diminish, and the conversation that evening over the +fire was not calculated to inspire him with fresh courage.</p> + +<p>"How very soon they find the boar!" said he to me. "Tell me how the +affair commences."</p> + +<p>"Why these <i>traqueurs</i> are not long in discovering him. They know +exactly where to look for one, for they study their habits; the traces +of the grisly rascal are seen by them immediately; they mark his +favourite paths, the thickets he prefers, the marshy ground in which he +delights to wallow, and then as to the times he is likely to be seen, +they can tell almost to a minute when he will pass,—for the wild boar +is very methodical, and an excellent time-piece. The animal, therefore, +having been traced, and his retreat carefully ascertained, a day is +fixed, and each person having been assigned a separate post, remains +watching for his appearance on his way to or from his haunt."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p><p>"Oh! of course, they merely watch and wait," replied Adolphe, with a +hollow, unmeaning laugh.</p> + +<p>"Yes; but you don't suppose that a boar will allow himself to be killed +as easily as a squirrel. I fear, in spite of all your professions, you +will find it not so agreeable a sport as shooting larks on the plain of +St. Denis. The bristly fellow who comes trotting and grunting towards +you, showing his teeth, stopping occasionally to sharpen them against +the root of some old oak, is not generally in the best of humours; but +you can, at any rate, reckon upon the great advantage,—the want of +which you deprecate in partridge-shooting. For instance, you cannot fail +to see him; you have notice of his coming; you are not taken off your +guard, and they very seldom appear but one at a time. It is a combat +face to face, and his, with two long prominent teeth, so unfortunate in +a woman, and positively hideous in a boar, effectually warns you that it +is well you should be prepared to receive him. But the excitement is +grand; after the volley every one is at him with his knife, and, with +the exception of a few inexperienced dogs, and a Parisian novice like +yourself, who, of course, are occasionally put <i>hors de combat</i>, the +affair ends gloriously.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> Yes, yes, I am beginning to think you are +right, Adolphe; partridge-shooting and knocking over a timid hare is +very cowardly sport."</p> + +<p>The <i>traqueurs</i> also, whom Adolphe catechised, in the hope of preserving +his own skin entire at the same time, though they gave him all sorts of +good advice, failed not to add to it, as people of their class generally +do, a budget of most fearful histories and hair-breadth escapes—of +horses and dogs ripped open, and men killed or gored; but that which put +a finishing-stroke to Adolphe's courage, was the entrance of a friend of +mine, who had himself been a sad sufferer in one of these adventures. +Wounded, but not mortally, the boar had charged him before he could +reload, tearing up with his tusk the inside of his thigh; and, as he lay +insensible on the ground, gnawing one of his calves off before any one +could come to his assistance. During the next two months death shook him +by the hand in vain, for he had fortunately an excellent constitution; +"And, though the proportions of his left leg," whispered I, "have been +restored by a slice out of a friendly cork-tree, he is, as you see, +quite recovered."</p> + +<p>"True enough!" said the new arrival, who had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> overheard the concluding +remark, "and if you have any doubts, Sir, I will show you my leg;" but +Adolphe, thoroughly convinced, declined the offer, and retired to his +room for the night.</p> + +<p>The dawn was yet gray, when the court-yard of the Château d'Erveau +presented a very animated appearance; horses, dogs, and beaters were +walking up and down, neighing, yelping, and conversing,—the huntsman +every now and then winding his horn, giving notice to the inmates that +all was ready. The morning was superb, and as the party filed out of the +yard, doffing their beavers to the ladies, who, screened behind their +window-curtains, dared not return their salute, Adolphe was a little +reassured. Long, however, before they reached their hunting-ground, his +chivalrous feelings had so far forsaken him, that he had serious +thoughts of returning, on the plea of indisposition.</p> + +<p>"Why do you lag so far behind?" said I, riding up to him at this +juncture, "why your nose is quite white. Nay, don't blush; braver men +than you have felt far from comfortable the first time they went +boar-hunting. You are afraid. Come, don't deny it; but, never mind, I +will not quit you for a moment."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p><p>"With all my heart; for, though I cannot exactly say I am afraid, yet +that infernal cork-leg is continually dancing before my eyes."</p> + +<p>"I have not the least doubt of it; and, by Terpsichore! what a pretty +thing it would be to see the handsome Gustave Adolphe de M—— dancing +polkas and redowas in the drawing-rooms of the Faubourg St. Germain with +a cork-leg or a gutta-percha calf! The very idea gives me the cramp in +every toe."</p> + +<p>Conversing much in the same strain, the eight <i>chasseurs</i> arrived at the +rendezvous, where they dismounted. The beaters and <i>gardes-de-chasse</i> +were all at their posts, and on the alert to the movements of the boar, +and as we advanced deeper in the forest, the conversation, which had +been so lively on our setting forth, flagged, and at length subsided +into an occasional remark on the obstacles which impeded our progress. +Nothing renders a man more reserved than his approach to an anticipated +danger. I looked askance at Adolphe, and saw that his teeth rattled like +castanets; and when the foremost keepers, in doubt as to the track, blew +a plaintive note, which, ere it died away, was answered by another in +the distance, showing that we were in the right one,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> Adolphe's +breathing became stentorious behind me. And then as the branches and +hazel twigs, through which we forced our way more rapidly, flew back and +struck him in the face, he supplicated me to stop.</p> + +<p>"Not so fast, my dear friend, not so fast! Have mercy on my Parisian +legs! Misericorde! I cannot proceed. Do stop! There, my nose is skinned +by that last branch! Good—there, my breeches are breaking! For pity's +sake, stop!" But to stop was impossible; and I remained silent, having +quite enough to do looking out for myself. At length we arrived at the +appointed spot. Adolphe, in a state bordering on the crazy, his clothes +in shreds, his face and hands bleeding from the thorns, anger in his +blood, and perspiration on his brow, his furious eyes looked at me as if +I had been the author of his misfortunes. And here a scene would most +undoubtedly have ensued, but happily the head <i>piqueur</i> arrived, +informing us that the boar was in a thick patch of underwood, about two +miles from thence, in which he was supposed to be taking his mid-day +<i>siesta</i>, and that a number of peasants having headed him on one side, +he could not well escape. Our measures were quickly taken.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p><p>"Serpolet," said I to the <i>piqueur</i>, "have you seen the animal?"</p> + +<p>"At a distance, Monsieur."</p> + +<p>"What is he like?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! a tremendous fellow—long legs, enormous head, large tusks, and +such a muzzle!—he breaks through everything. A fortunate thing, +Monsieur, the dogs were not with us."</p> + +<p>"Well!" said I to my father, "of course this gentleman is to have the +place of honour."</p> + +<p>"The place of honour!" cried Adolphe, "which is the place of honour?"</p> + +<p>"Why, the most dangerous to be sure," replied my father, "the third or +fourth post from where he breaks cover. The first or second shots seldom +kill him; wounded, he continues his course, and, savage and ferocious, +generally turns upon the third or fourth <i>chasseur</i>, at whom, with +lowered head and glaring eye, he charges in full career. Oh! it is then +a splendid sight, worth all the journey from Paris! Forward, my lads, +forward! Hurrah! for the boar!"</p> + +<p>"And thus—" groaned Adolphe, with thickened speech, not at all charmed +with this description of his onset.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p><p>"And thus," remarked my father, with a bow of the old <i>régime</i>, "you +shall be fourth, and you will see the sturdy grunter in all his beauty. +Come, my boys! a glass of the cognac all round; then silence, and each +to his post. Here, Serpolet, forward with them, and remember, gentlemen, +the word of command is 'Prudence and coolness!' Off! and may your stout +hearts protect you!"</p> + +<p>Then filing out from the glade where we had halted, each of us proceeded +to his destination, the valiant Adolphe following Serpolet like a dog +going to be drowned.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur," said Serpolet, "you don't seem used to this fun; let a +graybeard and an old huntsman advise you. I have seen the +animal—actually seen him—a terrible boar, I promise you, as black as +ink, clean legs, and ears well apart,—all true signs of courage. As +sure as my name is Serpolet, he will make mince-meat of us—sure to +charge. Take my advice, Monsieur; never mind what the gentlemen say +about waiting; don't you let him get nearer to you than five-and-twenty +paces; if not, in three bounds he will be at you; and in another second +you will be opened like an oyster. Take care, Monsieur!"—and, wishing +him success, Serpolet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> joined the beaters, who were waiting, all ready +to advance.</p> + +<p>"What shall we do?" said Adolphe as soon as he was gone.</p> + +<p>"Do, why, take a look about us."</p> + +<p>We were in a kind of low, open glade, about eighty paces in length, with +an immense oak in the centre—a solitary spot, full of thick rushes, +tufts of grass, brambles, and matted roots; in short, just the place +that a boar would make his head-quarters. Adolphe accompanied me step by +step, examined me from head to foot, and looked in my face as if he +would read my every thought.</p> + +<p>"Well, Adolphe," said I, after I had considered the principal points of +our position, "the moment has at length arrived when you must draw your +courage from the scabbard; and I hope it will shine like the light, for +something tells me you will require it ere long."</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what; I beg you will not commence any of your long +orations."</p> + +<p>"If I talk to you now, it is because I shall not be able in a few +minutes. Pay attention, therefore, to my instructions. Remain, I advise +you, behind this oak, then you will have nothing to fear, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> be sure +not to leave it. I will place myself at the angle down yonder."</p> + +<p>"Down there! Why you said you would not leave me for an instant."</p> + +<p>"Come, come, don't be absurd; the moments are precious; you see I shall +only be distant an hundred yards."</p> + +<p>"An hundred yards! I tell you what—if you go ten yards, I go too."</p> + +<p>"What! are you afraid? We are alone; come, be frank."</p> + +<p>"No! I am not afraid, but my nerves are shaken; I am thoroughly done up +with the scramble we have had through these woods; and then that rascal +Serpolet, who prophesied that I shall be opened like an oyster—you +shall not go, for I feel sure that when this brute of a boar makes his +appearance, I shall be unable to look him in the face."</p> + +<p>"My dear friend, I will do as you desire. We have still half an hour to +wait; but remember, no imprudence—and if you should see my finger +raised, mind, not a word or a sign."</p> + +<p>As I uttered this apostrophe, a long and harmonious note from the +head-keeper's horn, vibrating in the distance, came and died away upon +our ears;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> after which, a confused clamour of voices arose, and as +suddenly ceased.</p> + +<p>"Hurrah! hurrah!" said I; "the <i>traqueurs</i> are on the move, the curtain +is raised, the play is about to commence—and, dear friend, be silent as +death, for the actor will soon make his appearance on the stage."</p> + +<p>During the next ten minutes, a murmur of voices and confused sounds were +again borne on the wind to the two sportsmen, announcing that the line +of beaters was steadily advancing, and now they could distinctly hear +them at intervals, striking the trunks of the trees with their long +iron-shod poles, thrusting them in the underwood, and shouting in chorus +the song of the boar.</p> + +<p>Again the horn is heard; but now its notes are sharp, shrill, jerking +and hurried.</p> + +<p>"That, my good Adolphe, denotes that the boar has risen, has been driven +from his lair, is in view, flying before the beaters, and I am very much +mistaken if he does not ere long pay us a visit."</p> + +<p>Another blast is heard, but in very different tones to the last, and +silence is again spread over the forest.</p> + +<p>"There, Adolphe—there's a joyous and melodious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> note; it tells me that +the monster is following his usual paths—we are sure to see him soon. +By St. Hubert, what lucky dogs we are!"</p> + +<p>But the Parisian answered not, and leaned against his oak, a perfect +picture of despair.</p> + +<p>"Adolphe," I reiterated, "he won't be here yet, but speak low, or we may +spoil everything. How do you feel? Do you think you can take good aim, +and pull the trigger?"</p> + +<p>"I feel," whispered Adolphe, "that I am not cut out for boar-hunting."</p> + +<p>"Bah! Why, the other day you seemed to think it would be delightful, and +now you don't appear to like the sport; keep your heart up, be cool, and +all will be well;—it is only on grand occasions—those when real danger +presents itself, as you told me the other day—that the proofs of +undoubted courage show themselves; and then the ladies of the Faubourg +St. Germain that you were to soften with your tales of forest +life—'Mademoiselles,' you were to commence, 'when I was in Le Morvan, +we had famous wolf and boar-hunting, and on one occasion'"....</p> + +<p>"No! no!" groaned the Parisian, "I shall commence thus: On one occasion, +nay, ladies, on all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> occasions, I much prefer being in your delightful +society to that of the boars of Le Morvan."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, good Adolphe, you are laughing; why, you were to have the +skin stuffed, the tusks gilt, the feet silver-mounted, and the tail was +to be scarlet and curly. What! do you think no more about it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! and of the cork calves also."</p> + +<p>"Pooh! have we not two good hunting-knives and four iron bullets in the +rifles, and a magnificent oak, a perfect wooden tower, for a +breastwork."</p> + +<p>"Yes! we have all this."</p> + +<p>"And is not courage your father, and an excellent aim your mother, and +is not death to the boar in our barrels?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly!—death—oh! what a word at such a crisis!"—and on the +instant two shots were heard, which made him jump again.</p> + +<p>"Ah! ah!—good; that's the old gentleman who has led off the ball; the +music of his rifle is not to be mistaken. The grisly vagabond has by +this time two bits of iron in his flanks, which will considerably hasten +his march. Silence! and be on the <i>qui vive</i>. Listen! Hear you not the +distant crash in the bushes?" Two fresh shots were now fired, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +nearer. "Said I not so? he is running the gauntlet—one more shot. Hush +again! there he is, tearing along. Hark! not a whisper; your eye on the +open, your ear to the wind, and your finger on the trigger!" But it was +not the boar; for at the moment two roebucks and a fox broke near us, +bounding along at full speed, when Adolphe, his face as pale as his +cambric shirt, muttered, as he nearly fell upon his knees—"Oh! +Paris—oh! Chevet—oh! Boulevard des Italiens—I shall never see ye +more!"</p> + +<p>"Why, Adolphe! what the deuce is the matter with you? in the name of +France, be a man. If my time is to be taken up with looking after you, I +shall be in a nice situation. No nonsense—no useless fears? Do you, or +do you not feel able to take part in the approaching drama?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't—I only just feel able to get up this tree."</p> + +<p>"What! are you in such a funk as all that? Why, what a poor creature you +must be! You are the very incarnation of fear!"</p> + +<p>"Fear? I have no fear. Who says that I have? I don't know how it is, but +I certainly do feel something—a sort of qualm, something like +sea-sickness—everything seems going round—no doubt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> a sudden +indisposition—such a thing might happen to the bravest man—Napoleon, +they say, was bilious at Borodino. We part for a few minutes only, dear +friend; I shall ascend the oak—an English king once did the same."</p> + +<p>Another blast of the keeper's horn was now heard on the left.</p> + +<p>"What does that mean?" cried Adolphe, one leg in the air.</p> + +<p>"That signifies, the boar is making right for us."</p> + +<p>"Does it? Then I am up;" and, with the agility of a cat, he was in an +instant safely lodged in the branches. "Ah! my friend! how different it +feels up here—the sickness is quite gone off, hand me the gun."</p> + +<p>"In the name of Fortune," said I, "hold your coward tongue—here's the +boar;" for I could now hear his snorting and loud breathing in the copse +hard by.</p> + +<p>"Do you hear him?" said Adolphe from his perch, his cheeks as green as +the leaves which covered him.</p> + +<p>"Hear him?" I exclaimed, "yes, I partly see him. What a monster! How he +tears the ground!—how he bleeds and gnaws his burning wounds!—every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +hair of his back stands up, smoke and perspiration flow from his +nostrils, and his eyes, glaring with agony and concentrated rage, look +as if they would start from their sockets!"</p> + +<p>On came the beaters, and in a few minutes the panting beast burst from +his thicket, and rushed across the open; my eye was on every movement, +and, firing both barrels, the contents struck him full in front. It was +his death-blow, but the vital principle was yet unsubdued; and, +summoning up all his dying energies—those which despair alone can +give—he came at me with a force that I could never have withstood. +Fortunately the Parisian's gun was close to me, and the charge stopped +him in full career. This was the <i>coup de grâce</i>. He still, however, by +one grand effort, stood nobly on his haunches, opened his monstrous +mouth, all red with blood, gave out one sharp deep groan of agony from +his stifled lungs, and, falling upon his side, after many a wild +convulsion, at length stretched his massive and exhausted frame slowly +out in death.</p> + +<p>"Hurrah! Adolphe! you rascally acorn! shout, you <i>badaud</i>! give the +death-whoop, and come down!"</p> + +<p>"Is he really dead?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p><p>"Dead! Why, don't you see he is? Come down I say—come, descend from +your Belvedere—the farce is played out, and your legs are all right. +You are a rank coward! however, no one is aware of it but me. Don't let +others see it!" and in a minute Adolphe was at my side.</p> + +<p>"Listen, you fire-eater! and I will make you a hero, though you could +not manage to make yourself one. There were four shots fired; now, take +your gun, and remember that the two first, those ghastly holes in the +chest, were your handiwork—do you hear?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but what a horrible morning! what a brute! what a savage country!"</p> + +<p>"True, it is not like the Boulevard des Italiens;" and a few minutes +after, Adolphe received, with some confusion, attributed to modesty, the +congratulations of all the party. This diffidence, as it may be +imagined, did not last long; his assurance soon returned, and the +hurrahs had scarcely died away, before he had imagined and given a very +graphic description of the last moments of the gallant boar. His toilet +made, the monstrous carcass was placed upon a litter, hastily +constructed with the branches of a tree, and the peasants, hoisting it +on their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> shoulders, bore the deceased monarch of the woods in triumph +to the chateau.</p> + +<p>In the evening, Adolphe's self-satisfaction was completed by an ovation +from the ladies, who bestowed upon him the most flattering epithets. +From the prettiest lips I heard, "What! this Parisian! this pale and +slender young man, with such delicate hands and rose-coloured nails, +fought face to face with this terrible beast? Admirable! And he was not +frightened?"</p> + +<p>"Frightened, ladies," said I, "why he was smoking a cigar all the time!" +And the secret was so well kept, and Adolphe so bepraised, that I am +sure had I felt disposed to throw a doubt upon the circumstances, he +would have stoutly contended that he really did kill the animal himself; +and, to say the truth, he was to a certain extent authorized to say so, +for the head, handsomely decorated, was sent to his mother, the +following words having been nicely printed on the tusks:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="noin">"Killed by Gustave Adolphe de M. the 15th of August, 18—." </p></div> + +<p>In the course of time Adolphe's nerves improved so much that he could +manage to knock down a leash of birds, or roll over a hare; but boars +and wolves he declined to have anything further to do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> with; and when I +met him by accident some years after, in the presence of mutual friends, +he said, "Ah! de Crignelle, what two famous shots those were I put into +that boar! But, gentlemen," he continued, with a sigh which seemed +pumped up from his very heels, "what terrible forests those are of Le +Morvan, and how dangerous the <i>chasse aux sangliers</i>!"</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">The <i>Mares</i>—Manner in which they are formed in the depths of the +forest—<i>Mare</i> No. 1.—Description of it—The appearance of the +spot—Mode of constructing the hunting-lodge—Approach of the +birds—Animals that frequent the <i>Mares</i> in the evening. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Of</span> all the various sports of Europe, that which produces the greatest +excitement, that which is, more than any other, full of deep interest, +dangerous and difficult, is without doubt hut-shooting at night on the +banks of one of our large <i>Mares</i>.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Here the sportsman, left to +himself, is deprived of all help; concealed in a corner of a wood, or +squatting at the foot of a tree, he requires all his courage, all his +experience; for he then finds himself engaged in a deadly conflict with +the most subtle and ferocious beasts, possibly a mouthful for the +largest and most powerful jaws, and at the mercy of the quickest ears of +the forest. Motionless in his hut, like a spider in its web, nothing can +put him off his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> guard—neither the view halloo of the passing huntsman, +the cheerful notes of his horn, nor the music of the dogs, can distract +his attention. All around is calm, solitude and gloom surround him, no +voice interrogates him, no eye sees him; he is alone, quite alone, his +blood circulates tranquilly through his veins, his faculties are all on +the stretch, he waits, he bides his time. The shadows lengthen, twilight +arrives, the forest puts on the garb of evening, the silence and +solitude are more deeply felt, night is at hand, the moment so ardently +desired approaches. Imagination begins to work, phantoms of every +description come across his brain, and glide before his eyes, he hears, +and fancies he sees the sylvan spirits dancing before him; his ears are +full of mysterious and unearthly sounds, plaintive and melancholy, +celestial harmonies, fairy melodies of another world, interrupted +conversations between the winds, the trees, the herbage and the earth, +as if they were offering homage to the great Creator of the universe.</p> + +<p>Firm at his post, and uninfluenced by this phantasmagoria of the brain, +without movement and almost without breath, the sportsman waits +hopefully; for the greatest virtue in this kind of sport is patience,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +the second courage, first-rate—his heart should be of marble, his flesh +of steel, and his members should possess a power of immobility as great +as that of a sphynx in an Egyptian temple. Yes! the sport <i>aux mares</i> is +the most stirring, the roughest that I am acquainted with, not so much +on account of the real danger attending it, but in consequence of those +fictitious, unknown, and imaginary, produced by the silence and +loneliness of the forest. It is my intention, therefore, in describing +this kind of sport, to enter into the most ample details, in order that +I may make myself thoroughly understood. I shall take, as representing +very nearly all the pieces of water to be met with in the forest, three +kinds of <i>Mares</i> of different dimensions. I shall explain their +position, the relative value they possess in the eyes of the sportsman, +the game, large and small, to be found on their banks, and the most +propitious time for approaching them, and I shall endeavour, if +possible, to impress my readers with the pleasures and adventures which +have on several occasions agitated me.</p> + +<p>If the woods and forests of Le Morvan, which, by the clouds they +attract, the thunder-storms that continually fall over them, and the +moisture that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> generally prevails, feed a great many streams, the +district is not the less deprived, by its elevated position, of large +rivers and extensive sheets of water; for the rains, falling down the +sides of the trees, and penetrating the thick mossy grass at their +roots, do not remain for any length of time on the surface of the earth. +The whole forest may, in fact, be described as a large sponge, through +which the water filters, descending to the inferior strata, where it +finds the secret drains of Nature, and is by them conducted into the +plains. The roots being thus continually watered, the trees are fresh +and vigorous in their growth, and produce a most luxuriant foliage; the +ground itself, however, is generally dry under foot, and in some places +rocky.</p> + +<p>It is therefore very rare, quite an exceptional case, to find on the +elevated heaths, or in our forests, any lakes or large pieces of water; +nevertheless they are to be seen here and there, and then the cottage of +the peasant, or the hut of the wood-*cutter is sure to raise its modest +head on their banks; in time these humble edifices are augmented in +number till they sometimes become a considerable village. If the spring, +once a silvery thread, and now a brawling rivulet, changes its character +to a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> deep and considerable stream, farm-houses, a chateau, or a +hunting-box are soon erected near it. If it is merely a tiny source +rising from the earth, or springing from some isolated rock, and soon +lost in the moss, without even a murmur, calm and silent, as the life of +the lowly peasant, which is slowly consumed in the scarcely varying path +of labour,—then no one takes the least notice of it.</p> + +<p>Sometimes, however, the tears which the earth thus sheds, this crystal +thread, scorned by the unobserving passer-by, is arrested in its timid +course by some trifling obstacle—a rising path, a fallen branch or +tree. This little streamlet swells, frets the immediate spot of ground, +imperceptibly increases in size, and becomes after many efforts, the +patient work of months and years, something like the basin of a large +<i>jet d'eau</i>, a liquid cup lost in the recesses of the woods, reflecting +only a very small portion of the blue heavens above; unknown to man, but +always frequented by thousands of delighted and happy insects, and +little birds that come there in the great heats of summer to refresh +themselves, to skim across the surface, and sip, with head uplifted +towards heaven, its pellucid waters. These little springs, lost in the +thickness of the mossy turf and the dead leaves, like a gray hair<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> in +the dark tresses of some village beauty, which accident or a lover could +alone discover, when thus interrupted and formed into a bowl of water, +such as I have described, is called a <i>Mare</i>.</p> + +<p>If, therefore, the sportsman in traversing the depths of the forest +should chance to discover one of these mirrors of the passing butterfly, +of the flower which inclines its slender form towards it, or of the bird +that sings and plays in the branches that overspread its surface, he +must not look contemptuously upon it, for this little liquid pearl, thus +concealed in the shade, which the hot rays of the sun would dry up like +an Arabian well, if they could reach it, may prove to him a mine of +varied reflections—a page of nature's great book, and in it he may +possibly find, if he have an observing eye and an understanding heart, a +type of this lower world, with all its hateful passions, its follies and +virtues, its wars, rivalries, injustice and oppression.</p> + +<p>One day, when out shooting, and following by tortuous paths, to me +unknown, the bleeding traces of a roebuck which I had wounded, I had the +good fortune to meet with one of these <i>Mares</i>. The piece of water of +which I thus became what I may term the proprietor, was from fifty to +sixty feet in circumference, though at the first glance I fancied it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +was only half the size, so completely was it covered near the side by +thorns and briars, and in the centre by lilies, flags, and other aquatic +plants. By certain other signs, also, the gigantic creepers, and the +barkless and headless trees, bending and falling with age; by the deep +thickets that surrounded it, and by the solitary aspect of the pool, I +felt convinced that mine was the first footstep that had trodden its +precincts,—that I was the Christopher Columbus of the place.</p> + +<p>Enchanted with my discovery, I determined to mark the spot, for I +thought it a <i>Mare</i> of peculiar beauty. It was almost surrounded by wild +fruit trees, which grow in great numbers in our forests: here were the +sorb, or service tree, and the medlar, bending to the ground under the +weight of their luxuriant fruit; intermingled with these waved the lofty +and slender branches of the wild cherry, the berries of which, now ripe, +and sweet as drops of honey, and black as polished jet, offered a +delicious repast to clouds of little birds, that hopped chirruping from +twig to twig: and lastly, I may mention a fine arbutus, which in its +turn presented a tempting collation to the notice of many a hungry +bullfinch. The soft turf around was strewed with the shining black and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +bright red berries, which the last breeze had shaken from the verdant +branches.</p> + +<p>To describe the crystal notes, the liquid cadences, the merry songs of +the feathered inhabitants of this hive, that pursued one another +rejoicing amongst the leaves, is impossible. Besides, my unexpected +appearance threw them into perfect consternation; and this greatly +increased when, drawing from my side my hunting-knife, I began to cut +down, in all directions, the bushes which intercepted a nearer approach +to the miniature lake.</p> + +<p>The storm of helpless anger, menaces, and complaints from these little +creatures was quite curious. "Oh! the wretch!" a cuckoo seemed to say; +"what does he mean by coming here, showing us his ugly face?"—"Oh! the +horror," cried a coquette of a tomtit, holding up her little +claw.—"<i>Hélas! hélas!</i> our poor trees, our beautiful leaves, and our +lovely greensward—see how he is cutting away—Oh! the wicked man! the +destructive rascal!" they all piped in chorus. But I paid no attention +to them, and went on hacking away, and whistling like one of the +blackbirds. This indeed I continued to do for several days, working like +a woodman, and all alone, for I did not wish to associate myself with +any person, lest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> he should claim a share in my discovery; but it was +long before I began to enjoy the fruits of my hard labour. The trunks +were sawn, the branches lopped, and after considerable trouble I at last +cleared my piece of water from the bushes and parasitic plants which +blocked it up. The evening breeze now circulated rapidly over it, and +the sun could look in upon it for at least two hours of the day.</p> + +<p>My friends who saw me leave the house every morning with a basket of +tools at my back and a hatchet at my side, like Robinson Crusoe, and who +witnessed my return each evening heartily tired, with torn clothes, +scratched hands, and dust and perspiration on my face, without a single +head of game in my bag, could not comprehend why I went out thus alone +into the forest, and remained there the livelong day. Often did they +persecute me with questions, and try in every way to penetrate the +mystery; all in vain, my whereabouts remained hidden like a hedgehog in +his prickly coat, and I managed matters so well that during two +successive years I was the unknown proprietor and Grand Sultan of my +much-loved <i>Mare</i>.</p> + +<p>But when my task was finished, a task that hundreds of birds, perched in +the oaks, the elms, and the adjoining thickets, viewed with mingled +feelings of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> approbation, disapprobation, curiosity, or interest,—when +the last stroke of my hatchet was given, I said to myself, while looking +on the result of my unremitting toil, "'Tis well, and what a change has +taken place in this little corner of the forest. In truth, it looks +superb."</p> + +<p>The little lake was now a perfect oval, and the water, not very deep, +but limpid as crystal, was full of green and coloured rushes—the +surface being partly covered by the white and rose-tinted flowers of the +water-lilies, which reposing delicately on their large flat green +leaves, looked like velvet camellias placed upon a plate of sea-green +porcelain. In the mossy turf which bordered it, beds of violets, pink +daisies, and lilies of the valley, sent forth a cloud of perfume, and on +the large forest trees hung festoons and garlands of the honeysuckle and +the clematis; so that the <i>Mare</i> and the surrounding foliage, would, +seen from above, have appeared like a large well with leafy walls, or an +immense emerald, which some spirit of the air, returning from a marriage +of the gods, had inadvertently dropped on his way home.</p> + +<p>Having given a description of the lake, I must describe my picturesque +and sylvan hut. This, constructed of trunks of trees, branches and +osiers, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> placed about twenty paces from the water, completely +concealed by the bushes that encircled it; the inside was fitted up in +rustic taste with seats of wood, the whole carpeted with turf, and the +entrance planted with every kind of odoriferous flower.</p> + +<p>This <i>Mare</i>, approached by marks known only to myself, became +thenceforward the source of all my pleasures. At that period very young, +and equally careless, I would not have parted with my large liquid +<i>tazza</i>, my little lake, my leafy castle, for all the vulgar comfortable +<i>chateâux</i> in the neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>If I have lingered too much over this subject, the reader must forgive +me for elaborating this picture—this portrait I may call it of my +<i>Mare</i>. He has before him a type of all the others, and this again must +be my excuse, it is so dear to the unfortunate to stir the still warm +embers of by-gone memories,—so dear to rouse from their slumbers the +treasured recollections of early days,—to wake those sweet spirits of +the mind, those phantoms robed in azure blue, and decked with the +pearls, the joys which never can glide again across the dreamer's +path—the joys of youth.</p> + +<p>Oh <i>souvenirs</i> of childhood!—of happy hours so quickly gone,—bright +visions that gild, yes, light the darkest clouds of after years, +blessed, blessed are ye!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> Alone, friendless, far from those I love, with +the heart steeped, drowned in sorrow, a sombre sky before my eyes, +wintry clouds, that distil but melancholy thoughts all around me,—well, +I, the poor sparrow, who has been cast from his nest by the raging +storm,—I hush my griefs to rest in tracing the picture of past +delights. Yes, memory comes to my relief; I build again in the casket of +the mind my sylvan hut, careless and full of youthful fancies. I am +again seated in the depths of my native woods, speaking to the +light-hearted thrush, and whistling to the breeze.</p> + +<p>Once more I bathe myself in the golden rays of the mid-day sun; I tread +again the forest paths, and am intoxicated with the delicious perfume of +its wild flowers. Hark! again I hear the cooing of the amorous doves, +and in the distance the notes of the dull cuckoo, bewailing his solitary +life.—But no more....</p> + +<p>The <i>Mares</i>, very different from one another, and having each of them +very different admirers, are of three kinds; they are either small or +large, near or distant from the village or neighbouring hamlet; and +according as they are circumstanced in one or other of these respects +they are more or less valuable. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> largest, the deepest, the least +known, those in short that are situated in the recesses of the forest, +are the best and most frequented by game; to balance this advantage they +are the most fatiguing and the most difficult to approach.</p> + +<p>In the violent heats of July and August, when the sun burns up the +herbage, when the wind as it passes parches the skin, and the sultry air +scarcely allows the lungs to play—when the earth is quite dried up—the +hot-blooded animals, whose circulation is rapid, remain completely +overpowered with the heat in their retreats all day, either stretched +panting on the leaves, or lurking in the shade of some rock; but the +moment the sun, in amber clouds, sinks below the horizon, and twilight +brings in his train the dark hours of night, and its humid vapours, the +beasts of the forest are again in movement, again their ravenous +appetite returns, and they lose no time in ranging the woods, seeking +how and where they may gratify it. Then it is these large <i>Mares</i>, +silent as a woman that listens at a keyhole—silent as a catacomb, is +all at once endowed with life,—is filled with strange noises, like an +aviary, and becomes, as night falls, a common centre to which the hungry +and thirsty cavalcade direct their steps.</p> + +<p>The first arrivals are hundreds of birds, of every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> size and colour, who +come to gossip, to bathe, to drink, and splash the water with their +wings. Next come troops of hares and rabbits, who come to nibble the +fresh grass that grows there in great luxuriance. As the shades grow +deeper, groups of the graceful roebuck, timid and listening for +anticipated danger, their large open eyes gazing at each tree, giving an +inquiring look at every shadow, are seen approaching with noiseless +footsteps; when reassured by their careful <i>reconnaissance</i>, they steal +forward, cropping the dewy rich flowers as they come, and at last slake +their thirst in the refreshing waters.</p> + +<p>At this instant you may, if you are fatigued, and so desire it, finish +your day's sport. You may bring down the nearest buck; and then as the +troop, wild with affright, make for the forest, the second barrel will +add a fellow to your first victim.</p> + +<p>But, no! pull not the trigger; stop, if only to witness what follows. +See the roebuck prick their ears; they turn to the wind; they appear +uneasy; call one to the other, assemble; danger is near, they feel it, +hear it coming; they would fly, but find it is too late; terrified, they +are chained to the spot. For the last half hour the wolves and +wolverines, which followed gently, and at a distance, their own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> more +rapid movements, have closed in upon them from behind, have formed the +fatal circle, have noiselessly decreased it as much as possible, and at +length come swiftly down upon the helpless creatures; each seizes his +victim by the throat, the tranquil spot is ere long full of blood and +carnage, and the echoes of the forest are awakened to the hellish yells +of the savage brutes that thus devour their prey.</p> + +<p>The cries of agony, of death and victory, sometimes last for a quarter +of an hour; and during the fifteen minutes that you are watching the +scene from your hut, you may fancy the teeth of these brutes are meeting +in your own flesh, and feel a cold paw with claws of steel deep in your +back or head.</p> + +<p>The slaughter over, these monsters pass like a flight of demons across +the turf, vanish,—and again all is silent. And when the tenth chime of +the distant village clock is floating on the breeze, though it reaches +not your cabin—when the falling dew, now almost a shower, has bathed +the leaves, with rain chilling their fibres—when the bluebells and the +foxgloves and all the wood-flowers rest upon their stems—when the +songsters of the grove, with heads<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> comfortably tucked under their warm +wings, sleep soundly in their nests, or in the angles of the +branches—when the young fawns, lost in some wild ravine, bleat for +their mothers whom they never will see more; and the gorged wolves, +their muzzles red with blood, are stretched snoring in their dens and +lurking-places—then it is the heavy boars, shaking off their laziness, +leave their sombre retreats—take to the open country, and trotting, +grunting, and with hesitating footsteps, come and plunge their awkward +and heavy bodies in the marshy waters, and wallow in the soft mud.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Query,—fox-hunting and stag-hunting.—<span class="smcap">Translator.</span></p></div> +</div> + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Appearance of the <i>Mare</i> in the morning—Forest etiquette—Mode of +obtaining possession of the best <i>Mare</i>—Every subterfuge fair—The +jocose sportsman—The quarrel—Reveries in the hut—Comparison +between meeting a lady and watching for a wolf. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">The</span> <i>Mares</i> on the borders of which these scenes of strife and carnage +take place, are found by the morning sun surrounded by a crimson circle, +and all the horrid details of the battle-field—proof that the weak have +been slaughtered and overcome by the strong; a humiliating sight! for +the desolation created by the bad passions of man is far too like it. +Sometimes these <i>Mares</i> are from two to three hundred feet in +circumference, and these may be truly termed the diamonds of the forest. +The <i>Mare</i> No. 1., fed by small but always flowing springs, is full, +when others are dried up, and is frequented by troops of animals, savage +and meek, which thirst and heat drive there from all points of the +compass. These <i>Mares</i>, but little known, few in number, much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> sought +after—become, more especially at the period of the dog-days, very +difficult to find. Considered always as the property of the first comer, +the poacher, who is better acquainted than any other sportsman with the +localities in which they are to be found, generally takes up his +quarters near them late at night, and installs himself; sleeps there, +sups there, and, determined not to leave it under any pretext, laughs in +the face of the unfortunate wight who arrives after him, in the happy +delusion that he has anticipated every one else. For it is a forest law, +and acknowledged by all, that two sportsmen cannot, without disturbing +one another, sit down at the same <i>Mare</i>; possession is in this not only +nine but ten points of the law; and, if a mere lad, with a +fowling-piece, happens to place himself first on its banks, no giant +seven feet high would think of using his superior strength to expel him.</p> + +<p>Such is the law—such is the custom—to act in defiance of it would +expose the culprit to the chance of receiving a charge of No. 3 in his +jacket; and as each <i>Mare</i> has its wooden hut, in successive summers, +constructed by you, embellished by me, knocked in, cut about, injured by +some one else, and repaired by all—the first man who puts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> the stock of +his gun on the floor of the cabin becomes immediately and incontestibly +the lucky proprietor of it for that night.</p> + +<p>And how shall I explain to you the thousand cunning tricks, the +diabolical, the ingenious finesses, the Philipistic and Machiavellian +diplomacy, which sportsmen employ one towards the other to obtain +possession? Two friends, for instance, meet by accident on the same +road; with what perfect and impudent lies do they entertain each +other!—with what gusto do they try and take one another in!—what +cheating doubts do they not mutually endeavour to raise, in their desire +to induce each other to take the wrong road! With the effrontery of a +<i>diplomate</i>, with the assurance of a secretary of legation,—one +affirms, his hand on his heart, and looking towards heaven, that he is +going to the left, when it is his positive intention, well-considered +beforehand, to go to the right. No, France and England, Bresson and +Bulwer, playing their game of chess of the Spanish marriages on the +green cloth of political rascality,—never said anything comparable to +the devices of these lying chevaliers of the forest.</p> + +<p>Everything is permitted—every stratagem is fair,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> so long as either is +endeavouring to triumph over his adversary; and then, when they have +gone so far as to be able to wish one another good afternoon, and each +has convinced himself that he has put the other on the wrong road—that, +thank the stars, his rival is off, that he is far off, that he cannot +see him—what haste! what strides and leaps to get speedily to the spot, +and make himself safe! The running of the celebrated Greek, who, with +his breast laid open by a ghastly wound, ran eighty miles in ten hours +to announce to the impatient Athenians the victory of Marathon, was the +pace of a tortoise compared with the demon-racing of these <i>chasseurs</i>.</p> + +<p>And, after all this anxiety and rapid locomotion,—after turning and +winding in and out of the wood, and round the wood to avoid the +open—across the brook to avoid the bridge—through the brambles and +thick underwood to avoid the open path—when you think you have cheated, +or, at any rate, distanced your enemy,—when you perceive in front of +you the object of your hopes,—the well-known and much-desired hut which +seems to invite you to repose after your long day's walk—why, at that +interesting moment, even your own, your very own brother would be a +veritable Bedouin in your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> eyes, a man to be put out of the way any how, +if he attempted to stop you.</p> + +<p>At such a crisis, if a real sportsman were to hear that his house was on +fire, that his banker was off to America, taking with him his wife and +his money, he would not, I say, in such a moment turn his head round to +see which way they went;—Imagine, then, when in order to succeed you +have made yourself out a cheat of the first water, and employed every +possible subterfuge,—conceive what would be the extent of your anger +and indignation, what your disgust,—when on arriving at your coveted +<i>Mare</i>, at your oasis, at your paradise, at the spot for which you have +toiled and invented such lies, to find the hut—occupied!</p> + +<p>Sometimes you may find in the possessor a <i>chasseur</i>, who likes to amuse +himself at your expense,—a jocose fellow, who, hearing you at a +distance working your way through the underwood, and seeing you through +the leaves advancing with eager and rapid steps to the spot, conceals +himself behind the entrance, and as you are just on the point of +entering the hut, your foot just on the step, the droll sportsman puts +his ugly head out of the window, as a yellow tortoise would his out of +his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> shell, asking you, in most polite terms, what o'clock it is; or if +it should chance to be raining a deluge at the time, remark in +compassionate accents, "Why, sir, you seem rather damp!"</p> + +<p>Job was never so unfortunate as to arrive at a <i>Mare</i> already occupied; +had he done so, it is not by any means clear to me that he would have +been able to contain his wrath. For my own part, I have frequently been +beside myself with vexation, and on one occasion was very nearly having +a quarrel to the death with my best friend. We had accidentally met in +the forest, as described, and had deceived each other, as two Greeks of +Pera would, when making a bargain. After our <i>rencontre</i>, my friend went +to the right, I to the left; he on the sly, turning and twisting by +footpath and wood to conceal himself from observation; I, on the +contrary, went directly to the spot, and striding away as fast as I +could go, arrived at the <i>Mare</i> about three minutes before him, scarlet +and streaming with exertion, and quite out of breath. My friend who was +equally heated, but, in addition, disappointed and in a furious rage, +addressed me in most insulting language, declaring between the hiccup, +which his want of breath and want of coolness had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> produced, that I was +a Jesuit, a hypocrite; and many other affectionate epithets did he apply +to me with the utmost volubility.</p> + +<p>If I had not been the fortunate occupant of the hut, which gratifying +fact was as honey to my lips and oil to my bones, and had a most +soothing influence on my temper, I should naturally have revolted at +such conduct; but this constrained me, and I remained perfectly quiet, +determined to allow my lungs to regain their composure before I replied. +Seeing this, his rage increased tenfold, and he proposed a duel with our +fowling-pieces, hunting-knives, or two large sticks; he offered me, +also, an aquatic duel of a most novel character,—namely, for both of us +to undress and endeavour to drown each other in the <i>Mare</i>! In short, he +continued for at least a quarter of an hour to rave and rail without +ceasing.</p> + +<p>But of all this abuse I took not the slightest notice, remaining +perfectly calm, sitting in my hut like Solomon on his throne, and +fanning my heated countenance with the brim of my broad hat, as if I had +been in a glass-house. It is true I laughed in my sleeve, looked +vacantly at the blue heavens, and whistled the chorus or snatches of a +hunting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> song. Finding therefore, it was impossible to move me, my +adversary finished by getting tired of roaring and abusing; and having +rubbed the perspiration from his distorted face with a force which +seemed as if he would rub his nose off, he turned on his heel with the +grace of a wild boar that had received a brace of balls in his +haunches,—looking me fiercely in the face, and pouring forth as a last +broadside, a dozen of oaths in the true <i>argot</i> style, which seemed to +dry up the very plants near him, and silenced the frogs that were +croaking in the <i>Mare</i>.</p> + +<p>Such, however, is the force of habit and of this rule; and so truly does +every one feel that on the strict observance of it depends the +tranquillity of all, that the law of first possession is never violated; +although it is but simply acknowledged by the justice and good sense of +every sportsman, it is quite as well established in their manners and +customs as if it were written on tables of iron. The consequence is, +that however enraged a person may be, he sees, and generally at the +outset, that his best course is to give way; he may fume and strut, look +big and villify, but he bows his head and is off with as embarrassed a +face as yours, gentle reader,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> would certainly be, if a friend whom you +knew to be ruined came and asked you to lend him twenty thousand francs.</p> + +<p>But also, by St. Hubert, if you remain the lord and master of this +<i>Mare</i>, how your heart leaps, how all fatigue is forgotten! and when the +twilight approaches, what a fever there is in your veins!—what anxiety! +I have heard of the delirious and suffocating emotions of a lover +waiting for his mistress at the rendezvous. Fiddlesticks! I say, gruel +and iced-water. The most volcanic Romeo that ever penned a letter or +scaled a wall, is to the sportsman waiting amidst the howling storm on a +dark night for the wolves, what a cup of cream is to a bottle of +vitriol. As for myself, I would give,—yes, ladies, I am wolf enough to +say,—that I would willingly give up the delightful emotions of ninety +rendezvous, with the loveliest women in the world, black or white, for +twelve with a boar or a wolf. In return for this bad taste, I shall +probably be devoured some day or other,—a fate no doubt duly merited.</p> + +<p>I will suppose, therefore, that the sportsman is squatting quietly in +his hut, like a serpent in a bush. With what ardour and nervous anxiety +does<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> he not await the propitious and long-expected hour! He throws open +the ivory doors of his castle in the air,—his hopes are multiplied a +thousandfold. What shall I shoot?—what shall I not shoot? Will it be a +she-wolf, or a roebuck? No, I prefer a boar. Will he be a large one? But +if by chance I should kill a sow?—what a capital affair that would be; +the young ones never leave their mother; perhaps I should bag three or +four,—perhaps the whole fare. But then, how shall I carry them off? +Perhaps the wolves will save me the difficulty of contriving that, and +dispute my title to them,—perhaps they will attack me, eat me, the sow, +the pigs, and my sealskin cap.</p> + +<p>How, I beseech you, is the following <i>monologue</i> to stand comparison +with the fierce excitement of such anticipations? Will she come this +evening, the darling—will my sweetest be able to come?—shall I be +blessed with one kiss?—shall it be on the left cheek or the right, or +shall I press her lips to mine? Bah! there can be no comparison in the +hunter's mind; and then you barricade yourself in your hut as evening +approaches, strengthen the weak points, study the best positions, look +to your arms; the day seems as if it would never close,—nothing is +left<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> for you to do but to muse in the interval, and think of the poor +maudlin lovers, who at this very hour are squatting under a wall like so +many young apes; or of him who, half concealed, stands on the watch at +the angle of a dirty street, waiting with a fluttering heart the arrival +of some sentimental little chit of a girl, who is nevertheless coquette +enough to keep him waiting for half an hour. And again, with what +disdain and contempt you regard such birds as pigeons, turtle-doves, +buzzards, wild duck, and teal; hares and foxes, too, which make their +appearance from time to time,—to kill these never enters your head.</p> + +<p>What, not the fox, with his splendid bushy tail?</p> + +<p>Why what do you take me for, good reader?—what can I possibly want with +that?—I, who am about to knock over two roebucks and three wolves? +Peace, peace, my friends; skip and skuttle about, young rabbits; nibble +away, middle-aged hares,—don't put yourselves the least out of the way, +you won't have any of my powder. Besides, to fire would be very +imprudent, and to a great extent compromise the sport; for at this +period the sun is sinking, the shadows are slowly lengthening, the +roebuck are on their way, and the she wolf in the neighbouring thicket +is raising her head and listening for the sounds which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> indicate that +her prey is not far off. And you listen also to catch the slightest +noise that comes on the wind,—for each and all are a vocabulary to the +huntsman,—a gust of wind, the note of a bird disturbed, a weasel +running across the path, a squirrel gnawing the bark, a breaking branch, +startles you, circulates your blood, and puts you anxiously alive to +what may follow. Everything that surrounds you at this still tour of +twilight courts your attention,—the waving branches speak to you,—the +hazel thicket, bending to the weight of some advancing animal, puts you +on your guard; the heart beats, not for the rustling of a silk gown, nor +for the hurried footfall of woman treading with fairy lightness on the +fallen leaves. The syren voice is not about to whisper softly in your +ear, "Are you there, violet of my heart!" nor are you about to reply, +"Angelic being, moss-rose of my soul, let me press your sweet lips?" +What you are waiting for are the wild beasts of the forest,—you are +listening for their distant and subdued tones, their bounding spring, +their near approach, their bodies as a mark for your rifle, their yells, +and cries, and death agony for your triumph.</p> + +<p>Then the inexplicable charms of danger excite the sportsman's feelings; +his physical faculties, like those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> of the Indian, are doubled; he +grasps his rifle with a firmer clutch, and looks down the blade of his +hunting-knife with anxiety and yet with satisfaction. It grows dark, but +his eyes pierce the gloom—his life is at stake, but he forgets that it +is so; for the love of the chase, the wild pleasures of the huntsman, +have taken possession of his soul. Breathless, his heart thumping +against his chest, as if it would break its bounds, he listens, the +cloudy curtain rises, and with it the moon; the roebucks are heard in +the distance, then the stealthy steps of the wolves, afterwards the rush +of the boar: and now, gentlemen, the tragedy is about to +commence—choose your victims.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang"><i>Mare</i> No. 2.—Description of it—Not sought after by the sportsman—The +sick banker—The doctor's prescription—The patient's disgust at it—Is +at length obliged to yield—Leaves Paris for Le Morvan—Consequences to +the inmates of the château—The banker convalescent.</p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">If</span> the great <i>Mares</i> No. 1, situated in the dark and silent depths of +the forest, far from every habitation, and where you find you are left +as much to yourself as the poor shipwrecked sailor supporting his +exhausted frame upon a single plank on the angry billows, are so +attractive, and so much coveted, though dangerous and difficult to +secure, the same cannot be said of those which lie in the vicinity of a +village, and which I shall call <i>Mare</i> No. 2.</p> + +<p>These last are to be met with easily enough; but being so very readily +discovered, it is therefore rare to find near them the larger +descriptions of game,—though the sportsman may see a few thrushes, some +dozen of water-wagtails, and flocks of little impudent chaffinches, +greenfinches, &c., which come there to imbibe, hopping from stone to +stone, and singing in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> the willows; beyond these he will see nothing +worth the cap on the nipple of his gun. Nevertheless to him who is +without experience,—to the hunter who cannot read the language of the +forest on the bark of the trees, on the freshly trodden ground, or the +bent grass and broken flowers,—these pieces of water seem quite as +beautiful and well situated, indeed quite as desirable, as the others.</p> + +<p>Perhaps such an ignoramus might prefer them; for they are always more +open, more free from weeds, rushes and flags, and less dark; and at the +hour of <i>la chasse au poste</i>, the hour of twilight, they are as solitary +as the <i>Mare</i> No. 1. But the savage beasts of the forest are not to be +deceived; their instinct tells them that at a quarter, or perhaps half a +mile from them, there is, though unseen and hidden in the thickness of +the trees, a farm, or two or three houses; and when they are not pressed +onward by the winter snows, or by maddening hunger, they stop,—for the +smell of man is not pleasant to their nostrils, the neighbourhood is not +agreeable to them, and they immediately withdraw from the spot.</p> + +<p>It is thus that these <i>Mares</i> are always at any person's disposal; the +passing sportsman rarely makes more than a circuit round them; and if +one is occasionally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> found on their banks, he may at once be set down as +a beginner, who, having found the <i>Mares</i> No. 1 in the vicinity all +occupied, has here installed himself for the evening in sheer vexation +and despair. Over these pools of troubled water, frequented during the +whole day by the inhabitants of the adjoining cottages, that eternal +stillness and imposing solitude, which are the delight of the wolf and +the boar, never reigns.</p> + +<p>The day has scarcely dawned ere the wood-cutters' wives, in their red +petticoats, with brown jugs on their heads, come to fill them there, or +to wash their vegetables; the cows to drink, the children to play at +ducks and drakes, or the men to water the horses. But a little before +nightfall all this going and coming, this trampling of heavy <i>sabots</i>, +the bellowings, oaths, and cracking of whips subside, and cease, as if +by magic, when the sun is down. The poultry and the peasants are equally +silent, their huts are closed, their beds are gained, and their dogs, +stretched motionless behind the door, snore and sleep soundly with open +ear, and every leaf without is still.</p> + +<p>The <i>chasseur à l'affût</i>, if inexperienced or not acquainted with the +country, while reconnoitring the spot during the last few minutes of the +twilight that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> remain, would never imagine that he was near an inhabited +spot; not a bark, not a sound, not one twinkling light in a cottage +window, not one wreath of ascending smoke is to be heard or seen. +Thinking therefore that he has made a grand discovery, he rubs his hands +with no little satisfaction, squats down at the foot of some tree, or in +the temporary shed on the bank, and believes he is going to kill a dozen +wolves at least.</p> + +<p>But, alas! it is in vain for him to open his eyes and his ears; nothing +is to be seen but one or two hideous bats, which flap their wings in his +face, and frighten him in the midst of a reverie. Nothing is on the +move; no newt or tadpole is playing in the water, and nothing can be +descried there but the rays of the moon, as she moves slowly o'er its +surface; nor is anything to be heard except the wind whistling through +the trees, or an occasional shot from the rifle of a brother sportsman, +who, more happy, more clever, and better placed than himself, may be +heard in the distance. I should not have thought of mentioning the +<i>Mares</i> No. 2, so little do they deserve attention, if one of them had +not been the scene of a very strange adventure of which I was witness; +and as the description of it will give me an opportunity of speaking of +the <i>Mares</i> No. 3, and of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> the third mode of taking woodcocks, I shall +profit by the circumstance to relate it.</p> + +<p>One day a <i>millionnaire</i>, a Lucullus, a rich banker of Paris, found +himself dreadfully ill: his body grew larger every twenty-four hours; +his neck sunk into his shoulders, his breathing became difficult, and +three or four times in the course of a week he was within a little of +being suffocated; as many times in the course of a month the gout, which +in the morning had been tearing his toes and his heels as if with hot +pincers, in the evening twisted his calves and his knees as if they were +being made into ropes. What was to be done under these circumstances? +The best physicians consulted together, and recommended him to order a +pair of hob-nailed shoes from a country shoemaker, and instantly leave +the capital.</p> + +<p>"Hob-nailed shoes, with donkey heels!" cried the banker, all amazed; +"and for what, in the name of goodness?"</p> + +<p>"Why, to run with in search of health over the wild moors and heaths, +and improve your figure by long walks in the mountains," was the reply.</p> + +<p>And as the only hope of health was obedience, he prepared his mind to +set off. It is true the doctors permitted him to carry with him his +cane, his flute, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> his eye-glass; but he was obliged to leave behind +his carriages, his horses, his luxurious arm-chairs and his cooks; in +short, he was informed that, under the penalty of being quickly placed +under ground, and obliged to shake hands with his respectable ancestors, +and enjoy with them the nice white marble monuments under which they +reposed, he must, for the next year at least, make use of his own legs, +forget there were such things as <i>Rentes</i>, eat only when he felt hungry, +and drink when he was thirsty.</p> + +<p>What a sentence for a rich Parisian banker! to leave his splendid hotel +and his apartments, redolent with delicious perfumes, and play the +pedestrian up and down the footpaths in the woods, the mossy glades and +highway of the forest, or sit on a large stone at the top of a hill +under the mid-day sun, and inhale from the valleys the soft breezes, +laden with the odours of the new-mown hay, or the clover-fields in full +blossom. His box at the grand opera, lined with velvet, must too be left +behind, and many an adieu be given to the gauze-clad sylphides and +painted nightingales of that gay establishment.</p> + +<p>Yes, all these were to be exchanged for morning walks to the summit of +some mountain; to make his bow to Aurora, and listen to the joyous carol +of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> larks chanting high in the air their hymns of praise, or +listening to their blithe little brothers of song, awakening in the +bushes, and fluttering, amidst a shower of pearls and rubies—those dewy +gems which hang in the sunny rays upon every branch. "Ah, it is all over +with me!" wheezed the plethoric banker, when the junior doctor of the +consultation of three informed him of their unanimous opinion.</p> + +<p>"It is all over with me, gentlemen; in the name of mercy what will +become of me, if I am put on the peasant's daily fare of buck-wheat and +roasted beans? Consider again, gentlemen."</p> + +<p>"It is a matter of necessity, sir," replied the trio; "your life is at +stake."</p> + +<p>"Dear doctors, withdraw these unwholesome words; open the consultation +afresh; pass once more in review all your scientific acquirements, your +great knowledge of chemistry, your hospital experience. Press, dear +gentlemen, between both your hands the pharmacopean sponge, and in the +name of mercy squeeze out for me some more agreeable remedy."</p> + +<p>"There is no other," replied the funereal-looking physicians.</p> + +<p>"What, is the house then really in danger?"</p> + +<p>"Danger! sir, why it is nearly on fire. Your heart<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> is getting diseased, +your lungs are touched, your blood is actually scented and coloured with +the truffles you have eaten. Why, your very nose (pray excuse the +freedom of our remark), your roseate nose bears testimony to what we +say."</p> + +<p>"Alas, alas! this is I fear the truth; but, gentlemen, if I leave Paris, +what on earth will become of the Great Northern and the Orleans +Railways, and the funds,—my dividends, rents, and bad debts?"</p> + +<p>"And your feverish pulse, sir, your wrinkled liver, and your digestion, +which scarcely ever allows you to close your eyes?"</p> + +<p>"Yes! yes,—but my Spanish fives and Mexican bonds?"</p> + +<p>"And your bilious eyes and eyelids full of crows' feet, and the gout and +the rheumatism which excruciate you?—those horrid spiders which are +weaving their threads in the muscles of your calves?"</p> + +<p>"But my carrier-pigeons, gentlemen, source of my tenderest care; the +brokerage, the speculation for the account, and my good friend, the +Minister of the Interior, and of the <i>Travaux Publics</i>; and the snowball +of my fortune, which must stop unproductive till I recover;—how can I +leave all these to fate?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p><p>"Think of your respiration, which is disorganized, and the vital +principle, the torch of life, which flickers up and down in the socket, +and ere many weeks will be extinguished, unless you at once take our +advice."</p> + +<p>"What!" continued the votary of wealth,—"what! cannot gold purchase +health, most sapient doctors?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir; doctors are paid, that's all, and people cure themselves."</p> + +<p>"You persist, then, in saying that I am not even to take my head cook +with me?"</p> + +<p>"On no account whatever."</p> + +<p>"Then I am defunct already."</p> + +<p>"That you will be so, sir, in two months, if you remain here, there +cannot be a doubt."</p> + +<p>"Then, good heavens! where can I go? What am I to do without carriages, +without opera nightingales, and, above all things, without a head cook?"</p> + +<p>The night succeeding the consultation, the banker felt as if twenty +cork-screws had been driven into his calves, and he made, ere dawn, a +vow that he would leave the capital. This determination taken, the next +point to be decided was in what direction to go,—for it was not a +journey of pleasure he was about to take,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> but one of health; and for +once his riches were of no further use to him than to provide the means +of transit. His physicians, fashionable men, strange to say, were +sincere, and did not order him to Nice or Lucca, hot-baths, or mineral +waters, or even to the orange-groves of Hyères, to which, when a rich +man cannot recover, they send him, in order that he may die comfortably +under Nature's warm blanket, the sun, inhaling with his last +inspirations the delicious scent of her flowers. To Spain, where, said +the invalid, they talk so loud and drink water, he would not go; nor to +Germany, the land of meerschaums and sour crout. Which direction +therefore was he to take? to which point of the compass was he to turn +the vessel's prow?</p> + +<p>Several times did the unhappy banker pass his geography in review, but +his knowledge of this science was indeed finite, and the Landes, +Picardy, and such like spots, alone presented themselves to his +imagination. In this predicament the light of friendship suddenly threw +a ray over his thinking faculties; he remembered my father, the +companion of his boyhood, with whom he had been brought up,—his great +friend, without doubt, but of whom he had not thought for the last ten +years.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p><p>"By all the blue devils that dance in my brain!" said the unhappy +<i>millionnaire</i>, starting up on his bed of pain, as if he had a spring in +his back, and throwing at the nose of his astonished apothecary, who was +watching him, the draught presented to him,—"by the wig of my respected +grandfather,—by the beard of Æsculapius, I have found the real friend +who will pour over my head the oil of health."</p> + +<p>"My good sir," said his attendant, "pray calm yourself, and take this +pill" ...</p> + +<p>"Yes, that dear friend, he will set me all to rights—he will bring to +my heavy eyelids those peaceful slumbers which now, alas! I never +enjoy."</p> + +<p>"But, Sir," repeated the apothecary, "pray be so good as to lay down and +swallow this."</p> + +<p>"Back, felon of hell! horse-leech, son of a poultice! go, doctor of the +devil, and join your friend in black below."</p> + +<p>"But <i>Monsieur le Banquier</i>"——</p> + +<p>"Off I say, off!—sinister raven, cease your croaking! Silence—take the +abominable drugs yourself—poison yourself, you wretch. Give me my +trousers, and let me dress myself. Hey, Bilboquet!—bring my hot water, +razors, and shaving soap. Hurrah! Phœbus,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> light the sun and put out +the stars; arise day! Into the saddle, postillions,—here, bring some +cigars. Hurrah! the wind is up; now, my stout boatmen, down to your +oars." "Halloo! halloo!" shouted his attendant, "help! help!" and he got +at both bells and rang away with might and main; but before any one came +the banker was out of bed, struck his attendant a blow in the eye, which +made him see one hundred and forty-six suns, and laid him upon the +floor, after which he commenced waltzing <i>en chemise</i> in his delirium, +all round the room with a chair, dragging after him the unfortunate hero +of the pestle and mortar, and roaring at the top of his voice these +lines of Racine:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Peut-être on t'a conté la fameuse disgrâce<br /> +De l'altière Vasthi dont j'occupe la place,<br /> +Lorsque le Roi, centre elle enflammé de dépit,—<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noin">followed by—</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Quel profâne en ces lieux ose porter ses pas?<br /> +Holà, gardes!—<br /> +</p> + +<p>At this moment a reinforcement most luckily arrived; but as in this +access of fever he defended himself against all comers like a bear, and +boxed away<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> like an Englishman, they had no little difficulty in +securing him; at length, in spite of his violence, he was replaced in +his bed, like a sword into its sheath. There, however, he would not lay +quiet; first he tore the satin curtains, then he hugged his +richly-worked pillow to his breast, calling it his best and dearest +friend, and performed fifty other such antics. He obtained, in short, no +repose, until his secretary, who entered at his bidding half-dressed and +with one eye half shut, had written the following note to my father, +under his dictation,—a letter evidently written in a paroxysm of high +fever:</p> + +<p>"Friend of my heart, jessamine of my soul, bright party-coloured tulip +of my <i>souvenirs</i>, may the Creator pour upon your gray and venerable +head a stream from his flower-pot of blessings!</p> + +<p>"Dear Friend,—Several atrocious doctors, with pale noses, the very +sight of which gives one the cholic, and with black searching eyes, that +make one tremble, say that I am very ill,—that I shall die. They say +too that there is only one mode of cure, and that is to take my valuable +body into your beautiful province. It is the east wind they say, and +blue-bottles, corn-flowers, field-poppies, and the green turf; the song +of the nightingale and the beautiful moonlight nights;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> the hum of bees +and the bleating of sheep, which will effect this marvellous cure. It is +amongst the rocks and streams of your mountains, in long walks in your +forests, and in your valleys; in the innocent candour of your pretty +peasant girls, the pure water of your fountains, and the cream cheeses +of your dairies that I am told resides the power to retain here below my +soul, just ready to fly away. Alas! yes, I am forced to admit the fact; +I must say I am very ill, and it is my own fault;—yes, my own undoubted +fault. I have drank too deeply of voluptuous ease; I have tasted too +often the luscious grapes of forbidden pleasures. I am no longer +virtuous enough to wish to see the sun rise, and hence it is that I am +suffering intensely in the capacity of a human pincushion, in which, one +after the other, the sharpest and most pointed pins have stuck +themselves, namely, every infirmity and every disease that mortal man is +heir to.</p> + +<p>"In this delicate and distressing position, dear friend, I thought of +you: yes, to you, to you only, shall I owe my restoration to health. Do +not therefore be surprised if, in the course of a few days, you should +see my shadow approach your hospitable door; and prepare for it, I beg +you, a small room and a bed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> of dried leaves, coarse bread, and a jug of +water. It seems that in order to regenerate my blood I shall want all +these; and I shall be fortunate if, in seeking a perfect restoration to +health, I am not obliged to be a swine-herd or keep sheep, to dig, cut, +and saw wood, pick spinach, or weed the flower-beds! Quick, my friend; +light with all convenient haste the altar on which we will burn again +the incense and benjamin of friendship. Blow again the sparks now so +nearly extinguished of our happy boyish days; revive again the holy +flames of our youthful affections; and, above all things, have the +scissors ready which are to cut the Gordian knot of my complicated +diseases. Soon, in shaking you by the hand, my shadow shall say much +more."</p> + +<p class="center"> +Yours, &c.,<br /> +</p> + + +<p>Fifteen days after the receipt of this extraordinary composition, the +banker, escorted by a lean and cadaverous-looking doctor, arrived at our +<i>château</i>, half strangled with a churchyard cough, and in a state of +apparently hopeless debility. He was evidently very, very ill; and if it +had not been for the sincere friendship my father had for him, I really +do not know how we could have supported the dark cloud which his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> +presence seemed to throw upon our house for nearly nine mortal weeks.</p> + +<p>No one dared either to move or speak: if you wished to laugh, it could +only be on the terrace; if to blow your nose, it was to be done in the +cellar; and as to sneezing, one was obliged to go to the bottom of the +garden. The horses' feet were wrapped up in hay-bands, so that no sound +should be heard in the court-yard; the servants went about the house in +list shoes, and all the approaches to it were knee-deep in straw. There +was an end to the <i>fanfares</i> of the huntsman's horn, and the rollicking +chorus; guns, shot and powder, were all placed under lock and key; the +kennel was mute, and the muzzled dogs looked piteously at one another, +and hung their heads, as if they had given themselves up to the certain +prospect of being drowned. The very hares knew how matters were, and +passed to and fro before the garden-windows; and a stray wolf, which +came one evening into the court-yard, sat on his hind-quarters and +looked us impudently in the face; as to the birds, they ate up very +nearly every peach and apricot we had. The silence of the grave reigned +everywhere—the house seemed a very sepulchre, in which nothing could be +heard but the monotonous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> liquid bubblings of the fountains, the ticking +of the clocks, and the sighing breezes that whistled through the +casements.</p> + +<p>Fairly worn out with this state of things, I was thinking seriously of +leaving for the gay swamps of Holland, when a crisis occurred in the +banker's disorder, and after a severe struggle, in which every bone of +his body seemed to twist itself round, he was declared by his pallid +doctor out of danger—saved. Surrounding his bed, we drank with no +little joy to his perfect recovery, and during one entire week we +suspended on the walls of his bed-room, according to the custom in Le +Morvan, garlands of lilies and <i>vervenia</i>, interwoven with green foliage +and wild thyme. From this time he improved daily, and three months after +no one would have recognized the sick man; his face became quite rosy, +and his eyes looked full of returning health. With a gun on his +shoulder, he followed us nimbly through the vineyards, never flinched +from his bottle, sang barcarolles with the ladies, made declarations of +love to all the young girls, promised to marry each, once at least, and +danced away in the evening under the acacias with the nymphs of the +village, to whom he had always some secret to tell behind the trees, or +in some snug<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> little corner. The woodcock season having arrived during +his stay, which was now nearly over, we determined that he should be +introduced to <i>la chasse aux Mares</i>.</p> + +<p>Pardon me, kind reader, for all this gossip by the way, but this is the +point at which I wished to arrive.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Summer months in the Forest—<i>Mare</i> No. 3—Description of it—The +Woodcock fly—The Banker has a day's sport—Arrives at the +<i>Mare</i>—Difficult to please in his choice of a hut—Proceeds to a +larger <i>Mare</i>—His friends retire—The Banker on the alert for a +Wolf or a Boar—Fires at some animal—The unfortunate +discovery—Rage of the Parisian—Pays for his blunder, and recovers +his temper.</p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">During</span> the months of June, July, and August, the great heats in our +forests are suffocating, and the woodcock, which during the livelong day +has been squatting under some mossy root, is impressed with the idea +that a bathe in a clear pool of cold fresh water would be very conducive +to its health. Thus directly the sun, red as a shot which leaves the +furnace, falls below the horizon, and that the clouds surrounding the +spot where it disappears, at first lurid and bright like fire, then +yellow like a sea of gold, become cool, pale, and at length sink into +more sober hues, the woodcock,—which waits only for this moment to open +its wings and promenade the neighbourhood,—comes forth and commences a +study of the winds. Guided by instinct, and by the fresh currents of +air<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> that float unseen in the atmosphere, she follows the sweet upland +breezes, and soon arrives at the spring or piece of water of which she +is in search.</p> + +<p>The <i>Mares</i> No. 3, in which the woodcock more especially loves to take a +bath, are almost as difficult to find as the one that I discovered, for +they are hidden in the depths of the forest; like it, also, they are for +the most part small, encircled by the thick foliage of the surrounding +trees, and consequently very dark; and the more this is the case, the +more solitary they are, and therefore the more sought after by this +bird. A woodcock never bathes in the <i>Mare</i> No. 1; for to them resort +one after another all the large game, or those No. 2, as these are too +open. The woodcocks are discreet and bashful, and, like the wives of the +Sultan, love a retired bath-room, where they may disport themselves on +banks ever fresh and green, perfumed with wild flowers, and immerse +their fair persons in pellucid waters that have never been tainted with +a drop of blood, or covered with feathers torn from the victim of the +sportsman's gun. Thus it is therefore that the <i>Mares</i> frequented by the +woodcock are so entirely hidden by the thick and falling branches, so +enveloped in deep shade, that you must have eyes made on purpose to be +able to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> discover their large brown bodies plunging in the crystal water +and wading amongst the flags. In aid of the sportsman, now as in the +spring, a little fly comes buzzing and wheeling about in the air to warn +the sportsman of the arrival of the birds, which, directly the moon's +white horn is seen glancing between the trees, arrive flapping their +wings in small parties of two and three at a time. One afternoon, when +the wind blew soft, and the sun was refulgent in the azure above, we +proposed an excursion in the forest to our friend the banker, who was +now quite convalescent.</p> + +<p>"What! do you wish to give me up to the beasts?" cried he, jumping up +from his seat.</p> + +<p>"Not at all, dear sir, pray don't be alarmed; we are merely desirous of +making you acquainted with the most innocent, the least dangerous sport +of the <i>chasse à l'affût</i>," and having convinced him, we started. +Everything went well as far as the entrance to the forest; but there the +<i>millionnaire</i>, little accustomed to walk over the stumps of underwood +and amongst the thorns, he began to drop into the rear, stopping every +now and then to rest against some tree, or disentangle his legs from +some yards of bramble, puffing and blowing, and ejaculating Oh's! and +Ha's! by dozens.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p><p>"Courage! sir," we said, "courage! we shall arrive too late; one brisk +half-hour's walk, and we are at our posts."</p> + +<p>"Upon my word, gentlemen, you are really considerate; I walk, I suspect, +quite as fast as you. But"—and how was he delighted to find an excuse +for a halt—"you spoke of a <i>chasse a l'affût</i>, hiding for what I should +like to know—for bears, panthers, or crocodiles? is it this kind of +game we are to watch for?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! no—for woodcocks."</p> + +<p>"Woodcocks!—what, have you made me walk since the morning through +perfect beds of briars and over miles of large stones, escalade the +mountains, descend precipices, and brought me through water-courses and +dark ravines, to kill a few woodcocks?"</p> + +<p>"Would you prefer confronting a wild boar?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said the puffing convalescent; "if there was no chance of +danger, I should infinitely prefer killing a boar."</p> + +<p>"For to-day this is impossible."</p> + +<p>"Why so?"</p> + +<p>"Why, in the first place, there are no boars in this wood, and it is too +late to take you to those which they frequent."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p><p>"Then we shall find only woodcocks in the place we are going to?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing else; at least during the half-hour we shall remain."</p> + +<p>"And if we were to remain more than half an hour?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! then we might perhaps by accident see a roebuck—perhaps a hungry +wolf."</p> + +<p>"A hungry wolf!—the deuce! And if there should come by chance a wolf to +the <i>Mare</i> when I shall be all alone, what must I do?"</p> + +<p>"Why kill it, to be sure."</p> + +<p>"To be sure, why of course I should kill the ferocious animal,"—and the +banker, though smacking his fingers and whistling as if quite +unconcerned, looked very grave. Continuing our walk, we arrived at the +<i>Mares</i>.</p> + +<p>"Goodness," said my companion, "how dark it is here,"—looking into each +hut that was shown him. "Misericorde! if I were to ensconce myself in +this leafy cabin, this gloomy sombre hole, I should fancy myself seated +at the bottom of a blacking-bottle—I respectfully decline the honour of +occupying the hut."</p> + +<p>"Very well, let us proceed to another," we exclaimed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> But the second +was pronounced more lugubrious and melancholy-looking than the first, +and the third not more agreeable than the preceding one.</p> + +<p>"It is no longer a matter of doubt," said the Parisian; "you are a +family of owls. What! place myself in these holes, these mouse-traps, in +these tumuli of leaves, where the archfiend himself, habituated to every +kind of darkness, could not distinguish anything?—thank you, gentlemen. +As to you, you can see clear; but by the great telescope of the +observatory, if I were to get into one of these rustic ovens, I should +not in five minutes be able to distinguish the end of my nose—I should +not be able to find my way to my breeches-pocket."</p> + +<p>"But, my dear sir," said I to him, when alone, for my two friends were +now snugly seated in the rejected huts, "you are very difficult to +please, and it becomes embarrassing, for these cabins are all alike; +when you have seen one you have seen a dozen. Now this, believe me, is a +capital one; come, seat yourself here."</p> + +<p>"I am much obliged to you, not that one; for this pool of water in +particular has something very sinister about it; the spot feels raw, and +has an unpleasant wolfish air."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p><p>What was to be done? While debating thus, I remembered that at some +little distance from the place where we then were, stood two large +farms, Les Fermes des Amandiers, and that, at a distance of half a mile +beyond them, there was a magnificent <i>Mare</i>, in the style, it is true, +of <i>Mare</i> No. 2, large and open, and yet it would be as useless to wait +for woodcocks there as it would be to hope to catch a trout in the +basins of Trafalgar-square. Such a spot seemed to me admirably +calculated for the banker; I resolved, therefore, to conduct him to it.</p> + +<p>"If this hut does not please you," said I, "follow me, and quickly."</p> + +<p>"Where are you going to take me?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! do not alarm yourself, I have just thought of a place that will +suit you exactly: a charming spot, delightfully scented by a thicket of +honeysuckles; but you must be on the alert. See, the sun is nearly below +the summit of the tallest oaks—we shall not have more than one hour of +daylight; and I must return here."</p> + +<p>When we arrived at the <i>Mare</i> of which I was in search, the immediate +neighbourhood of it was already silent and deserted. "Heavens!" said the +enchanted banker, "what a delightful spot! Quick!—where shall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> I place +myself? Let us look for the hut—ha! here it is, but half in ruins;" for +it had not, in all probability, been occupied three times in the last +three years; we were obliged therefore to cut some branches, and roughly +repair it; and the banker, having crept into the interior, like a sweep +up a chimney, requested to have his last instructions.</p> + +<p>"Well, when night has nearly closed in," said I, laughing under my +moustache, "be on the <i>qui vive</i>. The woodcocks will be here, but move +not; be like a statue for a few minutes; let them approach—let them +come, fly and whirl, and look about them; then, when reassured by your +silence, they will fall into the shallow water, paddle in the grass, and +plunging throw their legs into the air. At that moment they are yours. +Take your time and a deliberate aim, and miss them not. The sport over, +remain where you are, and on our return we will join you."</p> + +<p>"All you say is very clear and very pretty," replied the banker; "but I +feel already a horrid cramp in my left leg; and if I am to remain +crumpled up in this hut, like a Turk taking his coffee, or like a monkey +gnawing an apple, when you come for me I shall have lost the use of my +limbs."</p> + +<p>"Oh! if that is likely to be your fate, walk about—stretch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> your legs; +you have yet twenty minutes before dark. Adieu, sir, adieu; and good +luck attend you; for myself, I must be off to my post." But I had gone +scarcely thirty yards when he shouted after me, "Oh! Henri—my dear +young friend—come back. Here! see, a pack of wolves! What do I say? no; +a whole family of bears has passed this way! Look! the border of the +<i>Mare</i> is ploughed up by the feet of these savage brutes."</p> + +<p>"Bears, sir! those marks are merely the trampling of the shepherds' +dogs."</p> + +<p>"Shepherds' dogs! Stoop down—look closer; do you mean to tell me that +the shepherds' dogs have made these prints of cloven feet in the mud?"</p> + +<p>"No! those are holes made by the young calves from some neighbouring +farm, that came to drink here," I replied, repressing a laugh.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! Henri; calves, indeed! they are the marks of buffaloes and +wild boars. You cannot deceive me; for I know something about such +things. Why, this <i>Mare</i> is, I have no doubt, the rendezvous of all the +beasts of the forest for ten miles round. Thank you, I don't intend to +remain here."</p> + +<p>"Not remain! why you will, if you are correct, have far better fun than +we shall. Come, get into the hut."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p><p>"Remain with me, and divide the honour of the sport."</p> + +<p>"Me? no: I thank you,—adieu! and keep your eyes about you."</p> + +<p>"Halloo! Henri, come back. By the spectacles of my grandmother, what +will become of me? I am a fool! I have lost my sight—I have forgot my +eye-glass."</p> + +<p>"Try to do without it."</p> + +<p>"Impossible! it is useless—without an eye-glass I cannot see a yard +before me; I shall most certainly leave this <i>Mare</i>. I shall be off with +you."</p> + +<p>"My dear sir," said I to him, "you must know and feel that if I thought +there was the most remote chance of danger, I would not leave you alone; +you really have nothing to fear—if you come with me, you will be +dreadfully in the way, and without doing the least possible good. The +huts are so very small, that there is only sufficient room for one: we +shall kill nothing, and be laughed at into the bargain."</p> + +<p>"But these terrible quadrupeds; what if they should come and devour me +when you are gone?"</p> + +<p>"I tell you you have nothing to fear."</p> + +<p>"Very well, then I will believe you; after all, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> am not a coward, but +a man: a royal tiger would not frighten me, and in spite of these sombre +looking trees waving to and fro, this silence, and the solitary look of +the place, I remain; yes, by Jupiter, I remain; only barricade me in the +rear, cut some thick branches, palisade me well round—there, now I +think you may leave me, I require nothing more—and yet one word; if I +were in danger, do you think you would hear me if I called?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, a whisper may almost be heard in the forest at night—the +trees conduct the slightest sound."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, give me a shake of your hand. Adieu."</p> + +<p>"Adieu, sir; be patient, and, above all, wait for our return."</p> + +<p>"Let me alone for that; never fear my leaving this hut alone."</p> + +<p>"And cover your head well, for nothing is so likely to give one cold as +the night air rushing into the ears."</p> + +<p>"And mind, now, don't pray forget me. If you are not here in +three-quarters of an hour, I shall fire signals of distress, and make +the forest ring again with my maledictions."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p><p>But without waiting to hear anything further, I was off, and soon +reached my post. The sport, as usual, was pretty good; my friends and +myself killed four couple of woodcocks, and the <i>affût</i> over, we turned +our steps towards the banker's cabin. No report of a gun had yet been +heard in his direction, but suddenly, and when we were scarcely five +hundred paces from the hut, and I was on the point of announcing our +arrival by a shrill whistle—two barrels were discharged one after the +other—then followed a long and heavy groan, and after that a cry of +distress. In a few seconds we bounded to the spot, and found our friend +stretched on the grass outside his hut, without his hat, his eyes +staring wildly about him, and his hair in disorder. He was trembling +with emotion, and pointed to a black animal, half hid in the water and +the rushes, which seemed very large, and was rolling from side to side +in the agonies of approaching death. Fright, downright fright, had tied +the banker's tongue; and while he is collecting his senses, allow me to +tell you, good reader, what had occurred in our absence.</p> + +<p>Dumb and motionless, as directed, he had, during half an hour, waited +anxiously for the woodcocks;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> but the woodcocks had for a very long time +forgotten the road to this <i>Mare</i>; not one came—there was no sport for +him. He had already fancied he heard us returning in the distance, and +that his cramped legs would be set at liberty, and his twisted body +again assume the perpendicular, when all at once a cold perspiration +stood upon his brow, terror seized him; for behind, nay, almost close to +him, he heard advancing the heavy tramp and loud breathing of a wild +beast, and before he had time to observe what kind of an animal it was, +the brute passed so close to the hut that he pressed it down, and rushed +on to the <i>Mare</i>. More dead than alive, the banker lay half-squeezed in +a corner of his cabin, and panting for breath, dared scarcely move. +After a few minutes, however, he hazarded a careful glance outside, and +not twenty paces from him saw the immense quadruped bathing, and rolling +himself quietly in the water.</p> + +<p>"It is a gigantic boar," said he to himself, "as large as a horse, and +as old as Methuselah—no doubt the patriarch of the forest—what tusks +he must have! Let us observe." And with a courage which did him credit, +he, after some time, suppressed his fear, and felt in the pocket of his +game-bag for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> two balls, which, with trembling hands, he slipped into +his gun. After this he again looked out, and reconnoitred the movements +of the enemy; but so great was the obscurity, that he could discover +nothing—unless, indeed, it was a dark mass which walked and jumped +hither and thither, rolled, frolicked, and rejoiced in his refreshing +bath. The heart of the Parisian was greatly agitated, and beat as if it +would split his flannel waistcoat; nevertheless, he took good and +deliberate aim at the black object in front, and though exceedingly +terrified, he cocked his gun, and in a perfect fever of excitement let +fly both barrels, falling immediately backwards in a corner of his hut, +perfectly bewildered with his own courage. A deep groan followed, and at +the end of a few minutes of agony and suspense, our friend, seeing no +tiger in the act of springing upon him, hazarded another look, when he +still heard the creature moaning, and groaning, and floundering in the +water.</p> + +<p>The fact was, he had by a miracle, and without seeing, done that which +he never could have done at mid-day,—his two balls had perforated the +animal's head and neck. Observing the monster raising itself with +difficulty, and endeavouring to withdraw its legs from the sticky mud in +which they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> were fixed, the courage of despair rushed into his heart—he +left the hut, upsetting everything in his way, and precipitated himself +upon his adversary with a view of despatching him with the butt end of +his gun, or making him retreat further into the <i>Mare</i>, when imagine his +consternation and fear,—at the very moment his uplifted arm was +stretched out, like Jupiter's in the act of hurling a thunderbolt, the +animal raised himself on his haunches, looked him full in the face, +opened two enormous jaws, put up two very long ears, and instead of a +roar full of rage and ferocity, sent forth the most agonizing and +dolorous bray that was ever heard from the throat of any ass, French, +English, or Spanish! Yes! it was an ass the banker had mortally wounded; +an unfortunate ass, which, driven by thirst and the heat of the weather, +had left his shed at the neighbouring farm-house, to quench it and +refresh himself with a bath.</p> + +<p>Surprise, shame, horror, and confusion began to dance a polka in the +banker's brain, and made him utter the hoarse cry which we had heard. +While we were yet gazing at each other the poor creature, by a last +effort, raised his bleeding head once more above the water, and +collecting all the strength he had left,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> scrambled from the <i>Mare</i>, +gave a half-suffocating and plaintive bray, and casting a look full of +reproach upon the gasping banker, which seemed to say, "I die, but I +forgive you," fell dead at our feet.</p> + +<p>A convulsion of laughter from the party, now all assembled, followed; +even the birds, awakened from their slumbers, began to sing and partake +of the general hilarity.</p> + +<p>"Halloo! Mr. Three per Cent.," said one, "this is what you call +sporting, is it—killing starved woodcocks? Fie! sir."</p> + +<p>"You are three infamous vagabonds," replied the Parisian, catching his +breath, and picking up his hat.</p> + +<p>"What! sir."</p> + +<p>"Why, you are a trinity of rascals, I repeat."</p> + +<p>"Why, what's the matter?"</p> + +<p>"Abominable hypocrites, I say; this is a piece of acting, a trick which +you have kindly put upon me—this ass was driven here by you, or by some +one at your suggestion; I see clearly how it is."</p> + +<p>"See clearly, do you? it is a pity, then, you did not a few minutes +ago."</p> + +<p>"It is an infernal plot, I say; think you that I came into this wretched +country of forests to kill donkeys?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p><p>"Well! but whose fault is it, sir; why did you not bring your +eye-glass?"</p> + +<p>"My eye-glass; I don't require one, gentlemen, to enable me to see that +you have made a fool of me."</p> + +<p>"My dear sir, reflect for a moment."</p> + +<p>"No, gentlemen, I feel indignant at the paltry joke you have played upon +me—you knew that my sight was weak, and on that infirmity you have +practised a very shameful trick; you have said to yourselves, 'Send an +ass to this Parisian, he will no doubt take it for a wild boar.' Be off, +gentlemen, depart; let me have a clear horizon, or I shall proceed to +extremity."</p> + +<p>"Monsieur le Banquier, if you do not become a little more reasonable, we +shall leave you to your reflections and to yourself, and pretty pickings +you will be for the wolves."</p> + +<p>"So much the better; I wish to remain, I desire it; and after the gross +insult you have offered me, I shall certainly not be beholden to you as +a guide, or return to the town in your company." And he kicked the dead +carcass before him in his rage.</p> + +<p>"But, Monsieur le Banquier, the night is getting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> chilly and damp, and +remember you are only just convalescent; come, let us be off."</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen, I have already told you I shall not accompany you."</p> + +<p>"Why, this is madness, sir."</p> + +<p>"Anything you please; but thus it shall be. I will not leave this wood +until I have killed a wolf; yes, I must have a wolf; it is only in the +blood of a wolf that I can wash out the insult I have received; and I +will remain in the forest eight days, fifteen, three months, if +necessary. I will live on acorns, ants, toad's eggs, and roots, but by +the soul of that stupid brute that lays there," and he gave the deceased +ass a second kick, "I will not budge until I have killed a wolf: enable +me to slaughter a wolf, and I will follow you; nay, what is more, +forgive you."</p> + +<p>"Monsieur le Banquier, let us in the first place tie a stone round the +neck of this unfortunate animal, and throw his body into the <i>Mare</i>, and +then, as we are the only witnesses of this adventure, we swear that we +will never divulge it to any one, or make the slightest allusion to it; +and, as we are men of honour, you will of course believe us;—the secret +shall be kept inviolable. On the other hand, as we are to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> a certain +extent responsible for your health, and as your remaining here any +longer in this cold wind will seriously endanger it, do not feel +discomposed if we defer to another day the pleasure of seeing you kill a +wolf, and request you will accompany us back to the <i>château</i>."</p> + +<p>With various flattering speeches and consoling words, to heal his +mortification, we at length succeeded in bringing him away with us; many +a laugh had we on our road home, and many were the promises given that +we would never reveal the events of the evening. But, alas! the secret +came out on the following day, for before twelve o'clock had struck, a +peasant came knocking at the door, howling, crying, bawling like a blind +beggar, and demanding who had killed his ass. His importunity succeeded; +the murderer was brought to light, the banker cheerfully paid for his +shot, and laughed heartily at the adventure; but in spite of his +apparent philosophy, I remarked that from that moment he never met an +ass that he did not turn away his head; and this is the kind of game +that one finds in <i>Mare</i> No. 2.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">The <i>Curé</i> of the Mountain—Toby Gold Button—Hospitality—The +<i>Curé's</i> pig—His hard fate and reflections—The <i>Curé</i> of the +plain—His worth and influence—The agent of the Government—Landed +Proprietors—Their influence—The Orator—Dialogue with a Peasant. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">If</span> the Burgundian curates dwelling in the richest parts of the province +are fat, sleek, and jovial members of the Establishment,—if in their +cellars are to be found the best and most generous wines, and on their +tables the most exquisite dishes,—the <i>curés</i> of that portion of Le +Morvan which is immediately adjacent to Burgundy enjoy the same +abundance, and appreciate the advantages of good living equally with +them. But this is not the case with their <i>confrères</i> who reside in the +uplands, amongst the arid and volcanic mountains, without roads, and the +thickly timbered hill-district which joins the Nivernais. There the +village pastors are poor, thin, and badly fed; fairly buried in the +forest, and surrounded by a population more wretched and squalid than +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> rats of their own churches;—they seem as it were abandoned by +everybody. That which I am about to relate will prove this, and show +what a deplorable existence theirs is, and the ingenious methods to +which they are obliged to have recourse to keep up a fair outside.</p> + +<p>One of them thus exiled to a most deserted part of our forests, and who, +the whole year, except on a few rare occasions, lived only on fruit and +vegetables, hit upon a most admirable expedient for providing an animal +repast to set before the <i>curés</i> of the neighbourhood, when one or the +other, two or three times during the year, ventured into these dreadful +solitudes, with a view of assuring himself with his own eyes that his +unfortunate colleague had not yet died of hunger. The <i>curé</i> in question +possessed a pig, his whole fortune: and you will see, gentle reader, the +manner in which he used it.</p> + +<p>Immediately the bell of his presbytery announced a visitor, (the bell +was red with rust, and its iron tongue never spoke unless to announce a +formal visit,) and that his cook had shown his clerical friend into the +parlour, the master of the house, drawing himself up majestically, said +to his housekeeper (<i>curés</i> fortunately always have, cousins, nieces, or +house-keepers),<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> as Louis XIV. might have said to Vatal, "Brigitte, let +there be a good dinner for myself and my friend." Brigitte, although she +knew there were only stale crusts and dried peas in her larder, seemed +in no degree embarrassed by this order; she summoned to her assistance +"Toby, the Carrot," so called because his hair was as red as that of a +native of West Galloway, and leaving the house together, they both went +in search of the pig.</p> + +<p>Toby the Carrot, a youth of seventeen, was the presbyter's page, a poor +half-starved devil that the <i>curé</i> had taken into his service, who +lodged him badly, boarded him worse, and gave him no clothes at all; but +who, nevertheless, in his moments of good-humour—they were rare—and no +doubt to recompense him for so many drawbacks, would call him "Toby +Gold-button." At this innocent little pleasantry, this touch of +affability, Toby grinned from ear to ear, made a deep reverence, and put +the compliment carefully into his pocket, regretting however, no doubt, +that he had nothing more substantial and savoury than this to eat with +his coarse dry bread. Toby was a very useful servitor to the <i>curé</i>; he +was always on the alert; fat did not check his rapid movements, and from +the time the Angelus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> rang in the morning to Vespers in the evening, his +long skinny legs were constantly going. He drew the water, peeled and +washed the onions, blacked the shoes—and how <i>curé's</i> shoes do +shine!—rang the chapel-bell, gathered the acorns for the pig, intoned +the Amen when his master said mass, swept and weeded the garden, snared +the thrushes—which he cooked and eat in secret—and, dressed in a white +surplice, carried the cross and the Viaticum, and accompanied the <i>curé</i> +at night when on his way to offer the last consolations of religion to +some dying poacher in the forest. These expeditions were sometimes +across the mountains, and along the dry bed of some torrent, in which, +according to Toby's notion, they would have certainly perished had not +the <i>Bon Dieu</i> been with them.</p> + +<p>But we must return to our parson's pig, which after a short skirmish was +caught by Brigitte and her carrotty assistant; and notwithstanding his +cries, his grunts, his gestures of despair and supplication, the inhuman +cook, seizing his head, opened a large vein in his throat, and relieved +him of two pounds of blood; this, with the addition of garlic, shallots, +mint, wild thyme and parsley, was converted into a most savoury and +delicious black-pudding for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> <i>curé</i>, and his friend, and being +served to their reverences smoking hot on the summit of a pyramid of +yellow cabbage, figured admirably as a small Vesuvius and a centre dish. +The surgical operation over, Brigitte, whose qualifications as a +sempstress were superior, darned up the hole in the neck of the +unfortunate animal, and he was then turned loose until a fresh supply of +black-puddings should be required for a similar occasion. This wretched +pig was never happy: how could he be so? Like Damocles of Syracuse, he +lived in a state of perpetual fever; terror seized him directly he heard +the <i>curé's</i> bell, and seeing in imagination the uplifted knife already +about to glide into his bacon, he invariably took to his heels before +Brigitte was half way to the door to answer it.</p> + +<p>If, as usual, the peal announced a diner-out, Brigitte and Gold-button +were soon on his track, calling him by the most tender epithets, and +promising that he should have something nice for his supper, skim-milk, +&c.; but the pig, with his painful experience, was not such a fool as to +believe them; hidden behind an old cask, some faggots, or lying in a +deep ditch, he remained silent as the grave, and kept himself close as +long as possible.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p><p>Discovered, however, he was sure to be at last, when he would rush into +the garden, and running up and down it like a mad creature, upset +everything in his way; for several minutes it was a regular +steeple-chase—across the beds, now over the turnips, then through the +gooseberry-bushes; in short, he was here, there, and everywhere; but in +spite of all his various stratagems to escape the fatal incision, the +poor pig always finished by being seized, tied, thrown on the ground, +and bled: the vein was then once more cleverly sewn up, and the inhuman +operators quietly retired from the scene to make the <i>curé's</i> far-famed +black-pudding. Half dead upon the spot where he was phlebotomized, the +wretched animal was left to reflect under the shade of a tulip-tree on +the cruelty of man, on their barbarous appetites; cursing with all his +heart the poverty of Morvinian curates, their conceited hospitality, of +which he was the victim, and their brutal affection for pig's blood.</p> + +<p>I shall now endeavour to give the reader a description of the curate of +the plain; but he should clearly understand that I do not present this +character to him as the general standard of ecclesiastical +excellence,—quite the contrary; I am sorry to say I think it an +exception. My sketch, therefore, applies only to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> those <i>curés</i>, who +reside in a remote rural district like that of Le Morvan; I advance +nothing that I have not seen myself, and if I should ever have the +pleasure of meeting any of my English friends in Le Morvan, I could +introduce them to ten <i>curés</i> one and all similar in every respect to +the ecclesiastic I am about to pourtray.</p> + +<p>In the interior of this district, that is to say in the midst of her +rich plains, and in the hilly but not mountainous parts of it, the +<i>curés</i> are quite of another stamp; less poor than the herbivorous +gentleman we have just described, but not so well to do as those of +Burgundy; living under a state of things altogether peculiar to +themselves, far from the great cities, and yet in direct communication +with them, they are obliged by a common interest to identify themselves +with the events of the day. Every curate of the plain possesses an +immense influence in his parish and neighbourhood, and as at a moment +their support may be of great use in a political point of view, the +government, which is alive to everything, caresses, smiles on, and +cajoles them.</p> + +<p>In the moorland districts, also, and in the little villages which border +the great forests, the <i>curés</i> are everything, and do everything. They +perform the part<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> of judge, doctor and apothecary, banker and architect, +carpenter and schoolmaster; they give the designs for the cottages, mark +the boundaries of estates, receive and put out the savings of their +flocks, marry, baptize, and bury, offer consolation to the afflicted, +encourage the unfortunate, purchase the crops, and sell a neighbour's +vineyard. They represent the sun, by the influence of whose rays +everything germinates and lives; it is their hand—the hand of +justice—that arrests and heals all quarrels; the unselfish source from +whence good counsels flow—the moral charter from which the peasant +reads and learns the duties of a citizen.</p> + +<p>Ask not the population of our plains and forests, and secluded +agricultural districts, to which political party they belong; if they +are republicans, royalists, socialists or communists, reds or blues, +whites or tricolor,—they know nothing of all this. Their +opinions—their religion—are those of <i>Monsieur le Curé</i>. They know his +prudence, his charity, his good sense; they know he loves them like a +father; that he would not leave them for a bishopric—no, not for a +cardinal's scarlet hat;—that as he has lived, so will he die with them: +that is enough for them. Thus they consult him when they wish to form +an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> opinion for themselves, much in the same way as a sportsman, anxious +to take the field, looks up at the chanticleer on some village-steeple +to know what he ought to think of the cloudy sky above; and when they +see the good man sauntering past their cottages, with head erect and +animated step, smiling, and evidently full of cheerful, charitable +thoughts, and on good deeds intent, kissing the little children, giving +a rosy apple to one, and a playful tap to another; offering a sly word +of hope to the young girls, and a few kind ones to the aged and +infirm,—all the village is elated; and the old maids fail not to +present him with a fat fowl, or some such substantial expression of +their respect. But if, alas! the good <i>curé</i> should appear walking with +a slow and solemn step, his hands behind his back, his eyes fixed upon +the ground, and an anxious and thoughtful look upon his brow, his flock +gaze at one another, and whisper in an under tone that something is +amiss.</p> + +<p>At the epoch of political convulsions and revolutions, when systems and +governments, men and ideas, arise and disappear, as if they went by +steam,—when the authorities in the great towns wish to interfere with +the police regulations and customs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> that govern the agricultural +classes,—when they attempt to force them to gallop at full speed on the +high road of progress as they call it, and that to attain this desirable +end, handsome young men arrive from Paris in black coats and white +neckcloths, furnished with a marvellous flow of eloquent sophisms, +pretending to prove to the simple and honest peasants that in order to +be more free, happy, and rich, they must, without further ado, kill, +burn, and destroy,—the villagers, quite mystified, listen with open +mouth; but as to understanding what the gentleman in black—the dark +shadow of the government of progress—so glibly states, he might as well +be talking Turkish or Japanese. Every one looks at <i>Monsieur le Curé</i>, +they scan his face, and ask him what they are to do; and let him only +feel angry or disgusted with the wordy nonsense, and just make one sign, +or raise one finger, and 1200—aye, 2000 men would in a trice surround +him, and send the orator and all his staff to preach their pestilential +doctrines under the turf, and this without more ceremony and remorse +than if they were so many mad dogs. Poor fools! who think it possible to +change a people in a few weeks, and imagine that a fine discourse from +lips unknown and unloved will have a deeper effect upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> men's minds +than the admonitions of a pastor, whose life has been without reproach, +and adorned with every practical virtue.</p> + +<p>Yes, the influence exercised in our rural districts by the <i>curés</i> is +great, and this influence is well merited, for it is never abused—and +never used unless for the benefit and happiness of the flock confided to +their care. Without any motive of a personal nature, without ambition in +any sense to which that word can apply, they preach the Catholic +religion in all its simplicity, accepting and considering as brothers +all those who really desire to follow the example of their Saviour +Christ—all those who really love to do good; unworldly and unselfish, +they would think themselves dishonoured, their reputation sullied, if +the gown, which gives them in the eyes of the people a sacred character, +served as a cloak, a pretext to cover a dishonourable or disgraceful +action.</p> + +<p>It is also remarkable, and speaks volumes in their favour, that the +bishops are almost always at war with these poor and self-denying +<i>curés</i>, and would wish to see them take more interest in temporal +affairs, which they do not in the least understand; they would fain put +into their mouths the language<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> of anger and bitter feeling, alike +foreign to their natures and the religion of their Divine master. The +large proprietors also, those who live on their estates and do not press +hard upon their dependants, enjoy great consideration, and share largely +with the <i>curés</i> the hold they have on the affections of the people. +They frequently direct the opinions of the masses, and, with the +exception of their pastors, are the only class our rural population know +and revere. As to the generality of our statesmen, good, bad, or +indifferent, their names, brilliant as they may be, are not half so well +known in our villages as that of the most obscure labourer, the humble +artizan who knows how to file a saw or make a wheel.</p> + +<p>"Who is that gentleman, sir?" said a Morvinian of the plain to me one +day, pointing to a tall thin man, with a bald head, and a pair of gold +spectacles on his nose,—a notability of the legislative assembly who +was going to step into the village tribune.</p> + +<p>"That gentleman?" I replied; "he is an orator."</p> + +<p>"Ah! an orator: and pray what sort of a bird is that? what is he going +to chirrup about?"</p> + +<p>"An orator is not a bird, my good fellow; he does not sing, he makes +very fine speeches."</p> + +<p>"And what of them?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p><p>"What of them? why they teach men their duty."</p> + +<p>"Their duty in what?" continued the peasant, with his pinching logic. +"Is it the duty of a father, of a son, of a soldier, of a baker?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all; the duty of a citizen."</p> + +<p>"Citizen? I don't understand, sir," said the peasant.</p> + +<p>"Well, your political duties, if you like it better."</p> + +<p>"I am still none the wiser. And so this fine gentleman, with his yellow +spectacles and bald head, is not going to tell us anything about crops, +vineyards, planting, or sowing?"</p> + +<p>"No; but he will teach you your duty as a man, as a Frenchman, a +citizen—a member of the great human family; he will teach you your +rights; what you can and should demand of your government under the +articles 199, 305, 1202, 9999 of the charter—the last charter."</p> + +<p>"Sir, I am ashamed to have troubled you; I thank you much for your +explanation; I wish you a very good morning; for mathematics you see, +sir, do send me to sleep, and our <i>curé</i> will tell me all about it on +Sunday. I shall go back to the forest, and finish my job of yesterday."</p> + +<p>And are not these simple-minded men much in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> right? is not all the +good sense on their side?—they, who living by the axe, the plough, and +the produce of the earth, think only of their trees and their fields, +and ask of God but health and strength to work, rain and sun to nourish +the vines and gild their harvests. They leave to those who possess their +confidence, because they have never deceived them, the care of their +political interests; the care of setting and keeping them in the right +path, and of directing them in that current of life, slow it is true, +but which nevertheless is more effectual towards ameliorating the +condition, and eventually increasing the happiness of the human race, +than all the new-fangled doctrines promulgated by the statesmen and +philosophers of France.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">The wolf—His aspect and extreme ferocity—His cunning in hunting +his prey—His unsocial nature—Antiquity of the race—Where found, +and their varieties—Annihilated in England by the perseverance of +the kings and people—Decrees and rewards to encourage their +destruction by Athelstane, John, and Edward I.—Death of the last +wolf in England—Death of the last in Ireland. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">The</span> wild and furious wolf, both prudent and cowardly, is, from its +strength and voracity, the terror and the most formidable pest of the +inhabitants of those districts of France in which it is found. Provided +by Nature with a craving appetite for blood, possessing great muscular +powers, and an extraordinary scent, whether hunting or laying in ambush; +always ready to pursue and tear its victim limb from limb, the +wolf,—this tyrant,—this buccaneer of the forest lives only upon +rapine, and loves nothing but carnage.</p> + +<p>The aspect of the wolf has something sinister and terrible in its +appearance, which his sanguinary and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> brutal disposition does not belie. +His head is large, his eyes sparkle with a diabolical and cannibal look, +and in the night seem to burn like two yellow flames. His muzzle is +black, his cheeks are hollow, the upper lip and chin white, the jaws and +teeth are of prodigious strength, the ears short and straight, the tail +tufty, the opening of the mouth large, and the neck so short that he is +obliged to move his whole body in order to look on one side. His length +in our forests, from the extreme point of the muzzle to the root of the +tail, is generally about three feet; his height two and a half feet. The +colour of his hair is black and red, mingled with white and gray; a +thick and rude fur, on which the showers and severe cold of winter have +no effect. The limbs of this animal are well set, his step is firm and +quick, the muscles of the neck and fore part of the body are of unusual +strength,—he will easily carry off a fat sheep in his mouth, without +resting it on the ground, and run with it faster than the shepherd who +flies to its rescue. His senses are delicate and sensitive in the +extreme; that of smelling, as I have before remarked, particularly: he +can scent his prey at an immense distance,—blood which is fresh and +flowing will attract him at least a league from the spot. When he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> +leaves the forest, he never forgets to stop on its verge; there turning +round, he snuffs the breeze, plunges his nostrils deep into the passing +wind, and receives through his wonderful instinct a knowledge of what is +going on amongst the animals, dead or alive, that are in the +neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>The declared and uncompromising enemy to almost everything that has +life, the wolf attacks not only cows, oxen, horses, sheep, goats, and +pigs, but also fowls and turkeys, and especially geese, for which he has +a great fancy. In the woods also he destroys large quantities of game, +such as fawns and roebucks; and even the wild boar himself, when young, +is sometimes brought to his larder, for the wolf is one of that +voracious tribe which professes a profound contempt for vegetable diet, +and cannot do without flesh; hence the number of his devices for +supplying his table and varying his bill of fare is astonishing. But +mankind, it must be said in all justice, are not behindhand with him; +they are always on the alert; they meet him with tricks as clever as his +own, heap snare on snare to take him, and the result is that Mr. Lupus, +in spite of his strength, his agility, his practical experience, and +cunning instincts, often stretches out his limbs in death in the dark +ravines<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> of the forest—the victim of his enemy's superior intelligence.</p> + +<p>Obliged during the day to hide himself in the most solitary parts of the +woods, he finds there only those animals whose rapid flight enables them +to escape his clutches. Sometimes, however, after the exercise of +prodigious patience on his part, by lying in wait the whole day, at a +spot where he knows they will be certain to pass when the sun goes down, +a defenceless roebuck will occasionally fall into his jaws.</p> + +<p>This chance on the sly producing nothing, when night has set in he seeks +the open country, approaches the farms, attacks the sheepfolds, +scratches his way under the doors, and entering wild with rage, puts +everything to death—for, to his infernal spirit, destruction is as +great a pleasure as the satisfaction of his hunger.</p> + +<p>When the dogs growl in an under tone, when they are restless and +agitated, and snuff the wind as it drives in eddies through the +shutters, "The wolf is abroad," say the peasants.</p> + +<p>If these runs in the open country by the light of the moon afford no +supper, he returns to the depths of his lair, or takes up the scent of +some roebuck,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> tracks it like a hound, and though his hope is small +indeed of ever catching it, he perseveringly follows the trail, trusting +that some other wolf, famished like himself, will head the timid animal +in its flight, and seize it as it passes, and that, like staunch +friends, they will afterwards divide the spoil between them.</p> + +<p>But the reverse more often occurs,—and foiled and disappointed, he then +becomes, though naturally a dastard and full of fear, absolutely +courageous; the fire of hunger consumes his stomach, he fears nothing, +and braves every danger; all prudence is forgotten, and his natural +ferocity is wound up to such a pitch, that he hesitates not to meet +certain destruction, attacks the animals that are actually under the +care of man, man himself,—throws himself suddenly upon the poor +benighted traveller, and gliding slowly and softly, with the stealthy +movements of a serpent, seizes and carries off with him to the depth of +the forest the infant sleeping in its cradle, or the little, helpless, +innocent child which, ignorant of danger, laughs and plays at the +cottage-door.</p> + +<p>Unsociable as well as savage, with a heart harder than the ball which +drills the ghastly hole in his side, loving only himself and his dark +solitudes,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> the wolf never associates with its own kind; and when, by +accident, it happens that a few are seen together, be sure the meeting +is not a Peace Congress, or a party of pleasure. The assembled wolves +represent a society of reds, preparing the arrangements for a combat, in +which many a stream of blood shall flow, amidst the most fearful and +horrible cries. If a wolf intends to attack a large animal,—for +instance, an ox or a horse,—or if he desires to put a watch-dog, whose +strength disquiets him, or whose vigilance incommodes him, out of his +way, he roves about the lonely paths of the forest, raising a sharp +prolonged cry, which immediately attracts other wolves in the +neighbourhood; and when he finds himself surrounded by a numerous troop +of his colleagues, bound together by no other tie than the common object +they all have in view for the moment, he conducts them to the attack, +and should the farmer be not there to out-manœuvre them, it will be +odd indeed if the animal that they have agreed to destroy does not fall +a victim to their plans. The expedition over, the valiant brotherhood +separate, and each returns in silence to his thicket, whence they emerge +to reunite, when slaughter and blood call them forth again to make +common cause.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p><p>Wolves attain their full size in three years, and live from fifteen to +twenty; their hair, like that of man, grows gray with years, and like +him also they lose their teeth, but without the advantage of being able +to replace them; the race of wolves is as old as the flood,—even older, +for their bones have been found in antediluvian remains. They are found +in all countries on the New Continent as well as the Old. "They exist," +observes Cuvier, "in Asia, Africa, and America, as well as in Europe; +from Egypt to Lapland; everywhere, in fact, excepting in England." How +an animal so detestable and so universally hated should have continued +to perpetuate itself, when every other species of savage beast on the +face of the earth diminishes in an infinitely greater proportion, is a +problem difficult to solve.</p> + +<p>Fourrier, in his "<i>Théorie Harmonique et comparative des espèces</i>," +remarks truly, that each species of the human race corresponds with some +species of the brute creation. The wolves in the forest represent the +Jews in the towns; and he asserts, that it being possible only to +compare the voracity of the one with the rapacity of the other, these +two races, which are identical by reason of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> their several +characteristics, will never perish, never become extinct, except +together. But the Jews decline to acknowledge the relationship thus +assumed and the paradoxical connexion between themselves and this race +of animals; they deny that the idiosyncrasies are in any degree similar, +and persist in placing this luminous idea of Fourrier's on a level with +that of the sea of lemonade, which will, according to the same author, +one day surround our planet.</p> + +<p>The bones and teeth of wolves are often discovered, as I have already +said, amongst the <i>débris</i> of the antediluvian world.</p> + +<p>In the Holy Scriptures, too, there are several observations respecting +the wolf,—in them it is stated that he lives upon rapine, is violent, +cruel, bloody, crafty, and voracious; he seeks his prey by night, and +his sense of smell is wonderful. False teachers are described as wolves +in sheep's clothing; and the Prophet Habakkuk, speaking of the +Chaldeans, says, "Their horses are more fierce than the evening wolves." +And again, Isaiah, describing the peaceful reign of the Messiah, +writes,—"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> the leopard +shall lie down with the kid: and the calf and the young lion and the +fatling together, and a little child shall lead them."</p> + +<p>The wolf varies in shape and colour, according to the country in which +it lives. In Asia, towards Turkey, this animal is reddish; in Italy, +quite red; in India, the one called the beriah is described as being of +a light cinnamon colour; yellow wolves, with a short black mane along +the entire spine, are found in the marshes of all the hot and temperate +regions of America. The fur of the Mexican wolf is one of the richest +and most valuable known. In the regions of the north the wolf is black, +and sometimes black and gray: others are quite white; but the black wolf +is always the fiercest. The black is also found in the south of Europe, +and particularly in the Pyrennees. Colonel Hamilton Smith relates an +anecdote illustrative of its great size and weight. At a <i>battue</i> in the +mountains near Madrid, one of these wolves, which came bounding through +the high grass towards an English gentleman who was present, was so +large that he mistook it for a donkey; and whatever visions of a ride +home might have floated across his brain for the moment, right glad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> was +he on discovering his error, to see his ball take immediate effect.</p> + +<p>In former days, the Spanish wolves congregated in large packs in the +passes of the Pyrennees; and even now the <i>lobo</i> will follow a string of +mules, as soon as it becomes dusk, keeping parallel with them as they +proceed, leaping from bush and rock, waiting his opportunity to select a +victim. Black wolves also are found in the mountains of Friuli and +Cattaro; the Vekvoturian wolf of Siberia, described by Pallas, is one of +the darkest variety. In Persia and in India wolves are trained and made +to play tricks and antics as monkeys and dogs are in Europe. At Teheran, +Bankok, and Arracan, a well-trained wolf that can dance a polka of the +country, sing a national air, and preserve a grave face during five +minutes, with a pair of spectacles on his nose, will fetch as much as +500 dollars.</p> + +<p>"In China," remarks Colonel Smith, "wolves abound in the northern +province of Shantung;" and Buffon, quoting from Adanson, asserts, that +"there is a powerful species of the wolf in Bengal, which hunt in packs, +in company with the lion." "One night," says Adanson, "a lion and a wolf +entered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> the court of the house in which I slept, and unperceived, +carried off my provisions; in the morning my hosts were quite satisfied, +from the well-marked and well-known impressions of their feet in the +sand, that the animals had come together to forage." Colonel Smith +observes, that "the French wolves are generally browner and somewhat +stronger than those of Germany, with an appearance far more wild and +savage: the Russian are larger, and seem more bulky and formidable, from +the great quantity of long coarse hair that cover them on the neck and +cheeks."</p> + +<p>"The Swedish and Norwegian are," he says, "similar to the Russian; but +appear deeper and heavier in the shoulder; they are also lighter in +colour, and in winter become completely white. The Alpine wolves are +yellowish, and smaller than the French. This is the type of wolf that is +commonly found in the western countries of Europe; and it was, in all +probability, this species that once infested the wild and extensive +woodland districts of the British Islands; for that wolves were once +exceedingly numerous in England, is as certain as that the bear formerly +prowled in Wales and Scotland, and with the former was the terror of the +inhabitants. How<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> dangerous to them, and how very common they must have +been, is evident from the necessity that existed in the reign of +Athelstane, 925, for erecting on the public highway a refuge against +their attacks. A retreat was built at Flixton, in Yorkshire, to protect +travellers against these ravenous brutes. King John, in a grant quoted +by Pennant, from Bishop Littleton's collection, mentions the wolf as one +of the beasts of the chase that, despite the severe forest laws of the +feudal system, the Devonshire men were permitted to kill. Even in the +reign of the first Edward, they were still so numerous that he applied +himself in earnest to their extirpation, and enlisting criminals into +the service, commuted their punishment for a given number of wolves' +tongues;—he also permitted the Welsh to redeem the tax he imposed upon +them, by an annual tribute of 300 of these horrid animals."</p> + +<p>That Edward, however, failed in his attempt to extirpate them, is +evident from a <i>mandamus</i> of that monarch's successor, to all bailiffs +and legal officers of the realm, to give aid and assistance to his +faithful and well-beloved Peter Corbet, whom the King had appointed to +take and destroy wolves (<i>lupos</i>) in all forests, parks, and other +places in the counties of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, and Salop, +wherever they could be found. In Derbyshire, certain tenants of lands, +at Wormhill, held them on condition that they should hunt the wolves +that harboured in that county. The flocks of Scotland appear to have +suffered a great deal from the ravages of wolves in 1577, and they were +not finally rooted out of that portion of the island till about the year +1686, when the hand of Sir Evan Cameron made the last of them bite the +dust.</p> + +<p>Wolves were seen in Ireland as late as the year 1710, about which time +the last presentment for killing them was found in the county of Cork. +The Saxon name for the month of January, "wolf-moneth," in which dreary +season the famished beasts became probably more desperate; and the term +for an outlaw, "wolfshed," implying that he might be killed with as much +impunity as a wolf, indicate how numerous wolves were in those times, +and the terror and hatred they inspired. In every country the +inhabitants have declared this ferocious brute the enemy of man; and in +order, if possible, to annihilate him, have employed every device;—the +result in England has been most satisfactory. The Esquimaux, that +distant and half-frozen people, have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> their own peculiar way of trapping +wolves; and it is somewhat singular that their ice wolf-trap, as +described by Captain Lyon, resembles exactly, except in the material of +which it is made, that of France, though it is very certain no Morvinian +ever went so far as the Melville peninsula to take a hunting lesson from +an Esquimaux. The very birds of prey, those flying thieves of the air, +are used for wolf-hunting amongst some of the savage nations of the +earth. The Kaissoks take them with the help of a large sort of hawk, +called a <i>beskat</i>, which is trained to fly at and fasten on their heads, +and tear their eyes out; and the Grand Khan of Tartary has eagles tamed +and trained to the sport in the same way as we have our packs to hunt +the roebuck and wild boar.</p> + +<p>In the sombre forests of the Nivernais and Burgundy, where wolves are +still numerous, and where they occasion the farmers great loss by the +destruction of their cattle, they are destroyed in every way imaginable. +General <i>battues</i> are held, and private hunting parties meet, a +multitude of traps set, pits dug, the sportsman and the peasant lie in +wait for them, and dogs and cats, well stuffed with deadly poison, are +placed near their haunts in the thick<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> underwood. Nevertheless, and in +spite of all these crafty inventions and open war with them, the wolves +scarcely diminish in number; they still present the same formidable +phalanx, and seem determined to defy their destroyers.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">The <i>battues</i> of May and December—The gathering of +sportsmen—Distribution in the forest—The <i>charivari</i>—The fatal +rush—Excitement of the moment—The volley—The day's triumph, and +the reward—The peasants returning—Hunting the wolf with +dogs—Cub-hunting—The drunken wolf. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">In</span> the first days of May, that interesting epoch in which in the forest, +the woods, and the plain, the majority of all animals are with young; +and in the commencement of December, the period of storm and tempest and +the heavy rains, which precede the great snows, two general <i>battues</i> +take place in Le Morvan. To these all the tribe of sportsmen—the good, +the bad, and the indifferent—are invited; in short, every one in the +neighbourhood who loves excitement attends. Gentlemen, poachers, and +<i>gens-d'armes</i>, young conscripts and old soldiers, doctors and +schoolmasters, every one who is the fortunate possessor of a gun, a +carbine, a pistol, a sabre, a bayonet, or any other weapon, presents +himself at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> the rendezvous. Bands of peasants, also, armed with +bludgeons, spears, broomsticks, cymbals, bells, frying-pans, sauce-pans, +and fire-irons (it is impossible to make too much noise on the +occasion), arrive from every point of the compass, and add their numbers +to those already assembled. On the day agreed upon, therefore, and at +the spot indicated, a small army is on foot, which, full of ardour and +thirsting for the combat, brandish with shouts their various weapons and +kitchen utensils, drink to the success of the enterprise, and wait with +no little impatience the signal to place themselves in march, and attack +the enemy. The commander of these assembled forces,—generally the head +ranger of the forest,—having under his orders a battalion of sub +<i>gardes-de-chasse</i>, directs their movements.</p> + +<p>This mode of taking the wolf is conducted with very great order and +circumspection; everything is well arranged beforehand; the ravines and +deep underwood, which the wolves are known to resort to, have been +carefully ascertained; the number of guns and rifles necessary to +surround this or that wood are told off, and the whole plan is so well +prepared, the execution of it is so prompt,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> every one is so well aware +of what he has to do, that in one day a large tract of country is +carefully beaten.</p> + +<p>In these <i>battues</i>, those who have fire-arms form two sides of a +triangle, and are placed with their backs to the wind, along the roads +which border the wood the <i>traqueurs</i> are about to beat. On no account +ought they to fire to their rear, but always to the front; and in order +to prevent, in this respect, misunderstanding and accident, the <i>garde</i>, +whose duty it is to place each sportsman at his post, breaks a branch, +or cuts a notch in the tree before him, in order that in a moment of +hesitation and excitement this broken bough or barked spot may remind +him of his real position. The base of the triangle or the cord of the +arc (for this curved line had more the shape of a great bow slightly +strung than any other geometrical figure) is formed of the peasants, +who, side by side, wait only for the last signal to advance, when they +commence their euphonious concert—a <i>charivari</i> not to be described.</p> + +<p>The arrangements and preparations, conducted in profound silence, being +terminated, the signal is given, when the tumult, which at once breaks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +forth, produces intense excitement. The forest, hitherto silent, and +apparently without life, is suddenly awakened with confused noises, +metallic and human—the peasants shout, halloo, sing, and bang together +their pots, kettles, and pieces of iron, striking every bush and thicket +with their staves, and scaring every animal before them. Flights of +wood-pigeons, coveys of partridges, birds of every size, species, and +plumage, pass like moving shadows above their heads. The owls, too, +suddenly aroused from sleep, leave their dark holes, and, blinded by the +light, fly against the branches in their alarm with cries of +terror—probably imagining the order of night and day is reversed, and +that the unusual and unearthly noises proclaim that the end of the world +has arrived for the owls. Then come the roebuck and the foxes, bounding +and breaking through the underwood, and the hares and rabbits, which +jump up under the feet of the beaters.</p> + +<p>Motionless as a mile-stone at your post, and rifle ready, this flying +legion of animals gives you a twinge of impatience, for you must allow +them a free passage, as in these <i>battues</i> one dare not fire at +anything, save and except the great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> object of the day, the wolf. Wolves +alone have the honour on these important occasions of receiving the +contents of your double-barrel. But the cowards, divining what is in +preparation for them, are the last to show themselves; as the line +advances, they trot up and down the portion of the wood thus enclosed, +seeking for an outlet, or some break in the line; and they never make up +their minds to advance to the front until the tempest of sounds behind +them is almost ringing in their ears. But now the thunder of voices, +till then distant, approaches, and the cries and hallooing of the +peasants, like a flowing tide, forces them to draw nearer to the +huntsmen.</p> + +<p>Whether or no, that fatal line must now be passed, and the few minutes +that precede the last movement of the wolves towards it brings to every +sportsman sensations impossible to describe. He knows the brutes are in +his rear, approaching, and a feeling like an electric current runs at +this exciting moment from one to the other; every man's finger is on his +trigger, his pulse throbs at a feverish pace, his heart beats like the +clapper of a bell in full swing—all, to take a surer aim, kneel, or +place their back against the nearest tree, and each offers up a prayer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> +for aid to his patron saint. This nervous moment has sometimes such an +effect upon ardent and excitable imaginations, that I have observed many +young sportsmen look very queer, some actually tremble and one shed +tears. But the <i>traqueurs</i> are at hand, and the largest and boldest of +the wolves, placing themselves in front, are preparing for the fatal +rush—one more <i>charivari</i> from the peasants and their sauce-pans +decides them, when the whole troop bound forward, yelling and howling +upon the line, in passing which a storm of balls and buck-shot salute +and assail them in their course.</p> + +<p>The death of from thirty to forty wolves is generally the result of the +day's exertions, without counting the wounded, which always escape in +greater or less numbers. The Government give a reward of twenty francs +for every wolf, and twenty-five for every she-wolf, and these sums being +immediately divided amongst the peasants, they return to their homes not +a little pleased, singing their old hunting ballads, stopping +occasionally by the way at some village inn for a glass, where they may +be seen cutting capers, with the true peasant notions of the dance. On a +fine day, with the blue sky above, the forest breathing perfume, and the +sun<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> shedding over it its golden rays, the passing game, the distant +halloo! of the <i>traqueurs</i>, the gun-shots which suddenly rattle around +you, the watching for and first view of the wolves, put the head and the +heart in such a state of excitement, as once felt can never be +forgotten. The May and December <i>battues</i> are, therefore, looked forward +to with immense impatience; and nothing short of sudden death, or an +injured limb, prevents the country-people from hastening with alacrity +to the rendezvous.</p> + +<p>Wolves are likewise hunted all the year round, with dogs, by gentlemen, +in the neighbourhood of the forest. But this sport is very fatiguing and +weary work, if that animal alone is employed; for nothing is so +difficult as to get up with a cunning old wolf, whose sinewy limbs never +tire, and whose wind never fails—who goes straight ahead, ten or +fifteen miles, without looking behind him; if he meets with a <i>Mare</i>, or +stream of water on his road, then your chance is indeed up,—for into it +he plunges, and makes off again, quite as fresh as he was when he left +his lair.</p> + +<p>The best and most expeditious mode of taking a wolf is, to set a +bloodhound on him, bred expressly for this particular sport; large +greyhounds being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> placed in ambush, at proper distances, and slipped, +when the wolf makes his appearance in crossing from one wood to another. +These dogs, by their superior swiftness, are soon at his haunches, and +worry and impede his flight, until their heavy friend the hound comes +up; for the strongest greyhound could never manage a wolf, unless he was +assisted in his meritorious work by dogs of large size and superior +strength. The huntsmen, well mounted, follow and halloo on the hounds; +every one runs, every one shouts, the forest echoes their cries, and +wolf, dogs, and sportsmen pass and disappear like leaves in a whirlwind, +or the demon hounds and huntsmen of the Hartz. And now the panting +beast, with hair on end and foaming at the mouth, bitten in every part, +is brought to bay—his hour is come—no longer able to fly, he sets his +back against some rock or tree, and faces his numerous enemies.</p> + +<p>It is then that the oldest huntsman of the party, in order to shorten +his death-agony, and save the dogs from unnecessary wounds, dismounts, +and, drawing a pistol from his hunting-belt, finishes his career before +further mischief is done. When a ball hits a wolf and breaks one of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> +bones, he immediately gives a yell; but if he is dispatched with sticks +and bludgeons, he makes no complaint. Stubborn, and apparently either +insensible or resolute, Nature seems to have given him great powers of +endurance in suffering pain. Having lost all hope of escape, he ceases +to cry and complain; he remains on the defensive, bites in silence, and +dies as he has lived. In a sheepfold the noise of his teeth while +indulging his appetite is like the repeated crack of a whip. His bite is +terrible.</p> + +<p>The months of September and October, the period for cub-hunting, afford +capital sport. The young wolves are not like the old ones, strong enough +to take a straight course, and they consequently can rarely do more than +run a ring; when tired, which is soon the case, they retire backwards +into some hole or under a large stone, where they show their teeth and +await, with a juvenile courage worthy of a better fate, the onset of +their assailants. The mode of separating the cubs from their mother, +who, with maternal tenderness (for that feeling exists even in a wolf), +always offers to sacrifice her life for her young, is by turning loose +two or three bloodhounds. These first distract her attention, and then +pursue her so closely that at last she thinks it prudent to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> decamp, and +seek safety in flight; when these dogs have fairly got her away, and +their deep music dies away in the distance, others are laid on the scent +of the cubs, and the sport ceases only with the death of the litter. A +young wolf may be tamed; but it is not wise to place much confidence in +his civilization: with age he resumes his nature, becomes ferocious, and +sooner or later, should the occasion present itself, will return to his +native woods;—for as water always flows towards the river, so the wolf +always returns to his kind.</p> + +<p>In the summer, the wolves, like the gypsies, have no fixed residence; +they may then be met with in the standing barley or oats, the vineyards +and fields; they sleep in the open country, and seldom seek the friendly +shelter of the forest, except during the most scorching hours of the +day. Towards the end of August I have often met them in the vineyards, +apparently half drunk, scarcely able to walk, in short, quite unsteady +on their legs, almost ploughing the ground up with their noses, and +staring stupidly about them. Every well-kept vineyard ought to be as +free from stones as possible, and therefore the peasants, when they +weed, dig a trench about the vines, or prune them, always remove at the +same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> time whatever stones or flints they may meet with; these are piled +at the end of the vineyard in a heap of about twenty feet square and six +feet high, called a <i>meurger</i>.</p> + +<p>On these <i>meurgers</i> the breezes of summer waft every description of +seed, and they are consequently soon covered with verdure, shrubs, +brambles, and wild roses, which from a distance give them the appearance +of a small copse or thicket. These elevated and shady spots are the +favourite retreats of game in the middle of the day; here they love to +repose and take their <i>siesta</i> in the cool—here the red partridges meet +to have a gossip—hither the young rabbits scuttle to recover their +various alarms, and the trembling hare also squats and conceals herself +the moment a dog or a gun appears in the adjoining vineyard. Of course +these green mounds have a corresponding value in the eyes of the +sportsmen, who always find in them something to put up.</p> + +<p>Often, therefore, walking gently on the soft ground, have I stolen to +one of these <i>meurgers</i>, and throwing in a stone, generally turned out +some partridges and rabbits that were there quietly ensconced; I have +also, and greatly to my surprise, heard there the growl of a wolf, +which, rising lazily amongst<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> the bushes, stumbled and fell, and was +evidently incapable of getting further. A salute from both barrels, with +small shot, scarcely tickled his skin; but it brought him once more on +his legs, though only to fall again,—when, having reloaded, I advanced +on him and administered a double dose in his ear, which had the desired +effect. The fact was, he was quite drunk, though not disorderly.</p> + +<p>These wolves, during the ardent heats of August, suffer dreadfully from +thirst; and finding no water, take to the vineyards, and endeavour to +assuage it by eating large quantities of grapes, very cool, and no doubt +very delightful at the time; but the treacherous juice ferments, +Bacchanalian fumes soon infect their brain, and for several hours these +gentlemen are for a time entirely deprived of their senses. What a field +for Father Mathew; but never, I am certain, has the worthy Apostle of +Temperance ever dreamed of offering the pledge to the wolves of Le +Morvan—the rub would be to hang the medal round the necks of these +Bacchanals of the forest.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Wolf-hunting, an expensive amusement—The <i>Traquenard</i>—Mode of +setting this trap—A night in the forest with Navarre—The young +lover—Dreadful accident that befell him—His courage and efforts +to escape—The fatal catastrophe—The poor mad mother. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Wolf-hunting</span> in the forests is an expensive amusement, whether they are +killed by the method I have described,—namely, of employing beaters, +and shooting them when breaking through the line of sportsmen, or +running them down with dogs. The peasants and <i>traqueurs</i> have to be +paid, in the first case; hunters and hounds have to be purchased and +maintained, in the second, without counting the innumerable incidental +expenses which a kennel of hounds always brings in its train. This kind +of establishment is too extravagant for our country-gentlemen, and thus +it is that for one wolf killed in the great meetings, or with the dogs, +thirty are taken in pits and snares, or by some species of stratagem.</p> + +<p>Every small farmer or large proprietor, to protect his family and his +cattle,—every shepherd, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> protect himself and his flock, invokes to +his aid the genius of strategy; and as the mind of man is a sponge full +of expedients, from which once pressed by the hard fingers of necessity +many an ingenious device is extracted, innumerable are the various +seductive baits that in our plains and forests are placed in the way of +the gluttonous appetite of the wolf; and I shall now describe the +inventions that are more generally adopted.</p> + +<p>The favourite trap employed in Le Morvan is the <i>Traquenard</i>. This is +the most dangerous, and the strongest that is made, requiring two men to +set it; it has springs of great power, which once touched, the jaws of +the trap close with tremendous force. Each jaw, formed of a circle of +iron, four or five feet in circumference, is furnished along its whole +length with teeth shaped like those of a saw, but less sharp, which shut +one within the other. To these redoubtable engines of destruction is +attached an iron chain, six feet in length, and at the other end of it +is a bar of iron with hooks; these hooks or grapnel, which catch at +everything that comes in their way, impede the escape of the wolf when +once seized, and prevent him from going any great distance from the spot +where he has been caught. The trap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> should not be tied or fixed in any +way, for then the wolf would probably in his first bound, his first +frantic movement of terror, either break some part of it, or in his +violent endeavours to escape, succeed, only leaving a leg behind him.</p> + +<p>In placing the trap and chain, a little earth is taken away, so that +both are on a level with the turf; after which, the jaws being opened, +they are covered with leaves in as natural a manner as possible. Great +care must be taken by the person who sets the trap that he does not +touch it with his naked hand; this should invariably be done with a +glove on, otherwise the wolf—always extremely difficult to catch by +reason of his delicate sense of smell—would be awakened to his danger. +The mode of taking the wolf by means of the <i>Traquenard</i>, is as +follows:—A spot having been selected in the depths of the forest, and +in a sombre pathway unfrequented by the beasts of prey, the trap is set +about an hour before the sun goes down, and a dog, young pig, a sheep, +or some other animal which has been dead a few days, is divided into +five parts; one of the portions is suspended to the lower branch of the +tree, under which the trap is set; and the other four, being each +attached to a withe or the band of a faggot,—not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> rope, for in that the +wolf detects the hand of man, and he hates the smell of the +material,—are drawn by men along the ground in the direction of the +four points of the compass. These men are mounted either on horseback, +or on an ass, or they put on a pair of <i>sabots</i> and walk, each of them +dragging after him, through the wood and along the unfrequented paths, +his portion of the bait, stopping every now and then to let the soil +over which it passes be as much as possible impregnated with the smell +of the flesh on the verge of corruption.</p> + +<p>The <i>traineur</i> should always walk as much as possible through those +parts of the forest that are the clearest of underwood, for in these +spots the wolf is least on his guard; and when he has thus traversed +from 2,500 to 3,000 paces—the distance required in order to give the +animal, (who will at first follow his track with caution and even +suspicion,) time to regain his confidence—he stops, throws the bait +over his shoulder, and walks home, leaving the result to chance, and the +hunger of the savage game. When four or five other traps have been set +for the same night, in a radius of three or four miles thus prepared, it +rarely happens that some of these various lines—which intersect each +other on every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> side and in every direction, taking in a considerable +surface of ground—are not hit upon during the night by the roving +wolves: and be sure that each wolf whose olfactories discern the scented +line, and who at length arrives at the trap, is a wolf taken.</p> + +<p>Well do I remember the fever of impatience with which I was seized, the +first time I was present at the preparations for this sport, and the +desire I had to know what would be the result of our machinations; so +much so, indeed, that the arrangement being completed, I positively +refused to return to the <i>château</i>;—climbing into a thick tree, distant +about a hundred paces from the trap, I passed the whole night there on +the watch, shivering in my jacket, sitting astride upon one branch, my +feet on another, and Navarre at my side. Poor Navarre! he had in the +beginning of the evening brought all his astronomical knowledge to bear +upon me, with a view of proving that the night would be terribly +unwholesome; that we should have a furious hurricane and be deluged with +rain, blinded by the lightning, and terrified by the thunder; and that, +in the way of eating and a cordial, the only thing he had in his +game-bag was a sorry piece of black bread, hard enough to break the +tooth of a boar. I had a stiff tustle with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> him before he gave in; but +finding he could not damp the burning curiosity which devoured me, and +that my ears were deaf to the somewhat rough music of his reasoning and +his predictions, the worthy man at length closed the fountain of his +eloquence, and, though growling and mumbling in an under tone at my +juvenile obstinacy, which had deprived him of his bed and his supper, +quietly took his seat in the tree; then drawing from the bottom of his +pocket some tobacco and a short pipe—his consolation in his greatest +misfortunes—he whiffed away, burying his irritated countenance in his +breast by way of showing his vexation.</p> + +<p>It seems to me but yesterday these eight hours passed in the forest in +the silence of that starlight night, hid in the branches, and waiting +for the wolves! We caught three, and nine galloped under the very oak in +which we were seated. This midnight scene was exciting beyond +description; and the worthy Navarre, notwithstanding his pipe, his +fox-skin cap, and his goat-skin riding-coat, caught such a melancholy +cold, that he did nothing but sneeze and hoop the whole of the next day, +making more noise than all the dogs and cattle in the farm put together.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p><p>Wolf-hunting with traps has its dangers and its inconveniences, and the +<i>Traquenard</i> must be used with great caution. Every morning it should be +visited and shut; otherwise a man, a horse, a dog, or some other animal, +may fall into it, and be taken. In order, therefore, as much as possible +to prevent accidents, our peasants, farmers, and poachers, when using +this kind of trap, always tie stones, or little pieces of dead wood, to +the bushes and branches of the trees near the spot in which it is set; +they likewise place the same kind of signal at the extremity of the +pathway which leads to the trap, as a warning to those who may walk that +way; and the peasants, who know what these signals dancing in the air +with every puff of wind mean, turn aside, and take very good care how +they proceed on their road.</p> + +<p>In spite of all these precautions, however, very sad occurrences will +sometimes happen in our forests. Some years ago a trap was placed in a +deserted footway, and the usual precautions were taken of hanging stones +and bits of wood in the approach to the path at either end. The same +day, a young man of the neighbourhood, full of love and imprudence—upon +the eve, in fact, of being entangled in the conjugal "I will"—anxious +to present to his <i>fiancée</i> some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> turtle-doves and pigeons with rosy +beaks, with whose whereabouts he was acquainted, left his home a little +before sunset to surprise the birds on their nest; but he was late, the +night closed in rapidly, and with the intention of shortening the road, +instead of following the beaten one he took his way across the forest. +Without in the least heeding the brambles and bushes which caught his +legs, or the ditches and streams he was obliged to cross, he pressed on; +and after a continued and sanguinary battle with the thorns, the stumps, +the roots, and the long wild roses, came exactly on the path where the +trap was set. The night was now nearly dark, and, in his agitation and +hurry, thinking only of his doves and the loved one, he failed to +observe that several little pieces of string were swinging to and fro in +the breeze from the branches of a thicket near him. Dreadful indeed was +it for him that he did not; for suddenly he felt a terrible shock, +accompanied by most intense pain, the bones of his leg being apparently +crushed to pieces—he was caught in the wolf-trap!</p> + +<p>The first few moments of pain and suffering over, comprehending at once +the danger of his position, he with great presence of mind collected all +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> strength he had, and by a determined effort endeavoured to open the +serrated iron jaws which held him fast: but though despair is said to +double the strength of a man, the trap refused to give up its prey; and +as at the least movement the iron teeth buried themselves deeper and +deeper with agonizing pain into his leg, and grated nearly on the bone, +his sufferings became so intense that in a very few minutes he ceased +from making any further attempts to release himself. Feeling this to be +the case, he began to shout for help, but no one replied; and as the +night drew in he was silent, fearing that his cries would attract the +notice of some of the wolves that might be prowling in the +neighbourhood, and resolved to wait patiently and with fortitude what +fate willed—what he could not avert. He had under his coat a little +hatchet, a weapon which the Morvinians constantly carry about with them, +and thus in the event of his being attacked by the dreaded animals, he +trusted to it to defend himself; but he was still not without hope that +the wolves would not make their appearance.</p> + +<p>The night lengthened; the moon rose, and shed her pale light over the +forest. Immovable, with eyes and ears on the <i>qui vive</i>, his body in the +most dreadful agony, he listened and waited: when, all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> at once, +far—very far off, a confused murmur of indistinct sounds was heard. +Approaching with rapidity, these murmurs became cries and yells; they +were those of wolves—and not only wolves, but wolves on the track, +which must ere a few minutes could elapse be upon him. A pang of horror, +and a cold perspiration poured from his face;—but fear was not a part +of his nature, and by almost superhuman efforts, and, in such an awful +moment, forgetting all pain, he dragged himself and the trap towards an +oak tree, against which he placed his back.</p> + +<p>Here leaning with his left hand upon a stout staff he had with him when +he fell, and having in his right his hatchet ready to strike, the young +man, full of courage, after having offered up a short prayer to his God, +and embraced, as it were, in his mind his poor old mother and his bride, +awaited the horrible result, determined to show himself a true child of +the forest, and meet his fate like a man. A few minutes more, and he was +as if surrounded by a cordon of yellow flames, which, like so many +Will-o'-the-wisps, danced about in all directions. These were the eyes +of the monsters; the animals themselves, which he could not see, sent +forth their horrible yells full in his face, and the smell of their +horrid carcases<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> was borne to him on the wind. Alas! the <i>denouément</i> of +the tragedy approached. The wolves had hit upon the scented line of +earth, and following it; hungry and enraged, were bounding here and +there, and exciting each other. They had arrived at the baited spot....</p> + +<p>What passed after this no one can tell—no eye saw but His above: but on +the following morning when the Père Séguin, for he was the unfortunate +person who set the <i>Traquenard</i>, came to examine it, he found the trap +at the foot of the oak deluged with blood, the bone of a human leg +upright between the iron teeth, and all around, scattered about the turf +and the path, a quantity of human remains: bits of hair, bones,—red and +moist, as if the flesh had been but recently torn from them,—shreds of +a coat, and other articles of clothing were also discovered near the +spot; with the assistance of some dogs that were put on the scent, three +wolves, their heads and bodies cut open with a hatchet, were found dying +in the adjacent thickets. The bones of their victim were carried to the +nearest church; and on the following day these mournful fragments, which +had only a few hours before been full of life and youth and health, were +committed to the earth.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p><p>When the venerated <i>curé</i> of the village, after previously endeavouring +in every possible way by Christian exhortation to prepare his aged +mother to hear the sad tale, informed her that these remnants of +humanity was all that was left of her boy, she laughed—alas! it was the +laugh of madness—reason had fled! Many a time have I met the aged +creature strolling in a glade of the forest, or seated basking in the +sun outside the door of her cottage. Her complexion was of the yellow +paleness of some old parchment, she was always laughing and +singing—always rocking in her arms a log of wood, a hank of hemp, or +bundle of fern—objects which to her poor crazy eyes represented her +child;—her child as it was in its tender years: she called it by his +name, she kissed, embraced and dandled it, rocked it on her knees; and +when she thought it should be tired, sang those lullabies which had +soothed the slumbers of him who was now no more. I have witnessed the +horrors of war, I have heard many a tragic story, but never has my heart +been more touched with feelings of profound grief than the day on which +I first met this poor creature—this widowed mother, then seventy years +of age—singing and walking in the forest, carrying and dandling in her +shrivelled arms a shawl<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> rolled up; kissing and talking to the silent +bundle, smiling on it,—sitting at the foot of a tree, and opening that +bosom in which the springs of life had for years been dried, to nurse +and nourish once more what seemed to her still her baby boy.</p> + +<p>The morning after the dreadful catastrophe of which I have just spoken, +the path in which this terrible tragedy took place was closed, and trees +were planted along its length, so that no person could in future pass +that way. But the Père Séguin has often shown me the oak, at the foot of +which during that fearful night the young peasant suffered such agonies, +made such incredible efforts, and drew with such indomitable courage his +last breath. This tree is still called by the peasants, "The Widow's +Oak," or, "The Oak of the Wolves."</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Shooting wolves in the summer—The most approved baits to attract +them—Fatal error—Hut-shooting—Silent joviality—The approach of +the wolves—The first volley—The retreat—The final slaughter—The +sportsman's reward—The farm-yard near St. Hibaut—The dead +colt—The onset—Scene in the morning—Horrible accident—The +gallant farmer—Death of the wolves, the dogs, and the peasant—The +wolf-skin drum—Anathema of the naturalists. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">When</span> the sportsman does not absolutely care about sleeping in his own +bed, and will not be denied the pleasure of shooting a wolf himself, a +drag is run similar to those we have already mentioned, but other parts +of the proceedings are conducted in a manner widely different. In the +first place, there is no trap; then, instead of the piece of flesh, the +great attraction, being put in an obscure and hidden path, it should, on +the contrary, be placed in an open spot, on the border of a wood, in a +glade, or in a field on the verge of the forest, in order that the +sportsman who is laying in wait, in ambush, may be able to see what is +passing; he must, too, conceal himself as much as possible, either in a +thicket under the foliage, in a hut made with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> the boughs of trees, or +in a hole dug in the ground; but he should always be so placed that he +is against the wind, and if the moon is up he ought to take especial +care that he is in the shade.</p> + +<p>But it sometimes happens that the sportsman, at a moment when there is +no time to run a drag,—for instance, after dinner when smoking a cigar, +he suddenly takes it into his head to kill a wolf, and it is too late to +bait the spot; nevertheless the hunter will have nothing less than his +wolf. Before leaving home, therefore, he orders his servant to bring him +a duck; this he puts into his pocket, and shouldering his gun, seeks the +depths of the forest alone. Having found a favourable spot,—a place +where four roads meet is that, if possible, generally chosen,—he hangs +the unfortunate duck by the leg to the branch of a neighbouring tree, +which, as if divining the part that he is intended to play in the piece, +flaps his wings, and begins to cry and quack most vehemently.</p> + +<p>Extraordinary as it may appear, it is well known that the cries of the +duck and the goose are those most readily heard by a wolf, and +consequently it is by no means a rare occurrence to see one of these +animals arrive. An unweaned lamb, which is always<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> bleating for its +mother, is also an excellent decoy-bait to attract them.</p> + +<p>In the months of May and June, when the sportsman happens to tumble upon +a she-wolf, the cubs of which are suckling, a drag may be run with one +of them; the mother will for certain follow the track, and, if you are +not properly on your guard, and well prepared to receive her, it is +equally certain she will play you a very unpleasant trick, and make you +feel that it is not wise to excite the maternal tenderness of a wild +animal. But it is in winter that the wolves are more especially +dangerous, and it is in this rough season that war to the knife is +declared against them. The peasants, as well the wood-cutters and +charcoal-burners of the forest, having then no employment, assemble in +small bands, furnish themselves with provisions for several days, and +armed with ponderous and clumsy fowling-pieces, go in search of the wild +cat and the wolf, the roebuck and the boar.</p> + +<p>On these occasions, as in all those where fire-arms are used, the +chapter of accidents is seldom without a page relating some sad history. +Two young men of the village of Akin, near Vezelay, one of whom was +engaged to the sister of his companion, having<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> made their arrangements, +set out to hunt together in this manner, trusting that a heavy bag might +pay for the expenses of the wedding fête. As luck would have it, they +soon fell upon the traces of a boar, and separating at the entrance of a +dark ravine, to beat for and watch the animal, were lost to view. But a +short time had elapsed when the young man who was about to be married +observing, though not clearly, between the trees and bushes a large +black mass, which moved to and fro, and which he imagined was the boar +listening, brought his gun to his shoulder, and, firing, lodged two iron +slugs in the body of his comrade, who, advancing towards him, his +shoulders being covered with a black sheepskin, had stooped down for a +few seconds to tie the strings of his leggings, or his shoes.</p> + +<p>When the trees are devoid of foliage and the snow covers the ground, +when the forest is melancholy and cold, and the wolves famished with +hunger, a rather original mode of taking them by night is adopted. A few +days previously to the one appointed for the purpose, a large glade in +the very thickest part of the forest having been selected, a carpenter +and his assistant, with a well-furnished bag of tools, start for the +spot. There, choosing some suitable trees,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> or branches of young +pollards, they cut down a sufficient number, place them in the ground so +as to form a hut of twelve yards square, leaving between each tree an +interval of about four inches; strengthening the edifice by beams at the +base, and boards nailed transversely seven feet from the ground.</p> + +<p>This open hut thus prepared, and which, at fifty paces distance, ought +not, if well constructed, to be distinguishable from the trees, is left +open to the inspection of the beasts of the forest for several nights in +succession, in order that they, always suspicious of the most trifling +circumstance, may get accustomed to it. Two or three ducks, a goose, and +sometimes a sheep, are fastened during these nights near the hut, with a +view of alluring the wolves and inducing them to visit the mansion.</p> + +<p>The day, or rather the appointed evening, having arrived (a star or +moonlight night being selected), the assembled huntsmen, and a long line +of servants, betake themselves to the forest, leading by the head four +calves, and carrying with them a cask of cold meat, a hamper of wine, a +box of cigars, and a horse-load of pale <i>cogniac</i>—a few camels and +dromedaries added to this cavalcade, and one would have a complete +picture of a tribe of Bedouins preparing to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> pass the Great Desert. +Arrived in the forest about nightfall, and well and duly shut up in +their Gibraltar of wood, the sportsmen may eat, drink, and smoke, and +converse in an undertone; but a heavy fine is invariably inflicted on +those who make the least noise. No one is permitted to sneeze, talk +loud, or laugh; as to blowing one's nasal organ vigorously, the thing is +absolutely forbidden; no one is allowed to have a cold, much less an +influenza, for at least eight hours, and every sportsman is careful that +the wine and the viands take each their proper line of road; if either +should unfortunately diverge, the gentleman must choke rather than +cough—as to the servants, they do every thing by gesture and signal; +and woe betide the John that speaks—chance may be, his tongue is thrown +to the wolves.</p> + +<p>When night has set in, the four calves are led out from the stockade and +fastened to strong posts which have been fixed in front of each face of +the hut. Silence now reigns supreme, and the wolves,—the spur of famine +in their insides, mad in short with hunger,—begin to sniff the breeze +and run their noses over the rank dewy grass of the underwood. At this +point of my narrative I must bespeak the forbearance of the Society for +the Prevention<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> of Cruelty to Animals, and beg them to read on to the +end, and weigh well the question and the result, before they bring an +action against me for what follows. The calves in question having been +placed, they each—must I write it?—receive an incision in the neck, +the effect of which is that the blood flows slowly, and they bleat +without ceasing;—such is the custom, as it is said, with butchers to +make veal white and pleasing to the eye of the epicure; a really inhuman +habit—but when the deed is done with a view to the extermination of +wolves, I think there is little doubt but Mr. Martin himself would have +used a fleam in the cause.</p> + +<p>This operation over, the sportsmen divide, post themselves, with their +guns ready, on each side of the hut, and wait with beating hearts the +arrival of the expected four-footed visitors. Nine o'clock passes—ten, +half-past—not a sound is heard in the forest; the sportsmen who look +out on the snowy scene around them observe nothing; all without is +dreary silence, broken at intervals by the poor ruminating creatures in +front, the cry of a solitary owl, the fall of some dead branch which age +and the tempest has separated from the giant oak, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> sudden spring of +the squirrel awakened by the noise, and, in the interior of the cabin, +by the soft gurgling of the ruby wine escaping joyfully from its glass +prison-house, to cheer the heart of the impatient <i>chasseur</i>—and who +knows better than he how to empty a flask of genuine Burgundy?</p> + +<p>We will, therefore, imagine some of the party enjoying themselves after +this fashion; when suddenly the calves are heard to rise, to bellow and +groan, strain at the ropes with which they are fastened, and endeavour +to escape; every cigar is at once extinguished, the comic changes to the +serious—the wolves are on the scent. A few minutes more, and black +spots are seen dotted about here and there on the snow; these increase +in number and approach,—they are the wolves that observe and listen; +the frantic terror of the calves is redoubled; the black spots become +larger, they advance still nearer, and at length the animals may clearly +be distinguished. The wolves imagine the calves have come astray. What a +charming thing if they could carry them off to the dark ravines they +inhabit! The great square hut, silent as Harpocrates, and the smell of +man, make them hesitate; but a hunger of many days (and we know that +man, the image<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> of his Maker, will eat man, his fellow, in his +extremity) and the smell of blood prevail and overcome their fears. Four +or five wolves rush forward, and endeavour to remove the calves; the +attempt is vain, the ropes are strong, and so are the posts to which the +animals are fastened: unable, therefore, to succeed, and stretched +across their dying victims, they plunge their ravenous jaws into the +palpitating flesh, forget their alarm in so delicious a supper, and eat +and drink to their heart's content. The rest of the pack thus +encouraged, and afraid of being too late, now advance at a gallop to +share in the repast.</p> + +<p>It is then, and amid the yells, the disputes, and the bloody encounters +occasioned by a division of the spoil, that the sportsmen open their +fire. The first volley puts the wolves to flight, and they retire to a +short distance. But again all is silent, they soon return to the +carcases they cannot make up their minds to desert; other wolves also, +that have been in the rear, attracted by the cries and smell of their +wounded companions, and the blood of the calves, arrive and take part in +the strife, so that during several hours the forest echoes with repeated +volleys. At length the calves are fairly eaten up, when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> the fortunate +survivors of the fray, gorged and satiated, take to flight, and +disappear like a band of black demons into the recesses of the forest. +It is then the sportsmen leave their hut, stretch their limbs, count the +dead, dispatch their wounded enemies, and, clothed in thick fur cloaks, +sit as if at the bivouac round a large fire, passing the remaining hours +of the night in emptying more bottles, excavating more pies, drinking +more punch, and telling better stories than those which I have had the +pleasure of laying before the reader.</p> + +<p>The morning has scarcely dawned and the party is on the road home, when +a crowd of peasants arrive with their dogs, who, following the bloody +traces of the wolves in the snow, dispatch those which, though wounded, +have been able to leave the spot—for the sight of a dead wolf is to a +Morvinian as delightful as the possession of one is profitable. Having +killed his ferocious enemy, the peasant cuts off his head and his four +feet, which he fastens crosswise at the end of his staff; then arraying +himself in his best and most showy clothes, his hat ornamented with +flowers and ribbons streaming in the breeze, like those in the cap of an +English recruit, he is off, the left foot foremost, to the mayor of his +parish to receive the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> reward offered by the government. But his road to +his worship is anything but direct; he performs what he terms the grand +tour, visits every village in his way, makes his bow to the women, calls +at the sheep-farms and the <i>chateâux</i>, showing, with no little pride and +exultation, his wolf's head, and receives at each some acknowledgment +for the service he has rendered the community,—money, a dozen of eggs, +a pound of lard, a bit of pork, bread, flour, flax, or salt, &c. He who +kills the wolf, and carries the spoils as a trophy in this manner, is +accompanied by the musician of the neighbourhood, who marches before him +blowing his bagpipe with the force of an ox; behind him is one of the +strongest men of the village, with a large bag on each shoulder, who +carries the presents, and imitates the cry and yells of a wolf when the +piper is tired. It will not therefore be considered astonishing if it is +always with renewed pleasure that a peasant of Le Morvan kills a wolf; +and though one becomes tired, <i>blazé</i> with almost everything in this +mortal world, it is not the case when a gallant fellow is seen entering +a village carrying the head of this hideous monster on his pole. This +trophy, with tongue distended and mouth kept wide open by a piece of +wood to show his long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> yellow teeth, frightens all the little children +that see it.</p> + +<p>There are many other methods of taking the wolf, with a hook, a net, +with tame she-wolves <i>à la loge</i>, the poacher's method, in pits, and in +a washing-tub by the side of a pond, &c. But a description of these +several modes would occupy too much space. I cannot, however, before +taking a final leave of this subject, resist the temptation to relate +one last and most fearful incident—a frightful illustration of the +horrors to which a country infested by this animal is liable. It +happened during my sojourn at St. Hibaut, at a farm in that +neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>It was in the month of February, the winter was exceedingly severe, and +three feet of snow still covered the mountains; all communication +between the villages had ceased, and bands of hungry wolves besieged the +farms in the heart of the woods.</p> + +<p>The forest of La Madeleine, particularly full of ravines and dark +thickets, small hamlets, and solitary houses, was overrun with these +insatiable and remorseless brutes. Travellers had been devoured in the +passes of La Goulotte, and mangled and torn in the ravines of Lingou. No +one dared venture into the country when night approached.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p><p>The farm of which I am about to speak stands just on the borders of the +forest of La Madeleine, in the midst of pastures and patches of furze; +it was full of cattle and sheep, and by the time the stars were +brilliantly illuminating the dark arch of heaven, was frequently +surrounded by troops of wolves, scratching under the walls, and loudly +demanding the trifling alms of a horse, an ox, or a man. It so happened +that at this time one of the farmer's colts died, and he determined, if +possible, to use it as a bait, which would provide him the opportunity +of destroying some of his nocturnal visitors.</p> + +<p>For this purpose he placed the dead body in the middle of his +court-yard, and having fastened weights to its neck and legs, to prevent +the wolves from dragging it away, he set the principal gate open, but so +arranged with cords and pulleys that it could be closed at any required +moment. Night came on; the house was shut up, the candles extinguished, +the stables barricaded, the dogs brought in-doors and muzzled to prevent +them from barking, and, in the bright starlight, on some clean straw, +the better to attract attention, lay the dead body of the colt—the +gate, as we have said, being open. All was ready, all within on the +watch, when about ten o'clock the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> wolves were heard in the distance; +they approached, smelt, looked, listened, grumbled, and distrusting the +open gate, paused; not one would enter. Profound was the silence and +excitement in the house. Hunger at last overcame prudence and mistrust. +Their savage cries were renewed; they became more and more impatient and +exasperated,—how was it possible to resist a piece of young horseflesh? +The most forward, probably the captain of the band, could hold out no +longer, and to show his fellows he was worthy to be their leader, he +advanced alone, passed the Rubicon, went up to the colt, tore away a +large piece of his chest, and, proud of his achievement, set off at +speed with his booty between his teeth. The other wolves, seeing him +escape in safety, regained their confidence, and one, two, three, six, +eight wolves were soon gathered round the animal, but, though eating as +fast as they could, they remained with ears erect, and each eye still on +the gate.</p> + +<p>Eight wolves! The farmer thought it a respectable number, and whistled, +when the four men at the ropes hauling instantly, the large +folding-gates rolled to, and closed in the stillness with the noise of +thunder,—the wolves were prisoners. Startled and terrified at finding +themselves caught, they at once<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> deserted the small remains of the colt, +creeping about in all directions in search of some outlet by which they +might escape, or some hole to hide in, while the farmer, having secured +them, sent his household to bed, putting off their destruction till +sunrise.</p> + +<p>The morning dawned, and with the first rays of light master and men, for +whom the event was a perfect <i>fête</i>, set some ladders against the walls +of the court, and from them, as well as the windows, fired volleys on +the entrapped wolves. Unable to resist, the animals for some time +hurried hither and thither, crouching in every nook and corner of the +yard: but the wounds from balls which reached them behind the stones, or +under the carts, soon turned their fear into rage. They began to make +alarming leaps, and the most dreadful yells. The work of destruction +went on but slowly;—the men were but indifferent shots, the wolves +never an instant at rest;—and the rapidity and perseverance with which +they continued to gallop round, or leap from side to side of the yard, +as if in a cage, essentially baffled the endeavours of their enemies.</p> + +<p>The affair was in this way becoming tedious, when an unlooked-for +misfortune threw a dreadful gloom over the whole scene.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p><p>The ladder used by one of the party being too short, the young man +placed himself on the wall, as if in a saddle, to have a better +opportunity of taking aim; when one of the wolves, the largest, +strongest, and most exasperated, suddenly bounded at the wall, as if to +clear it, but failed; subsequently the animal attempted to climb up by +means of the unhewn stones, like a cat, and though he again failed, +reached high enough almost to seize with his sharp teeth the foot of the +unfortunate lad. Terrified at this he raised his leg to avoid the +brute—lost his balance—and the same moment fell with a heart-rending +scream into the court below. Each and all the wolves turned like +lightning on their helpless, hopeless victim, and a cry of horror was +heard on every side.</p> + +<p>The storm of leaden hail ceased: no man dared fire again, and yet +something must be done, for the monsters were devouring their unhappy +fellow-servant. Listening only to the dictates of courage and humanity, +the noble-hearted farmer, gun in hand, leaped at once into the yard, and +his men all followed his heroic example. A general and frightful +conflict ensued. The scene which then took place defies every attempt at +description. No pen could adequately place before the reader the awful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> +incidents that succeeded. He must, if he can, imagine the howling of the +wolves, the piteous cries of the lacerated and dying youth, the +imprecations of the men, the neighing of the horses and roaring of the +bulls in the stables; and, more than all, the crying and lamentations of +the women and children in the house—a fearful chorus—such as happily +few, very few persons were ever doomed to hear. At last the farmer's +wife, a powerful and resolute woman, with great presence of mind +unmuzzled the dogs, and threw them from a window into the yard. This +most useful reinforcement with their vigorous attacks and loud barking +completed the tumult and the tragedy. In twenty minutes the eight wolves +were dead, and with them half the faithful dogs. The poor unfortunate +lad, his throat torn open, was dead; his courageous, though unsuccessful +defenders, were all more or less wounded, and the gallant farmer's left +hand so injured, that as soon as surgical assistance could be procured +for him, amputation was found to be necessary.</p> + +<p>The monsters, stretched side by side in the yard, were also stone dead, +every one of them; but not a voice on the farm raised the heart-stirring +shout of victory. Consternation and gloom reigned over it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> and it was +long indeed ere the voice of mourning deserted its walls.</p> + +<p>The skin of the wolf is strong and durable; the woodmen, <i>braconniers</i>, +and mountaineers, make cloaks and caps of it, the tail being left on the +latter to fall over the ear by way of ornament; they likewise cover with +it the outside of their game-bags. They tan it also, and excellent shoes +are made of the leather, soft and light for summer wear,—it is likewise +made into parchment, not to write the history of their ancestors upon, +but to cover small drums, the rattle of which, on fairdays and <i>fêtes</i> +is sure to set the peasants dancing. This fact is alluded to in a song +of our province, written by a shepherd-poet, in the pleasing dialect of +Le Morvan, of which the following is a free translation:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Hark! 'tis the wolf-skin drum,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">We come! We come!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Yes, come with me sweet girl, and fair</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">As rosebud wild that scents the air.</span><br /> +The heavens are bright, the stars are shining,<br /> +Thy lovely form my arms entwining;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Together let us lead the dance</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Deep in thy sylvan haunts, dear France!</span><br /> +Hark! I hear those sounds again,<br /> +The wolf-skin drum, the pipers' strain.<br /> +</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p><p>Wealthy persons use a wolf-skin for a carriage-rug, and in the rainy +season as a mat at the door of a room. "There is nothing good in the +wolf," says Buffon, "he has a base low look—a savage aspect, a terrible +voice, an insupportable smell, a nature brutal and ferocious, and a body +so foul and unclean that no animal or reptile will touch his flesh. It +is only a wolf that can eat a wolf." "No animal," writes Cuvier, "so +richly merits destruction as the wolf." With these two funeral orations +on these incarnate fiends of Natural History, I shall close this +chapter, remarking that the anathema bestowed on them by Buffon is not +quite correct, for if wolves are dangerous, and enemies to the public +weal, and "there is nothing good" in them during their lives, they, at +least, become useful after their death.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Fishing in Le Morvan—The naturalists—The <i>Gour</i> of Akin—The +English lady—The mountain streams—Château de +Chatelux—Sermiselle—New mode of killing pike—Pierre Pertuis—The +rocks and whirlpool there—The syrens of the grotto—Château des +Panolas—The Cousin—The ponds of Marot and lakes of Lomervo—Mode +of taking fish with live trimmers—The Scotch farmer. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Having</span> disposed of the quadrupeds of Le Morvan, I must enlarge a little +upon the finny tribe of my native province, who would, I feel sure, be +not a little annoyed if after having mentioned nearly every other +creature capable of affording amusement to the sportsman I were to pass +them over in silence. Besides, the shade of Izaak Walton would haunt me, +and his disciples no doubt wish me well hooked, if I omitted to give +them a chapter on angling,—but it shall be short, and I will avoid all +scientific discussion. Theories sufficient have been hazarded, and books +written without number from the days of old Aristotle, who arranged them +in three great divisions, the Cetaceous, the Cartilaginous, and the +Spinous; down to Gmelin, who divided them into six orders,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> the Apodal, +the Jugular, the Thoracic, the Abdominal, the Branchiostagous, and the +Chondropterygious.</p> + +<p>How men, learned and scientific men, can be so barbarous as to invent +such grotesque names as these is surprizing, or why Apicius should be +remembered for having been the first to teach mankind how to suffocate +fish in Carthaginian pickle; or Quin, for having discovered a sauce for +John Dories; or Mrs. Glasse, for an eel pie; or M. Soyer, celebrated for +depriving barbel of their sight, in order to make them grow fatter, and +be more acceptable to the epicure. Into this wilderness of discoveries, +I have no intention of introducing you, gentle reader. The wisest plan +is to cook and eat your fish in the ordinary mode—fry, broil, bake, +boil, or grill; and call a perch, a perch, not a thoracic; a pike, a +pike, &c., and pay little attention either to cooks or naturalists.</p> + +<p>Le Morvan, intersected by numerous rivers, streams, and runs of water, +in the liquid depths of which the various species of the fresh-water +fishy-family are found from the powerful, swift, and travelled salmon, +to the modest little gudgeon that stays quietly at home, is a country +where the angler may live in a state of perpetual jubilee; the carp, the +eel, and the pike attain an enormous size, particularly near the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> dams +and flood-gates, where the depth of water is great, and in the <i>Gours</i> +or water-courses which, diverging at several points on the stream, are +constructed for supplying the flour and paper-mills with water.</p> + +<p>The punters of Richmond, Hampton Court, and Chertsey, with their +magnificent tackle, gentles, ground-bait, and comfortable chair, &c., +would be astonished to see the quantities of fish that are taken in one +of these <i>Gours</i> by a half-naked peasant, with a line as thick as +packthread, during a sultry tempestuous evening in the month of June; +from thirty to forty pounds' weight of carp and eels is by no means an +unusual take,—Apodal and Abdominal, as the learned Gmelin would say.</p> + +<p>These <i>Gours</i> are perfect jewels in the eyes of our fishermen; on very +great occasions, for instance, when the miller marries, or an infant +miller makes his appearance, if the occurrence should happen during the +summer season, the flood-gates of the <i>Gours</i> are opened, when the +waters being let off to within a few inches of the bottom, the quantity +of fish taken with the casting-net is enormous. In the large <i>Gour</i> of +Akin, the longest, the deepest, and containing more fish than any on the +Cure or the Cousin, which I mention<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> as representing the ten or twelve +second-rate rivers of Le Morvan, I have seen as much as four horse-loads +of fish taken, though every fish under two pounds was thrown back. The +average depth of water in these rivers is from three to four feet, +except near the dams and flood-gates, where it is from twelve to +thirteen. With rivers so well supplied, sport is invariably obtained; so +that patience, a virtue generally considered absolutely necessary in the +angler, is scarcely required here, and fishing is actually a pastime of +the <i>beau sexe</i>.</p> + +<p>Well do I remember the astonishment, the pleasure, the delicious joy of +a young English lady we had the good fortune to have with us at Vezelay, +some few years since (where, by-the-bye, she made quite a sensation), +when for the first time, and seated comfortably upon the soft turf by +the river side, she gracefully threw her line into the great <i>Gour</i> of +Akin; the bait had scarcely sunk, when the float was dancing about like +a dervish, and finally disappeared; the lady pulled, the fish resisted; +excited beyond measure, she redoubled her efforts, and tugging away with +both hands, at length drew from his watery home a large carp, which +flying through the air, described a splendid parabola, and landed in the +adjoining field,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> to the great joy of the young lady, who showed her +white teeth and laughed with might and main. But the poor devil of a +servant to whom was confided the delicate task of impaling the bait, +disentangling the line, and searching for the fish, when thus projected +over the lady's head into the long grass behind her, had plenty to do I +can aver, and did anything but laugh.</p> + +<p>Near the forests and the hills the rivers are much more shallow, more +clear and limpid, and flow, dance, and bubble over a gravelly bottom or +golden sands. In these the voracious trout abounds; he may be seen +allowing himself to be lazily rocked by the eddy, by the twirling +current, or reposing under the shadow of the large rocks, which, +detached from the adjacent mountains, have fallen into the river, and +been arrested in their course; here he waits for the delicious May-fly, +and the fisherman's basket is soon filled—so soon that a celebrated +doctor in our neighbourhood, whose house is situated near one of these +streams, used to send his servant every morning to take a fresh dish for +his breakfast. The largest and the best trout are found near Chatelux, +in the heart of the Morvan,—an old <i>château</i>, on the summit of a high +rock, ornamented with towers and turrets, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> surrounded by thick and +solitary woods, in itself a lion worth seeing.</p> + +<p>The present Count de Chatelux was aide-de-camp to Louis Phillipe, and a +great friend of that sovereign. The river Cure flows at the foot of the +hill on which the castle is situated, and its bed at this part is +frequently divided, and forms many little islets, full of flowering +shrubs and forest trees, which give the landscape a pleasing and +picturesque appearance. From hence, for nearly twelve miles, roach, +dace, chub, and trout are numerous, and take the fly well.</p> + +<p>Besides the <i>Gours</i> we have mentioned, there are three spots in the +Morvan that deserve attention in connection with fishing. These are +Sermiselle, Pierre Pertuis, and the Château des Panolas. Sermiselle, at +the junction of the Cure and the Cousin, at which point the road from +Paris to Lyons passes, is a charming village, full of life and gaiety. +At this spot the river begins to make a respectable figure; deep, +solemn, and silent, it seems proud of its boats and ferries; but its +waters have not that transparent appearance, that vivacious, laughing, +and brawling character which distinguished them some miles further up. +The fish in like manner resemble the stream; there are in this part +monstrous carp, majestic eels,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> and solemn pike; and the line should be +doubly strong if the angler is desirous of ever seeing a fish, or his +hooks again.</p> + +<p>At some distance above Sermiselle, where the silence and solitude of the +country still reign, a very curious mode of fishing is adopted during +the burning heat of the summer months. About mid-day, when the sun in +all its power shoots his golden rays perpendicularly on the waters, +illuminating every large hole even in the profoundest depths, the large +fish leave them, and, ascending to the surface, remain under the cool +shade of the trees, watching for whatever tit-bit or delicacy the stream +may bring with it, while others prefer a quiet saunter, or, with the +dorsal fin above the water, lie so still and stationary near some lily +or other aquatic plant, that they seem perfectly asleep.</p> + +<p>The enthusiastic sportsman, who fears neither storms nor a +<i>coup-de-soleil</i>, makes his appearance about this time, without, it is +true, either fishing-rod, lines, worms, flies, or bait of any +description, but having under his left arm a double-barrel gun, in his +right hand a large cabbage, and at his heels a clever poodle. The +fisherman, or the huntsman, I scarcely know which to call him, now duly +reconnoitres the river,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> fixes upon some tree, the large and lower +branches of which spread over it, ascends with his gun and his cabbage, +and having taken up an equestrian position upon one of the projecting +arms, examines the surface of the deep stream below him. He has not been +long on his perch when he perceives a stately pike paddling up the +river; a leaf is instantly broken off the cabbage, and when the +Branchiostagous has approached sufficiently near, is thrown into the +water; frightened, the voracious fish at once disappears, but shortly +after rises, and grateful to the unknown and kind friend who has sent +him this admirable parasol, he goes towards it, and after pushing it +about for a few seconds with his nose, finally places himself +comfortably under its protecting shade. The sportsman, watching the +animated gyrations of his cabbage-leaf, immediately fires, when the +poodle, whose sagacity is quite equal to that of his master, plunges +into the water, and if the fish is either dead or severely wounded fails +not to bring out with him the scaly morsel; thus so long as the heavens +are bright and blue, the water is warm, the large fish choose to +promenade in the sun, and the sportsman's powers of climbing hold out, +the sport continues. Sometimes the poodle and the fish have a very sharp +struggle,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> and then the fun is great indeed, unless by chance the +sportsman should unfortunately miss his hold in the midst of his +laughter, and drop head-foremost into the water with his cabbage and his +double-barrel.</p> + +<p>Pierre Pertuis on the Cure, is also a famous place for fishing, and an +extraordinary spot, and the Morvinian peasant, a highly +poetically-flavoured individual, has made it the theatre of some very +fantastic scenes. Imagine a yellow rock, of gigantic height, terminating +in a point, with its sides full of fissures, holes, and crevices, +inhabited by crows, owls, and bats, having its base in the river and its +summit crowned with a rough <i>chevelure</i> of brambles and large creeping +plants. The lower part of this rock is intersected by holes, through +which the water rushes, tumbles, and whirls. The peasants pretend that +the river near the rock cannot be fathomed, and that this particular +spot is inhabited by fairies, nymphs, syrens, and other amiable ladies +of this description, who have superb voices, and sing from the interior +of their grottos delicious melodies of the other world, with the +charitable intention of attracting the passing traveller or fisherman, +and drowning him in the whirlpool beneath—a fate that would certainly +be inevitable, if the attraction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> in question could bring them within +its vortex, for certain it is that neither sheep-dogs or cattle which +have fallen in, or been drawn within reach of its power, have ever been +seen again. When the tempest rages here, the wind, rushing into the +holes and fissures, produces a kind of moaning Æolian noise, and this +with the cries of the owls and the rooks when the <i>mistral</i> blows and +they have the rheumatism, produces, and no wonder, a superstitious +feeling of awe in the mind of the ignorant peasant.</p> + +<p>On the Cousin, which flows majestically through some of the most +magnificent pastures in the world, and on the summit of a large hill, +stands the charming Château des Panolas, the towers and walls of which, +covered with pointed roofs and weather-cocks, and surrounded by domes, +belvederes, and old-fashioned dovecots, give it at a distance the +appearance of some oriental building. The weather-cocks in particular +are of the most fanciful and grotesque designs, and it is said, and I +should think there can be no doubt of the fact, that in no other +structure have so many been seen together: it is calculated there are no +less than three hundred. In going and returning from the forest, many a +time have I and my friends, in the hey-day of youthful iniquities, +knocked one of them off with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> ball from our guns, to the great anger +of the proprietor, who threatened us with his mahogany crutch from the +hall door.</p> + +<p>In the great ponds of Marot, and in the lakes of Lomervo—immense liquid +plains, deep and surrounded in their whole circumference by a forest of +green rushes, water-lilies, flags, and many other aquatic plants, +forming a wall of verdure—the enormous quantity of fish of every kind +is almost incredible. Nor is this extraordinary, for the waters of at +least a dozen streams from the mountains, which swarm with life, fall +into these vast reservoirs, and they are only fished once in every five +years. This is a delectable spot for fishermen; but, on the other hand, +as the value of these sheets of water is well understood by their +proprietors, they are sharply looked after by them and their keepers, +and it is almost as difficult to find an opportunity of throwing a line +during the day, as it is for a poacher to throw a casting net on a +moonlight night.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, as the appropriation of other people's property has an +exquisite charm for some temperaments,—as a stolen apple to a child's +palate is much more delightful than one that is not—the demon of +acquisitiveness is always leaning over a man's shoulder,—that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> is to +say, a poacher's shoulder, or even that of a gentleman with poaching +tastes and inclinations,—to breathe in his ear bad advice. As to the +peasants in the neighbourhood, they are always consulting together, or +inventing some method by which they may circumvent the proprietors and +appropriate their fish to themselves.</p> + +<p>One of the happiest discoveries of the kind I ever heard of,—not the +most recent but the best,—is the following. Every person in the +possession of a cottage, possesses also a few ducks and geese, which +paddle about their humble habitations. A man who has an itching for the +thing, and who desires to become a pond-skimmer, as they are called, +carefully selects from his squadron of <i>palmipedes</i>, the strongest, the +most intelligent duck or goose of the party; his choice made, he +immediately sets to work to give him the education befitting a bird +destined for so honourable and diplomatic an employment.</p> + +<p>After very many trials, lessons, and lectures, more or less difficult +and tedious, the bird is taught to swim to a distance right ahead—to +turn to one side when his master sings, and return to him when he +whistles. These two primary and elementary movements, which appear so +very natural, demand,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> nevertheless, wonderful patience, and no little +cleverness and tact in the professor to instil—for his pupils, be it +remembered, are ducks and geese—and furnishes an example of how the +hope and love of gain has its effect on mankind. These very peasants, +who never would take the trouble to learn their letters—only +twenty-four—who would not many of them go two miles to learn how to +sign their own names, pass whole days in the gray waters of these +marshes, more often than not up to their waists in mud, whistling and +singing and twitching the legs of their unfortunate birds, and nearly +pulling them off with a string, when they either do not comprehend, or +obey as quickly as they might, the orders they receive.</p> + +<p>Dozens of ducks and geese that would in London or Paris be considered +highly curious and infinitely wiser than any of their species—even +those of the Capitol—are thus trained every year in Le Morvan, without +any one giving them a thought, and may be purchased, education included, +for two shillings a piece. When these winged students are so thoroughly +qualified for their duties, that they can go through their exercise +without a mistake, and are considered worthy of taking the field, the +peasant puts them into his bag, and setting off very early in the +morning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> to one of the great ponds I have mentioned, conceals himself +behind a thick tufty curtain of flags, from whence he can see without +being seen.</p> + +<p>Here, opening his bag, he takes out the half suffocated ducks or geese, +which are glad enough to find themselves once more on their favourite +element; and the intelligent birds have scarcely regained their liberty +when the peasant commences his ballad, and immediately the anchor is +apeak and they are off; he sings, he whistles, and they turn, like two +well-manned frigates, and come back to him without a moment's delay. The +act is so natural, so simple, that no one can be attracted by it; nor is +it possible to suspect a goose or a duck with its head down searching +for food, that paddles about in the weeds or on the shore, or dabbles +amongst the rushes. Should the keeper appear, the peasant is sure to be +found lying on his back half asleep, or singing or whistling, as if +mocking the lark in the clear blue sky above him.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, this goose, this duck, and this man are first-rate +thieves,—cracksmen of their class; for the peasant, before he confides +his poultry to the waves, makes their toilette; sliding under the left +wing and over the right, across the body, like a soldier's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> belt, a +strong and well-baited pike-hook. Thus equipped and ready for the start, +the pirate birds leave on their buccaneering expedition; but they are +scarcely a stone's throw from the shore, and well clear of the little +islands of flags, when a hungry pike, observing the delicious frog +towing in the rear, seizes it, and makes off to his hole, to gorge the +bait at his leisure. More easily thought than done;—the goose stoutly +resists, and refuses to accompany the fresh-water shark to his weedy +home. A warm and obstinate engagement is the result; the peasant +watches, with approving eye, the embarassment of his feathered +accomplice, until he thinks it time to put an end to the scrimmage, when +he whistles like an easterly wind in a passion. The goose, rather +encumbered by the carnivorous gentleman below him, endeavours for some +time but in vain to obey the signal; he flaps his wings, works away with +his legs, and cackles without ceasing. The poacher encourages him with +another whistle, and at length the bird, in spite of all his adversary's +attempts to the contrary, leads the "greedy game of the deep" to the +shore, and delivers it to his master. This is, certainly, a very curious +mode of taking pike, and the live trimmer looks very puzzled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> when the +voracious fish is hooked; but the following anecdote, taken from the +scrap-book of Mr. M'Diarmid, shows that a Scotchman once adopted the +same method, though for a different reason. "Several years ago," he +writes, "a farmer, living in the immediate neighbourhood of Lochmaben, +Dumfriesshire, kept a gander, who not only had a great trick of +wandering himself, but also delighted in piloting forth his cackling +harem, to weary themselves in circumnavigating their native lake, or in +straying amidst forbidden fields on the opposite shore. Wishing to check +this flagrant habit, the farmer one day seized the gander just as he was +about to spring upon the blue bosom of his favourite element, and tying +a large fish-hook to his leg, to which was attached part of a dead frog, +he suffered him to proceed upon his voyage of discovery. As had been +anticipated, this bait soon caught the eye of a ravenous pike, which +swallowing the deadly hook, not only arrested the progress of the +astonished gander, but forced him to perform half-a-dozen summersets on +the surface of the water! For some time, the struggle was most +amusing—the fish pulling, and the bird screaming with all its +might,—the one attempting to fly, and the other to swim,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> from the +invisible enemy—the gander one moment losing and the next regaining his +centre of gravity, and casting between whiles many a rueful look at his +snow-white fleet of geese and goslings, who cackled out their sympathy +for their afflicted commodore. At length Victory declared in favour of +the feathered angler, who, bearing away for the nearest shore, landed on +the smooth green grass one of the finest pike ever caught in the Castle +Loch."</p> + +<p>This adventure is said to have cured the gander of his desperate +propensity for wandering.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Village <i>fêtes</i>—The first of May—The religious festivals—The +<i>Fête Dieu</i>—Appearance of the streets—The altars erected in +them—Procession from the church—Country fairs—The book-stalls at +them—Pictures of the Roman Catholic Church—Before the +<i>Vendange</i>—Proprietors' hopes and fears—Shooting in the +vineyards—The first day of the <i>Vendange</i>—Appearance of the +country—Influx of visitors at this season—The +consequences—Herminie—Her sad history—Le Morvan—Recommended to +the English traveller—Lord Brougham and Cannes—Contrast between +it and Le Morvan. </p></div> + + +<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">One</span> of the happiest and most useful customs established by our +ancestors, was, without doubt, the village <i>fête</i>—the periodical +festival that takes place in every hamlet, and at which the inhabitants +of the adjoining <i>communes</i> assemble on a specified day to foot it gaily +in the dance and drink each other's health glass to glass in brimming +bumpers. These joyous <i>fêtes</i>, a kind of fraternal and social +invitation, which are given and accepted by the rural population when +spring and verdure made their appearance, are held all over France, and +rejoice every heart. In our day, though much shorn of its ancient +revelry, and neglected, <i>la fête du village</i> is still kept up, for it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> +is, so to speak, indigenous,—a part of our social habits, and like +everything which carries within it a generous sentiment, is loved and +cherished by the people. As the day approaches every village is suitably +decorated, the women are all on the tip toe of excitement to see and be +seen, the peasant throws dull care behind him, and the artizans in the +nearest town work with renewed energy in order that they may do honour +to the occasion. Every one, in short, makes his way to the rendezvous, a +merry laugh on his lip and joy in his heart, and, lost in the tumult and +general gaiety that prevail, all forget, for some few hours, their hard +work and privations.</p> + +<p>These festivals offer to each either profit or amusement; the peasants +find in them a refreshing and salutary rest from toil, the tradesman +fails not to fill his pockets with their hard earnings, the clown shows +off his summersets, the young men are touched with the tender passion, +and the young girls, with their white teeth and sparkling eyes, await +with feigned indifference the proposals of their admirers. The village +<i>fête</i> forms a bright epoch in rustic life, and the gay hours passed at +them are the happiest, the most joyous, and the most enchanting of the +year.</p> + +<p>Our ancestors, who knew and more thoroughly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> understood these matters +than we do, who loved a laugh, the dance, and the merry outpourings of +the heart, endeavoured by every means in their power to multiply them, +and, after having seized upon the name of every saint in paradise, they +managed to appropriate, and always for the same motive, all the various +occupations known in the cultivation of the fields as a good excuse for +holding more of these saturnalia. The season for sowing was one, the +hay-harvest another, the wheat-harvest, the period of felling the oaks +in the forest were excellent opportunities for establishing a new +<i>fête</i>, and consequently buying a new coat, singing a carol, drinking to +France, and skipping <i>des Rigodons</i>. For, be it said, one really does +amuse oneself in my beautiful country; yes, one amuses oneself, perhaps, +much more than one works; there are more Casinos built than acres +grubbed up, and is not this partly the reason why the land is so badly +tilled and produces only one half of what it should. But what signifies +it, after all, if this half is sufficient for us. England, they say, is +more opulent and better cultivated; be it so,—she is richer, she +manufactures more; but is she happier?</p> + +<p>Independently of these <i>fêtes</i>, the number of which is infinite, but +which occur only, in each locality, once<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> a year, there exist also those +merry meetings, which, like the Sunday, are understood by the peasantry +as a general holiday. Amongst these, the most animated and attractive, +and more usually marked by happy incidents, is that of the first of May. +At the earliest dawn of day, the tones of the bagpipe may be +distinguished in the distance, coming up the principal street of the +village. He who has heard this rustic sound in the happy days of his +childhood, under the shade of the elms, will always love the unmusical +and melancholy wailing of the bagpipe. The strain has scarcely died away +when all the village is alive, every one is up and dressed in his +best—the children, with enormous nosegays in each little hand, go and +present them to their delighted parents, and wish them "<i>un doux mois de +Mai</i>."</p> + +<p>Each house, perfumed like a parterre of flowers, opens its doors, and, +during the live long day, it is between friends and acquaintance a +series of happy smiles, and a mutual exchange of nosegays and hearty +shaking of hands. Then in the evening, when the moon has risen in the +west over the fir woods, the young lads and lasses, with their fathers +and mothers, saunter along the streets arm in arm. At short distances, +on the roofs of the houses, are seen, elevated in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> the air, gigantic +chaplets of flowers, illuminated by large torches of rosin. Within these +chaplets are others of smaller size. A dance, <i>grand rond</i>, is formed by +the young lovers that have carried the May to their sweethearts, who, +rising before the dawn, had already gathered the mysterious declaration +of love, perfumed and still covered with the tears of night. In this +large circle is formed another of children, about ten years of age, and +within this again, a third of quite little things; small human garlands +within the greater one. And the bagpipe plays, and all the world dance, +and every one is happy, and the evening breeze shaking the large +chaplets above showers of lilac and hawthorn bloom fall on the dancers +and rustic ballroom beneath.</p> + +<p>To these village <i>fêtes</i> must be added, to complete the list of our +popular holidays—the religious festivals, established by the Roman +Catholic church, which, in the eyes of our rural population, are the +most imposing and magnificent ceremonies of the year. These <i>fêtes</i> are +very little known in Protestant countries; a few details, therefore, of +one of them, taken at hazard, may please, or at least offer some point +of interest to the reader.</p> + +<p>In the month of June, when the heavens are all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> azure, when the sun +smiles on us here below, and the summer flowers are all in bloom, the +long-expected <i>fête</i>, the <i>Fête Dieu</i>, <i>la fête des Roses</i>, the feast of +Corpus Christi, one of the most brilliant festivals of the Roman +Catholic church takes place.</p> + +<p>Several days before, all the houses appear in a new toilette, decked out +with evergreens and branches of the vine and tamarisk, festoons of which +are suspended from window to window. All the streets of the village are +washed and swept, like a drawing-room. On the preceding evening every +garden is opened, the borders are ravaged, baskets-full of roses, +armfulls of jasmine, bunches of gilly-flowers and sweet-pea fall under a +little army of scissars and white hands. The camellias complain, the +heliotropes murmur, all the tribe of tulips are in low spirits, for each +family gathers in a perfect harvest of flowers—every one remarks to the +other—"To-morrow is the <i>fête Dieu</i>, the feast of roses—the favourite +festival of the year." And when aurora, pale with watching, rises in the +cloudless sky, when the cock, herald of the morn, proclaims the birth of +another day, when the first golden ray, traversing space, lights the +eastern casement, behind which many a lovely bosom heaves, with +anticipated conquest and excitement, the bells of the village<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> church +are heard, and at this merry signal every one is up and soon busily +engaged superintending the preparations for the day.</p> + +<p>The streets, as if by enchantment, are carpeted with verdure; the pine, +the oak, and the birch, from the neighbouring forest, contribute their +young shoots and leaves; the prickly broom its yellow flowers. The +façades of the houses are hidden under their various hangings, the rich +suspend from their windows their splendid carpets; the poor, sheets as +white as driven snow. All ornament them, here and there, with roses, +pinks, and carnations. Then, at short distances down the principal +street, the young <i>demoiselles</i> of the village erect what are termed +<i>reposoirs</i>, a kind of chapel or altar, improvised for the occasion, +which lead to an emulation and an animated rivalry perfectly terrible. +It is whose shall be the largest, best, and most elegantly decorated, +and these young nymphs, usually so reserved and so easily frightened, +become, for this week, as bold and free as so many dragoons. They enter +the house, without being announced, open the drawers, visit the +secretaries, ransack the cupboards. Pirates, with taper fingers, they +put into their baskets and reticules all the valuables they can lay +their hands on. Objects of art they are sure to seize, more especially +if they are made of the precious metals.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> It is who shall adorn her +<i>reposoir</i> with gold and bronze vases, with enamelled cups, pictures, +and rich crucifixes. Important meetings are held, in some secret spot, +to determine of what form the altar shall be; if the dominating colour +shall be blue, purple, or lilac. Then there is a consultation whether +the drapery, that is to cover this temporary chapel, shall be with or +without a fringe,—a discussion which becomes more entangled with +difficulties than those in the Parliamentary Club of the Rue des +Pyramides, as to the continued existence or demise of our poor +constitution. Silk, satin, and velvet ornament the interior of the +elegant edifice; the most delicate perfumes burn in each of its corners, +and, in order further to embellish the altar on which the Holy Eucharist +is to rest for a few minutes, there is a perfect coquetting with +chaplets, festoons of gauze, crystal lamps of various colours, and +transparencies through which the subdued rays of the sun shed their +softened light.</p> + +<p>And, when everything is ready, when the mass has been said, when the +moment has arrived for the procession to move through the streets, the +bells ring a still merrier peal, the great folding-doors of the +principal entrance of the church are thrown open, and emerging from +thence one sees beneath the vaulted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> arch, first, the great silver +cross, then the banner of the blessed Virgin, carried by a beautiful +young girl, dressed in a robe of spotless white; after her come several +little children with flaxen heads, their hair parted and flowing on +their shoulders, carrying in their hands baskets ornamented with lace, +and full of poppies and corn-flowers; behind them are the children of +the choir, with their silver-chased incense burners; then two deacons, +one carrying on a silver plate the bloom of the vine, the other a head +of corn; then four men supporting a large shield, on which are twelve +loaves and a lamb, symbolical of the day; and lastly, under a canopy +enriched with gold lace and fringe, the old priest, calm and grave, who +carries in his hands the Holy Eucharist, followed by a long line of his +faithful parishioners, with the mammas and young girls two and two, +singing psalms and canticles. In this order they move along the crowded +streets, which are strewn with fennel, green branches, and leaves.</p> + +<p>From time to time the whole procession halts before some <i>reposoir</i>—the +little girls drop three curtsies before the beautiful altar, and scatter +high in the air handfuls of broken flowers, which shed a delicious +fragrance around; the children of the choir wave their censers to and +fro, the old priest blesses the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> crowd who kneel before him, and the +smoke of the incense, and the perfume of the roses, ascend towards +heaven as the adorations and prayers of all present ascend to God. This, +the holiest and most imposing <i>fête</i> of our rural districts, is also the +one the most loved. Pity not the peasant, pity not those who are from +necessity obliged to live in these retired spots. They have their +<i>fêtes</i> as well as the rich, happier and much more magnificent, at which +they can be present and form part without paying anything. Nature, too, +source of so many marvels, whether she covers the earth with a robe of +verdure, or fields of golden corn, or that she shelters it under a +mantle of snow, presents to the husbandman some interesting scene. Have +they not also the shade and silence of the forest, the eternal freshness +of the fountains?</p> + +<p>It is true the peasants know nothing of Beethoven's symphony in C, they +are not familiar with the melodies of Rossini, Madame Grisi has never in +her terrible finale "<i>Qual cor tradisti</i>" made them weep, nor has the +orchestra of Monsieur Jullien made them deaf. But what are these +splendid wonders of the town to them? Have they not a melodious choir of +birds to arouse them each morning from their slumbers? have they not as +scenes, the woods, the bubbling waters, verdant valleys, real sunrises +and sunsets? Can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> they not, seated on the summit of some hill, round +which the breeze of evening plays, gaze upon the glorious sky above them +spangled with stars, those unfading flowers of Heaven? Say, reader, is +not this hill a charming pit-stall, and much preferable to the narrow +crimson section of the bench at the Opera? These are some of their +enjoyments; then how could they with any degree of pleasure stick +themselves up like logs of wood or trusses of hay before a row of lurid +lamps, to admire some painted men and women mincing up and down the +stage, or peer through two telescopes at forests of painted calico and +moons cut out of pasteboard, or listen to hackneyed airs which have been +sung and resung a hundred times—worn up, in short, like an old rope?</p> + +<p>The peasant farmer or yeoman of France, who in the midst of the most +pleasing circumstances, never forgets his own interests, has also found +it desirable for the advancement of his worldly prosperity, to establish +fairs, at which he can sell his hemp and beasts, his wine and his crops; +purchase clothes for his family, and coulters for his ploughs.</p> + +<p>These fairs, which are held once in each month in all the towns of +Burgundy and large villages of Le Morvan, attract a great concourse of +people, and as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> there is much variety in the costumes, head-dresses and +colours, the effect is highly picturesque. The mountaineer brings with +him for sale wild boar and venison, wood and wild fruits of the forest; +the inhabitant of the plain, the thousand productions of the +neighbouring manufactories. Second-rate jewellers arrive with their +boxes full of gold crosses and buckles, holy chaplets blessed at some +favourite shrine, and silver rings.</p> + +<p>Book-stalls are also to be seen, kept by Jesuits in disguise, the +shelves of which are loaded with inferior literature, with a perfect +deluge of breviaries, almanacks, abridgments of the Lives of the Saints, +with "Letters fallen from Heaven," in which, "Ladies and gentlemen," +shouts the proprietor, "you will read the details, truthful and +historical, of the last miracle at Rimini; also a new and marvellous +account, equally authentic, of several pictures of Christ that have shed +tears of blood. Buy, ladies and gentlemen, buy the history of these +astonishing miracles—only a penny, ladies, for which you will have into +the bargain the invaluable signature of our Holy Father the Pope, and +the benediction of our Lord the Bishop."</p> + +<p>But ought one to be surprised at such announcements, at such a traffic, +or that in these so-called<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> enlightened days, not only auditors but +purchasers should be found?—that there should, in fact, be a sale for +these printed mystifications, when officers of the government and +officers of the armed force, attest on their honour the truth of these +impudent impositions upon the credulity of mankind, affirm the accuracy +and <i>bonâ fide</i> character of these winking, blinking, blasphemous, +lachrymal representations?</p> + +<p>Yes—a sub-prefect, a mayor, and an officer of the <i>gendarmerie</i>, have +signed a document stating that they had seen a picture of Christ +shedding tears of blood!</p> + +<p>When archbishops order public prayers and thanksgivings for the renewal +of these pasquinades, this ridiculous mockery, can one be astonished, I +say, at the state of religious ignorance and blindness of our peasantry? +Such, with a few wretched prints representing Napoleon passing the Alps +seated on an eagle; Poniatowsky and his white horse attempting to cross +the Oder; Cambronne, with imperial moustachios, on his knees repeating +the celebrated <i>mot</i> which he never said: "<i>La garde meurt et ne se rend +pas</i>," &c.,—such, I am grieved to confess, is the miserable +intellectual food, the wretched mental and moral stock of human and +religious knowledge that supplies the literary and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> artistic wants of +the greater portion of the peasants of our departments.</p> + +<p>At these fairs all the farm servants are engaged; those who wish to try +a change of masters, or hire themselves merely for the harvest, assemble +in the open space near the church, and then offer to those who require +them, their brawny arms, and their farming acquirements. The most +celebrated of these fairs is that held on the First of September, to +which whole hamlets send all their able-bodied men and women, who hire +themselves to the great proprietors for the <i>vendange</i>—for this in +Burgundy and Le Morvan is the great work, the chief event of the year; +it is on the <i>vendange</i> that depend the commerce, the tranquillity and +happiness of the country.</p> + +<p>Monsieur B.... is ruined if the sun is obscured by clouds. Monsieur +D.... who has cunningly laid his hands upon all the barrels within +thirty miles round, will put a pistol to his head if he cannot sell his +army of hogsheads. This one relies upon his vineyard for paying his +debts—another cannot marry unless he makes three hundred tierces of +wine. Eight out of twelve, in short, reckon upon the produce of their +vines to buy a new carriage or to be saved from prison; and the agonised +mariners of the wrecked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> <i>Medusa</i> never cast their eyes with more +intense anxiety towards the horizon than do these proprietors of our +vineyards every morning before the vintage.</p> + +<p>If it looks like rain no sunflower is more yellow than their +countenances; if the cold is unusual every face is pale, and should a +frost appear imminent, those whose affairs are the most compromised, +pack up their effects and make ready for a start. But on the other hand, +if the sky is serene and the wind warm, husbands are actually seen +embracing their wives, and promising them any toilette they may fancy. +Should the heat become Bengalic and insupportable oh! then all Burgundy +is dancing and running to the vineyards,—all the Morvinians fly to the +hills to enjoy the cool breezes and admire the luxuriant panorama +beneath and around them.</p> + +<p>But for some months previous to the <i>vendange</i>, no one but a proprietor +has the right to enter a vineyard; at this period a perfect calm and +silence reigns, and they become an asylum, a veritable land of Goshen, +an oasis for all the partridges, hares, and rabbits of the +neighbourhood. In order to prevent gentlemen and professional poachers +from cruising in these delightful latitudes, killing the game and +injuring the vines, a number of <i>gardes champêtres</i>, generally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> old +soldiers, are chosen, who armed with an old sabre, post themselves on +some height which commands the vineyard, ready to lay violent hands on +any delinquent that may make his appearance. But in spite of the <i>garde +champêtre</i>, his long sabre, their interminable cut and thrust, and his +eternal <i>de par la loi, arretez!</i> there is a sport in the early morning, +called <i>à la traulée</i>, which is not without its charms.</p> + +<p>The vineyards of Burgundy are for the most part divided into sections, +that is to say, at from two to three hundred paces the contiguity of the +vines is interrupted, and a small road, which serves during the +<i>vendange</i> to facilitate the communication and transport of the grapes, +is cut in the vineyard. At daylight, therefore, before the sun is above +the horizon, or the white fog hanging in the valleys has been dispersed +by his rays, and the fashionable gentleman of the town is on the point +of going to bed, the sportsman, always keen and on the alert, arrives, +walks slowly and carefully along the roads I have just mentioned, +looking cautiously right and left, and between the intervals of the +vines on either side of him.</p> + +<p>The rabbits hopping under the leaves, the covey<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> of partridges bathing +amidst the dew, the hares gravely discussing among themselves the +respective merits of the heath and wild thyme, are thus surprised in +their matutinal occupations, and become the prey of the delighted +sportsman. But the moment approaches when the comparative calm and +protection which the poor animals enjoy will cease—their days of fun +and festival are numbered; their enemies up to this period have been +few—the rich proprietors, the privileged, but now the masses are +preparing, they are cleaning up their clumsy blunderbusses, and +to-morrow "the million" will take the field and assail and pop at them +from every road and pathway—for the mayor, after due consultation with +the principal personages in the village, has sent his drummer, his +Mercury, his crier, to beat a tattoo in all the public places, and +crossways, and announce in front of the <i>cabarets</i> that the grapes being +ripe the <i>vendange</i> is opened.</p> + +<p>The following day, when the last star in the heavens is disappearing, +when the doors of morning are scarcely opened, every road is covered +with long lines of waggons drawn by oxen, and a cavalcade of horses and +mules, and great asses carrying panniers may be seen galloping along in +all directions. Voices, shouts,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> squeaking wheels, and neighing horses +are also heard on every side, and parties of <i>vendangeurs</i> and +<i>vendangeuses</i>, arm in arm, with baskets on their backs, and grape +knives in their belts, their broad-brimmed hats encircled with ribbons +and flowers, are seen marching along, singing many a Bacchanalian chorus +in honour of the occasion. They are on their way to the vineyards, and +like so many fauns and Bacchantes, only well draped, are with joyous +hearts ready to gather in the harvest of the ruby grape.</p> + +<p>In advance of this delighted and merry crowd, and always like the lark, +the first on the wing, the sportsman is already at his post,—for the +first day of the <i>vendange</i> is, as Navarre used to say, a day of powder, +the <i>fête du fusil</i>. And now is formed a line of sometimes three hundred +<i>vendangeurs</i> and <i>vendangeuses</i> who starting at the same moment, ascend +the hill-side cutting the grapes, filling and emptying their baskets. +The young men strike up some jovial song in praise of wine, the girls +reply; and before this soul-stirring chorus, this burst of gay and +animated feeling, the game, astounded at the concert, break and retire +before them. Then is the moment for the sportsman, who, concealed in a +large thicket and comfortably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> seated at the summit of the hill, listens +and laughs in his sleeve as he hears the affrighted partridge call, and +the timid hare rushing through the vines towards him; they approach, are +within range of his gun, and ere long the shot-bag is emptied, and the +sportsman is in that rare but agreeable dilemma of not knowing what to +do with his game or his gun.</p> + +<p>In a wine country the <i>vendange</i> is certainly the most exciting and +merriest season of the year—it is a succession of delightful <i>fêtes</i> in +the open air, of repasts amongst the vines and under the shade of the +peach-trees, riding-parties in the forest, whose echoes are awakened by +the melancholy notes of the horn, water-parties on the lakes, dances in +the field and round the wine-press, &c.</p> + +<p>Every <i>château</i> is full to overflowing in Le Morvan during the month of +August,—bands of Parisians, Picards, and Normans, acquaintances +scarcely made, friends, friends'-friends, with their wives, children, +dogs, nurses, and luggage arrive each hour and by every road. Every +family is invaded, beds are doubled, plates are not to be found,—there +is only one glass for two, one knife for three; the servants, stupified +and astonished, know not how to reply or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> which way to turn themselves; +the cooks, half-roasted and lost amidst an army of sauce-pans, know not +what they are doing; they put mustard into the <i>méringues</i>, cruets of +vinegar in the soup—every one is on the laugh, except however the heads +of families, who rendered almost crazy by this tide of human beings +always rising, by the bell of the <i>porte cochère</i> always ringing, pass +on from one to the other the new arrivals, with a note as follows:</p> + +<p>"Mons. de G.... presents his compliments to Mons. de V...., and has the +honour to inform him that not possessing in his house one bed or one +arm-chair that is not occupied, he has the pleasure of sending him two +Normans and three Parisians."</p> + +<p>P.S. "The two Normans are first-rate waltzers, the Parisians perfect +singers." The reply will perhaps be couched in the following strain:</p> + +<p>"Mons. de V.... presents his compliments to Mons. de G...., and has the +honour to inform him that being himself under the necessity of sleeping +in his cellar, he cannot, though most anxious to oblige him, receive the +two Norman dancers and the three Parisian warblers." Thus it sometimes +happens that very charming, elegant, and sensitive gentlemen, who under +ordinary circumstances would be very difficult to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> please, are obliged +to sleep in a barn or loft, on a very nice bed of clean straw, with a +dark lantern to light them there, and the luxury of a truss of hay for a +pillow.</p> + +<p>The peasants, generally speaking, do not witness the arrival of these +visitors with much pleasure,—the dandies more especially, who shod in +varnished leather, always over-dressed, musked, and starched, attract, +so they think, too much the attention of the young girls. Fathers, +mothers, and, above all, lovers, are at once on the look out. They +mistrust these fine gentlemen, whom they always designate by the +appellation of "gilded serpents."</p> + +<p>My friends from other departments often remarked the looks of aversion +with which the natives sometimes met them; and not comprehending the +reason, have asked me for an explanation. Do you observe, I said, that +little white house, half-hidden yonder in the poplars—there, on the +banks of the Cure? That house, a few years ago, was the abiding-place of +a happy and honest family,—a father, and his three daughters.</p> + +<p>The father, who in his youth was in very good circumstances, was ruined +by bad harvests, an epidemic disease in his cattle, and by other +disasters that cause the downfall of many farmers. Nevertheless,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> and +though his losses were great, he lived happy and even contented with his +children, who, all three of irreproachable conduct and character, and +excellent needlewomen, did their utmost to ameliorate his position. They +made dresses for the ladies in the town, worked by the day, and +sometimes, when they found their earnings during the summer months fall +short of what they thought sufficient to meet the expenses of the coming +winter, they hired themselves to some proprietor during the period of +the <i>vendange</i>.</p> + +<p>The youngest of the three,—Herminie, she might be about sixteen,—was a +charming girl, a true child of Nature, fresh as a wild flower, awaking +and rising every day of the year from her peaceful happy couch with the +birds of heaven, always smiling and singing. Herminie was the joy, the +favourite of the old man,—she was the linnet, the darling, and the life +of the house. One autumnal day, (the period at which, as I have before +remarked, our province abounds with strangers,) her figure attracted the +attention of one of those cursed beings, with a false heart and lying +lips, that the great cities send into our rural districts, carrying with +them desolation and mourning. I know not in what manner it occurred, +what falsehoods, what arts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> he used, or what traps he laid,—but he +succeeded too well in his base purpose. The poor girl was deceived. +Easily convinced,—she was too pure, too young to doubt; and her mother, +who would have been there to watch over her, was alas! sleeping in the +very churchyard in which, in the shade of the evening, she first met her +seducer. Enough,—the heartless man of the world obtained the love of +the poor and simple Herminie,—and his whim, his heartless selfish whim +gratified,—he disappeared.</p> + +<p>The fault, the fault of confiding woman, soon became public. Abandoned +and betrayed, the poor girl sought death as a refuge in her distress, +and threw herself into the river; but her father, who watched every +action of his daughter, was near, and saved her. A man of unusual +intelligence, and an excellent heart, his maledictions fell entirely +upon the head of him who had wronged her; for his child he had only +tears and consolation. Herminie became a mother; her sisters and friends +were earnest and devoted in their attentions, and anticipated her every +thought; but broken-hearted, she bent her head like some beautiful lily, +which has at the parent root some corroding worm. Her gaiety fled, her +songs ceased; pale and silent, she might be seen standing on some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> rock, +listening to the howling of the storm, or, her little boy on her lap, +seated for hours at her father's cottage door, picking some faded rose +to pieces leaf by leaf, and looking vacantly on the fragments as they +lay at her feet.</p> + +<p>But at the bottom of her cup of grief was still one more bitter +drop,—oh! how much more bitter than the rest! Her child, as if +inheriting the melancholy of its mother, ceased to prattle, to smile; it +did not thrive, it sickened; and in spite of all her care and watchings, +of whole nights passed in prayers to the Virgin, to her patron Saint, +and God, in spite of many an hour of repentant and sorrowing tears,—it +died! Bowed to the earth by this fresh, this overwhelming misfortune, +Herminie complained not, but she became more pale: she was sometimes +found plunged in silent but profound grief, looking towards heaven as if +seeking there the little precious being the Almighty had taken from her; +as if she was anxious to follow,—to be at rest, united with her baby +boy again.</p> + +<p>The <i>vendange</i> returned once more; but the perfumed gentleman, the +villain from the capital, came not again. Herminie was desirous of +assisting in the labours of the season. "I am," said she, "strong<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> +enough;" and though her sisters endeavoured to dissuade her, she +persisted in accompanying them to the vineyard, but there she found her +strength was unequal to the task, a smile to one, and a kind answer to +another, was all that she could give,—nevertheless it was remarked, +during the course of the day that she spoke several times out loud, as +if conversing with some invisible being. Evening arrived, and the +waggons carried off their ripe and luscious loads, leaving the young men +and girls racing up and down the pathways, and amongst the vines, +endeavouring to smear each other's faces with the purple fruit.</p> + +<p>Behind these laughing groups came Herminie, the expression of her dark +blue eye floating in space, and, like the flight of the swallow, resting +on nothing. Onward she slowly stepped, idly pushing before her the first +faded leaves of autumn, withered by the hoar frost; and, instead of the +intoxicating grape, she carried in her hand a <i>bouquet</i> of the arbutus +and the <i>alize</i>, fruits without perfume, like her own heart, now without +hope or love. Night came: every eye weary with toil was closed,—the +chimes alone telling the hours of the night vibrated on the air. Towards +morning a startling cry of horror was heard from a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> cottage on the banks +of the Cure—Herminie was dead! that is to say, her face was paler than +usual in her sleep; but she awoke no more! I shall ever remember that +beautiful face, for I had never till then contemplated the countenance +of one whose spirit had taken its way to that country from which no +traveller returns.</p> + +<p>A few days, and the withered rose-leaves which the poor girl had pulled +at the cottage door were scattered by the wind; a few more, and the poor +old father followed his favourite child; and his surviving daughters, +half-crazed with grief and sorrow, left the neighbourhood. As to him who +was the original cause of this domestic tragedy,—rich, happy, perhaps a +deputy and making laws himself,—he lives, and is probably respected. We +call ourselves a civilized people; we throw into prison a man who +strikes another,—and we do not punish, we do not cast from society, we +do not even reproach the base hypocrite, who, with a smile on his lips, +and for the infamous gratification of his bad, ungovernable, selfish +passions, becomes the murderer of a whole family. Bad and rotten are the +laws which permit such infamous practices. Unworthy of trust are the +legislators who dream not—who never think of preventing these impure +and festering diseases of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> our social system. My friends, who had +listened attentively to the sad tale, turned from me to inspect more +closely the white cottage by the Cure, and no longer expressed any +astonishment at the severe countenances of the peasants.</p> + +<p>But how does it happen, will the reader say, that so delightful a +province of France as that of Le Morvan should have remained for +nineteen centuries unknown to England,—that nation of travellers who +are to be found in every corner of the globe inhabitable and +uninhabitable? How is it that such a pearl,—a sporting country +too,—should have remained buried for so long a period as it were under +the dark mantle of indifference? And is it to be credited that in a +district in which are to be found simultaneously wolves and health, wild +boar and simplicity, the best wines in the world, and all the +theological virtues, should have remained up to this day hidden—lost in +the deep shadows of its woods and the solitude of its mountains?</p> + +<p>In the first place, then, I must remind you that in order to reach Le +Morvan it is not necessary to traverse either the Indian Archipelago or +the Cordilleras, or black or ferocious populations. Those who have by +accident passed through it, have not been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> induced by its appearance to +inscribe its name in their note-books. But Le Morvan is close at hand; +Le Morvan, so to speak, touches England,—a sufficient reason, as every +one knows, for taking no interest in it.</p> + +<p>Every year caravans of tourists leave for Italy and the East; they go to +gaze upon the remains of what was once the palace of the famous Zenobia, +Queen of Palmyra, or to kill the lizards on the steps of the mouldering +Coliseum; one invites the scorpions of Greece to bite his leg; another +seeks the yellow fever in the Brazils; a third prefers being robbed in +Calabria, or dying of thirst in the Deserts of Lybia;—the more distant +and perilous the journey, the greater the pleasure of accomplishing it. +Such is English taste.</p> + +<p>Yet Le Morvan is a charming and picturesque country—a lovely region, +clad with verdure, flowers, and forest-trees, and watered by fresh, +sparkling, and silvery streams, which every one can reach without +fatigue, much expense, and without the slightest chance of danger, but +perhaps, as I have before said, its proximity is its misfortune.</p> + +<p>Should any one after perusing this volume desire to visit Le Morvan, he +should be aware that to do so with any degree of pleasure or profit it +is absolutely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> necessary to speak French fluently,—for half our +peasants are not in the least aware the earth is round, and that on it +there are other nations besides their own. To see its thousand beauties, +to fish its rivers and enter into its delightful, exciting and perilous +sports, to plunge without hesitation into the depths of its forests, the +traveller should also be accompanied by an experienced guide, and +piloted by a friendly hand.</p> + +<p>Le Morvan, unknown to all to-day, would come forth quickly from the +shell of obscurity in which it lies concealed, if some man of rank in +England, led thither by hazard or caprice, were to spend a few weeks +amidst its glades and vineyards, its mountains and its streams.</p> + +<p>What was Cannes twenty years since? who ever mentioned it in England, +who knew its beauties? Nobody. Lord Brougham passes there, stops, +selects a hill, crowns its top with a white <i>château</i>, scatters the gold +from his purse, and sheds over the little town the lustre of the renown +won by his versatile genius—Cannes immediately becomes the +vogue—Cannes is charming, magnificent! Cannes, certainly, with her +fields of jasmine and roses, her groves of orange-trees, her burning +sun, blue skies and sea,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> and her warm pine-woods, is a delightful +spot;—but Cannes is also a place of languor and sloth, a lavender-water +country. If you have the gout, if you are old and rich, if you have +delicate lungs, go to Cannes, your life will be agreeable but +enervating.</p> + +<p>But Le Morvan is certainly not a country for a <i>petit-mâitre</i> or a +delicate lady to live in; to enjoy yourself there you must have the fire +and energy of youth in your veins, a stout heart, the lungs of a +mountaineer, and a sinewy frame. You must love a forester's life, the +hound and the rifle; you must be a Gordon Cumming in a small way. To the +English invalid, I would recommend the ex-Chancellor's retreat; but to +him who in the full sense of the term is a sporting man, or a lover of +nature, I would say: Go—explore Le Morvan!</p> + + + +<hr /> +<p class="center"> +<big>LIFE OF BEAU BRUMMELL</big>.<br /> +<br /> +A FEW COPIES OF THIS WORK ARE STILL ON HAND.<br /> +<br /> +Price 10s.; Published at £1 8s.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Saunders and Otley</span>; or <span class="smcap">Cawthorne's Library</span>,<br /> +Cockspur-street.<br /></p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<p class="center"> +SHORTLY WILL BE PUBLISHED,<br /> +<br /> +A NEW AND VERY EASY METHOD<br /> +<br /> +<small>OF ASCERTAINING</small><br /> +<br /> +<big>THE GENDER OF FRENCH NOUNS,</big></p> + +<p class="t1">Translated from the Manuscript in French</p> + +<p class="center"><small>OF THE</small><br /> +<br /> +LATE MONS. FOUCAULT,<br /> +<small>MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE,</small><br /> +<br /> +BY<br /> +<br /> +CAPTAIN JESSE,<br /> +<small>AUTHOR OF "NOTES OF A HALFPAY;" "LIFE OF BRUMMELL;"<br /> +"MURRAY'S HAND-BOOK FOR RUSSIA," ETC., ETC.</small><br /> +</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Le Morvan, [A District of France,] Its +Wild Sports, Vineyards and Forests; with Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches, by Henri de Crignelle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LE MORVAN [A DISTRICT OF FRANCE] *** + +***** This file should be named 28573-h.htm or 28573-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/5/7/28573/ + +Produced by Julia Miller, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Le Morvan, [A District of France,] Its Wild Sports, Vineyards and Forests; with Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches + +Author: Henri de Crignelle + +Translator: Captain Jesse + +Release Date: April 21, 2009 [EBook #28573] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LE MORVAN [A DISTRICT OF FRANCE] *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr) + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been faithfully +preserved. Only obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + +[Illustration] + + + + + LE MORVAN, + + [A DISTRICT OF FRANCE,] + + ITS + + WILD SPORTS, VINEYARDS AND FORESTS; + + WITH + + Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches. + + BY + + HENRI DE CRIGNELLE, + + ANCIEN OFFICIER DE DRAGONS. + + TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT IN FRENCH, + + BY + + CAPTAIN JESSE, + + AUTHOR OF "NOTES OF A HALFPAY;" "LIFE OF BRUMMELL;" + "MURRAY'S HAND-BOOK FOR RUSSIA," ETC., ETC. + + SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT-STREET. + + 1851. + + LONDON: + PRINTED BY WILLIAM TYLER, + BOLT-COURT. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +Born in one of the most beautiful provinces of France, in a country of +noble forests and extensive vineyards; brought up in the open air amidst +the blue hills, and ever wandering over the fields and mountains with a +gun on my arm--all the hours of my youth, if I may so say, were spent in +search of partridges and hares in the dewy stubbles, and in the pursuit +of the wild cat and the boar in the shady depths of the woods. + +When relating the adventures of these different shooting rambles to a +friend, talking over with him our mode of sporting so different from +that of England, and when in imagination I carried him along with me +into the dells and dark ravines, and described to him the chase and +death-struggle of the ferocious wolf, or the odd characters and +antediluvian customs of the primitive people amongst whom I passed the +days of my happy boyhood, astonished, he could hardly believe that such +sports and such singular personages existed within so short a distance +of his own country. + +"Why not scribble all this?" he would say, "your sketches would make +capital light reading." + +"But to write is not easy; and, besides, what a poor figure I and my +dogs and wolves, woodcocks and vineyards, would cut after the terrible +Mr. Gordon Cumming. How could any description of mine interest the +public in comparison with those of that famous shot and his three +coffee-coloured Hottentots, with his bands of panthers and giraffes, his +troops of yellow lions dancing sarabands round the fountains, and his +jungles and swamps swarming with elephants and hippopotami?" + +"But we might be able to go to Le Morvan," said my friend, "whereas few +indeed, if they wished it, can go to the South of Africa to shoot +elephants through the small ribs; neither is it probable that many of us +would like to pass several years of their valuable lives shut up in a +loose, rolling, sea-bathing-machine-like wagon, with their own beloved +shadow alone for all Christian company. Let us have a narrative of your +exploits?" + +"You do not consider what you ask," I replied; "my gossip may have +amused you, but the effusions of my pen would to a certainty make you +yawn like graves." + +"Nonsense," whispered the flatterer, "you will open to us a new country, +you will confer a real service upon hundreds of restless Englishmen, who +when summer comes know not for the life of them where to go, or where +not to go;--write your work, and advise them to turn their steps to Le +Morvan at the time of the vintage." + +But now another, a huge difficulty, sprung up. Printers do not lend +their types for nothing any more than they give gratis their time and +paper. To publish a book is always an expensive affair; misfortune, +which had touched me with its wing, which has been the sad guest of my +house, deprived me of the power of undertaking it myself: and where to +find a person so generous as to take upon himself the responsibility of +the undertaking? Happily I was in England, in the land of kind hearts +and warm sympathies. A noble lady, the mother of a distinguished English +nobleman, who passes her life in doing good, took an interest in my +forlorn history, and was pleased to honour me with her patronage. With +this mantle of protection thrown around me, and my generous friend +having undertaken to bear the responsibilities of publishing, the +difficulties were soon swept away, and Le Morvan was written. + +I had hoped that I should in this Preface be permitted to mention her +name, which would have been less a compliment to her than an honour to +me; but her modesty has refused this public acknowledgment of my +unbounded gratitude,--a veil of respectful reserve shall therefore +remain suspended over her name. As for me and mine, we shall treasure it +in our thankful hearts--every day shall we pray that the Great Giver of +all good may confer upon her His most precious and gracious blessings. + + HENRI DE CRIGNELLE. + +LONDON, _August_, 1851. + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + +English propensity to ramble--Where and how--Le +Morvan--Vezelay--Description of the town--Historical associations +connected with it--Charles IX.--Persecutions of the Protestants--View +from Vezelay--Scenery and wild sports--The Author--Object of the +Work _p._ 1 + + +CHAPTER II. + +Le Morvan--Forests--Climate--Patriarchs and Damosels--Peasants of the +plain and the mountains--Jovial Cures--Their love of Burgundy--The +Doctor and the Cure 14 + + +CHAPTER III. + +Geology--Fossil shells--Antediluvian salmon--The Druids--Chindonax, the +High Priest--Roman antiquities--Julius Caesar's hunting-box--Lugubrious +village--Carre-les-Tombes--The Inquisitive Andalusian 26 + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Le Morvan during the Middle Ages--Legendary horrors--Forest of La +Goulotte--La Croix Chavannes--La Croix Mordienne--Hotel de +Chanty--Chateau de Lomervo--A French Bluebeard--Citadel of Lingou 35 + + +CHAPTER V. + +Castle of Bazoche--Marechal de Vauban--Relics of the old +Marshal--Memorials of Philipsburg--Hotel de Bazarne--Madame de +Pompadour's maitre d'hotel--Proof of the _cures'_ grief--Farm of St. +Hibaut--Youthful recollections--Monsieur de Cheribalde--Navarre the +Four-Pounder--His culverin 43 + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Bird's-eye view of the forests--The student's visit to his uncle in the +country--Sallies forth in the early morning--Meets a cuckoo--Follows +him--The cuckoo too much for him--Gives up the pursuit--Finds he has +lost his way--Agreeable vespers--Night in the forest--Wolves--Up a beech +tree--A friend in need--The student bids adieu to Le Morvan 55 + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Charms of a forest life to the sportsman--The Poachers--Le Pere +Seguin--His knowledge of the woods and of the rivers--The first buck--A +bad shot 65 + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Le Pere Seguin's collation--The young sportsman and the hare--The +quarrel--The apology--The reconciliation--The cemetery--Bait for +barbel--Le Pere Seguin's deceased friends--The return home 75 + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Passage of the woodcock in November--Laziness of that bird--Night +travelling--Mode of snaring them at night--Numbers taken in this +way--This sport adapted rather for the poacher--The _braconnier_ of Le +Morvan--His mode of life--The poacher's dog--The double poacher 88 + + +CHAPTER X. + +The woodcock--Its habits in the forests of Le Morvan--Aversion of dogs +to this bird--Timidity of the woodcock--Its cunning--Shooting in +November--The Woodcock mates--The Woodcock fly 100 + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Fine names--Gustavus Adolphus and the cabbages--Gustavus Adolphus no +hero!--The Parisian Sportsman--Partridge shooting despicable--Wild +boar-hunting--Rousing the grisly monster--His approach--The post of +honour--Good nerves--The death--The trophy and congratulations 117 + + +CHAPTER XII. + +The _Mares_--Manner in which they are formed in the depths of the +forest--_Mare_ No. 1.--Description of it--The appearance of the +spot--Mode of constructing the hunting-lodge--Approach of the +birds--Animals that frequent the _Mares_ in the evening 141 + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Appearance of the _Mare_ in the morning--Forest etiquette--Mode of +obtaining possession of the best _Mare_--Every subterfuge fair--The +jocose sportsman--The quarrel--Reveries in the hut--Comparison between +meeting a lady and watching for a wolf 157 + +CHAPTER XIV. + +_Mare_ No. 2.--Description of it--Not sought after by the sportsman--The +sick banker--The doctor's prescription--The patient's disgust at it--Is +at length obliged to yield--Leaves Paris for Le Morvan--Consequences to +the inmates of the chateau--The banker convalescent 170 + + +CHAPTER XV. + +Summer months in the Forest--_Mare_ No. 3.--Description of it--The +Woodcock fly--The Banker has a day's sport--Arrives at the +_Mare_--Difficult to please in his choice of a hut--Proceeds to a larger +_Mare_--His friends retire--The Banker on the alert for a Wolf or a +Boar--Fires at some animal--The unfortunate discovery--Rage of the +Parisian--Pays for his blunder, and recovers his temper 188 + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +The _Cure_ of the Mountain--Toby Gold Button--Hospitality--The _Cure's_ +pig--His hard fate and reflections--The _Cure_ of the plain--His worth +and influence--The agent of the Government--Landed Proprietors--Their +influence--The Orator--Dialogue with a Peasant 207 + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +The wolf--His aspect and extreme ferocity--His cunning in hunting his +prey--His unsocial nature--Antiquity of the race--Where found, and their +varieties--Annihilated in England by the perseverance of the kings and +people--Decrees and rewards to encourage their destruction by +Athelstane, John, and Edward I.--Death of the last wolf in +England--Death of the last in Ireland 221 + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +The _battues_ of May and December--The gathering of +sportsmen--Preparations in the forest--The _charivari_--The fatal +rush--Excitement of the moment--The volley--The day's triumph, and the +reward--The peasants returning--Hunting the wolf with +dogs--Cub-hunting--The drunken wolf 236 + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +Wolf-hunting, an expensive amusement--The _Traquenard_--Mode of setting +this trap--A night in the forest with Navarre--The young lover--Dreadful +accident that befell him--His courage and efforts to escape--The fatal +catastrophe--The poor mad mother 248 + + +CHAPTER XX. + +Shooting wolves in the summer--The most approved baits to attract +them--Fatal error--Hut-shooting--Silent joviality--The approach of the +wolves--The first volley--The retreat--The final slaughter--The +sportsman's reward--The farm-yard near St. Hibaut--The dead colt--The +onset--Scene in the morning--Horrible accident--The gallant +farmer--Death of the wolves, the dogs, and the peasant--The wolf-skin +drum--Anathema of the naturalists 261 + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +Fishing in Le Morvan--The naturalist--The _Gour_ of Akin--The English +lady--The mountain streams--Chateau de Chatelux--Sermiselle--New mode of +killing pike--Pierre Pertuis--The rocks and whirlpool there--The syrens +of the grotto--Chateau des Panolas--The Cousin--The ponds of Marot and +lakes of Lomervo--Mode of taking fish with live trimmers--The Scotch +farmer 280 + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +Village _fetes_--The first of May--The religious festivals--The _Fete +Dieu_--Appearance of the streets--The altars erected in them--Procession +from the church--Country fairs--The book-stalls at them--Pictures of the +Roman Catholic Church--Before the _Vendange_--Proprietor's hopes and +fears--Shooting in the vineyards--The first day of the +_Vendange_--Appearance of the country--Influx of visitors at this +season--The consequences--Herminie--Her sad history--Le +Morvan--Recommended to the English traveller--Lord Brougham and +Cannes--Contrast between it and Le Morvan 297 + + + + + +LE MORVAN. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + English propensity to ramble--Where and how--Le + Morvan--Vezelay--Description of the town--Historical associations + connected with it--Charles IX.--Persecutions of the + Protestants--View from Vezelay--Scenery and wild sports--The + Author--Object of the Work. + + +Every nation has its characteristics, and amongst those which are +peculiar to the genius of the English people, is their ardent and +insatiable love of wandering. + +To locomote is absolutely necessary to every Englishman; in his heart is +profoundly rooted a passion for long journeys; each and all of them, old +and young, healthy and sickly, would if they could take not merely the +grand tour, but circulate round the two hemispheres with all the +pleasure imaginable. At a certain period of the year, when the +weathercock points the right way, the sun burns in the sign of the +Lion, and the husbandman bends his weary form to gather in the golden +corn, the legs of the rich Englishman begin to be nervously agitated, he +feels a sense of suffocation, and pants for change--of air, of place, of +everything; he girds up his loins, and without throwing a glance behind +him, it is Hey, Presto! begone! and he is off. Where? + +It is autumn, blessed autumn, the season of harvest and sunny days; the +English are everywhere--they fly from their own dear island like clouds +of chilly swallows, light upon Europe as thick as thrushes in an +orchard, and are soon mingled with every nation of the earth, like the +blue corn flowers in the ripe barley fields. Yes, from north to south, +from east to west, go where you will, you cannot proceed ten miles +without meeting a smiling rosy English girl coquettishly concealed under +her large green veil, and a grave British gentleman, whistling to the +wide world in the sheer enjoyment of having nothing to do but to look at +it. + +I have seen green veils climbing the Pyramids; I have seen green veils +diving down into the dark mines of the Oural; I have seen an English +gentleman perched like a chamois on the top of St. Bernard, hat in hand, +roaring "God save the Queen." I have seen some sipping Syracusan wine, +puffing a comfortable cloud from obese cigars, most irreverently seated +in the big nose of St. Carlo Borromeo. One-half of England is gone to +China, the other half to Africa; these will speak to you of Kamschatka, +those of the mountains of the Moon, just as a London cockney or a +Parisian _badaud_ would speak to you of Greenwich or of Bagnolet. Some +have boxed with the bears of the Pyrenees; others have killed lions and +tigers by dozens; one has crossed the Nile on a crocodile, another vows +he waltzed with a dying hippopotamus, and several have bagged +camelopards and elephants by scores. In short, they have trodden with a +bold disdainful step all the high-roads and by-roads of our wondrous +planet, displaying, in every quarter of the compass, the daring and +devil-may-care spirit of their youth and the spleen of their mature age, +as well as the yellow guineas from their long and well-filled purses. + +Well, then, ask of all this wandering tribe, who boast of having been +everywhere, and seen everything; ask those travelling birds who have +flown through France and Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Palestine; +who have sledged in Russia and fished in Norway; who have lost +themselves in the prairies of the far West, or in the Pampas, the +gorges of the Andes, or the Alleghanies; who have bronzed their +epidermis in the fierce heat of the tropics, or moistened their fair +_chevelure_ in the diamond spray of Niagara; who have, in fine, +journeyed through calm and hurricane, snow-storms, sirocco, and simoom; +who have rubbed noses--male noses--of the tattooed savage; mounted +donkeys, ostriches, camelopards, lamas, and dromedaries; mules, wild +asses, negroes, and elephants; ask them all if once in their lives--one +single once--they have seen or even heard of LE MORVAN? + +Not one of these thousands will answer yes. Le Morvan, where is it? what +is Le Morvan? Is it a mountain, a church, a river, a star, a flower, a +bird? Le Morvan, who knows anything about Le Morvan? Echo answers, "Who +knows?" Paddy Blake's replies, "Nobody." And yet all of you roving +English, who delight in athletic sports and rural scenes--the forest +glade and murmuring streams, a view halloo and the gallant hound; who +love the bleak and healthy moors, the cool retreats, the flowery paths, +and mountain solitudes, how happy would you be in Le Morvan. Where, +then, is Le Morvan? + +Le Morvan is a district of France, in which are included portions of the +departments of the Nievre and the Yonne, having on the west the +vineyards of Burgundy, and on the east the mountains of the Nivernois. +Its ancient and picturesque capital, Vezelay, crowns a hill 2,000 feet +in height, and commands a panoramic view of the country for thirty miles +round. It has all the characteristics of a town of the feudal times, +with high embattled and loopholed walls, numerous towers, and deep and +strong gateways, under which are still to be seen the grooves of the +portcullis, the warder's guard-room, and the hooks that supported the +heavy drawbridge. + +The capital of Le Morvan partially owed its rise to a celebrated +nunnery, founded by Gerard de Roussillon, a great hero of romance and +chivalry, who lived, loved, and fought under Pepin, the father of the +grand Charlemagne. This nunnery, which was sacked and burnt to the +ground by the Saracens, those terrible warriors of the East, was +restored in the ninth century, and fortified; and as the sainted inmates +were believed to have amongst their relics a tress of the golden hair of +the beautiful and repentant Magdalen, troops of the faithful--and people +were ready to believe a great deal in those days--flocked to Vezelay, +when it soon became a large and flourishing town. + +In the tenth century, when the people, in their endeavour to shake off +a few links of their fetters, refused to bend their bodies in the dust +before their lords and their minds before their priests--when the seeds +of liberty, till then lying in unprofitable ground, though watered for +centuries by the tears of tyranny and oppression, first germinated and +rose above the earth, who gave the signal of resistance in France?--the +inhabitants of Vezelay. Yes; it is to her citizens that the honour +belongs of having first refused to submit to the power, the domineering +power, of political and ecclesiastical rule; it was her brave +inhabitants who, assembling in secret, thought not of the peril, but, +having promised help and protection one to the other, flew to arms. A +short and desperate struggle ensued, but the victory remained in the +hands of the abbot of Vezelay. Hundreds of brave men were put, without +mercy, to the sword, and many, with less mercy, burnt alive or died by +the torture in the dark dungeons of the abbatical palace. Vezelay still +preserves in its archives the names of twelve of these martyrs. + +Again in the twelfth century, when the cry to the rescue of the Holy +Sepulchre shook all Europe, and every nation poured forth her tens of +thousands to drive the infidel from that land in which their Redeemer +had lived and died an ignominious and cruel death, it was at Vezelay +that Pope Eugenius III. assembled a great council of the princes of the +church, the great barons, and chivalry of those times. It was in her +immense cathedral, one of the oldest and largest in the kingdom, amidst +the clang of arms, war cries, and religious chaunts, and in the presence +of Louis le Jeune, King of France, that St. Bernard preached, in 1146, +the Second Crusade. + +Vezelay is celebrated as having been the birth-place of Beza, the great +Protestant Reformer (1519), who succeeded not only to the place but to +the influence of Calvin, and was, after that eminent man's death, +regarded as the head and leader of the Genevese church. + +It was to Vezelay, the only town that dared to offer them the protection +of its walls, that the unfortunate Protestants fled after the horrible +massacre of St. Bartholomew's--the base political cruelty of the brutal +homicide, Charles IX. Tracked and hunted down like wild beasts, and a +price set upon their heads, they found staunch and noble hearts in the +inhabitants of Vezelay; but, ere long, an army of their insatiable foes +arrived and besieged the town, and treachery at a postern one stormy +night made them masters of it, when scenes of horror followed under the +mask of religion that even at this distance of time make one recoil with +terror and disgust at the dogmas of the corrupt faith which dictated +them. + +Roasting men alive, and boiling women, dashing out the brains of many a +cherub boy and prattling girl, was the pleasing and satisfactory pastime +with which Pope Gregory, Catherine de Medicis, and her congenial son +gladdened their Christian hearts. The blood of their victims still cries +to us from the ground of their Golgotha; for on the south side of the +town there is a large green field, called _Le Champ des Huguenots_. The +damning fact, from which this spot received its name, has been handed +down to us by the historian. It is as follows: + +The Catholics, having instituted a strict search in the woods and +caverns of the environs, made so many prisoners that they were puzzled +what to do with them--nay, in what manner they should take their lives. +Among many ingenious experiments, it was suggested that they should bury +them alive up to their necks in the field to which we have alluded; and +this was accordingly done with nine of them, whose heads were bowled at +with cannon-balls taken from the adjoining rampart, as if they had been +blocks of wood instead of live human heads. The shrieks of the +miserable beings excited no compassion; on the contrary, it afforded +amusement to their executioners: so that games of skittles upon the same +principle were played the whole length of this meadow. + +Turning aside from these execrable deeds of man to the works of Nature +and of Nature's God, which have always been and always must be lovely +and worthy of our deepest admiration, let us dwell for a moment upon the +splendid view from the castle-terrace, which forms the principal +promenade of Vezelay. Shaded by large and venerable trees, through the +lofty branches of which many a storm has howled for nearly four hundred +years, the sight from hence is one of the finest panoramic views in +France. + +All around, whether on the slope of the hills by the river-side, in the +middle distance, or near the mountains which form the horizon, are seen +hundreds of little villages, and many a white villa scattered among the +green vines as daisies on the turf. To the left and right are St. Pere +and Akin, two hamlets, which seem like faithful dogs sleeping at the +foot of the mountain crowned by Vezelay. The province in which this +cloud-capped fortress-town is situated is a retired spot out of the +beaten track of the tourist, the man of business, or the man of +pleasure--lost, as it were, in the very heart of beautiful France, like +a wild strawberry in the depth of the forest--encircled by woods, and +unknown to the foreigner, who, in his rapid journey to Geneva or to +Lyons, almost elbows it without dreaming of its existence. + +Le Morvan rears in its sylvan depths a population of hardy and honest +men and lovely women, fresh as roses, and gay as butterflies. There the +soft evening breezes are charged with the songs of ten thousand birds, +the odours of the eglantine, the lily of the valley, and the violet, +which, shaking off its winter slumbers, opens its dark blue eye and +combines its perfume with that of its snowy companion. + +Le Morvan is a country that would delight an Englishman, for it is full +of game; here the sportsman may vary his pleasures as fancy dictates. +The forest abounds with deer; the plain with rabbits and the timid hare; +and in the vineyards, during the merry season of the vintage, the fat +red-stockinged and gray-clad partridges are bagged by bushels. Here the +sportsman may watch in the open glades the treacherous wild cat and the +bounding roebuck; and, should these sports appear too tame, he may, if +foot and heart are sound, plunge into the dark recesses of the forest +in pursuit of the savage and grisly boar, or the fierce and prowling +wolf. + +When evening comes, bringing with it peace and rest to the industrious +peasant, when the moon shall light her bright lamp in the star-spangled +heavens, and shed her silvery rays across the plain, the hunter may lead +forth the village belle, and foot it merrily on the mossy greensward, to +the sound of the bagpipe and the rustic flute, by fountains which never +cease their monotonous but soothing plaint, and under the long shadows +of the ancient oaks and tall acacias. + +Happiness, says Solomon, consists not in the possession of that gold for +which men toil so unremittingly and grave deep wrinkles on the heart and +brow. Happiness lights not her torch at the crystal lustres in the halls +of royalty; she rarely chooses for her home the marble palaces of the +wealthy, nor is she often the companion of the great, robed in costly +apparel; rarely does she braid her hair with pearls, or wear the rosy +lightning of the ruby on her fair bosom. + +Happiness is known only to him who, free and contented, lives unknown in +his little corner, deaf to the turmoil and insensible to the excitements +of the selfish crowd, and ignorant of the sorrows and sufferings of +great cities. She is found in the enjoyment of the sunshine and the open +air, in the shady groves and flowery fields, by the side of the +murmuring brooks, and in the society of the gay, frank, and +simple-minded peasant of my own dear country. Oh! my white and pretty +_pavillon_, whose walls are clad with fragrant creepers and the luscious +vine, whose porch is scented with the woodbine and the rose--oh! lovely +valleys, dark forests, deep blue lakes which sleep unruffled in the +bosom of the hills, beautiful vine-clad hills, where in the morning of +my youth I chased those flying flowers, the bright and painted +butterflies--oh! when, when shall I see you all again--like the bird of +passage, which, when the winter is over, returns to his sunny home? When +shall I see thee again? Oh! my sweet Le Morvan! Oh! my native land! +Happy, thrice happy they who cherish in their hearts the love of nature, +who prefer her sublime and incomparable beauties to the false and +artificial works of man, accumulated with so much cost and care within +the walls of her great cities. Happy, too, are those who have not been +carried away by the fatal flood of misfortune from the paternal hearth, +who have always lived in sight of that home which sheltered their merry +childhood, and whose lives, pure and peaceful as the noiseless stream of +the valley, close in calmness and serenity like the twilight of a bright +summer's day. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + Le Morvan--Forests--Climate--Patriarchs and Damosels--Peasants of + the plain and the mountaineer--Jovial Cures--Their love of + Burgundy--The Doctor and the Cure. + + +Le Morvan, anciently Morvennium, or Pagus Morvinus, as Caesar calls it in +his Commentaries, comprises, as we have before remarked, a portion of +the departments of the Nievre and the Yonne, lying between vine-clad +Burgundy and the mountains of the Nivernois. Its productions are +various; in the plains are grown wheat, rye, hemp, oats, and flax: on +the mountain side the grape is largely cultivated; and in the valleys +are rich verdant meadows, where countless droves of oxen, knee-deep in +the luxuriant grass, feed and fatten in peace and abundance. + +But the real and inexhaustible wealth of Le Morvan is in its forests. In +these several thousand trees are felled annually, sawn into logs, +branded and thrown by cart-loads into the neighbouring torrent, which, +on reaching a more tranquil stream, are lashed into rafts, when they +drift onwards to the Seine, and are eventually borne on the waters of +that river to the capital. The forests of the Nievre are some of the +most extensive in France; thick and dark, and formed of ancient oaks, +maple, and spreading beech, they cover nearly 200,000 acres of ground. +Those of the Yonne are larger but of a character far less wild. + +The climate of this part of France is delightful; with the exception of +occasional showers, very little rain falls; the sky is serene, and +scarcely ever is a vagabond cloud seen in the ethereal blue to throw a +shadow upon the lovely landscape beneath. For six months of the year the +sun is daily refulgent in the heavens, and sets evening after evening in +all his glorious majesty. But in the woods it is not thus; the storms +there are sometimes terrible, and, like those of the tropics, arise and +terminate with wonderful rapidity. These tempests, which purify the +atmosphere, leave behind them a delicious coolness, the trees and +shrubs, as they shake from their trembling leaves their sparkling tears, +appear so bright--the flowers which raise again their drooping heads, +load the air with such delightful odours--the whole forest, in short, +seems so refreshed and full of life, that every one hails their +approach, the toil-worn peasant breathes without complaint the sultry +air, and observes with pleasure the dark and lowering clouds gathering +in the far horizon. + +From the mountains, those huge ladders of granite that God has planted +upon the earth, as if to invite ungrateful man to come nearer to him, +descend many a stream and dancing rill of pure and crystal waters. No +part of France can be said to be more salubrious. "Centenarians" are by +no means uncommon, and a patriarch of that age may be found in several +families. + +When Sunday comes, always a _jour de fete_ as well as a day of prayer, +it is very pleasing to see one of these venerable men, dressed in his +best clothes, walking to church at the head of his children, +grand-children, and great grand-children. Long and of snowy whiteness is +his hair, and glossy white as threads of purest silver is his beard--his +hat, of quaker broadness in the brim, is generally encircled, in the +early days of Spring, with a wreath of the common primrose, and his dark +cloth mantle, of home-spun fabric, hangs gracefully on his shoulders, +showing underneath it the dark red sash that girds his still healthy and +vigorous frame. Tall and grave, erect and majestic as the oaks of their +native forests, these patriarchs bespeak every one's respect, and when +looking on them you might imagine they were men of another age, a +generation of by-gone years, you might fancy them some ancient Druids +that have escaped from their dusty tombs, from centuries of night, to +tread once more the pathways of this planet. + +And the women, heaven and earth! how sweetly pretty, how amiable and +adorable; and such eyes, dark and lustrous!--full of witchcraft, burning +and humid as an April sun after a shower. Some there are, also, of +pensive blue, pregnant with promises, soft and almond-shaped, like the +divine eyes of the Italian Cenci. Supple as the young and slender +branches of willow, are these divinities, fresh as new opened tulips, +and brisk and gay as the golden-speckled trout in the sparkling current. +In their charms is found a terrestrial paradise, a compound of delicious +qualities which intoxicate the senses, hook the heart, and like the bite +of the Sicilian tarantella, steep the loved one in delirium. + +Yes, the women of Le Morvan are lovely, ardent, and tender-hearted as +the dove, especially those who dwell within the forest districts; for +nothing contributes so much to bring forth the loving principle of the +affections as the silent melancholy of the umbrageous woods, and the +soft and perfumed breezes that pervade them. Here, in the dusk and +stillness of the summer evenings, these wood-nymphs hear in the lofty +branches of the linden, the endearing love songs of the feathered tribe, +and when night throws its charitable gloom over their blushing cheeks, +they whisper at the trysting place what they have heard and seen to +their rustic admirers. + +We have just briefly sketched the two extremes, the old men of Le Morvan +and its sprightly damosels: we must now mention the inhabitants +generally, and these vary like its productions according to locality. +The peasant of the plains is civil, gentle, and industrious, but cunning +and dangerous as an old fox; and if he thinks money may be squeezed from +your pocket, be sure there will be no sleep for him till he has taken +some out of it. Full of fun, he loves above all the dance, the song, the +merry laugh, and good cheer--and the uncorking of a bottle would be for +him a supreme delight, if this excellence itself was not superseded, by +the far greater blessedness of emptying it. + +The inhabitant of the mountain, on the other hand, is sober, severe and +roughly barked--clothed with silence and gravity, smiling but once a +year--the day he has cheated a good man of the plain; he does not please +so much at first sight: but if in any danger, if you are surprised by a +hurricane, surrounded with wolves; or you have lost your way, in a night +as dark as the grave itself, you call and ask his help, oh! it is then +that his sterling qualities shine forth in all their splendour. Always +ready, always on the look out, the ear for ever bent to catch the +well-known sounds of the forest, the slightest indication of distress +awakes his vigilance; it is then he comes, it is then he flies, and his +arm, gun, and eyes--his cabin, dog, and lean horse are all at your +command. + +Admirable example of courage and of devotedness: money for him is +nothing; happy to be useful, he obliges for the mere pleasure of +obliging. Many, many times have I seen poachers, cottagers, +charcoal-burners, and wood-cutters, poor as Job, hardly breeched, hungry +as a whole Irish borough, leave their work, their sport, their field, +their tree half down,--abandon in the roads, under the guard of the +dogs, their carts and oxen, and go some dozen of miles, through storm +and tempest, through rush, rock, and swamp, to set a sportsman in his +right way again. Without saying a word, with steps attendant on his +weary progress, they trudge on before, making a sign for him to follow; +and when they have placed him once more on his road, a nod, a shake of +the hand, a smile, a kind word falling from his lips, pays them the full +price of all their troubles. Never have I seen one of them accept the +least pecuniary reward for such services--they do nothing but their +duty, they say; and as they are happy in the firm conviction that the +whole forest belongs to them, they think they are only doing the honours +of their green drawing-rooms. Thus it always happens, that when, by +their good care, you have escaped certain danger, it is with great +difficulty, and only after a deluge of rhetoric, that they consent to +accept for their daughters or wives a red wool dress, a gold cross, or a +row of large blue Pundaram beads; or for themselves a few dozen of iron +bullets, a bag of shot, or a flask of powder. This abnegation, this +frankness of the heart, this kind sympathy for every stranger, is +universal among the mountaineers; these benevolent and kindly feelings +are a portion of their holy traditions, and as such are most religiously +grafted by every mother into the soft wax-like hearts of her dear little +ones. + +But while delighting to describe the virtues of these denizens of the +forests, these amiable fauns and jolly satyrs, I must not forget those +jovial trencher-men, the _cures_ of Le Morvan. Every sportsman +possesses, or should possess, the digestion of an ostrich; for his +appetite is generally prodigious, and the viands that fall in his way +are not always the most savoury. When, however, the venison pasty, the +truffled turkey, or the _pain de gibier_ is within his reach, no one is +so capable of enjoying and doing justice to these delicacies of the +table, of knocking off so dexterously the neck of the champagne bottle +when the corkscrew is absent, or whose legs are stretched out so +gracefully at the sight of brimming glasses and _recherche_ viands. + +In these, his fallen moments, and after a good day's sport, a Morvinian +would tell you he could drink all the Burgundian cellars dry,--aye, and +those of Champagne too; and as to smoking, why, he would smoke a whole +crop of tobacco. + +To all keen sportsmen, therefore, who love good eating and wine, and +intend to pay a visit to Le Morvan, I would give this piece of advice, +and I would say to them, place it in the secret drawer of your memory; +nay, carry it written, and, if necessary, painted on your knapsack or +scratched upon your gun--fail not to make the acquaintance of the _cure_ +the darling _cures_. Ask who are they that love the best _cuisine_--who +dote upon the most delicious morsels--who will have the oldest, purest, +and most generous wines?--you will be answered, the _cures_. For whom +are destined the largest trout, the fattest capons, and the best parts +of the venison?--for whom the softest and most choice liqueurs, wine of +the best _bouquet_, the largest truffles, the most luscious honey, the +best vegetables, and finest fruits?--for the _cures_. And the most +clever men-cooks, the happiest receipts, and latest culinary +inventions--for whom are they? the answer is always, _for messieurs les +cures_. Forget them not, therefore, for they are really worth +remembering; besides, they have excellent hearts and are capital +fellows, boon companions, full of _bonhommie_ and good-nature: in fact, +such _cures_ it is impossible to find anywhere else. + +But the great Architect of the universe has said, nothing is +perfect--everything human has its weak point. Well, it cannot be helped, +and it must be told, the _cures_ of Le Morvan have their weak points; +trifles, to be sure--mere bagatelles--but still they have them. They are +rather _too_ fond of old wine and good cheer. These two charming little +defects excepted,--you have in the Morvinian _cure_ goodness double +distilled, and the essence of generosity, and, be it said, abnegation. +This love of the bottle they imbibe from their dear colleagues of +Burgundy; for it is well known, and has never been disputed, that the +Burgundian _cures_ are the greatest exterminators, uncorkers, and +emptiers of wine-bottles in all Christendom. The first thing these +jovial clergymen think of when they open their eyes in the morning, is +an invocation to Bacchus, somewhat in the following strain: "O Bacchus! +son of Semele, divine wine-presser! O vineyards! full of the purple +grape! O wine-press! inestimable machine!" &c. Their second movement is +to extend the right arm, and clasp within their digits a flask of old +Pouilli, the contents of which they swallow without once stopping to +take breath. "An infallible remedy," say they, "against the devil and +all future indigestions." + +Fortified thus with this their first orison, they throw on their +cassock, and descend to the cellar, to count the bottles, or tap and +taste the barrels of some doubtful vintage. The thorough-bred Burgundian +_cure_, particularly one who has lived and got old and fat in the +solitude of a retired presbytery,--whose rubicund nose reveals his +admiration for the vineyards of his native province, and whose three +chins tell you that with pullets, and venison, and clouted cream he has +lined his scrip,--is certainly one of the most jovial and best of men. + +Ask him for indulgences, absolution, masses and prayers for the living +and the dead; he will grant them all. Ask him for his niece in marriage; +ask him to marry you, to baptize you, to bury you; he will do it +all--yes, all for nothing! It is not in his nature to refuse anything. +Ask him for his new cassock, his cane, or his hat, his black silk +stockings, or his silver buckles, and they are yours. No one so ready to +forgive an insult or forget an injury as he. But, by the blood of the +Mirabels, give him not a bottle of bad or sour wine, for he will neither +forget nor forgive it; and above all things, never give him a hint that +it would be well if he gave up his favourite fluid, for be assured, you +would forfeit his friendship for ever. Sooner would he consent to lose a +leg or all his teeth, than give up his life-loved Burgundy! Tell him he +will have an attack of apoplexy; tell him that he will be taken off +suddenly by inflammation, and that water therefore should be his +beverage; he will reply with a smack of his lips, and a castanet noise +with his fingers. "Nonsense, my boy--stuff and rubbish! Pass the wine, +my son; pass it again. Pass the ham, gentlemen. Fill a bumper. Hurrah +for old Burgundy! hurrah for her wines! Confound the pale fluid, and a +fig for the gout!" Such are the ebullitions of his heart in his jovial +moments; and the following lines, which would spoil in the translation, +give a lively picture of them: + + "Pour trop bien boire un cure de Bourgogne + De son pauvre oeil se trouvait deferre, + Un docteur vint:--Voici de la besogne + Dit-il, pour plus d'un jour;--Je patienterai! + Ca vous boirez:--Eh bien! soit, je boirai! + Quatre grands mois:--Plutot douze, mon maitre. + Cette tisane!--A moi? hurla le pretre, + _Vade retro!_ Guerir par le poison! + Non, par ma soif! perdons une fenetre, + Puisqu'il le faut, mais--_Sauvons la Maison_." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + Geology--Fossil shells--Antediluvian salmon--The Druids--Chindonax, + the High Priest--Roman antiquities--Julius Caesar's + hunting-box--Lugubrious village--Carre-les-Tombes--The Inquisitive + Andalusian. + + +Le Morvan, independently of its hunting and fishing, its lovely climate +and fine wines, pretty girls and jolly _cures_, possesses a more +important class of beauties and perfections, secrets and enigmas, over +which the _savans_ would pore and ponder through many a day and many a +night: those men who, like Eve, long to grasp the fatal apple--the apple +which destroys while it attracts--the apple whose flavour, alas! is so +bitter,--the apple of science. Let the geologists, who are ever bending +in earnest study over the mysteries of nature, and breaking stones by +the road-side,--who are ever seeking to analyse the _materiel_ of +creation,--who are always contemplating the internal and geognostic +constitution of the globe, the red or the blue clay, the yellow gravel, +the trappe, the limestone, the granite, or the slate, to satisfy +themselves what this poor planet is made of,--let them come and ransack +Le Morvan. Let them bring their hammers and chisels, their compasses and +barometers, and above all, their passport,--precious document! an +hundredfold more useful in France, in these liberty days, than a pair of +shoes or a shirt,--let them come, and I promise them endless +discoveries, a rich and ample harvest. + +In the meadow lands, when, for the purpose of sinking wells, the soil is +penetrated to an immense depth, the workmen often come to thick strata +of schist, in which they find imbedded trunks and roots of trees, and +stalks of plants and ferns, which now grow in tropical climates only. + +In the highest and steepest parts of the mountain chain may be found +marine petrifactions of every variety--the sea-hedgehog, the oyster, the +mussel, and the star-fish; and in the beds of trachytic rock, deposited +in such order that one might fancy they had been placed there by a +careful and tasty housewife, are layers of the most curious shells, +univalve, bivalve, sublivalve and multivalve, madrepors, and shapeless +remnants of creatures now no longer known, and petrified fish. + +Some few years ago, an engineer, who was carrying a road through a rock +in the mountain called the Val d'Arcy, found a salmon in the most +perfect condition, even with head and tail, the unhappy wretch enclosed +in the heart of a large stone. I should certainly have pronounced this +fish to be a cod, had not science decided it was a salmon of a large +species--_genus salmo_, sixty vertebrae. It is now to be seen in the +Natural History department, section _Salmonidae_, of the Museum in the +Jardin des Plantes, at Paris. + +Poor old salmon! said I, and I took off my hat when I had the honour of +being presented to him; Poor old salmon! what wouldst thou have said, +some twelve or fifteen thousand years ago, when, free and glorious thou +didst pierce the briny waves,--when, perhaps, thou wast gambolling +amongst the pointed summits of the Alps, plunging in ecstacy into the +emerald depths of oceans now vanished,--what wouldst thou have said, +could the thought have crossed thy brain, that one day thou shouldst be +_here_? Under a glass! ticketted, numbered, pasted to the wall! forming +an item in a collection of things fabulous, and exhibiting thy venerable +form, thine antediluvian physiognomy, to thousands of _badauds_, who +either pass thee without a glance, or examine thee with unfeeling +curiosity, bestowing not a thought upon thy great age or thy cruel fate, +or with a whit more respect for thee and thine awful history, than a +cockney would show to a whitebait caught but yesterday in the Thames, +and served up to him as a fraction of his fishy feast at Blackwall. + +Le Morvan, abounding in forests, was a district most congenial to the +gloomy spirit of the religion of the ancient Druids; and therefore, in +the earliest days of the history of France, they consecrated its groves +of splendid oaks to the performance of their terrible rites. Remains of +many of their massive monuments still exist, in the fields, in the deep +valleys, and on the tops of the hills. Antique and mysterious all of +them--three-pointed stones, three-cornered stones, and massive groups of +stones in mystic circle ranged, round which, the peasant will tell you +with bated breath, _les Gaurics_--the spirits of the giants--come to +weep and bewail on the first night of each new moon. During the last +century, a peasant, who was at work in a deep ditch in a beautiful field +of this district, came, in the course of his excavations, upon a stone +which indicated, that he was not far from one of those monuments with +which he was so familiar; and, upon further investigation, it proved to +be the black granite tomb of the famous Chindonax, the high-priest of +the Druids. It contained many relics--the sickle and the collar of +gold, the holy bracelets, the metal girdle, the sacrificial axe, the +knife of brass; and, in the midst, was a glass urn, containing a pinch +or two of grey powder--human dust! proud dust--sad and last remnant of +the Druid Chindonax. + +Tumuli were, a century ago, very numerous in the uncultivated and desert +tract of Les Bruyeres; but these little artificial hillocks are +disappearing very fast, for the peasants throw them down when they wish +to clear and level the ground. These tumuli always contain collars in +baked clay, arrow-heads, battle-axes of stone, pieces of crystal, and +other articles of a similar description. + +Even Julius Caesar, the cruel conqueror of Gaul, the pitiless victor of +Vercingetorix--Caesar, who cut off the hands of the Gauls as the only +means of preventing them from fighting--Caesar admired Le Morvan. He +loved that savage country, he delighted in it; in the deep gorges of its +mountains he pursued the large wolves and the wild boar, and in it he +established the custom of relays of dogs the whole length of the woods. + +In this our day, on the summit of a mountain near the one on which is +built the town of Chinon, may be seen the thick strong walls of ancient +Roman buildings--buildings that have been fortified, bristling with +palisades, and surrounded by moats--where Caesar had his principal +kennel, his hunting-box; in short, the spot which, in the third book of +his 'Commentaries,' he calls _Castrum Caninum_. + +In the darkest and most sombre part of this forest, the lovers of +antiquity will arrest their steps, delighted, at the very curious +village of Carre-les-Tombes, so called from the immense number of tombs +formerly found in its environs. So very numerous were they, that in 1615 +the Count de Chatelux, seigneur of the parish, had some of them sawn up +to build and pave the present church and tower of the steeple, and also +to roof the choir. They were seven or eight feet in length, and hollowed +out like troughs. Tradition says they were all found empty, with the +exception of five; in these reposed tall skeletons, blanched by time, +each having a helmet on his head, and a Roman sword by his side. The +stones of three only of these five tombs bore any inscription, name, +mark, or sign. On one was a double cross, very coarsely engraved; on the +second, a very large escutcheon, which the antiquaries, in spite of +their magnifying glasses, their science, and their patience, could never +decipher; and on the other, the most curious of the three, a Latin +inscription, in a legible, but very ancient character. + +Having one day had the simplicity to translate this inscription to a +young and beautiful Andalusian widow, smart was the rap of the fan that +I had for my pains. I had parried her curiosity as long as I could, for +her dark and dangerous eyes and clear olive complexion, which betrayed +every pulse of her southern blood, combined to put me on my guard. +Reader, will you wonder?--here is the inscription: + + "Qui Daemone pejus? Mulier rixosa: fug ..." + +"But what does it mean?" said my curious brunette. + +"Senora, that you are lovely." + +"Stuff, sir! not at all;" and she tossed her graceful head pettishly; "I +really wish you to translate it." + +"Well--here, then: '_Qui Daemone pejus_'--dark women; '_mulier +rixosa_'--are the loveliest." + +"No, no! I say; I am sure that is not it. Say it, word for word, or I +shall be angry--I vow I shall." + +"Word for word!" What was I to do? + +"Word for word," reiterated Dona Inez. + +"Indeed, Senora, I don't know ... you would not forgive me." + +"It is, then, something dreadful?" + +"No, not exactly dreadful, but----" + +"Dios! Dios! worlds of patience!" and she stamped her tiny foot; "will +you go on? You kill me with vexation. Translate it, I say, word for +word." And here the Dona, with discreet carelessness opening her fan, +prepared to blush. + +"'_Qui Daemone pejus_'--who is there worse than the devil? Hum!"--now for +the pinch, thought I. + +"Go on! go on!--the next words." + +"'_Mulier rixosa_'--is--a----" + +"Well, go on, will you?" + +"Yes--a quarrelsome woman!" + +Like lightning the fan closed, fell upon the unlucky index of my left +hand, which was thoughtlessly reposing upon the arm of the _causeuse_, +and nearly knocked off the first joint, by way of reward for my +reluctant compliance with her feminine wishes. + +"Excuse me, Senora," I said, after I had recovered my breath, "but you +are very unjust. I had nothing to do with writing this ungallant phrase; +it was a brutal Roman, no doubt." + +"You are making game of me,--I know you are." + +"No, indeed; you insisted upon my translating it word for word, and I +have done your bidding." + +"Then the man was a wretch who wrote them." + +"I think so too, Senora." + +"A brute--an animal!" + +"Certainly, Senora." + +"A fool--an old horror!" + +"Most probably." + +"An ignorant slanderer!" + +"Oh! surely." + +"A monster!" + +"I wager anything you like of it." But it was of no use; unconditional +assent failed to pacify her. So she went on for hours; and it cost me +untold pains to earn the brunette's permission to offer her an ice, or +to win one single smile. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + Le Morvan during the Middle Ages--Legendary horrors--Forest of La + Goulotte--La Croix Chavannes--La Croix Mordienne--Hotel de + Chanty--Chateau de Lomervo--A French Bluebeard--Citadel of Lingou. + + +But I must return from my Andalusian belle to the rugged Le Morvan,--a +patriotic, but, in spite of the broken finger, by no means so +captivating a subject. + +In feudal times--indeed, even so late as the last century--the district +was a perfect nest of cut-throats, where no one could venture in safety +for any honest purpose; without roads, and without police; full of dark +caverns and half-demolished castles, affording all kinds of facilities +for retreat and concealment; and thus it became the favourite rendezvous +of the worst and most ferocious characters of those lawless times. It is +widely different now. The hunter or the traveller--a woman or a +child--may ramble through the length and breadth of its forests, equally +in vain hoping for the excitement or fearing the danger of any +adventure, beyond the common one of seeing a wolf or wild boar threading +his way amongst the trees--a matter of no consequence at all. If, +however, you love to collect wild and mournful tales--tales, even, of +horror, with which to rivet the attention of the family group over the +fire in the winter evenings,--stop at every ruined wall over which the +lizard is harmlessly creeping; stop at every massive tower in which the +owl is screeching--at every large isolated stone under which the serpent +is hissing; linger along each tortuous path, and your peasant guide will +tell you a tradition for each--for all. + +Thus, for instance: you are perhaps a few paces in front of him, in the +forest of La Goulotte; and as the mid-day sun glances through the boughs +above you, you see its rays rest upon a cross at a little distance; it +was, you think, placed there for the rude worshippers of the province, +and you contemplate it with complacent reverence, till Pierre comes up +with you. "'Tis La Croix Chavannes, Monsieur, _la croix sinistre_. See! +in the narrow pass between the two mountains, its black and moss-covered +arms extended; at the end of each is a large knob, resembling a +threatening hand." You walk on, and find the cross riddled with ball, +chipped and notched, and carved with odd names. By the time you have +reached it, Pierre has told you it was set on the spot where, many a +long year ago, the Marquis de Chavannes was found, deluged in blood and +quite dead; he had been pierced through the heart by a treacherous +rival, who had joined his hunting party, and who basely took advantage +of a moment when, in ardent pursuit of the grisly boar, De Chavannes was +utterly unsuspicious of his evil intentions. + +A little further on is another cross, at the entrance of a deep, dark +gorge: What does that cross mean? "That one is called La Croix +Mordienne, Monsieur; at its foot our forefathers knelt to recommend +their souls to God, before they ventured their lives in the dangers of +Les Grand Ravins, where too many had been greeted by the bullet or the +dagger." The granite steps of this cross--this cross which was erected +for worship--are worn deep by the knees of suppliants for protection +against the cruelty of their fellow-men; and it is even a more +melancholy monument of the ferocity of those times, than the one which +records the assassination of the unsuspecting Marquis de Chavannes. + +Pursue your way, and, crossing a wild and marshy heath, you notice a +lonely house surrounded by thorny broom, the aspect of which is +forbidding, though it is gaily painted. Surely, you think, it can only +be the gloomy tales with which my guide has beguiled this morning's +walk, that make one suspect there is a history connected with that +house; and you ask him its name. "That is Chanty, Monsieur; that was +once an inn. The landlord was a frightful character, even for his own +times. When the doomed traveller halted at his door to seek shelter from +the storm, or to refresh himself and steed the better to encounter the +scorching heat, the villain drugged his wine, and, at nightfall, +following him into the forest, despatched and robbed his then helpless +victim. Or perhaps he would detain him with stirring tales of forest +life, till he found himself too late prudently to go further that night; +and, on his guard against every person but the right, ordering a bed of +his treacherous host, would fall into that slumber from which the +miscreant took safe means to prevent his ever awaking. When, after many +years of impunity in the commission of these fearful crimes, the +officers of justice were at last set upon him, and his house was +searched, in the cellar were found fifteen headless skeletons!" + +Such a mass of silent, awful testimony perhaps never was produced to +substantiate the allegation of similar villany against any man; and +atrocities like these, of the early and middle ages, have given their +character to the legends of Le Morvan, which, still carefully related +from one generation to another, are so impressed on the minds of the +people, that the honest peasant of the present day would rather make a +circuit of a dozen or twenty miles, than pass in the deepening twilight +near the scenes to which they relate. Not all the gold of Peru--no, nor +even of California--would tempt _Les Pastoures_ to graze their flocks or +herds near the scene of these horrid events, or pass them when the stars +are spangling the dark arch of heaven. + +Here also may be seen the solid walls, the array of towers, the high +belfry, the iron gates, and the ponderous drawbridges of the Chateau de +Lomervo; and many are the dependent buildings, courts, and gardens, +surrounded by the thick copse wood that covers its domain, which extends +over three neighbouring hills. Under the principal facade is a large +lake, whose blue waves bathe the walls; an immense mirror, ever +reflecting the numberless turrets, and the grotesque birds and beasts +which decorate the extremity of every waterspout; wherein, too, the +tranquil marble giants, who support the broad balcony on their heads, +seem to contemplate and admire their own imperturbable +countenances--countenances that betrayed no shade of feeling at all +that must have passed before their eyes. The gathering of armed knights +for war or revelry; the rejoicings for the birth of an heir, or the +lamentations for the death of the stern gray-headed lord; the bridal of +one lovely daughter of the house of Lomervo, or the solitary departure +of the mail-clad lover of another for the Crusades. But, it is said, +they saw much more than all this: according to popular rumour, these +calm deep waters are the cold and mute depositories of frightfully +tragic secrets. One bright spring morning in the very olden time, says +the tradition, a Lord of this domain left his castle. It was when the +sweet violet first cast its odours on the breeze, when the bright and +abundant bloom of the lilac and laburnum gracefully decorated the +gardens, and the country was reclad in all the charming freshness of the +season. After a short absence, he returned, accompanied by a lovely +bride;--but ere long she died. He went again, returning with another, +and was again received by his vassals with acclamations of joy; but +gloomy suspicions at last arose, for in this way, in succeeding years, +were brought to the Castle eleven young and beautiful damsels. One by +one, they all disappeared. What became of them? No one knew, or, if they +did, dared to tell. When, however, the long-dreaded lord was dead, some +old women declared, that as he became tired of each wife, he stabbed her +at midnight in one of his dungeons, took a sack from a heap which he +kept in the corner, and, sewing her up with his own hands, carried her +noiselessly to the water-gate, and laid her in the bottom of his boat. +Silently and rapidly he rowed to the centre of the lake, and coolly +dropped in his hapless victim amongst the sheltering reeds. + +"Ah! Monsieur," the village gossips will still tell you, as they make +the sign of the cross, and tremble till you see their very stuff gowns +shake again; "'tis all true, Monsieur; twenty times have we seen them in +the moonlight--twenty times have we seen the poor souls, in their long +white robes, with their pale faces, and the spot of blood on the left +side, wandering over the lake." Poor Bluebeard, for whom in childhood we +used to feel such awe, was a fool to this baron bold. + +There, a little in front of you, is the fortified village of Chamou, +which in former years defended the eastern opening of Les Grand Ravins; +also Lingou, an old citadel, three stories high, whose walls, now +cracked and ivy bound, guarded them on the south. This piece of feudal +architecture, full of trap-doors and dungeons, subterranean passages, +and secret stairs, is another of the places dreaded and abhorred by the +peasantry of Le Morvan; for near the walls, they say, at certain +periods, sounds can be distinctly heard under ground, funeral chaunts, +and the tolling of bells; and if you have the daring to apply your ear +to the sod, you will be able to distinguish sighs and sobs, and the dull +rattle of the earth thrown upon the victim's coffin. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Castle of Bazoche--Marechal de Vauban--Relics of the old + Marshal--Memorials of Philipsburg--Hotel de Bazarne--Madame de + Pompadour's maitre d'hotel--Proof of the _cures'_ grief--Farm of + St. Hibaut--Youthful recollections--Monsieur de Cheribalde--Navarre + the Four-Pounder--His culverin. + + +Each of the Radcliffian horrors narrated in the last chapter, though +vastly marvellous, most probably originated in some dreadful deed of +blood, on which the vulgar and superstitious admiration of excitement of +those days delighted to enlarge. We shall now turn to the castle of +Bazoche, where, in former days, dukes, counts and barons assembled every +September with their hunting-train, to enjoy the pleasures of _la grande +chasse_ and all its attendant revelry. The chateau in later years +belonged to the renowned engineer, Sebastian-le-Pretre, Marechal de +Vauban, who was a native of Le Morvan, and born in 1633 in the village +of St. Leger de Foucheret. The humble roof under which this celebrated +man first saw the light is now inhabited by a _sabot_-maker. + +Brought up, like Henry IV., amongst the peasants of his native +province, like him he loved the remembrance of all connected with it and +them; and when he died in Paris (1707), he desired that he might be +buried at his beloved Chateau de Bazoche, where he had so often, +sauntering under the noble _platanes_, sought and found relaxation from +the turmoil and fatigue of a soldier's life, and forgotten the +jealousies and injustice of the court. In the southern part of the +building is the gallant old veteran's sleeping apartment--there still +stands his bed: and his armour, with several swords and other articles +which belonged to him, are still preserved. On the rampart, now probably +silent for ever, are four pieces of cannon of large calibre, which +thundered at the siege of Philipsburg, and were subsequently presented +to the Marshal by Monseigneur, the brother of Louis XIV. + +Great were the works accomplished by the genius and perseverance of this +famous general--famous, not only in his own profession, but as one of +the honest characters of an age when honesty was rare indeed. He +improved and perfected the defences of three hundred towns, and entirely +constructed the fortifications of thirty-three others; was present at +one hundred and forty battles, and conducted fifty-three sieges. The +body of this eminent man was, in literal compliance with his orders, +interred in a black marble tomb, under the damp flagstones of the castle +chapel; but his heart, in melancholy violation of the spirit which +dictated them, is enclosed in a monument, surmounted by his bust, in the +church of the Hotel des Invalides. Opposite to it is the tomb of +Turenne, and under the same roof at last repose the mortal remains of +Napoleon. Could their spirits perambulate this church at the hour when +the dead only are said to be awake, and we could muster the courage to +listen to their whispered communings, what should we hear? How severely +would this tremendous triumvirate judge some of the so-called great men +of our own time! + +But there are more modern edifices in Le Morvan, with far more agreeable +episodes attached to them: take, for example, the Hotel de Bazarne, a +celebrated hostel, built among the green lanes on the borders of a wood +of acacias--a beautiful flowery wood, which, when the merry month of May +has heralded the perfumed pleasures of spring, dispenses them on every +breeze over the adjacent country. + +Bazarne, in its healthy situation and splendid environs, boasts the best +of cookery. The last owner of Bazarne was--Reader, the utmost exercise +of your lively imagination will never supply you with the right +name--was an _ancien maitre d'hotel_ of Madame la Marquise de +Pompadour--Madame de Pompadour's steward! What could he have to do in +the wilds of Le Morvan? Grand Jean was a curious little man, lively and +brisk as a bird or a squirrel, powdered, curled, and smelling of rose +and benjamin as if he were still at Versailles or Choisi. Grand Jean +decorated the back of his head with a little pigtail, which much +resembled a head of asparagus, and was always jumping and frisking from +one shoulder to the other. His snuff-box was of rare enamel, his ruffles +of point-lace, and his artistic performances in the culinary art were +all carried on in vessels of solid silver. He was, from the point of his +toe to the tips of his hair, the aristocrat of the saucepan and the +stove. + +Grand Jean acquired, in our provincial district, a reputation perfectly +monumental for the richness of his venison pasties, the refined flavour, +the smoothness and the exquisite finish of his _omelettes aux truffes_ +and _au sang de chevreuil_. All the world of Le Morvan used to visit +him. And the good _cures_? The good _cures_?--ah! they all went to visit +him by caravans, as the faithful wend their way across the deserts to +Mecca to pray at the tomb of the Prophet. And, when he died, they +mourned indeed; the worthy divines, incredible as it may be, drank water +for three days, in proof of the sincerity of their woe. Who would have +doubted it? + +To the north of Bazarne, and on the road to the best district for sport, +is seen at the foot of the gray mountains peeping cheerily, and like a +white flower amidst the sombre foliage of the chestnut-trees, St. +Hibaut, an immense farm, situated in an isolated spot, and built of the +lava from an extinct volcano. Saint Hibaut, ah! the moment the pen +traces that dear name my aching heart beats and throbs within my +breast--before my eyes pass to and fro the memories of a vanished +world--I seem to feel the fresh and odorous breezes from thy flowers, +thy mossy banks and scented shrubs, and hear thy murmuring rills and the +dash of thy wild torrents. St. Hibaut! lovely spot where flew so swiftly +and so sweetly the brightest and gayest hours of my early years--St. +Hibaut, the memory of thee burns within my heart: but those within thy +walls, do they still think of me? + +Alas! in this world of tears and deception, of moral tortures and often +of physical suffering--what is there more delightful, more consolatory +than to sip, nay plunge the lips, and drink, yes, drink deep from that +fresh and blessed spring, the memory of by-gone days. How great the +burden of the man who has been the sport of fortune, whose life has been +one continued sorrow, who, never satisfied with the present moment, is +always hoping for better and happier days, and always regretting those +which have been and are now no more. O! Reader--if many griefs have been +your portion, if it has been your sad fate to tread with naked feet the +thorny paths of life, if the foul passions of envy, rage, and hatred +have found a place in your heart, close your eyes, forget your +miseries--open, open for a moment that golden casket called the memory, +in which are preserved, embalmed and imperishable, all those happy +incidents which were the delight of your youth. Yes! open wide that +casket, ponder well, and with renewed fondness o'er these treasures of +the mind, and believe me after such holy reflections you will feel +yourself more able to meet the contumely of the world, and find yourself +a happier and a better man. + +Saint Hibaut, situated in a wild country, surrounded by lonely heaths +and deep ravines, and water-courses whose sides are covered by almost +impenetrable thickets, was at the time I speak of, that is to say, when +I was eighteen years of age, the property of Monsieur de Cheribalde, +the most intrepid, determined and ardent sportsman, who ever winded a +horn, wore a huntsman's knife, or whistled a dog. + +Distant very nearly twenty miles from any human habitation, it was at +times, the favourite rendezvous, the head-quarters of a great number of +chevreuil, boar and other denizens of the forest. In winter, when the +snow covered the earth for several weeks, the famished and furious +wolves assembled in the neighbourhood in packs, carrying off in the +broad daylight everything they could lay their teeth on; sheep and +shepherd, dogs and huntsman, horse and horseman, bones, hair, and skins +half-tanned, old hats and shoes--even the corrupt bodies of the dead +were torn from their resting-places, and eaten by these horrid animals. + +On moonlight nights, these brutes would come fearlessly up to the very +walls of the farm, dancing their sarabandes in the snow, howling like so +many devils, shrieking and showing their long white teeth, and demanding +in unmistakable terms something or somebody to devour; their yells, +their cries of rage, of victory, and of love, intermingled with the +funereal song of the screech-owl, and the lugubrious melodies which the +current from the blast without caused in the large open chimneys,--was +the concert, which from December to April lulled the inmates of St. +Hibaut to sleep; music that would I doubt not have reduced even the +formidable proportions of the inimitable Lablache, and made Mario sing +out of tune. + +But these were the good old times, the good old times! Well do I +remember, when the shadows of those winter evenings lengthened, when +nightfall came, and when at last the moon arose, bringing out in light +and shade every object within the court-yard, and at some distance from +the house, then it was that Monsieur de Cheribalde went his rounds. I +see him in my mind's eye now, with his gun on his shoulder, followed by +his five enormous bloodhounds strong and fierce as lions, and Navarre, +surnamed the Four-Pounder, who walked a few paces to the right and left, +opening his large saucer eyes, poking and squinting into every bush and +corner. + +Navarre, for forty years the head gamekeeper of the domain, was his +master's right hand, his _alter ego_. He had never in his whole life +been beyond his woods,--had never seen the church-steeple of a great +town. To him, the dark belt of firs that skirted the horizon, was the +limit of the world; and when told that the sun never set, and that when +it sank behind the mountains, it was only continuing its course, to beam +bright in other skies and on other lands, and to ripen other +harvests,--Navarre smiled, and did not believe a word. Happy Navarre! +what did it signify to him what was done, or what happened behind those +hills? He was thin and dry as a match, and tall as a Norwegian spruce, +with a face covered with hair; he smoked, and tossed off glass after +glass of brandy, like a Dutchman. In addition to these peculiarities, +Navarre was lame of the right leg, a boar having one day kindly applied +his tusky lancet to his thigh, and gored him seriously, before, hand to +hand, he managed to finish him with his hunting-knife. + +At the first glance, Navarre's aspect appeared strange and forbidding, +and savage as the locality in which he lived. The fact was, that, like +Robinson Crusoe, he was frequently arrayed in a suit of skins of which +he had been the architect, on a fantastic pattern, that his own queer +imagination had created. + +On great occasions the veteran keeper donned a helmet, or a gray +three-cornered hat, of so ridiculous a shape--so royally absurd--that +for my life, when he was thus attired, I could not, even in the presence +of his master, refrain from laughter; then he would tell you, with a +gravity it was impossible to disturb, that it had taken him fifteen +days, eight skins of wild cats, and twelve squirrel's tails, to achieve +this happy _chef-d'oeuvre_ of the tailoring art. But I once said to +him, "My good Navarre, in the name of heaven tell me, from what Japanese +manuscript did you fish out that odious hat? Why, with such a shed, you +might very well be mistaken for Chin-ko-fi-ku-o, high-priest of the +temple of Twi. Do give me the address of your hatter, my dear friend." +Navarre, furious, gave no reply. + +But the time really to admire him--to see the head gamekeeper in all his +splendour--was in winter, in a hard frost, when, covered with skins and +motionless, he lay in ambush in a black ravine, waiting for a boar. Oh! +then, for certain, the sight of him was anything but encouraging; for he +looked like some unknown animal, some variety of the species _Bonassus_, +a crocodile on end, a crumpled-up elephant, or a great bear on the +watch. And when he loaded his rifle--a sort of culverin or wall-piece, +which no one but himself knew how to manage--gracious powers! he was +something to see. His first movement was to seize the gigantic weapon in +the middle, as a policeman would fasten upon a favourite thief; and then +he set himself to blow into the barrel with such fury, that had there +been an ounce of wadding left, the blast would have blown it all through +the enormous touch-hole. Being well assured after this that neither an +adder nor a slow-worm had taken up his domicile within the barrel, he +began to load. One charge--two charges--then a third, "as a compliment," +and after this, a fourth, "for good luck." On this infernal +charge--imperial, as he called it--this Vesuvius, this volcano of +saltpetre, he threw half-a-dozen balls, or, if he was out of them, a +handful of nails; and then he rammed--rammed--rammed away, like a +pavior. + +My hair stood on end, and every limb trembled when he fired it off--holy +St. Francis!--the very forest bent, and coughed, and sighed; and it made +as much flame, smoke, noise, and carnage, as a battery of horse +artillery. One might have heard it all over Burgundy, or Provence for +what I know; and hence, no doubt, his _sobriquet_ of "the Four-Pounder." +I always thought his shoulder must be made of heart of oak. On one +occasion he did me the incomparable favour of loading my gun in this +fashion, but luckily for me, informed me of this piece of civility +before we started; and greatly was he chagrined when I declined to fire +it. In the common occurrences of life, Navarre was a right good fellow; +he had great good sense, could take a joke, was simple and modest in +his manners, and very kind-hearted and retiring. But once in the forest, +the dogs uncoupled, and the business of the chase commenced, he bounded +to the front; his eyes flashed, his nostrils dilated, he took a deep +breath, listened, and snuffed the air; he limped no longer; and as his +courage was unequalled, and his knowledge of wood-craft profound, the +proudest of every rank were content to follow where he led. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Bird's-eye view of the forests--The student's visit to his uncle in + the country--Sallies forth in the early morning--Meets a + cuckoo--Follows him--The cuckoo too much for him--Gives up the + pursuit--Finds he has lost his way--Agreeable vespers--Night in the + forest--Wolves--Up a beech tree--A friend in need--The student bids + adieu to Le Morvan. + + +We have alluded in the opening chapters to the inexhaustible wealth +drawn by the inhabitants from the woods of Le Morvan, though we have as +yet touched but slightly on their beauties. To see them at one _coup +d'oeil_, in all the splendour of their extent, one ought to call for +the veteran, Mr. Green, and, safely (?) lodged in his car, with plenty +of sandwiches and champagne, fly and soar above these forests of La +Belle France. By St. Hubert, gentle reader, your eyes would be feasted +with a glorious sight. Beneath your feet you would, in autumn, behold a +verdant expanse in every variety of light and shade--a sea of leaves, +which, though sometimes in repose, more often moan and murmur, while the +giant arms they clothe rock to and fro in the gale, like the restless +waves of the troubled deep. + +Here Nature displays all her sylvan grandeur; here she has scattered, +with a liberal hand, every charm that foliage can give to earth, and +many a lovely flower to scent the evening breeze. Descend, and in this +immense labyrinth you will find a tangled skein of forest paths, in +which it is never prudent to ramble alone; as will be seen by the +following adventure, which befell a young student who once went to Le +Morvan, anticipating infinite pleasure in spending a few weeks at the +house of an old uncle, a rich proprietor and owner of a large farm in +the forest of Erveau. + +Residing from his infancy in the department of the Seine, he was quite +ignorant of a forest life; and the morning was yet early when he arose +from his bed and sallied forth to enjoy the fresh and fragrant air, of +which he had a foretaste at his open window, and take a ramble till the +hour of breakfast summoned him to his uncle's hospitable fare. All +without was life and sweetness; every bush had its little chorister; the +sun brilliant, but not as yet high in the heavens, threw his bright rays +in chequered light and shade between the trees, and made the pearly +tears of night, which hung quivering on each bending blade of grass, +sparkle like diamonds of the purest water. The student was in raptures, +and after a brief survey of the garden, he cast a longing eye upon the +woods which he so much wished to penetrate. On he walked, stopping +occasionally to muse on the enchanting scene around him, when all at +once he espied, on the lofty branches of an ash, a cuckoo! At the sight +of this splendid bird, our Parisian sportsman felt his heart pit-a-pat +and jump like a girl's in love; and without stopping any longer to +admire the marvels of Nature, he turned hastily back to his uncle's +abode, in search of a gun, with which to annihilate the luckless +harbinger of spring. He soon found one, ready loaded, in the hall; and, +with his heart full of hope and his legs full of precaution, he glided +mysteriously from one tree to another, endeavouring, by all possible +means, to conceal his approach from the wily cuckoo, which, perched on +high, was throwing into space his two dull notes, regular and monotonous +as the tick-tick of an old-fashioned clock. + +Warily and stealthily did the student approach; bent nearly double, he +scarcely drew his breath, as his distance from the tree grew less; but, +says the song of the poacher,-- + + "If women smell tricks, cuckoos smell powder." + +And again,-- + + "'Tis a difficult thing to catch woman at fault, + More difficult still, an old cuckoo with salt." + +Without appearing to do so, from the height of his leafy turret, the +prudent cuckoo kept a wary eye upon the tortuous movements of his enemy; +but as he saw at a glance what sort of a customer he had to deal with, +he evidently did not feel any particular hurry to shift his quarters: +only every time he saw the double barrel moving up to the Parisian's +shoulder, and that hostilities on his part were about to be opened, he, +as if just for fun, dropped his own dear brown self on the branch below +him, flapped his wings, and soon perching himself on a tree a little +further off, gravely re-opened his beak and resumed his monotonous +chant. + +The young student, piqued and mortified at this discreet behaviour of +the cuckoo, which, like happiness, was always on the wing, perseveringly +followed the provoking bird--one walked, the other flew, the distance +increased at every flight, and thus they got over a great deal of +ground; the young man still believing his uncle's farm was close behind +him--the cuckoo perfectly easy, knowing full well he could find his +leafy home whenever he might please to return to it. So, for the +fiftieth time, perhaps, the cuckoo was vanishing in the foliage, when a +sudden thought cramped the legs and cut short the obstinate pursuit of +the young lawyer; he then, for the first time, remembered the wholesome +advice his uncle had given him on his arrival.--"Beware, my fine fellow, +beware of going alone in the forest, for to those who know not how to +read their way, that is, on the bark of the trees, the mossy stones, and +dry or broken twigs, the forest is full of snares and danger, of +deceitful echos and strange noises that attract and mislead the +inexperienced sportsman." + +"By Juno," thought our hero, "as it is most certain that in Paris they +are not yet clever enough to teach us geography on the bark of trees, I +am an uncommonly lucky fellow to have just remembered the dear old +gentleman's warning. Hang the infernal cuckoo! Go to the devil, you +hideous cuckoo! Good morning, sir, my compliments at home." And then, +with his terrible carbine under his arm, he retraced his steps, +expecting every moment to see peeping through the trees in front of him, +his uncle's large white house and lofty dove-cote. + +But, alas! no such thing met his hungry eyes; still on he walked, trees +after trees were passed, glade after glade, and many a long avenue, but +neither white farm-house nor gay green shutters greeted his anxious +sight. "How odd," thought he, "how very odd; this, I feel confident, is +the identical spot near which I first noticed that odious cuckoo; here +is the self-same little regiment of white daisies that my feet pressed +not half an hour ago; see now, this chestnut, this immense chestnut, +whose monstrous roots lie twisting about the ground like a black brood +of ugly snakes--certainly this was the way I came, surely I saw these +roots, and yet no house appears." And thus, from time to time, he +reasoned with himself, looking on either side for some object that he +could recognize with certainty; at last, grown thoroughly hungry and +impatient, he hallooed and shouted, but no voice replied, not the +slightest sound was floating in the air. It was then he felt he had lost +his way,--that he was alone, yes, alone in the forest of Erveau, in a +leafy wilderness stretching many miles. + +Many a vow he made and many a blackberry he picked as he walked hither +and thither, in every direction. The day wore on, the sun had long +passed the meridian, and with the coming evening rose a gentle breeze, +which moaned in the dry ferns; and this and the rustling of the giant +creepers that reached from tree to tree, and swung between the branches, +fell mournfully on the student's ear. A vague fear, a fatal +presentiment of evil began to creep over him; again he shouted, the echo +from a dark wild ravine alone replied; he fired his gun again and again, +the echo alone answered his signal of distress, and nothing could he +hear, except at intervals, far, far away in the green depths of the +forest, the notes cuckoo--cuckoo. + +Faint and weary, from hunger and fatigue, the young man, no longer able +to proceed, fell down at the foot of a spreading beech, and gave way to +an agony of grief; drops of cold sweat stood upon his brow; the clammy +feeling of fear took possession of his heart, and though, perhaps, he +would have had no objection to try the fortune of the pistol or the +sword, in any college broil or senseless riot of the populace, the +circumstances under which he then stood were so new to him, that he was +quite unmanned and incapable of further exertion. + +In blood-red streaks sank the setting sun, his large yellow orb glancing +through the trees like the dimmed eye of some giant ogre; twilight came, +and soon after every valley lay in shadow; the breeze, as if waking from +its gentle slumbers, whistled in the highest branches, and, increasing +in force, rocked the lower limbs, which moaned mournfully as the night +closed in. + +Hungry and alarmed, and now quite worn out with his lengthened walk, the +young Parisian lay stretched on the moss, listening with painful anxiety +to this melancholy conversation of the woods, when, suddenly, and as +night fell, spreading over the earth her sable wings and shaking from +the folds of her robe the luminous legions of stars, he heard a +prolonged and sonorous howl in the distance--a strolling wolf-- + + "Cruel as Death! and hungry as the grave! + Burning for blood! bony and gaunt and grim," + +had scented the Parisian and was inviting his good friends with the long +teeth, to come and sup on the dainty morsel. Touched as if by a hot +iron, up got the terrified youth, and striking his ten nails into the +friendly tree near him like an Indian monkey, he was in an instant many +feet above its base. Here, astride upon a branch, shivering and shaking, +each hair on end, and murmuring many a Pater and Ave Maria, unsaid for +years, he passed the most horrific night that any citizen of the +department of the Seine had ever been known to spend in the middle of +the forest of Erveau. + +The following morning, but not until the sun had already run nearly +half his course, for he never dared to leave his timber observatory +before, _le pauvre diable_ dropped down from his perch like an +acorn--and, marching off with weary steps, and scarcely a hope that ere +another night fell he should gain the shelter of some cottage, he +dragged himself along. On he rolled from side to side, torn with the +thorns and bitten by the gnats that swarmed around him, sometimes +calling upon his mother, sometimes upon the saints--when a wood-cutter +happily met, and seeing his exhausted condition, threw the slim student +over his shoulders like a bundle of straw, and carried him to a +neighbouring village. There, he was put to bed and attended with every +care, when he soon recovered--and received the charming intelligence +that he was about forty miles from his uncle's house--that he had been +wandering for that distance in the most beautiful part of the forest of +Erveau, and that if by any chance he had deviated a little more to the +right in his unpleasant steeple-chase across the woods, he would have +gone, in a straight line, eighty-six miles without meeting house or +cottage or human soul until he found himself at the gates of Dijon, +chief town of the Cote-d'Or, where he might and would, no doubt, have +been able to refresh himself with a bottle of Beaune and inspect the +Gothic tombs of the great Dukes of Burgundy. + +Grateful was the unlucky lad to think that he had not taken this road, +and truly glad was he when, under the woodcutter's care, he reached his +uncle's white house. No sooner, however, was he fairly recovered from +his misadventure, than he packed up his superb cambric shirts, his Lyons +silk socks, patent leather boots, and white Jouvin gloves; squeezed the +hand of his aunt, gave a doubtful shake to that of his uncle, and +started in the _malle poste_ for the capital. His father's brother and +Le Morvan never saw him more. + +Such adventures, however, as these are rare, and you must have, indeed, +a double dose of bad fortune to be lost in such a woful way, and spend, +without meeting any mortal soul, thirty long hours in the woods: for +though the tract of forest is very extensive, there are strewed, here +and there, several merry villages, large farms, and hunting-boxes, +snugly hidden, it is true, beneath the trees,--but which an experienced +huntsman very soon discovers when he stands in need of assistance or a +night's lodging. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + Charms of a forest life to the sportsman--The Poachers--Le Pere + Seguin--His knowledge of the woods and of the rivers--The first + buck--A bad shot. + + +However dangerous the forests of Le Morvan may be, and certainly are, to +the citizen of Paris, whose knowledge of wood-craft, whatever may have +been his delightful visions of forest life, of fairy revels, and +hair-breadth escapes, is about equal to his proficiency in navigation, +they are no labyrinth to the true sportsman of this province; in his +mind, they are mapped with an accuracy perfectly astonishing to the +uninitiated in the countless indications of nature, of which the eye of +man becomes so keenly observant when thrown constantly into her +fascinating society. Let a man of a vigorous health, active frame, and +contemplative mind once enter, even for a short time, upon the +enjoyments of sporting, wild and varied as are those of Le Morvan, it +would be difficult to withdraw him from its delights, and persuade him +that it is in any way desirable to return to the crowded haunts of men, +and condemn himself to resume the harassing struggle for wealth or a +competence in his own legitimate sphere. + +No; there scarcely breathes the human being who could be so insensible +to the charms of scenery like that of Le Morvan as to do so without a +pang. 'Tis a chalice of gold, brimful of real pleasures for those who +love the joys of the open air; 'tis alive with fish and game, and has +its vineyards and its cornfields too. + +But we are thinking of the forests only, of the boar--that potentate of +the solitudes--and the wild cat: of the ravines and caves, to which the +hardy and venturous hunter, through bush, brake, or briar, over +streamlet or torrent, will chace the ravenous wolf,--who, bearing the +iron ball in his lacerated side, ever and anon gnaws the wound in his +rage, and slinks on weeping tears of blood. The roebuck and the hare, +the feathered and the finny tribe, are ever presenting an endless +alternation of amusement more or less exciting; and the sportsman has +but to settle with himself, when the rosy morn appears, whether he will +bestride his gallant steed, or throw the rod or rifle over his +shoulder,--his day's pleasure is safe. + +It matters not whether the falling leaf announces that the woods are +clearing for him, the deep snow warns him to look to the protection of +his flocks from the dangerous intrusion of the wolves, or the genial air +and the brilliant flies tell him that the silvery tenants of the many +streams and rivers that intersect the forest are ready to provide him +sport. + +Arouse thee, sportsman! when the dark clouds of night fly before the +rays of Phoebus as a troop of timid antelopes before the +leopard,--when the lark abandons his mossy bed, and soaring sends forth +his joyous carol, + + "----blythe to greet + The purpling East," + +then, O sportsman, up, and to horse! Away! bending over the saddle-bow, +follow the wild deer across the heath--inhale the perfume of the +trampled thyme. Draw bridle for a moment, and pity the thousands of thy +fellow-men to whom the pure air and light are denied, and let thy +heartfelt thanksgivings for thy free and happy lot ascend to the azure +battlements of heaven. Beneath your gaze lie valleys whence rise the +morning mists as do the clouds from the richly-perfumed censer, and +float over the bosom of the plain ere they wreathe the mountain side; +all the bushes sing, every leaf is shining to welcome the glorious sun +as he rises majestically over that high dark range, and the bright blue +dome of day is revealed in all its purity. + +Plunge onward to the forest--you will perhaps fall in with one of the +_braconniers_--must I call them poachers?--of which there are many; all +alike, in one sense, yet each having the most whimsical characteristics. +The reader knows my friend Navarre, but I must now introduce him to +another of the cronies of my youth, the Pere Seguin, the thoughts of +whom revive all the sweet recollections of my home when my family lived +in the ancient and picturesque Vezelay. + +Seguin's "form and feature" are as well impressed upon my memory as +those even of Navarre. Could any one forget him? I should think not; for +he was so fantastic and mysterious, such a determined sportsman and +eccentric desperado, that he was known to all Le Morvan. + +As well as I remember, he was about fifty-five years of age when I first +knew him; from his earliest boyhood he had fancied and loved a +forester's life, and for more than forty years had realized his dreams +of its wild independence. The woods, the rocks, the streams had no +secrets for him; he understood all their murmurs and their silence--he +knew the habits of every bird and beast of these forests and the +whereabouts of every large trout in his clear cold hole. + +But it is of no use to describe Pere Seguin; to know him you must hunt +with him, and that pretty often, too--as I have done from my earliest +youth. I am now with him, on one of those joyous mornings of my boyhood, +and having threaded the woods for an hour, he has placed me in ambuscade +at the corner of a copse. Here, after a short delay, he pulls out his +watch, a time-piece weighing about two pounds, and after a mute +consultation with the hands, says in a low decided tone: + +"Good! Three o'clock. Stop here, youngster, and in an hour I shall send +you a buck." + +"A buck at four o'clock? How are you to tell that?" And I felt that I +opened my eyes as an oyster does his bivalve domicile at high water. "A +buck! you are joking." + +"I never joke," said the Pere Seguin with a hoarse grunt, walking away, +and his face did not belie his words. + +"Well, then, but how can you possibly--Stop, do, for one moment. Hear +me! holla! Pere Seguin! I say, you old humbug.--By Socrates, he is off." + +But Pere Seguin was already striding fast and far through the bending +branches, wilfully, if not really out of hearing, and I had nothing to +do but to watch for the promised game. I had no watch, and it seemed to +me long after the appointed hour, when my reverie was disturbed by a low +voice, from I knew not where,--from heaven, from earth, from a murmuring +brook, from a tree,--which dropped these words in my ear. + +"Silence--four o'clock--the buck." + +At that moment I saw the ears of the roebuck, and soon after the animal +itself, pausing for a moment in his leisurely course, just where he +ought to be for a good shot. But amazement and trepidation seized me. I +fired in a hurry, and the deer bounded off unscathed. "How clumsy," said +I to the Pere Seguin, as he emerged from the thicket, "and how +unfortunate, for I have some friends coming to dine with me this week." + +"Never mind, never mind," replied the poacher; "I will fill your larder +to-morrow." + +"Well, you are a good fellow, but remember I require also some fish--a +fine dish of trout." + +"Very well," growled the Pere, "you shall have one;" and without a word +more the _braconnier_ is off; and soon after I meet him with his rod, a +young fir-tree, on his shoulder, a box of worms as large as snakes, and +with the most entire confidence in his piscatory powers, proceeding on +his way to the stream that will suit his purpose. In the evening he +reappears, taking from the fresh grass in which he has carried them, +three or four magnificent fish studded with drops of gold. White wine +and choice aromatic herbs flavour them, and you rejoice in the pleasure +and praises of your friends as they partake of the savoury meal. + +And now for a sketch, if possible, of this excellent purveyor. Pere +Seguin was tall as an obelisk, strong as a Hercules, _vif_ as gunpowder, +thin and sinewy as any wolf in his beloved forests. His ear large, flat, +and full of hair; his teeth long, white, regular, and sharp as those of +his favourite and extraordinary dog; his eyes yellow, calm, and piercing +as those of a mountain eagle, and his chin had never been desecrated +with a razor. A kind of brushwood covered his face, and through it +peeped, with the tip of his hooked nose, the features I have described. +This immense uncultivated beard, tucked carefully within his waistcoat, +reached nearly to his waist. Did I say it had never been shaved? I might +add, it had never been combed. Lurking in it you might see leaves, +white hairs, red hairs, bits of a butterfly's wing, two or three jay's +feathers, a nutshell, some tobacco, a blade or two of grass, the cup of +an acorn, or a little moss. Indeed, so strangely was it garnished that, +when asleep on the grass under the trees, a robin was once seen to hover +over him undecided as to whether she would build her nest in it, or pick +out materials to make one elsewhere. + +Of uncommon intelligence, peculiarly taciturn, brave, frank, loyal, and +incapable of a bad action, his mind was of a gloomy cast; he was always +alone, he had no friends, he wanted none, and, if not hunting, reading +the Bible or muttering to himself, with his eyes fixed on the ground. He +lived like the woodcock, sad and solitary in his hole. + +The peasants dreaded him, and never spoke of him but as the _Sorcier_, +the _Vieux Diable_; when naughty little children refused to learn their +letters or to go to bed, it was only necessary to threaten them with +sending for the Pere Seguin and his red dog, and the whole of the rosy +troop would scamper off to their nursery in an instant. + +I need scarcely say that amongst his other perfections he was a perfect +shot--the best in the department,--and the moment he touched the +trigger death winged his charge at two hundred paces. With a single ball +from his rifle would he bring down the wild cat from the highest +branches, and cut the poor squirrels in two, stop the howl of the wolf, +or shiver the iron frontal bones of the wild boar. + +In short, his gun was his joy, his friend, his mistress, his all; he +spoke to it, caressed it, rocked it on his knees as a mother would her +sick child, and took a thousand times more care of it than he would have +bestowed upon the most lovely wife, had he ever done anything so rash as +to marry. It was a singular accident that brought us acquainted; and if +I had had any respect for chronology, I should have related it before. + +One day, when rambling over the mountain in search of game, I put up and +fired at a hare; she was evidently hit, and I gave chase, yet though +puss had but three legs effective I could not overtake her, + + "I follow'd fast, but faster did she fly;" + +at last, a bank stopped and turned her, and I was on the point of taking +possession when a large red brindled dog dashed past and anticipated my +purpose, carrying off my hare, without bestowing so much as a glance +upon me,--no, not even appearing to see that I was there. Electrified +with astonishment, my left leg seemed pinned to the spot, while the +right, extended on a level with my shoulder, emulated that of Cerito in +"Giselle;" but recovering myself, I followed the thief, who made off +with the speed of a greyhound, in the direction of a neighbouring wood, +and on arriving at a little green knoll almost as soon as he did, I came +suddenly upon a strange and uncouth-looking figure who was reclining +comfortably on the grass beneath the shade of a large walnut-tree. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Le Pere Seguin's collation--The young sportsman and the hare--The + quarrel--The apology--The reconciliation--The cemetery--Bait for + barbel--Le Pere Seguin's deceased friends--The return home. + + +The extraordinary personage in whose presence I so suddenly found myself +was the celebrated Pere Seguin, who, tired with his morning's sport, was +taking his noontide meal; that is, appeasing his appetite, always +enormous, with a loaf of black rye bread, into which he plunged his +ivory teeth with hearty rapidity, now and then taking a mouthful out of +a turnip he had pulled in a field hard by. The abominable quadruped was +there too, planted on his haunches, just in front of his master, looking +as innocent as a lamb, though still holding my hare between his teeth, +probably not daring to lay it down without permission. + +Pere Seguin ate, drank, twisted his wiry moustache, dipped his turnip in +the coarse salt, and from time to time cast a glance at his vile dog, +without deigning to speak a word, or even to acknowledge my presence. +Furious at this behaviour, I bowed and said to him, "So, you are the +owner of this precious cur?" + +The poacher signified his assent by a slight movement of the head. + +"Well, if the dog belongs to you, the hare in his mouth belongs to me." + +"Does it?" said the Pere Seguin, and he looked at his dog, who winked +his eye and shook his paw: "my dog tells me he caught this hare +running." + +"I know it, the rascally vagabond! and with no great trouble either, +seeing that the hare was half dead, and had but three legs to go upon." + +Pere Seguin threw his yellow eye on the cur again, and, as if he had +understood all we said, he once more shook his paw, and gave a sort of +sneeze. + +"My dog repeats, he coursed the hare well, and has a right to her." + +"What do you mean by saying he has a right to her, when I tell you the +hare belongs to me?" + +"And my dog says the reverse." + +"Go to Dijon with your dog!" I exclaimed, "I tell you the hare is mine." + +"My dog never told a lie," rejoined the _braconnier_, and he dipped the +remnant of his turnip for the twentieth time in the salt. "Never." + +"Then _I_ am the liar," said I, beginning to feel hot, "I am the liar, +ah! am I? By Jupiter! your dog, you bearded fool--your cur of a dog? I +do not care a _sous_ for his carcass any more than I do for yours. I'll +have my hare." + +"Don't get excited, young man--don't be savage, I beg of you; for, as +sure as I am a sinner, you'll have a crop of pimples on your nose +to-morrow,--and red pimples on the nose are not pretty." + +"Keep your jokes to yourself, old man, or on my honour you shall repent +it!" + +"Ha! ha! ha!" grinned the Pere Seguin, "Ha! ha! ha! capital turnip." + +"Houp! houp! houp!" went the dog. + +I was bewildered; such a strange adventure had never befallen me before. + +"Once, twice--will you give me my hare?" + +"Have I any hare of yours?" + +"You? No, but your dog." + +"Ha! that's another affair. You must settle that with him. Take your +hare, and let me eat my turnip in peace." + +Enraged at this, I rushed at the carroty dog, but he was off in an +instant, jumping first behind the tree, and then behind his master, +keeping my hare all the time fast in his mouth till I was fairly out of +breath, and aggravated beyond expression. + +I looked towards the poacher. He was quietly plucking the top off a +fresh turnip, but under the air of icy indifference which pervaded his +whole exterior I detected a sarcastic smile, which fully convinced me +that I was the laughing-stock of man and beast. I took my resolution, +and Pere Seguin, who had followed my movements with his eye, said drily, +as I was going to put a cap on, "What are you going to do young man?" + +"Oh, nothing! just to kill your dog for taking my hare." + +"Bah! you're joking." + +"Joking! am I? You shall see;" and I proceeded quietly to raise my gun. + +"Gently, my lad," roared the Pere Seguin, and he seized the weapon in +his iron grasp. + +"I may be but a 'lad,' but I'll not give up my rights; the hare is mine, +and I'll have her. Let go my gun!" + +"No!" + +"By----" + +"No!" + +"Then look out for yourself," said I, and with a rapid movement I +attempted to draw my _couteau de chasse_; but long before I could get +it out, he had seized me with both hands, and in a twinkling I measured +my length upon the turf, and the knife was in his possession. + +"Child of violence!" he said, as he set me again on my legs, and pushed +me from him, "Do you then already love to shed blood? Would you kill a +man for a hare? Have you not the sense to distinguish a joke from an +insult? There," he added, giving me back my knife, which had fallen from +its sheath in the struggle, "young man, do your worst!" + +But I was now as angry with myself as I had been with the old man, and +heartily ashamed of my conduct. I turned on my heel, and walked off, +vexed beyond expression at my intemperate folly. + +The very next day, as good fortune would have it, I met him again in the +forest, and lost not a moment in asking his forgiveness for my brutal +conduct of the previous day. + +"Ah! you acknowledge your fault, do you?" replied the Pere Seguin, +"enough, that shows you have a heart. I bear you no ill-will; you are +_vif_ as the mountain breeze, but that comes of being young. Give me +your hand, and when you want a dove or lilies of the valley for your +sister, venison or wild boar for your friends, I, my gun, and my dog, +are at your service; but"--and he whispered in my ear--"no more knives." + +"See! see!" and I opened my jacket, "it is gone. I threw it into the +moat this morning." + +"'Tis well! very well! You have had a happy escape, young man. _Au +revoir._ Now, Faro, take your leave of Monsieur;" and instantly obeying +a sign from his master, the red dog licked my boots. A moment more, and +they were both lost to view in the forest. + +From that time I was frequently with the Pere Seguin, for he seemed to +have a fancy--a sort of affection for me, and on my part I had an +incomprehensible pleasure in his society, though in the early part of +our acquaintance I could not divest myself of an undefined dread of him; +and had some difficulty in reconciling myself to the harsh and guttural +tones of his voice, and his peculiarly severe physiognomy. Nevertheless, +many an evening did I slip away from the paternal hearth, much to the +distress of my poor mother, to seat myself on one of his wooden stools, +and eat the chestnuts he was roasting in the embers, while he related, +by the pale light of his small charcoal fire, which but dimly showed the +extent even of his small room, frightful stories of ghosts, suicides, +drownings, and fearful murders, with which he delighted to terrify me; +and, dear reader, he succeeded to perfection, for all the time I sat +listening to them I was cold, and trembled like a leaf in the northern +blast. + +Well do I remember--yes, as well as if it had been yesterday--going out +with him to fish for barbel, and joining him over-night to go in search +of bait. I found him crouched by his fire, eating potatoes out of the +same plate with his dog. This frugal meal over, he took up a small +lantern, a large box, and a long spade, and beckoned me to follow him. + +The moon was rising as we left the hut, but red as blood, lightning +streaked the sky at short intervals, and the wind howled as if a storm +was approaching. Pere Seguin rubbed his hands, and an expression of +satisfaction passed across his extraordinary countenance; for, living as +he did a lonely wandering life, he had become superstitious, and firmly +believed that worms caught at certain hours of the night, and in a +breeze that foretold an approaching tempest, were more likely to attract +the fish than those taken in the daylight. To this article of his creed +I offered no objection, but I own my heart shrunk within me when I +observed that he took the direct road to the burial-ground. "Pere +Seguin," said I, "we need go no further; the turf in this lane is +capital; we shall find all we want here without a longer walk." "Since +when," he inquired in a voice that seemed to come from between his +shoulders, "since when have young fawns taught the old roebuck the way +to the forest-glades?" And he strode on without a word more, still in +the direction I so much abhorred. + +Arriving at the cemetery, Pere Seguin walked leisurely round it, paying +as much attention to me as if I had not been with him, and I followed +like a criminal going to the scaffold. After having made a careful +examination of the wall, he stopped suddenly, gave me the lantern and +the spade, and leaped upon the top, desiring me to do the same. I +hesitated, and fell back, for I felt more inclined to throw them down +and run away, and Pere Seguin saw it. + +"Ha! ha!" he exclaimed, fixing his yellow eye upon me. "I thought you +were heart of oak, young Sir; are you only a man of straw?" + +I gave no answer, but I leaped on to the wall like a rope-dancer. + +"Hum!" he muttered; "good legs, but a faint heart." And he begun rapidly +to turn up the rank grass, and pick the large red worms from amongst the +roots, when, looking up in my face, he said, with infinite coolness, +"Why, you are as pale as my mother was on the day of her death! What +ails you?" + +"Ails me!" I replied, repressing my fears, "why to tell you the truth, +I'd just as soon be anywhere else as here." + +"Pooh! pooh! young man; one must accustom one's self to everything in +this world. We must learn--be always learning. Remember, for instance, +for I'll be bound that you never heard of such a thing before, that +worms taken in a burial-ground are the finest possible bait for barbel, +do you hear?--taken by moonlight from the roots of the hemlock." + +"Good heavens! Pere Seguin, I would rather never catch a fish for the +rest of my days than touch one of those worms!" + +"Nonsense, my lad--nonsense; they are admirable bait--fine fat +fellows--sure to take. We shall have a wonderful day to-morrow. You will +soon see how the giants and gourmands of the streams will snap at these +beauties." + +"Hang the barbel, Pere Seguin!--let us leave this cold churchyard. I +feel sick, and a clammy cold creeping over me already--do let us be +gone;" but he would not move. + +"Don't feel unwell, pray don't; it is a well-known fact, that any person +who feels ill in a churchyard is sure to die within the year." + +"Let us leave then, for I do feel very ill;" but the purveyor of worms +was now too much occupied to listen to me. + +Hopeless, therefore, of inducing him to leave till he had filled his +box, I sat down on a tombstone, and the noise he made with the spade in +the silence, the darkness, and the peculiar and sickening odour of the +place, filled me with an indescribable sense of fear and horror. + +At length the poacher paused, and having disentangled a very long worm +from the twisted roots of a large clod, he said, "This makes one hundred +and thirteen--a holy number. Now I've done, my lad; let us be off." + +"Yes--oh, yes!"--for the minutes seemed hours--"let us go instantly;" +and I sprang from the tombstone, while Pere Seguin proceeded +deliberately to fill up the holes, and replace the turf, whistling +through his moustache just as if he had been in the middle of his +garden. + +"One hundred and thirteen!--I like that number." + +"So do I, Pere Seguin; but do let us be going. If we remain here, they +will think that we have killed and buried some one. Do, pray, be off;" +and I made for the wall. + +"Stop!" he said suddenly, drawing himself up to his full height, six +feet three, "Stop!" and throwing out his long arms, which made his +shadow on the stones resemble an immense black cross, "Hold there! Look! +Do you see that tomb--that large gray stone?" + +"I see nothing, Pere Seguin, I will see nothing. I close my eyes, and +only desire to be gone." + +"As you please," said the poacher; "but you are wrong. I could have told +you a curious history--a most interesting history." + +"Thanks for your histories--much obliged to you; but I have had enough +of them." Still Pere Seguin would persevere: "A woman, who has appeared +to me three times--yes, three following days--spoken to me, pulled me by +the fingers and by the beard eight days after her death." + +"Yes! yes! I know; but which way are we to get out of this infernal +place?" + +"Why, what a hurry you are in!--I say stop, and let me say good night to +her!"--and Pere Seguin approached the tall gray stone, the moon shining +full upon it, and struck it with the handle of his spade, calling each +time in a solemn voice, "Madeleine! Madeleine! Madeleine!" + +Had I been at that frightful moment cut in four quarters, not one drop +of blood would have been found in my veins; my teeth chattered with +terror, and I would have given every acre of my inheritance for strength +enough to run away. "Madeleine! Madeleine!" le Pere Seguin continued in +a low and churchyard tone, "Madeleine!" he cried, leaning on the gray +tomb, "'tis me, Seguin--le Pere Seguin; good night, good night, +Madeleine!" + +I could not speak, I could not move; and certainly had the lady +whispered only one single little word in reply, I should have fainted. + +"Well, it is all over; she is dead for certain now!" said the poacher, +shaking his head. "Alas! poor Madeleine! Gone in the flower of her age! +Dead at two-and-twenty, for having offered me a violet! Dead! Let us +begone." + +I beg you to understand I did not put him to the necessity of repeating +his words, but found my legs in excellent running order in a moment. + +"Hold! not so fast!" said my companion, just as I was springing at the +wall, and thought myself out of danger, "Hold! Down there, my young +gentleman, in that dark corner amongst the brambles. You see that little +heap of earth, which one might fancy a dead man alive had pushed up +with his knees; well, there also is one of my comrades. Ho! halloo, +Jerome!" + +"Pere Seguin," said I, "this is unworthy of you; you have no right thus +to mock at and disturb the dead; you only want to torment me; and I have +already told you, and I repeat it, I feel exceedingly ill." + +"Come, come along then--let us go. I shall return here presently to +sleep. Good night, Madeleine!--good night, Jerome!--good night, all of +you who are sleeping so quietly under the green turf!"--and it seemed to +me, as these adieus were uttered, that icy breezes passed from every +tomb across my face, whispering in my ears, "Good night!" and that the +firs, the yews, the cypress bending across our path seemed to salute us +as we left the horrible precincts. + +We soon regained the town, and on the road there I would not have turned +my head for a crown of rubies; Pere Seguin, meanwhile, coolly carrying +his box of worms, which I would not have touched for the best place in +Paradise. + +The next morning, instead of fishing for barbel, I was unable to rise +from my bed; and for fifteen nights I never closed my eyes without +seeing in my dreams ghosts, and all the horrid details of the churchyard +and the charnel-house. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + Passage of the woodcock in November--Their laziness--Night + travelling--Mode of snaring them at night--Numbers taken in this + way--This sport adapted rather for the poacher--The _braconnier_ of + Le Morvan--His mode of life--The poacher's dog--The double poacher. + + +The object of this chapter will be to give the reader some little +insight into the habits of the woodcock, and the mode of snaring them in +the forests of Le Morvan, during the month of November. At the close of +this month, Dame Nature's barometer, their instinct, far better than the +quicksilver, tells them the December rains are close at hand; and that +if they remain in their hiding-places in the low grounds, they will be +driven out by the approaching deluge. They at length make up their minds +to set forth on their travels. With a long-drawn sigh, therefore, the +woodcock bids farewell to the old oaks that have sheltered it all the +summer, and taking leave of its friendly comrades, the squirrels, it +sets out on the first fine night for a more genial climate, to the +delight, no doubt, of the neighbouring worms, who pop their heads out of +window to witness its departure; and the moment their enemy is fairly +out of sight, perform many a pirouette on the tip of their tails, and +dance upon the grass in honour of the joyous event. + +If a woodcock was not a woodcock, that is, one of the laziest birds in +the creation, it might easily reach, in a few days' flight, the dry +heaths, the hills, and elevated regions, which it loves; but woodcocks +abhor all violent exercise, always preferring the use of their feet to +that of their wings, which latter they never agitate, except when +necessity requires. Well, they have now set out, and after marching all +night by slow and easy stages, when morning comes our woodcocks make a +halt wherever they happen to be, breakfast as best they may, and then +ensconce themselves in some snug spot, where they doze the livelong day, +till, refreshed by their twelve hours' rest, they set off again with +renewed strength the moment the sun has gone down. + +Thus it is that during the middle of November there is no regular +flight, but a kind of circulation, of woodcocks, perambulating from the +lower to the higher regions, and the _gourmet_ and the sportsman fail +not to stop them on their way. + +As it is necessary in this kind of _chasse_ to spend the night under the +trees and on the damp moss, those who wish to enjoy it prepare for it +accordingly by dressing themselves like Navarre, in a suit of +sheepskins, and lay in a good store of cold meat and brandy. + +During their nocturnal peregrinations, instinct leads the woodcock to +follow ascending roads and open pathways, especially such as are +completely exposed to the mild winds of the south and south-east only; +they avoid walking through the woods, where the road is encumbered with +brambles and other obstacles, which would oblige them to hop or fly far +oftener than they like, occasionally leaving a portion of their feathers +behind them. Moreover, their feet are tender, and they in consequence +prefer the paths that are overgrown with grass, the open glades, or +roads cut through the moss. + +It is now that the sportsman who is well versed in the private history +of the woodcock prepares his snares; for at this period of the year it +is by them that they are taken. + +Penetrating, therefore, the depths of the forest, the experienced +_chasseur_ soon discovers, in some secluded spot, a path well carpeted +with verdure, lighted by a few stray moonbeams and sheltered from the +wind, where he forthwith begins to lay his snares. Should the path be +broad, he proceeds to contract it, strewing it partially with stones, +brambles, and thorns; he likewise cuts down some twigs and branches, and +sticks them into the ground at intervals, so as to present as many +impediments and _chevaux de frise_ as he can to thwart the progress of +the lazy bird. The middle of the path should be left quite free, and +wide enough to allow a couple of woodcocks to walk abreast. Into this +narrow passage they all walk without suspicion, and their further +progress is prevented by their falling into the trap which is laid to +receive them. + +This snare is placed across a hole about the size of a crown piece, and +consists of a strong noose made of horsehair, which is fixed to a peg, +and so arranged that the slightest touch causes it to rebound and catch +them by the leg. + +In the hole is laid a fine, fat, red worm, healthy and tempting, and, in +order to prevent the poor prisoner's escaping, the sportsman has devised +a method of keeping him down in spite of himself, by pinning him to the +ground at one end with a long thorn--it is presumed worms do not feel; +his miserable contortions attract the attention of the hungry woodcock, +who immediately seizes this irresistible tit-bit. + +Every preparation completed and the snare baited, the hole, the worm, +and the noose are carefully covered over by a withered leaf--a second +snare, similarly concealed, is set on the right, a third in the middle, +and so on at a distance of three or four feet from each other. All is +now in readiness, and twilight finds the sportsman covered up in his +skins at some fifty paces from his traps. Here, after having comforted +his inward man, and sharpened his sight by swallowing two or three +glasses of cognac, addressing between them an invocation to his patron +saint, he listens and waits. + +On come the long-bills, looking right and left, pecking the ground, +peering at the moon and the stars, and eating all they can find in their +way. They now approach the dangerous defile, and some of the younger +ones fly over the traps; others, more prudent, turn back; but the main +body hold a council of war, when the staff officers having decided that +these Thermopylae must be passed, first one woodcock and then another +taking heart proceeds, and the sportsman hugs himself in his success on +perceiving the whole troop making towards the baits he has spread for +them. Before long one of the birds gets its leg entangled, totters, +falls, rises again, but in doing so is made fast by the noose, and in +spite of its efforts is unable to advance a step further. Another, +hearing the sound of a worm struggling at the bottom of a hole, darts +in its beak, with the charitable intention of ending the prisoner's +sufferings, and on raising its head is suddenly seized by the neck. The +sportsman now steals softly from his hiding-place, and, stooping down, +smashes the woodcock's brain with his thumb nail, and so on with the +next, after which he retreats to his post, and keeps up the game till +dawn. Some persons will in this manner catch from twenty to thirty +woodcocks in a single night; but they must be favourably placed, have a +great number of snares, and, moreover, possess a considerable degree of +skill, and tread lightly, (for the most important point, in this sport, +is to make as little noise as possible,) and be very quick at putting +the snares in order the moment they have been used--no easy work, in +good sooth, seeing that it must be performed by an occasional ray of +moonlight. + +If late on the ground, and you have not sufficient time to obstruct and +barricade the road as directed above, the earth may be turned up in the +middle of the path and the snares placed across it; the woodcocks, in +the hope of finding something to eat, will immediately walk on to +it--but although this method occasionally succeeds it is far from being +as good as the first, for the soil does not offer the same resistance +as the turf, the holes get filled up, and the birds escape more easily. + +The sportsman should mind and bag his game as fast as it is snared, or +master Reynard, who has been watching the whole affair, will pounce upon +his birds and carry them off, with a dozen nooses into the bargain. + +Poachers reap an ample harvest of cash by this mode of taking woodcocks, +while other sportsmen generally reap the rheumatism; and, truth to say, +the silence and immobility that must be observed all night long, the +intense cold, and the damp fogs which cover the forest in the early +morning, are not very agreeable, and most gentlemen prefer staying at +home, enjoying the innocent diversion of playing the flute, quarrelling +with their wives, or emptying the bottle. + +To succeed well in snaring woodcocks requires both skill and experience, +and a thorough knowledge of the woods, the winds, the colour of the +clouds, the age of the moon, the state of the atmosphere; and, in fact, +short of being a poacher or a conjuror, how is it possible to know that +the woodcocks will pass one spot rather than another in a space of +several score of square miles, and amongst so many and such intricate +paths. The _braconnier_ alone is infallible on these points, and curious +specimens of the human biped are these same poachers! + +In the first place it must not be imagined that the poachers of Le +Morvan bear the slightest resemblance to those of England. They are as +much alike as Thames water and Burgundy wine. The English poacher is a +rank vagabond, who invades every one's game-preserves at dead of night, +and kills whatever he finds, whether hares, partridges, dogs, pheasants, +or gamekeepers,--while ours are men following a legitimate occupation. + +In Le Morvan, forests are open to all; there are no palings to get over, +and no keepers to fear; the public may hunt, shoot, or snare what they +please. + +The poacher commences his hard apprenticeship in early childhood. Nature +directs him to adopt this course of life, and endows him with a bold +heart, a cool head, a sinewy frame, and an iron constitution. The +incipient poachers soon leave the inhabited districts to live in the +forests, with trees for their roof, and moss for their bed. They study +alike the woods and the stars, and know the forest by heart, with its +roads and glades, beaten tracks and untrodden paths. From sunrise to +sunset they are always-a-foot, walking through the thickets, tramping +over heaths, or stooping amongst the brushwood, listening, and looking +everywhere, and by night and by day constantly making their observations +on the direction of the wind, the habits of the animals that pass them, +or the birds that fly over their heads. + +In this way they ferret out every nook and every winding in the forest, +and now here and now there build themselves a hut, live upon fruit, +chestnuts, and their game, which they roast upon embers; and never come +into a town except to purchase powder, shot and ball, or perhaps a pair +of shoes, some tobacco, and brandy. + +Such is the rough life of the youthful poacher, nor has he any companion +during this wild period of his existence, excepting a dog, the faithful +partner of his joys and dangers, and who becomes a devoted friend and +brother for life. They live together, talk to each other, understand +each other, and guess each other's slightest wish. I have seen a poacher +talking to his dog by the hour together, the man laughing fit to split +at what his canine companion was telling him in his own peculiar way, +while the dog, rolling on the grass, barked with delight at what his +master answered. + +When on their shooting expeditions, a sign from his master, a nod, a +wink, an uplifted finger, or the slightest whisper, are either of them +sufficient for his guidance; he stops, or dashes onward, takes a leap, +or crouches down, as the case may be, and never is he known to be at +fault. + +On his part the poacher has only to refer to his dog as to the pages of +a book, and he reads at once in his slightest movements what is in the +wind, what bird lies hidden in the grass, or what beast is cowering in +the thicket. By the position of his head, the manner in which he +scratches the ground, pricks his ear, or carries his tail, he +understands as plainly as if he spoke whether he announces the proximity +of a wolf, a partridge, a woodcock, a roebuck, a hare, or a rabbit. + +I have known poachers who have told me half an hour beforehand what we +were going to meet. Another would bid his dog bring him a leaf, a +branch, a flower, or a mushroom, and off he went, sought, found, and +brought back the identical article required. "Now, sing," said the +poacher, and the dog began to sing; not, indeed, exactly like Mario, but +he produced a kind of melodious growl, a sort of improvised musical +lament over his solitary life, which had its charm. Most poachers are +exceedingly fond of music, and as they are always singing in their +leisure moments, of course their dog joins them; so that when they are +both in the humour for it, they execute duets in the depths of the +forest that make the very nightingales jealous. + +By the time a poacher has acquired a complete knowledge of wood-craft, +and that he knows familiarly every path and every bush in the forest, +every hole and every stone in the mountains, together with the habits, +character, and favourite haunts of every species of game; has made a +reputation, and put by some money; that he is beginning to turn gray, +and is verging on forty, his fondness for this savage kind of life +begins to diminish, his rough exterior becomes somewhat softened, he +purchases a solitary little cottage in some secluded spot, comes oftener +into town, and occasionally partakes of its pleasures. + +In poaching, as in everything else, there are varieties of taste, and +degrees of superiority. Some fish, others hunt only the roebuck and the +boar, others shoot squirrels and wild cats, others again excel in +snaring woodcocks, while some are dead hands at scenting and tracking a +wolf. Each poacher has his peculiar line, and each line furnishes a +livelihood. + +But when it happens, once in a way, that there is a man who unites a +profound knowledge of the forest to an equally profound knowledge of the +waters--who hunts, tracks, and shoots all sorts of game with equal +success, and is also an expert fisherman, then he is a superior man of +his kind, complete at all points, a sort of Napoleon in his way, and his +countrymen bestow on him the title of the "double poacher,"--for thus +was called my worthy friend Le Pere Seguin. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + The woodcock--Its habits in the forests of Le Morvan--Aversion of + dogs to this bird--Timidity of the woodcock--Its cunning--Shooting + in November--The Woodcock mates--The Woodcock fly. + + +In the last and preceding chapters, the imaginative and romantic have +predominated almost to the entire exclusion of any description of the +wild sports of Le Morvan, and I fear that the sporting reader, not +generally of a very sentimental taste, will ere this have become +impatient, and perhaps a little angry at the delay. I trust, however, +that I may be able to soften his indignation, and by the following +sketches gratify the expectations naturally raised in his mind by the +first words of the title-page. Of boar and wolf-hunting we shall speak +further on: my present object will be to give a description, not only of +the woodcock-shooting in Burgundy and Le Morvan, but also of the habits, +etc., of that bird. + +In the forests of which we are writing, the woodcock is not a mere bird +of passage, as in other European countries; it does not fly beyond sea, +like the swallow and most of the emigrating feathered tribes, nor does +it disappear like the quail, at a fixed period, and reappear at a given +moment. Here the woodcock seldom if ever deserts the forests which have +been its constant abode, and the sportsman is sure to find it nearly all +the year round. I have said nearly, for though not seeking other climes, +it requires a change of locality to secure a certain temperature. + +For instance, in the months of May, June, July, and August, woodcocks +are to be found in elevated spots, such as mountains covered with large +trees, or in warm open places on their slopes. At the first approach of +cold weather they leave the hills, and come down into the plains, +concealing themselves in the underwood, or the fern, or in the high +grass, when the snow begins to fall. The woodcock is a melancholy bird, +and somewhat misanthropic. Its habits are eminently anti-social; it +flies but little, so little indeed that its wings seem scarcely of any +use, and with the laziness already alluded to that forms its +characteristic feature, it seeks out a solitary spot, and having dug a +hole amongst the dry leaves, there it will squat for days together +without stirring. It likewise delights to cower under the gnarled roots +of an old oak, or to hide itself in a holly-bush, and apparently derives +so much satisfaction from its own meditations, and seems to hold all +other birds of the forest in such utter contempt, that it never by any +chance deigns to join their sports, or mingle in their joyous songs. The +woodcock seeks the darkest and most silent thickets, and likes a marly +soil, damp meadows, and the neighbourhood of brooks and stagnant water. + +But though motionless and torpid, so long as the sun is above the +horizon, woodcocks are always on the alert, and wake and shake their +feathers the moment night comes; leaving the shady thickets and grassy +spots, they flock to the glades and little paths of the woods, and +thrust their long beaks into the soft, damp soil--for this bird, be it +remembered, never touches either corn or fruit, but lives entirely upon +grubs and earth-worms. + +It naturally follows that the woodcock, which finds its food in slimy +marshes, with head bent, and eyes fixed upon the ground, possesses none +of the gaiety and vivacity of other birds, holds but a very low place in +the scale of animal intelligence, and possesses a large share of that +stupidity peculiar to the dull species that were formed to live in the +mire. + +The size of the woodcock varies exceedingly; they are much smaller than +the domestic fowl, but heavier and larger than the heath partridge; yet +there are some which are as small as a wood-pigeon, and even less. Their +plumage is dark, and harmonizes admirably with the trunks of the trees +and moss amongst which they dwell. Even in the daylight, and at a +distance of only twenty paces, it is impossible to distinguish a +woodcock, as it lies motionless, with closed wings, and neck extended on +the ground, amongst the withered leaves. + +When walking on the grass, there is a certain elegance in its movements, +while the beautiful _chiar' oscuro_ tints of its wings, the gray and +orange hues on its breast, its long black legs streaked with pink, its +large beak, small head, and symmetrical proportions, combine to render +it a bird of no ordinary beauty. Though its eyes are piercing and very +open, the woodcock only sees distinctly at twilight, and its flight is +never so even or so rapid, nor its motions so brisk, or its gait so +regular, as at nightfall or at dawn of day. + +The flesh is black, firm, and of a game flavour, and, with the wise, is +a most dainty morsel, a royal tit-bit. But dogs think differently, and +have such an aversion to its smell, that they hunt, seize, and bring it +back much against their will; and, difficult as it may be to account +for this antipathy, it seems to be as inherent in canine nature, as the +antipathy which all ladies show to contradiction is in the human. + +Far removed from the strife that occasionally rages amidst the feathered +tribes of the forest, or the more formidable struggles of its +four-footed inhabitants, whose howls occasionally startle the silence of +night, and quite indifferent as to whether a fox or a wolf is seated on +the sylvan throne, the woodcock, like a true philosopher, in the depths +of the thicket, leads a calm and sedentary life, requiring no other +elements of happiness than moonlight, rest, and a few worms. Its tastes +are so humble, its wants so few; it mixes so little with the world, and +is so ignorant of all intrigue, that nothing can exceed its innocence. +Like those honest country-folks who can never manage to shake off their +native simplicity, its instinct never puts it on its guard against a +snare, and consequently it falls into the first that is set for it. + +A complete stranger to the fierce emotions that excite the savage nature +of those animals that live constantly at war with one another, the +peaceful woodcock--the bird of twilight--is startled by the least noise, +and stunned by the slightest accident. Many a time, at dawn of day, when +lying in wait for the passage of a fox, a roebuck, or a wolf, have I +seen two, three, four, even five woodcocks slowly issue from their leafy +covert, and advance with measured step towards the open glade, +apparently without imagining that by leaving the shade of the trees they +were exposing themselves to being seen. On they walked, searching by the +way, plunging from time to time their long beaks into the grass, and +shaking their heads right and left to enlarge the hole, they breakfasted +luxuriously on the worms that crept out of it. + +Concealed behind an oak-tree, I have sometimes been highly amused by +watching their motions, nor had I the least wish to disturb them, not +caring to rouse the echoes of the forest for such insignificant game. So +the woodcocks went on with their manoeuvres, holding down their heads, +with eyes intent upon the grass, evidently engrossed by their own +occupation. In this manner they unconsciously advanced close to me, when +suddenly rising from the ground I gave a loud shout, at which the +startled birds were so panic-struck that they literally fell down, and +fluttering their wings, without having the power to fly, looked at me +with rolling eye-balls, while their beaks opened as if to call for help, +emitting nothing but inarticulate sounds, that seemed so many prayers +for mercy. Somewhat relieved of their worst fears, on perceiving that I +had no evil intentions, they rushed away head over heels, and sought +refuge under their favourite roots. The recollection of this scene, +which only lasted seven or eight seconds, has often made me laugh. + +Yet notwithstanding this general want of presence of mind, the woodcock +displays some cunning in extreme danger,--such as when the shot is +whistling past its feathers, or when the hawk is wheeling about in the +air above its head; its faculties then seem to awaken, its blood +circulates more freely, a spark of intelligence seems to flash across +its usually obtuse brain, and the magnitude of the peril suggests an +excellent means of escaping from its enemies. During the daytime, for +instance, when, snugly ensconced in its hole, and with its ear close to +the ground, the woodcock hears you approach from afar, instead of rising +and taking refuge amongst the trunks of the surrounding trees, it first +reflects solemnly whether it is worth while to disturb itself for so +slight a noise, and quit its leafy bed, where it lies so warm and +comfortable. After all, it may be only a hare running past--or perhaps a +roebuck grazing in the neighbourhood--so the woodcock waits, then +listens, then stands up and begins to move; on hearing your thick shoes +trampling the withered branches, it stands motionless, not daring to +stir, nor can it make up its mind to fly until it feels the breath of +your dog. Then it rises rapidly enough. + +It flies straight, but its flight is not even, and at the distance of +about fifty paces, and just as you are going to fire, the woodcock, well +aware that the sportsman's eye is upon it, and shrewdly guessing that +thunder and lightning is about to follow, changes his tactics, and +lowering its flight, so as to avoid the mortal aim, suddenly plunges +down behind a bush. The sportsman, who, not aware of this specious +manoeuvre, fires at this juncture, thinks the bird has fallen dead, +and forthwith runs to pick it up, but no woodcock can he find; for on +raising his eyes, lo! and behold, he sees the provoking bird some five +hundred paces distant, cleaving the air with sails full set; and as his +eyes follow it still further, he perceives it flying with all its might, +ever and anon prudently ducking down to avoid the second barrel. + +This is one of the woodcock's best stratagems, and it succeeds ten times +out of twelve, at least with the tyros among sportsmen. + +When fairly tired by its flight, the woodcock drops into the underwood, +and is then completely lost to the sportsman; for, once on the ground, +it runs with the greatest celerity, its wings working rapidly like a +couple of paddles, and vanishing beneath the leaves, falls fainting into +some snug corner. + +In Brittany and in Lower Normandy this ornament of the table and delight +of the sportsman is found in great numbers at a certain season of the +year. In Picardy, and in the neighbourhood of Boulogne, I have sometimes +knocked over as many as twenty woodcocks in one day, while on the morrow +and the day following I could not flush three. Such is not the case in +Le Morvan, where they are, as we have before remarked, to be found all +the year round; the proper seasons, however, for shooting them are +three. These are, the month of November, before the rains set in; the +month of April, when they mate; and the sultry months of June and July; +the period of drought and of the dog-days. In the interim of these +epochs they are allowed to enjoy themselves, and suffered to fatten +quietly in their dark thickets. I shall, therefore, only notice these +three periods. + +In foggy or cloudy nights, when the branches of the trees are dripping +wet, the woodcock, ensconced in its hole, feels no hunger, moves not, +and would not venture abroad for love or money; but should the sky +prove clear, and the moon shine forth, lighting up the forest paths, the +delighted bird steals from its dwelling, shakes its feathers, and +sallies forth on its adventures. For the woodcock, like poets and +lovers, is fond of the moonlight and the sweet perfumes of evening. +Hence it is that sportsmen in France call the full moon of November "the +woodcock's moon," and they hail its appearance with as much rejoicing as +do the foxes, wild cats, and poachers, all of whom make sad havoc +amongst the long-beaked tribe during this fatal period. + +The woodcock has been described as an idle, heavy, timid, and stupid +bird, which passes the greater portion of the day in lethargic slumbers, +in gazing at the south, at the growing grass, or the falling leaves; +rejoicing only in silence and solitude; and such is the case during nine +months of the year. In the spring, however, it is quite otherwise; the +woodcock then mates, and, ere April showers have passed away, becomes +animated, sociable, and full of life; and, more extraordinary still, its +voice, till then mute, may actually be heard. + +Yes, at this delightful season the woodcock is no longer silent, its +tongue is loosened, it breathes its tale of love, and, with joyful +notes, proclaims its happiness morning and night; and yet there are +those who would make us believe that the tender passion is useless, that +love is tom-foolery, or that it does not exist. To these blind +blasphemers, who thus deny its power, I would respectfully say, Come to +Le Morvan, and observe the woodcock, and then dare to say that love is +an untruth. Why, love is the great magician of the universe, the sun of +our minds, a path of fragrant violets, a perfect copse of _millefleurs_, +before which we all bend our hearts, aye, and, with vastly few +exceptions, our heads too. Yes, we all, at some period of our lives, +taste the delicious draught, and some drink deep of it, either to their +life-long happiness or the reverse. Love effects many a miracle, changes +everything, bows the neck of the proud, opens the eyes of the blind, and +shuts them for those who have very good sight; teaches the dumb to +speak, and those who are very loquacious to be silent. When the rosy and +naked little boy makes his appearance with his quiver, all is joy and +unreflecting happiness; when he is at home with his mamma, alas! the +world is all in shadow. The woodcocks, in like manner, are amiable, +eloquent, and engaging as long as the fumes of love affect their brain; +but when these are dissipated, they are dumb, and ten times more stupid +than they were before; and, dear me, how many human woodcocks, robed in +satin and balzarine, or sheathed in kerseymere trousers, are the same. + +But, shades of Buffon and Linnaeus! we must not thus rattle on, but +proceed to describe the nuptial couch of the delicious bird under our +consideration. The woodcock, like all those of the feathered tribe that +do not perch, makes its nest on the ground, which is composed of leaves, +fern, and dry grass, intermixed with little bits of stick, and +strengthened by larger pieces placed across it. This nest, made without +much art or care, in form like a large brown ball, is generally placed +under, and sheltered by the root of some old tree. Four or five eggs, a +little larger than those of the common pigeon, of a dirty gray and +yellow colour, and marked with little black spots, are the proofs of its +maternity. The woodcock, as I have before remarked, has only the gift of +talking in the spring season, when soft breezes fan the air, and they +educate their young. Nevertheless, it is in this season that +woodcock-shooting is the most amusing. Then is the time for gentlemen to +shoot; the _braconnier_ despises it. From the middle of April to that of +May is the important epoch at which the generality of animals marry, +and the woodcocks are not behindhand in this respect; they leave their +well-concealed retreats, become humanized, solicit the attentions of +their feathered ladies, and fly with gay inspirations amongst the +neighbouring bushes. But though as much in love as a widow, the woodcock +does not on that account forget its habitual prudence; like the usurer +who lends his money, and takes every precaution, the woodcock is equally +careful, and does not leave its nest till twilight has draped the earth +in the gray mantle of evening. When the humid atmosphere descends slowly +on the trees, when the cool breezes of night ascend the valleys, when +distant objects begin to assume a fantastic shape, when the branches of +the oak near you, like the arms of a giant, wave to and fro, and seem to +ask you to approach; when the withered tree, devoid of leaves, looks +like a brigand on the watch, or your comrade, ensconced against it, +seems to form a portion of it at a hundred yards off; when, in short, +the sportsman can see only a few yards before him, then is the moment +that the circumspect and wily woodcock leaves its abode, and pays a +nocturnal visit to his friends; and man, his enemy, and still more +cunning, is on the alert. The sport which we are about to describe, and +which does not last longer than from thirty to forty minutes, has +something particularly taking in it. At the close of day a universal +silence reigns in the forest, and every sportsman is at his post with +bated breath, and eyes dilated as wide as a woman's listening to a +neighbouring gossip's tale, when, all at once--pray note this well, +reader--a little fly, which plays a prominent part in all sport _a +l'affut_ (in ambush)--a little fly, about the size of a pea, regularly +makes its appearance, and wheeling round your head, fidgets you for five +minutes with its buzzing b-r-r-r-r-r-r-oo. In this way the little insect +informs you the woodcocks have left the underwood, that they are +approaching, and that it hears them coming; and odd or marvellous as it +may seem, this signal of the little fly, which never misleads you--this +signal which falls upon your ear just at the proper and precise moment, +is as certain as that two and two make four. Be not sceptical, and +imagine that this is chance; no such thing. Go when you will to the +_chasse a l'affut_, station yourself in whichever part of the forest you +like, be assured the fly will be there; it was never otherwise. The +question is, who sends the fly? how does it know the sportsman? and by +what mysterious chronometer does it regulate with such exactness its +movements? _Chi lo sa?_ He who doth not let a sparrow fall to the ground +without He willeth it. Equally incomprehensible is the departure of this +little insect, which, the concert over, and when you are thoroughly on +the _qui vive_, ceases its buzz, and is heard no more. At this very +moment, the silence in which you have till then remained is suddenly +broken by shouts of "They come! they come!" quickly followed by bang, +bang, bang along the glade; and here indeed they are, at first by twos +and threes, and then a compact flight, whirling along with appealing +cries of love, fluttering, and flapping their wings, and pursuing one +another from bush to bush. They show now neither fear nor +circumspection, and crazy, blind, and deaf, scarcely seem to notice the +noise, the flashes, or the cries of the sportsmen. At length all is in +complete confusion. They toss and twirl about like great leaves in a +hurricane, and finally fly, with their ranks somewhat diminished, to +their several homes. This sport lasts but a short half-hour; after +which, the woodcocks having said all they had to say, made and accepted +their engagements for the following day, vanish as if by magic, like the +puff of a cigar, a shadow, or a royal promise, and the same silence that +preceded their arrival reigns once more in the forest. No gun is loaded +after their departure; the sportsmen assemble, count the dead, never so +numerous, as one might suppose, and having bagged them, also retire from +the scene. I have known one person kill four couple of woodcocks in this +manner, but it was quite an exceptional case; two or three is nearer the +usual number. Chance, as in war, in marriage, in everything, is +frequently the secret of success; but if you are not cool and collected, +and handy with your gun, you will scarce carry a _salmi_ home to your +expectant friends. To the young sportsman, the novelty, confusion, and +hubbub of these evening shooting-parties are perfectly bewildering; +Parisian cockneys, above all, are quite beside themselves, shutting +first one eye and then the other, firing, of course, without having +taken any aim, and eventually beating a retreat without a feather in +their game-bags. But to the veteran, this fevered half-hour, this brief +_chasse_, is most delightful; everything conspires to make it lively and +exciting. The party, ten or twelve jolly dogs, have generally dined +together, and the onslaught over, they all return by the pale moonlight, +shoulder to shoulder, singing snatches of some old hunting-song, the +stars overhead and the woodcocks on their backs. A young Parisian and +college friend of mine, Adolphe Gustave de----, very rich and very +witty, whom, after many unsuccessful attempts, I induced to leave the +capital, and pass six months with me in the deserts, as he called them, +of Le Morvan, loved this species of sport intensely, though he never +shot anything. His bag, however, was always better filled than that of +any of his comrades, for though a wretched shot, he had the wit to stand +near a good one, and as he was wonderfully quick with his legs, eyes, +and fingers, he was constantly picking up his neighbour's birds, vowing +all the time they were his own shooting. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + Fine names--Gustavus Adolphus and the cabbages--Gustavus Adolphus! + no hero!--The Parisian Sportsman--Partridge-shooting + despicable--Wild boar-hunting--Rousing the grisly monster--His + approach--The post of honour--Good nerves--The death--The trophy + and congratulations. + + +Few persons well acquainted with France can have failed to observe how +fond the lower orders, indeed all classes, are of giving high-sounding +names to their children; and it is sometimes truly amusing to notice the +strange upset of associations which in consequence jar the auricular +nerve, and illustrate the singularly exalted notions of the godfathers +and godmothers. "Gustave Adolphe!" I once heard an old cook vociferate +from the kitchen of a small inn to a boy in the yard. "Gustave Adolphe!" +shrieked the aged heroine of the sauce-pans, pitching her voice in A +alto, "_Coupez donc les choux!_" Cutting cabbages! What an antithesis to +the glorious victor of Lutzen. The remark will apply with equal force to +the Gustave Adolphe of the last chapter, though on a different point, +and the contrast between the great Gustavus and he of Paris, was most +diverting. My accomplished friend, a charming dancer, a _beau parleur_, +a first-rate singer, who made sad havoc among the fresh and fair +gazelles of every ballroom, this tremendous _chasseur-de-salon_, I very +soon perceived, was by no means so tremendous in the stubbles;--a covey +fairly startled him, and if a hare rose between his legs he turned quite +pale. + +"My good fellow," I said to him one day, seeing his extraordinary +trepidation, "if you are so staggered by a covey of partridges, what in +the world will you do when I set you face to face with a wolf or a wild +boar?" + +"Oh! that is a very different affair. A wolf or a wild boar? Why, I +should kill one and eat the other, of course." + +"Not so easy," I should think, "for a novice like you." + +"Novice, indeed! me a novice. Oh! you are quite in error. The fact is, +these devils of birds and rabbits lie hidden, do you see, under the +grass like frogs, one never knows where; so that I never see them till +they are all but in my eyes, or cutting capers like Taglioni's under my +feet, and your dogs putting out their tongues, and staring at me." + +"Why, of course they do; the intelligent brutes are ready to expire at +your awkwardness." + +"Much obliged to you for the compliment. Again, you say, they turn their +tails to the right by way of telling me that I am to go to the left; and +to the left, when I am to walk to the right. Who, I ask you, is to +understand such telegraphs as these? I have not yet learned how to +converse with dogs' tails--intelligence, indeed! I believe it is all +humbug; for, when my whole soul is absorbed in watching the tips of +these very tails, a crowd of partridges jump up just in front of me, +making as much noise as if they were drummers beating the retreat. If I +am hurried and stupefied".... + +"And if," I added, "you are much disposed to throw down your gun as to +fire it." + +"Well! supposing I am; what is the wonder? 'Tis no fault of mine--I am +not used to partridge-shooting! I am not a wild man of the woods, like +you! I did not cut my teeth gnawing a cartridge, as you did!" + +"Come, come! don't be affronted." + +"Affronted? No; but you have no consideration. You're a Robin Hood, an +exterminator! if you look at one partridge, you kill four! You sleep +with your rifle, turn your game-bag into a nightcap, and shave with a +_couteau-de-chasse_!" + +"May be so! but let us have the fact." + +"The fact! Then I hate your long-tailed dogs, and your detestable +flights of noisy birds! Let me have them one by one, like larks in the +plain of St. Denis, and I'll soon clear the province for you." + +"Upon my word, Adolphe, we should have something to thank you for!" + +"I tell you what, Henri; those partridges, after all, are trumpery +things to kill. 'Tis mere hurry that prevents my hitting them. Don't +imagine I am frightened! If you wish to give me real pleasure, let us go +to India and shoot a lion or a tiger;--give me a chance with an +elephant!" + +"Willingly; but allow me to suggest, that if we set out for India, we +shall not get back in time for dinner." + +"We will keep in Europe, then; but, at least, show me some game worthy +of me. A serpent--I will cut him in two at a stroke. A bull--I will soon +send a brace of balls into him." + +"Well done! just like a Parisian." + +"Parisian! Pray what do you mean by that?" + +"A boaster, if you prefer the word." + +"Ha! ha! a boaster, indeed! Do you mean to say that I'm afraid of a +bull?" + +"Of course not. However, as there are no bulls here, I will send the +head _piqueur_ upon the track of a wild boar which was seen near the +chateau last night; he will exactly suit you. I consider him as doomed." + +"Thank you, Henri; thank you; the moment I am fairly in front of him, I +shall fire at his eyes, and no doubt lodge both balls in them. Poor +Belisarius! how he will charge me in his agony! but I shall retire, +reload, and then, having drawn my hunting-knife, dispatch him without +further ceremony." + +"Never fear, you shall have the post of honour; and if you do not turn +upon your heel, why, my dear friend, you will rise at least a dozen pegs +in my estimation." + +"Turn on my heel! you little know me; and then, what a sensation I shall +create in Paris with my boar's skin. I'll have it stuffed, gild his +tusks, and silver-mount his hoofs. I shall be quite the hero of the +_salons_." + +That very afternoon orders were given to the head-keeper to send the +_traqueurs_ into the forest on the following day, and on their return, +they announced that not only traces of wild boar had been met with, but +one had actually been seen. Great were the preparations and cleaning of +rifles and _couteaux-de-chasse_ when this intelligence was received; +but, in spite of his assumed composure, Adolphe's ardour seemed +considerably to diminish, and the conversation that evening over the +fire was not calculated to inspire him with fresh courage. + +"How very soon they find the boar!" said he to me. "Tell me how the +affair commences." + +"Why these _traqueurs_ are not long in discovering him. They know +exactly where to look for one, for they study their habits; the traces +of the grisly rascal are seen by them immediately; they mark his +favourite paths, the thickets he prefers, the marshy ground in which he +delights to wallow, and then as to the times he is likely to be seen, +they can tell almost to a minute when he will pass,--for the wild boar +is very methodical, and an excellent time-piece. The animal, therefore, +having been traced, and his retreat carefully ascertained, a day is +fixed, and each person having been assigned a separate post, remains +watching for his appearance on his way to or from his haunt." + +"Oh! of course, they merely watch and wait," replied Adolphe, with a +hollow, unmeaning laugh. + +"Yes; but you don't suppose that a boar will allow himself to be killed +as easily as a squirrel. I fear, in spite of all your professions, you +will find it not so agreeable a sport as shooting larks on the plain of +St. Denis. The bristly fellow who comes trotting and grunting towards +you, showing his teeth, stopping occasionally to sharpen them against +the root of some old oak, is not generally in the best of humours; but +you can, at any rate, reckon upon the great advantage,--the want of +which you deprecate in partridge-shooting. For instance, you cannot fail +to see him; you have notice of his coming; you are not taken off your +guard, and they very seldom appear but one at a time. It is a combat +face to face, and his, with two long prominent teeth, so unfortunate in +a woman, and positively hideous in a boar, effectually warns you that it +is well you should be prepared to receive him. But the excitement is +grand; after the volley every one is at him with his knife, and, with +the exception of a few inexperienced dogs, and a Parisian novice like +yourself, who, of course, are occasionally put _hors de combat_, the +affair ends gloriously. Yes, yes, I am beginning to think you are +right, Adolphe; partridge-shooting and knocking over a timid hare is +very cowardly sport." + +The _traqueurs_ also, whom Adolphe catechised, in the hope of preserving +his own skin entire at the same time, though they gave him all sorts of +good advice, failed not to add to it, as people of their class generally +do, a budget of most fearful histories and hair-breadth escapes--of +horses and dogs ripped open, and men killed or gored; but that which put +a finishing-stroke to Adolphe's courage, was the entrance of a friend of +mine, who had himself been a sad sufferer in one of these adventures. +Wounded, but not mortally, the boar had charged him before he could +reload, tearing up with his tusk the inside of his thigh; and, as he lay +insensible on the ground, gnawing one of his calves off before any one +could come to his assistance. During the next two months death shook him +by the hand in vain, for he had fortunately an excellent constitution; +"And, though the proportions of his left leg," whispered I, "have been +restored by a slice out of a friendly cork-tree, he is, as you see, +quite recovered." + +"True enough!" said the new arrival, who had overheard the concluding +remark, "and if you have any doubts, Sir, I will show you my leg;" but +Adolphe, thoroughly convinced, declined the offer, and retired to his +room for the night. + +The dawn was yet gray, when the court-yard of the Chateau d'Erveau +presented a very animated appearance; horses, dogs, and beaters were +walking up and down, neighing, yelping, and conversing,--the huntsman +every now and then winding his horn, giving notice to the inmates that +all was ready. The morning was superb, and as the party filed out of the +yard, doffing their beavers to the ladies, who, screened behind their +window-curtains, dared not return their salute, Adolphe was a little +reassured. Long, however, before they reached their hunting-ground, his +chivalrous feelings had so far forsaken him, that he had serious +thoughts of returning, on the plea of indisposition. + +"Why do you lag so far behind?" said I, riding up to him at this +juncture, "why your nose is quite white. Nay, don't blush; braver men +than you have felt far from comfortable the first time they went +boar-hunting. You are afraid. Come, don't deny it; but, never mind, I +will not quit you for a moment." + +"With all my heart; for, though I cannot exactly say I am afraid, yet +that infernal cork-leg is continually dancing before my eyes." + +"I have not the least doubt of it; and, by Terpsichore! what a pretty +thing it would be to see the handsome Gustave Adolphe de M---- dancing +polkas and redowas in the drawing-rooms of the Faubourg St. Germain with +a cork-leg or a gutta-percha calf! The very idea gives me the cramp in +every toe." + +Conversing much in the same strain, the eight _chasseurs_ arrived at the +rendezvous, where they dismounted. The beaters and _gardes-de-chasse_ +were all at their posts, and on the alert to the movements of the boar, +and as we advanced deeper in the forest, the conversation, which had +been so lively on our setting forth, flagged, and at length subsided +into an occasional remark on the obstacles which impeded our progress. +Nothing renders a man more reserved than his approach to an anticipated +danger. I looked askance at Adolphe, and saw that his teeth rattled like +castanets; and when the foremost keepers, in doubt as to the track, blew +a plaintive note, which, ere it died away, was answered by another in +the distance, showing that we were in the right one, Adolphe's +breathing became stentorious behind me. And then as the branches and +hazel twigs, through which we forced our way more rapidly, flew back and +struck him in the face, he supplicated me to stop. + +"Not so fast, my dear friend, not so fast! Have mercy on my Parisian +legs! Misericorde! I cannot proceed. Do stop! There, my nose is skinned +by that last branch! Good--there, my breeches are breaking! For pity's +sake, stop!" But to stop was impossible; and I remained silent, having +quite enough to do looking out for myself. At length we arrived at the +appointed spot. Adolphe, in a state bordering on the crazy, his clothes +in shreds, his face and hands bleeding from the thorns, anger in his +blood, and perspiration on his brow, his furious eyes looked at me as if +I had been the author of his misfortunes. And here a scene would most +undoubtedly have ensued, but happily the head _piqueur_ arrived, +informing us that the boar was in a thick patch of underwood, about two +miles from thence, in which he was supposed to be taking his mid-day +_siesta_, and that a number of peasants having headed him on one side, +he could not well escape. Our measures were quickly taken. + +"Serpolet," said I to the _piqueur_, "have you seen the animal?" + +"At a distance, Monsieur." + +"What is he like?" + +"Oh! a tremendous fellow--long legs, enormous head, large tusks, and +such a muzzle!--he breaks through everything. A fortunate thing, +Monsieur, the dogs were not with us." + +"Well!" said I to my father, "of course this gentleman is to have the +place of honour." + +"The place of honour!" cried Adolphe, "which is the place of honour?" + +"Why, the most dangerous to be sure," replied my father, "the third or +fourth post from where he breaks cover. The first or second shots seldom +kill him; wounded, he continues his course, and, savage and ferocious, +generally turns upon the third or fourth _chasseur_, at whom, with +lowered head and glaring eye, he charges in full career. Oh! it is then +a splendid sight, worth all the journey from Paris! Forward, my lads, +forward! Hurrah! for the boar!" + +"And thus--" groaned Adolphe, with thickened speech, not at all charmed +with this description of his onset. + +"And thus," remarked my father, with a bow of the old _regime_, "you +shall be fourth, and you will see the sturdy grunter in all his beauty. +Come, my boys! a glass of the cognac all round; then silence, and each +to his post. Here, Serpolet, forward with them, and remember, gentlemen, +the word of command is 'Prudence and coolness!' Off! and may your stout +hearts protect you!" + +Then filing out from the glade where we had halted, each of us proceeded +to his destination, the valiant Adolphe following Serpolet like a dog +going to be drowned. + +"Monsieur," said Serpolet, "you don't seem used to this fun; let a +graybeard and an old huntsman advise you. I have seen the +animal--actually seen him--a terrible boar, I promise you, as black as +ink, clean legs, and ears well apart,--all true signs of courage. As +sure as my name is Serpolet, he will make mince-meat of us--sure to +charge. Take my advice, Monsieur; never mind what the gentlemen say +about waiting; don't you let him get nearer to you than five-and-twenty +paces; if not, in three bounds he will be at you; and in another second +you will be opened like an oyster. Take care, Monsieur!"--and, wishing +him success, Serpolet joined the beaters, who were waiting, all ready +to advance. + +"What shall we do?" said Adolphe as soon as he was gone. + +"Do, why, take a look about us." + +We were in a kind of low, open glade, about eighty paces in length, with +an immense oak in the centre--a solitary spot, full of thick rushes, +tufts of grass, brambles, and matted roots; in short, just the place +that a boar would make his head-quarters. Adolphe accompanied me step by +step, examined me from head to foot, and looked in my face as if he +would read my every thought. + +"Well, Adolphe," said I, after I had considered the principal points of +our position, "the moment has at length arrived when you must draw your +courage from the scabbard; and I hope it will shine like the light, for +something tells me you will require it ere long." + +"I'll tell you what; I beg you will not commence any of your long +orations." + +"If I talk to you now, it is because I shall not be able in a few +minutes. Pay attention, therefore, to my instructions. Remain, I advise +you, behind this oak, then you will have nothing to fear, and be sure +not to leave it. I will place myself at the angle down yonder." + +"Down there! Why you said you would not leave me for an instant." + +"Come, come, don't be absurd; the moments are precious; you see I shall +only be distant an hundred yards." + +"An hundred yards! I tell you what--if you go ten yards, I go too." + +"What! are you afraid? We are alone; come, be frank." + +"No! I am not afraid, but my nerves are shaken; I am thoroughly done up +with the scramble we have had through these woods; and then that rascal +Serpolet, who prophesied that I shall be opened like an oyster--you +shall not go, for I feel sure that when this brute of a boar makes his +appearance, I shall be unable to look him in the face." + +"My dear friend, I will do as you desire. We have still half an hour to +wait; but remember, no imprudence--and if you should see my finger +raised, mind, not a word or a sign." + +As I uttered this apostrophe, a long and harmonious note from the +head-keeper's horn, vibrating in the distance, came and died away upon +our ears; after which, a confused clamour of voices arose, and as +suddenly ceased. + +"Hurrah! hurrah!" said I; "the _traqueurs_ are on the move, the curtain +is raised, the play is about to commence--and, dear friend, be silent as +death, for the actor will soon make his appearance on the stage." + +During the next ten minutes, a murmur of voices and confused sounds were +again borne on the wind to the two sportsmen, announcing that the line +of beaters was steadily advancing, and now they could distinctly hear +them at intervals, striking the trunks of the trees with their long +iron-shod poles, thrusting them in the underwood, and shouting in chorus +the song of the boar. + +Again the horn is heard; but now its notes are sharp, shrill, jerking +and hurried. + +"That, my good Adolphe, denotes that the boar has risen, has been driven +from his lair, is in view, flying before the beaters, and I am very much +mistaken if he does not ere long pay us a visit." + +Another blast is heard, but in very different tones to the last, and +silence is again spread over the forest. + +"There, Adolphe--there's a joyous and melodious note; it tells me that +the monster is following his usual paths--we are sure to see him soon. +By St. Hubert, what lucky dogs we are!" + +But the Parisian answered not, and leaned against his oak, a perfect +picture of despair. + +"Adolphe," I reiterated, "he won't be here yet, but speak low, or we may +spoil everything. How do you feel? Do you think you can take good aim, +and pull the trigger?" + +"I feel," whispered Adolphe, "that I am not cut out for boar-hunting." + +"Bah! Why, the other day you seemed to think it would be delightful, and +now you don't appear to like the sport; keep your heart up, be cool, and +all will be well;--it is only on grand occasions--those when real danger +presents itself, as you told me the other day--that the proofs of +undoubted courage show themselves; and then the ladies of the Faubourg +St. Germain that you were to soften with your tales of forest +life--'Mademoiselles,' you were to commence, 'when I was in Le Morvan, +we had famous wolf and boar-hunting, and on one occasion'".... + +"No! no!" groaned the Parisian, "I shall commence thus: On one occasion, +nay, ladies, on all occasions, I much prefer being in your delightful +society to that of the boars of Le Morvan." + +"Nonsense, good Adolphe, you are laughing; why, you were to have the +skin stuffed, the tusks gilt, the feet silver-mounted, and the tail was +to be scarlet and curly. What! do you think no more about it?" + +"Oh, yes! and of the cork calves also." + +"Pooh! have we not two good hunting-knives and four iron bullets in the +rifles, and a magnificent oak, a perfect wooden tower, for a +breastwork." + +"Yes! we have all this." + +"And is not courage your father, and an excellent aim your mother, and +is not death to the boar in our barrels?" + +"Certainly!--death--oh! what a word at such a crisis!"--and on the +instant two shots were heard, which made him jump again. + +"Ah! ah!--good; that's the old gentleman who has led off the ball; the +music of his rifle is not to be mistaken. The grisly vagabond has by +this time two bits of iron in his flanks, which will considerably hasten +his march. Silence! and be on the _qui vive_. Listen! Hear you not the +distant crash in the bushes?" Two fresh shots were now fired, but +nearer. "Said I not so? he is running the gauntlet--one more shot. Hush +again! there he is, tearing along. Hark! not a whisper; your eye on the +open, your ear to the wind, and your finger on the trigger!" But it was +not the boar; for at the moment two roebucks and a fox broke near us, +bounding along at full speed, when Adolphe, his face as pale as his +cambric shirt, muttered, as he nearly fell upon his knees--"Oh! +Paris--oh! Chevet--oh! Boulevard des Italiens--I shall never see ye +more!" + +"Why, Adolphe! what the deuce is the matter with you? in the name of +France, be a man. If my time is to be taken up with looking after you, I +shall be in a nice situation. No nonsense--no useless fears? Do you, or +do you not feel able to take part in the approaching drama?" + +"No, I don't--I only just feel able to get up this tree." + +"What! are you in such a funk as all that? Why, what a poor creature you +must be! You are the very incarnation of fear!" + +"Fear? I have no fear. Who says that I have? I don't know how it is, but +I certainly do feel something--a sort of qualm, something like +sea-sickness--everything seems going round--no doubt a sudden +indisposition--such a thing might happen to the bravest man--Napoleon, +they say, was bilious at Borodino. We part for a few minutes only, dear +friend; I shall ascend the oak--an English king once did the same." + +Another blast of the keeper's horn was now heard on the left. + +"What does that mean?" cried Adolphe, one leg in the air. + +"That signifies, the boar is making right for us." + +"Does it? Then I am up;" and, with the agility of a cat, he was in an +instant safely lodged in the branches. "Ah! my friend! how different it +feels up here--the sickness is quite gone off, hand me the gun." + +"In the name of Fortune," said I, "hold your coward tongue--here's the +boar;" for I could now hear his snorting and loud breathing in the copse +hard by. + +"Do you hear him?" said Adolphe from his perch, his cheeks as green as +the leaves which covered him. + +"Hear him?" I exclaimed, "yes, I partly see him. What a monster! How he +tears the ground!--how he bleeds and gnaws his burning wounds!--every +hair of his back stands up, smoke and perspiration flow from his +nostrils, and his eyes, glaring with agony and concentrated rage, look +as if they would start from their sockets!" + +On came the beaters, and in a few minutes the panting beast burst from +his thicket, and rushed across the open; my eye was on every movement, +and, firing both barrels, the contents struck him full in front. It was +his death-blow, but the vital principle was yet unsubdued; and, +summoning up all his dying energies--those which despair alone can +give--he came at me with a force that I could never have withstood. +Fortunately the Parisian's gun was close to me, and the charge stopped +him in full career. This was the _coup de grace_. He still, however, by +one grand effort, stood nobly on his haunches, opened his monstrous +mouth, all red with blood, gave out one sharp deep groan of agony from +his stifled lungs, and, falling upon his side, after many a wild +convulsion, at length stretched his massive and exhausted frame slowly +out in death. + +"Hurrah! Adolphe! you rascally acorn! shout, you _badaud_! give the +death-whoop, and come down!" + +"Is he really dead?" + +"Dead! Why, don't you see he is? Come down I say--come, descend from +your Belvedere--the farce is played out, and your legs are all right. +You are a rank coward! however, no one is aware of it but me. Don't let +others see it!" and in a minute Adolphe was at my side. + +"Listen, you fire-eater! and I will make you a hero, though you could +not manage to make yourself one. There were four shots fired; now, take +your gun, and remember that the two first, those ghastly holes in the +chest, were your handiwork--do you hear?" + +"Yes, but what a horrible morning! what a brute! what a savage country!" + +"True, it is not like the Boulevard des Italiens;" and a few minutes +after, Adolphe received, with some confusion, attributed to modesty, the +congratulations of all the party. This diffidence, as it may be +imagined, did not last long; his assurance soon returned, and the +hurrahs had scarcely died away, before he had imagined and given a very +graphic description of the last moments of the gallant boar. His toilet +made, the monstrous carcass was placed upon a litter, hastily +constructed with the branches of a tree, and the peasants, hoisting it +on their shoulders, bore the deceased monarch of the woods in triumph +to the chateau. + +In the evening, Adolphe's self-satisfaction was completed by an ovation +from the ladies, who bestowed upon him the most flattering epithets. +From the prettiest lips I heard, "What! this Parisian! this pale and +slender young man, with such delicate hands and rose-coloured nails, +fought face to face with this terrible beast? Admirable! And he was not +frightened?" + +"Frightened, ladies," said I, "why he was smoking a cigar all the time!" +And the secret was so well kept, and Adolphe so bepraised, that I am +sure had I felt disposed to throw a doubt upon the circumstances, he +would have stoutly contended that he really did kill the animal himself; +and, to say the truth, he was to a certain extent authorized to say so, +for the head, handsomely decorated, was sent to his mother, the +following words having been nicely printed on the tusks: + + "Killed by Gustave Adolphe de M. the 15th of August, 18--." + +In the course of time Adolphe's nerves improved so much that he could +manage to knock down a leash of birds, or roll over a hare; but boars +and wolves he declined to have anything further to do with; and when I +met him by accident some years after, in the presence of mutual friends, +he said, "Ah! de Crignelle, what two famous shots those were I put into +that boar! But, gentlemen," he continued, with a sigh which seemed +pumped up from his very heels, "what terrible forests those are of Le +Morvan, and how dangerous the _chasse aux sangliers_!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + The _Mares_--Manner in which they are formed in the depths of the + forest--_Mare_ No. 1.--Description of it--The appearance of the + spot--Mode of constructing the hunting-lodge--Approach of the + birds--Animals that frequent the _Mares_ in the evening. + + +Of all the various sports of Europe, that which produces the greatest +excitement, that which is, more than any other, full of deep interest, +dangerous and difficult, is without doubt hut-shooting at night on the +banks of one of our large _Mares_.[1] Here the sportsman, left to +himself, is deprived of all help; concealed in a corner of a wood, or +squatting at the foot of a tree, he requires all his courage, all his +experience; for he then finds himself engaged in a deadly conflict with +the most subtle and ferocious beasts, possibly a mouthful for the +largest and most powerful jaws, and at the mercy of the quickest ears of +the forest. Motionless in his hut, like a spider in its web, nothing can +put him off his guard--neither the view halloo of the passing huntsman, +the cheerful notes of his horn, nor the music of the dogs, can distract +his attention. All around is calm, solitude and gloom surround him, no +voice interrogates him, no eye sees him; he is alone, quite alone, his +blood circulates tranquilly through his veins, his faculties are all on +the stretch, he waits, he bides his time. The shadows lengthen, twilight +arrives, the forest puts on the garb of evening, the silence and +solitude are more deeply felt, night is at hand, the moment so ardently +desired approaches. Imagination begins to work, phantoms of every +description come across his brain, and glide before his eyes, he hears, +and fancies he sees the sylvan spirits dancing before him; his ears are +full of mysterious and unearthly sounds, plaintive and melancholy, +celestial harmonies, fairy melodies of another world, interrupted +conversations between the winds, the trees, the herbage and the earth, +as if they were offering homage to the great Creator of the universe. + +Firm at his post, and uninfluenced by this phantasmagoria of the brain, +without movement and almost without breath, the sportsman waits +hopefully; for the greatest virtue in this kind of sport is patience, +the second courage, first-rate--his heart should be of marble, his flesh +of steel, and his members should possess a power of immobility as great +as that of a sphynx in an Egyptian temple. Yes! the sport _aux mares_ is +the most stirring, the roughest that I am acquainted with, not so much +on account of the real danger attending it, but in consequence of those +fictitious, unknown, and imaginary, produced by the silence and +loneliness of the forest. It is my intention, therefore, in describing +this kind of sport, to enter into the most ample details, in order that +I may make myself thoroughly understood. I shall take, as representing +very nearly all the pieces of water to be met with in the forest, three +kinds of _Mares_ of different dimensions. I shall explain their +position, the relative value they possess in the eyes of the sportsman, +the game, large and small, to be found on their banks, and the most +propitious time for approaching them, and I shall endeavour, if +possible, to impress my readers with the pleasures and adventures which +have on several occasions agitated me. + +If the woods and forests of Le Morvan, which, by the clouds they +attract, the thunder-storms that continually fall over them, and the +moisture that generally prevails, feed a great many streams, the +district is not the less deprived, by its elevated position, of large +rivers and extensive sheets of water; for the rains, falling down the +sides of the trees, and penetrating the thick mossy grass at their +roots, do not remain for any length of time on the surface of the earth. +The whole forest may, in fact, be described as a large sponge, through +which the water filters, descending to the inferior strata, where it +finds the secret drains of Nature, and is by them conducted into the +plains. The roots being thus continually watered, the trees are fresh +and vigorous in their growth, and produce a most luxuriant foliage; the +ground itself, however, is generally dry under foot, and in some places +rocky. + +It is therefore very rare, quite an exceptional case, to find on the +elevated heaths, or in our forests, any lakes or large pieces of water; +nevertheless they are to be seen here and there, and then the cottage of +the peasant, or the hut of the wood-*cutter is sure to raise its modest +head on their banks; in time these humble edifices are augmented in +number till they sometimes become a considerable village. If the spring, +once a silvery thread, and now a brawling rivulet, changes its character +to a deep and considerable stream, farm-houses, a chateau, or a +hunting-box are soon erected near it. If it is merely a tiny source +rising from the earth, or springing from some isolated rock, and soon +lost in the moss, without even a murmur, calm and silent, as the life of +the lowly peasant, which is slowly consumed in the scarcely varying path +of labour,--then no one takes the least notice of it. + +Sometimes, however, the tears which the earth thus sheds, this crystal +thread, scorned by the unobserving passer-by, is arrested in its timid +course by some trifling obstacle--a rising path, a fallen branch or +tree. This little streamlet swells, frets the immediate spot of ground, +imperceptibly increases in size, and becomes after many efforts, the +patient work of months and years, something like the basin of a large +_jet d'eau_, a liquid cup lost in the recesses of the woods, reflecting +only a very small portion of the blue heavens above; unknown to man, but +always frequented by thousands of delighted and happy insects, and +little birds that come there in the great heats of summer to refresh +themselves, to skim across the surface, and sip, with head uplifted +towards heaven, its pellucid waters. These little springs, lost in the +thickness of the mossy turf and the dead leaves, like a gray hair in +the dark tresses of some village beauty, which accident or a lover could +alone discover, when thus interrupted and formed into a bowl of water, +such as I have described, is called a _Mare_. + +If, therefore, the sportsman in traversing the depths of the forest +should chance to discover one of these mirrors of the passing butterfly, +of the flower which inclines its slender form towards it, or of the bird +that sings and plays in the branches that overspread its surface, he +must not look contemptuously upon it, for this little liquid pearl, thus +concealed in the shade, which the hot rays of the sun would dry up like +an Arabian well, if they could reach it, may prove to him a mine of +varied reflections--a page of nature's great book, and in it he may +possibly find, if he have an observing eye and an understanding heart, a +type of this lower world, with all its hateful passions, its follies and +virtues, its wars, rivalries, injustice and oppression. + +One day, when out shooting, and following by tortuous paths, to me +unknown, the bleeding traces of a roebuck which I had wounded, I had the +good fortune to meet with one of these _Mares_. The piece of water of +which I thus became what I may term the proprietor, was from fifty to +sixty feet in circumference, though at the first glance I fancied it +was only half the size, so completely was it covered near the side by +thorns and briars, and in the centre by lilies, flags, and other aquatic +plants. By certain other signs, also, the gigantic creepers, and the +barkless and headless trees, bending and falling with age; by the deep +thickets that surrounded it, and by the solitary aspect of the pool, I +felt convinced that mine was the first footstep that had trodden its +precincts,--that I was the Christopher Columbus of the place. + +Enchanted with my discovery, I determined to mark the spot, for I +thought it a _Mare_ of peculiar beauty. It was almost surrounded by wild +fruit trees, which grow in great numbers in our forests: here were the +sorb, or service tree, and the medlar, bending to the ground under the +weight of their luxuriant fruit; intermingled with these waved the lofty +and slender branches of the wild cherry, the berries of which, now ripe, +and sweet as drops of honey, and black as polished jet, offered a +delicious repast to clouds of little birds, that hopped chirruping from +twig to twig: and lastly, I may mention a fine arbutus, which in its +turn presented a tempting collation to the notice of many a hungry +bullfinch. The soft turf around was strewed with the shining black and +bright red berries, which the last breeze had shaken from the verdant +branches. + +To describe the crystal notes, the liquid cadences, the merry songs of +the feathered inhabitants of this hive, that pursued one another +rejoicing amongst the leaves, is impossible. Besides, my unexpected +appearance threw them into perfect consternation; and this greatly +increased when, drawing from my side my hunting-knife, I began to cut +down, in all directions, the bushes which intercepted a nearer approach +to the miniature lake. + +The storm of helpless anger, menaces, and complaints from these little +creatures was quite curious. "Oh! the wretch!" a cuckoo seemed to say; +"what does he mean by coming here, showing us his ugly face?"--"Oh! the +horror," cried a coquette of a tomtit, holding up her little +claw.--"_Helas! helas!_ our poor trees, our beautiful leaves, and our +lovely greensward--see how he is cutting away--Oh! the wicked man! the +destructive rascal!" they all piped in chorus. But I paid no attention +to them, and went on hacking away, and whistling like one of the +blackbirds. This indeed I continued to do for several days, working like +a woodman, and all alone, for I did not wish to associate myself with +any person, lest he should claim a share in my discovery; but it was +long before I began to enjoy the fruits of my hard labour. The trunks +were sawn, the branches lopped, and after considerable trouble I at last +cleared my piece of water from the bushes and parasitic plants which +blocked it up. The evening breeze now circulated rapidly over it, and +the sun could look in upon it for at least two hours of the day. + +My friends who saw me leave the house every morning with a basket of +tools at my back and a hatchet at my side, like Robinson Crusoe, and who +witnessed my return each evening heartily tired, with torn clothes, +scratched hands, and dust and perspiration on my face, without a single +head of game in my bag, could not comprehend why I went out thus alone +into the forest, and remained there the livelong day. Often did they +persecute me with questions, and try in every way to penetrate the +mystery; all in vain, my whereabouts remained hidden like a hedgehog in +his prickly coat, and I managed matters so well that during two +successive years I was the unknown proprietor and Grand Sultan of my +much-loved _Mare_. + +But when my task was finished, a task that hundreds of birds, perched in +the oaks, the elms, and the adjoining thickets, viewed with mingled +feelings of approbation, disapprobation, curiosity, or interest,--when +the last stroke of my hatchet was given, I said to myself, while looking +on the result of my unremitting toil, "'Tis well, and what a change has +taken place in this little corner of the forest. In truth, it looks +superb." + +The little lake was now a perfect oval, and the water, not very deep, +but limpid as crystal, was full of green and coloured rushes--the +surface being partly covered by the white and rose-tinted flowers of the +water-lilies, which reposing delicately on their large flat green +leaves, looked like velvet camellias placed upon a plate of sea-green +porcelain. In the mossy turf which bordered it, beds of violets, pink +daisies, and lilies of the valley, sent forth a cloud of perfume, and on +the large forest trees hung festoons and garlands of the honeysuckle and +the clematis; so that the _Mare_ and the surrounding foliage, would, +seen from above, have appeared like a large well with leafy walls, or an +immense emerald, which some spirit of the air, returning from a marriage +of the gods, had inadvertently dropped on his way home. + +Having given a description of the lake, I must describe my picturesque +and sylvan hut. This, constructed of trunks of trees, branches and +osiers, was placed about twenty paces from the water, completely +concealed by the bushes that encircled it; the inside was fitted up in +rustic taste with seats of wood, the whole carpeted with turf, and the +entrance planted with every kind of odoriferous flower. + +This _Mare_, approached by marks known only to myself, became +thenceforward the source of all my pleasures. At that period very young, +and equally careless, I would not have parted with my large liquid +_tazza_, my little lake, my leafy castle, for all the vulgar comfortable +_chateaux_ in the neighbourhood. + +If I have lingered too much over this subject, the reader must forgive +me for elaborating this picture--this portrait I may call it of my +_Mare_. He has before him a type of all the others, and this again must +be my excuse, it is so dear to the unfortunate to stir the still warm +embers of by-gone memories,--so dear to rouse from their slumbers the +treasured recollections of early days,--to wake those sweet spirits of +the mind, those phantoms robed in azure blue, and decked with the +pearls, the joys which never can glide again across the dreamer's +path--the joys of youth. + +Oh _souvenirs_ of childhood!--of happy hours so quickly gone,--bright +visions that gild, yes, light the darkest clouds of after years, +blessed, blessed are ye! Alone, friendless, far from those I love, with +the heart steeped, drowned in sorrow, a sombre sky before my eyes, +wintry clouds, that distil but melancholy thoughts all around me,--well, +I, the poor sparrow, who has been cast from his nest by the raging +storm,--I hush my griefs to rest in tracing the picture of past +delights. Yes, memory comes to my relief; I build again in the casket of +the mind my sylvan hut, careless and full of youthful fancies. I am +again seated in the depths of my native woods, speaking to the +light-hearted thrush, and whistling to the breeze. + +Once more I bathe myself in the golden rays of the mid-day sun; I tread +again the forest paths, and am intoxicated with the delicious perfume of +its wild flowers. Hark! again I hear the cooing of the amorous doves, +and in the distance the notes of the dull cuckoo, bewailing his solitary +life.--But no more.... + +The _Mares_, very different from one another, and having each of them +very different admirers, are of three kinds; they are either small or +large, near or distant from the village or neighbouring hamlet; and +according as they are circumstanced in one or other of these respects +they are more or less valuable. The largest, the deepest, the least +known, those in short that are situated in the recesses of the forest, +are the best and most frequented by game; to balance this advantage they +are the most fatiguing and the most difficult to approach. + +In the violent heats of July and August, when the sun burns up the +herbage, when the wind as it passes parches the skin, and the sultry air +scarcely allows the lungs to play--when the earth is quite dried up--the +hot-blooded animals, whose circulation is rapid, remain completely +overpowered with the heat in their retreats all day, either stretched +panting on the leaves, or lurking in the shade of some rock; but the +moment the sun, in amber clouds, sinks below the horizon, and twilight +brings in his train the dark hours of night, and its humid vapours, the +beasts of the forest are again in movement, again their ravenous +appetite returns, and they lose no time in ranging the woods, seeking +how and where they may gratify it. Then it is these large _Mares_, +silent as a woman that listens at a keyhole--silent as a catacomb, is +all at once endowed with life,--is filled with strange noises, like an +aviary, and becomes, as night falls, a common centre to which the hungry +and thirsty cavalcade direct their steps. + +The first arrivals are hundreds of birds, of every size and colour, who +come to gossip, to bathe, to drink, and splash the water with their +wings. Next come troops of hares and rabbits, who come to nibble the +fresh grass that grows there in great luxuriance. As the shades grow +deeper, groups of the graceful roebuck, timid and listening for +anticipated danger, their large open eyes gazing at each tree, giving an +inquiring look at every shadow, are seen approaching with noiseless +footsteps; when reassured by their careful _reconnaissance_, they steal +forward, cropping the dewy rich flowers as they come, and at last slake +their thirst in the refreshing waters. + +At this instant you may, if you are fatigued, and so desire it, finish +your day's sport. You may bring down the nearest buck; and then as the +troop, wild with affright, make for the forest, the second barrel will +add a fellow to your first victim. + +But, no! pull not the trigger; stop, if only to witness what follows. +See the roebuck prick their ears; they turn to the wind; they appear +uneasy; call one to the other, assemble; danger is near, they feel it, +hear it coming; they would fly, but find it is too late; terrified, they +are chained to the spot. For the last half hour the wolves and +wolverines, which followed gently, and at a distance, their own more +rapid movements, have closed in upon them from behind, have formed the +fatal circle, have noiselessly decreased it as much as possible, and at +length come swiftly down upon the helpless creatures; each seizes his +victim by the throat, the tranquil spot is ere long full of blood and +carnage, and the echoes of the forest are awakened to the hellish yells +of the savage brutes that thus devour their prey. + +The cries of agony, of death and victory, sometimes last for a quarter +of an hour; and during the fifteen minutes that you are watching the +scene from your hut, you may fancy the teeth of these brutes are meeting +in your own flesh, and feel a cold paw with claws of steel deep in your +back or head. + +The slaughter over, these monsters pass like a flight of demons across +the turf, vanish,--and again all is silent. And when the tenth chime of +the distant village clock is floating on the breeze, though it reaches +not your cabin--when the falling dew, now almost a shower, has bathed +the leaves, with rain chilling their fibres--when the bluebells and the +foxgloves and all the wood-flowers rest upon their stems--when the +songsters of the grove, with heads comfortably tucked under their warm +wings, sleep soundly in their nests, or in the angles of the +branches--when the young fawns, lost in some wild ravine, bleat for +their mothers whom they never will see more; and the gorged wolves, +their muzzles red with blood, are stretched snoring in their dens and +lurking-places--then it is the heavy boars, shaking off their laziness, +leave their sombre retreats--take to the open country, and trotting, +grunting, and with hesitating footsteps, come and plunge their awkward +and heavy bodies in the marshy waters, and wallow in the soft mud. + + +[1] Query,--fox-hunting and stag-hunting.--TRANSLATOR. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + Appearance of the _Mare_ in the morning--Forest etiquette--Mode of + obtaining possession of the best _Mare_--Every subterfuge fair--The + jocose sportsman--The quarrel--Reveries in the hut--Comparison + between meeting a lady and watching for a wolf. + + +The _Mares_ on the borders of which these scenes of strife and carnage +take place, are found by the morning sun surrounded by a crimson circle, +and all the horrid details of the battle-field--proof that the weak have +been slaughtered and overcome by the strong; a humiliating sight! for +the desolation created by the bad passions of man is far too like it. +Sometimes these _Mares_ are from two to three hundred feet in +circumference, and these may be truly termed the diamonds of the forest. +The _Mare_ No. 1., fed by small but always flowing springs, is full, +when others are dried up, and is frequented by troops of animals, savage +and meek, which thirst and heat drive there from all points of the +compass. These _Mares_, but little known, few in number, much sought +after--become, more especially at the period of the dog-days, very +difficult to find. Considered always as the property of the first comer, +the poacher, who is better acquainted than any other sportsman with the +localities in which they are to be found, generally takes up his +quarters near them late at night, and installs himself; sleeps there, +sups there, and, determined not to leave it under any pretext, laughs in +the face of the unfortunate wight who arrives after him, in the happy +delusion that he has anticipated every one else. For it is a forest law, +and acknowledged by all, that two sportsmen cannot, without disturbing +one another, sit down at the same _Mare_; possession is in this not only +nine but ten points of the law; and, if a mere lad, with a +fowling-piece, happens to place himself first on its banks, no giant +seven feet high would think of using his superior strength to expel him. + +Such is the law--such is the custom--to act in defiance of it would +expose the culprit to the chance of receiving a charge of No. 3 in his +jacket; and as each _Mare_ has its wooden hut, in successive summers, +constructed by you, embellished by me, knocked in, cut about, injured by +some one else, and repaired by all--the first man who puts the stock of +his gun on the floor of the cabin becomes immediately and incontestibly +the lucky proprietor of it for that night. + +And how shall I explain to you the thousand cunning tricks, the +diabolical, the ingenious finesses, the Philipistic and Machiavellian +diplomacy, which sportsmen employ one towards the other to obtain +possession? Two friends, for instance, meet by accident on the same +road; with what perfect and impudent lies do they entertain each +other!--with what gusto do they try and take one another in!--what +cheating doubts do they not mutually endeavour to raise, in their desire +to induce each other to take the wrong road! With the effrontery of a +_diplomate_, with the assurance of a secretary of legation,--one +affirms, his hand on his heart, and looking towards heaven, that he is +going to the left, when it is his positive intention, well-considered +beforehand, to go to the right. No, France and England, Bresson and +Bulwer, playing their game of chess of the Spanish marriages on the +green cloth of political rascality,--never said anything comparable to +the devices of these lying chevaliers of the forest. + +Everything is permitted--every stratagem is fair, so long as either is +endeavouring to triumph over his adversary; and then, when they have +gone so far as to be able to wish one another good afternoon, and each +has convinced himself that he has put the other on the wrong road--that, +thank the stars, his rival is off, that he is far off, that he cannot +see him--what haste! what strides and leaps to get speedily to the spot, +and make himself safe! The running of the celebrated Greek, who, with +his breast laid open by a ghastly wound, ran eighty miles in ten hours +to announce to the impatient Athenians the victory of Marathon, was the +pace of a tortoise compared with the demon-racing of these _chasseurs_. + +And, after all this anxiety and rapid locomotion,--after turning and +winding in and out of the wood, and round the wood to avoid the +open--across the brook to avoid the bridge--through the brambles and +thick underwood to avoid the open path--when you think you have cheated, +or, at any rate, distanced your enemy,--when you perceive in front of +you the object of your hopes,--the well-known and much-desired hut which +seems to invite you to repose after your long day's walk--why, at that +interesting moment, even your own, your very own brother would be a +veritable Bedouin in your eyes, a man to be put out of the way any how, +if he attempted to stop you. + +At such a crisis, if a real sportsman were to hear that his house was on +fire, that his banker was off to America, taking with him his wife and +his money, he would not, I say, in such a moment turn his head round to +see which way they went;--Imagine, then, when in order to succeed you +have made yourself out a cheat of the first water, and employed every +possible subterfuge,--conceive what would be the extent of your anger +and indignation, what your disgust,--when on arriving at your coveted +_Mare_, at your oasis, at your paradise, at the spot for which you have +toiled and invented such lies, to find the hut--occupied! + +Sometimes you may find in the possessor a _chasseur_, who likes to amuse +himself at your expense,--a jocose fellow, who, hearing you at a +distance working your way through the underwood, and seeing you through +the leaves advancing with eager and rapid steps to the spot, conceals +himself behind the entrance, and as you are just on the point of +entering the hut, your foot just on the step, the droll sportsman puts +his ugly head out of the window, as a yellow tortoise would his out of +his shell, asking you, in most polite terms, what o'clock it is; or if +it should chance to be raining a deluge at the time, remark in +compassionate accents, "Why, sir, you seem rather damp!" + +Job was never so unfortunate as to arrive at a _Mare_ already occupied; +had he done so, it is not by any means clear to me that he would have +been able to contain his wrath. For my own part, I have frequently been +beside myself with vexation, and on one occasion was very nearly having +a quarrel to the death with my best friend. We had accidentally met in +the forest, as described, and had deceived each other, as two Greeks of +Pera would, when making a bargain. After our _rencontre_, my friend went +to the right, I to the left; he on the sly, turning and twisting by +footpath and wood to conceal himself from observation; I, on the +contrary, went directly to the spot, and striding away as fast as I +could go, arrived at the _Mare_ about three minutes before him, scarlet +and streaming with exertion, and quite out of breath. My friend who was +equally heated, but, in addition, disappointed and in a furious rage, +addressed me in most insulting language, declaring between the hiccup, +which his want of breath and want of coolness had produced, that I was +a Jesuit, a hypocrite; and many other affectionate epithets did he apply +to me with the utmost volubility. + +If I had not been the fortunate occupant of the hut, which gratifying +fact was as honey to my lips and oil to my bones, and had a most +soothing influence on my temper, I should naturally have revolted at +such conduct; but this constrained me, and I remained perfectly quiet, +determined to allow my lungs to regain their composure before I replied. +Seeing this, his rage increased tenfold, and he proposed a duel with our +fowling-pieces, hunting-knives, or two large sticks; he offered me, +also, an aquatic duel of a most novel character,--namely, for both of us +to undress and endeavour to drown each other in the _Mare_! In short, he +continued for at least a quarter of an hour to rave and rail without +ceasing. + +But of all this abuse I took not the slightest notice, remaining +perfectly calm, sitting in my hut like Solomon on his throne, and +fanning my heated countenance with the brim of my broad hat, as if I had +been in a glass-house. It is true I laughed in my sleeve, looked +vacantly at the blue heavens, and whistled the chorus or snatches of a +hunting song. Finding therefore, it was impossible to move me, my +adversary finished by getting tired of roaring and abusing; and having +rubbed the perspiration from his distorted face with a force which +seemed as if he would rub his nose off, he turned on his heel with the +grace of a wild boar that had received a brace of balls in his +haunches,--looking me fiercely in the face, and pouring forth as a last +broadside, a dozen of oaths in the true _argot_ style, which seemed to +dry up the very plants near him, and silenced the frogs that were +croaking in the _Mare_. + +Such, however, is the force of habit and of this rule; and so truly does +every one feel that on the strict observance of it depends the +tranquillity of all, that the law of first possession is never violated; +although it is but simply acknowledged by the justice and good sense of +every sportsman, it is quite as well established in their manners and +customs as if it were written on tables of iron. The consequence is, +that however enraged a person may be, he sees, and generally at the +outset, that his best course is to give way; he may fume and strut, look +big and villify, but he bows his head and is off with as embarrassed a +face as yours, gentle reader, would certainly be, if a friend whom you +knew to be ruined came and asked you to lend him twenty thousand francs. + +But also, by St. Hubert, if you remain the lord and master of this +_Mare_, how your heart leaps, how all fatigue is forgotten! and when the +twilight approaches, what a fever there is in your veins!--what anxiety! +I have heard of the delirious and suffocating emotions of a lover +waiting for his mistress at the rendezvous. Fiddlesticks! I say, gruel +and iced-water. The most volcanic Romeo that ever penned a letter or +scaled a wall, is to the sportsman waiting amidst the howling storm on a +dark night for the wolves, what a cup of cream is to a bottle of +vitriol. As for myself, I would give,--yes, ladies, I am wolf enough to +say,--that I would willingly give up the delightful emotions of ninety +rendezvous, with the loveliest women in the world, black or white, for +twelve with a boar or a wolf. In return for this bad taste, I shall +probably be devoured some day or other,--a fate no doubt duly merited. + +I will suppose, therefore, that the sportsman is squatting quietly in +his hut, like a serpent in a bush. With what ardour and nervous anxiety +does he not await the propitious and long-expected hour! He throws open +the ivory doors of his castle in the air,--his hopes are multiplied a +thousandfold. What shall I shoot?--what shall I not shoot? Will it be a +she-wolf, or a roebuck? No, I prefer a boar. Will he be a large one? But +if by chance I should kill a sow?--what a capital affair that would be; +the young ones never leave their mother; perhaps I should bag three or +four,--perhaps the whole fare. But then, how shall I carry them off? +Perhaps the wolves will save me the difficulty of contriving that, and +dispute my title to them,--perhaps they will attack me, eat me, the sow, +the pigs, and my sealskin cap. + +How, I beseech you, is the following _monologue_ to stand comparison +with the fierce excitement of such anticipations? Will she come this +evening, the darling--will my sweetest be able to come?--shall I be +blessed with one kiss?--shall it be on the left cheek or the right, or +shall I press her lips to mine? Bah! there can be no comparison in the +hunter's mind; and then you barricade yourself in your hut as evening +approaches, strengthen the weak points, study the best positions, look +to your arms; the day seems as if it would never close,--nothing is +left for you to do but to muse in the interval, and think of the poor +maudlin lovers, who at this very hour are squatting under a wall like so +many young apes; or of him who, half concealed, stands on the watch at +the angle of a dirty street, waiting with a fluttering heart the arrival +of some sentimental little chit of a girl, who is nevertheless coquette +enough to keep him waiting for half an hour. And again, with what +disdain and contempt you regard such birds as pigeons, turtle-doves, +buzzards, wild duck, and teal; hares and foxes, too, which make their +appearance from time to time,--to kill these never enters your head. + +What, not the fox, with his splendid bushy tail? + +Why what do you take me for, good reader?--what can I possibly want with +that?--I, who am about to knock over two roebucks and three wolves? +Peace, peace, my friends; skip and skuttle about, young rabbits; nibble +away, middle-aged hares,--don't put yourselves the least out of the way, +you won't have any of my powder. Besides, to fire would be very +imprudent, and to a great extent compromise the sport; for at this +period the sun is sinking, the shadows are slowly lengthening, the +roebuck are on their way, and the she wolf in the neighbouring thicket +is raising her head and listening for the sounds which indicate that +her prey is not far off. And you listen also to catch the slightest +noise that comes on the wind,--for each and all are a vocabulary to the +huntsman,--a gust of wind, the note of a bird disturbed, a weasel +running across the path, a squirrel gnawing the bark, a breaking branch, +startles you, circulates your blood, and puts you anxiously alive to +what may follow. Everything that surrounds you at this still tour of +twilight courts your attention,--the waving branches speak to you,--the +hazel thicket, bending to the weight of some advancing animal, puts you +on your guard; the heart beats, not for the rustling of a silk gown, nor +for the hurried footfall of woman treading with fairy lightness on the +fallen leaves. The syren voice is not about to whisper softly in your +ear, "Are you there, violet of my heart!" nor are you about to reply, +"Angelic being, moss-rose of my soul, let me press your sweet lips?" +What you are waiting for are the wild beasts of the forest,--you are +listening for their distant and subdued tones, their bounding spring, +their near approach, their bodies as a mark for your rifle, their yells, +and cries, and death agony for your triumph. + +Then the inexplicable charms of danger excite the sportsman's feelings; +his physical faculties, like those of the Indian, are doubled; he +grasps his rifle with a firmer clutch, and looks down the blade of his +hunting-knife with anxiety and yet with satisfaction. It grows dark, but +his eyes pierce the gloom--his life is at stake, but he forgets that it +is so; for the love of the chase, the wild pleasures of the huntsman, +have taken possession of his soul. Breathless, his heart thumping +against his chest, as if it would break its bounds, he listens, the +cloudy curtain rises, and with it the moon; the roebucks are heard in +the distance, then the stealthy steps of the wolves, afterwards the rush +of the boar: and now, gentlemen, the tragedy is about to +commence--choose your victims. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + _Mare_ No. 2.--Description of it--Not sought after by the sportsman--The + sick banker--The doctor's prescription--The patient's disgust at it--Is + at length obliged to yield--Leaves Paris for Le Morvan--Consequences to + the inmates of the chateau--The banker convalescent. + + +If the great _Mares_ No. 1, situated in the dark and silent depths of +the forest, far from every habitation, and where you find you are left +as much to yourself as the poor shipwrecked sailor supporting his +exhausted frame upon a single plank on the angry billows, are so +attractive, and so much coveted, though dangerous and difficult to +secure, the same cannot be said of those which lie in the vicinity of a +village, and which I shall call _Mare_ No. 2. + +These last are to be met with easily enough; but being so very readily +discovered, it is therefore rare to find near them the larger +descriptions of game,--though the sportsman may see a few thrushes, some +dozen of water-wagtails, and flocks of little impudent chaffinches, +greenfinches, &c., which come there to imbibe, hopping from stone to +stone, and singing in the willows; beyond these he will see nothing +worth the cap on the nipple of his gun. Nevertheless to him who is +without experience,--to the hunter who cannot read the language of the +forest on the bark of the trees, on the freshly trodden ground, or the +bent grass and broken flowers,--these pieces of water seem quite as +beautiful and well situated, indeed quite as desirable, as the others. + +Perhaps such an ignoramus might prefer them; for they are always more +open, more free from weeds, rushes and flags, and less dark; and at the +hour of _la chasse au poste_, the hour of twilight, they are as solitary +as the _Mare_ No. 1. But the savage beasts of the forest are not to be +deceived; their instinct tells them that at a quarter, or perhaps half a +mile from them, there is, though unseen and hidden in the thickness of +the trees, a farm, or two or three houses; and when they are not pressed +onward by the winter snows, or by maddening hunger, they stop,--for the +smell of man is not pleasant to their nostrils, the neighbourhood is not +agreeable to them, and they immediately withdraw from the spot. + +It is thus that these _Mares_ are always at any person's disposal; the +passing sportsman rarely makes more than a circuit round them; and if +one is occasionally found on their banks, he may at once be set down as +a beginner, who, having found the _Mares_ No. 1 in the vicinity all +occupied, has here installed himself for the evening in sheer vexation +and despair. Over these pools of troubled water, frequented during the +whole day by the inhabitants of the adjoining cottages, that eternal +stillness and imposing solitude, which are the delight of the wolf and +the boar, never reigns. + +The day has scarcely dawned ere the wood-cutters' wives, in their red +petticoats, with brown jugs on their heads, come to fill them there, or +to wash their vegetables; the cows to drink, the children to play at +ducks and drakes, or the men to water the horses. But a little before +nightfall all this going and coming, this trampling of heavy _sabots_, +the bellowings, oaths, and cracking of whips subside, and cease, as if +by magic, when the sun is down. The poultry and the peasants are equally +silent, their huts are closed, their beds are gained, and their dogs, +stretched motionless behind the door, snore and sleep soundly with open +ear, and every leaf without is still. + +The _chasseur a l'affut_, if inexperienced or not acquainted with the +country, while reconnoitring the spot during the last few minutes of the +twilight that remain, would never imagine that he was near an inhabited +spot; not a bark, not a sound, not one twinkling light in a cottage +window, not one wreath of ascending smoke is to be heard or seen. +Thinking therefore that he has made a grand discovery, he rubs his hands +with no little satisfaction, squats down at the foot of some tree, or in +the temporary shed on the bank, and believes he is going to kill a dozen +wolves at least. + +But, alas! it is in vain for him to open his eyes and his ears; nothing +is to be seen but one or two hideous bats, which flap their wings in his +face, and frighten him in the midst of a reverie. Nothing is on the +move; no newt or tadpole is playing in the water, and nothing can be +descried there but the rays of the moon, as she moves slowly o'er its +surface; nor is anything to be heard except the wind whistling through +the trees, or an occasional shot from the rifle of a brother sportsman, +who, more happy, more clever, and better placed than himself, may be +heard in the distance. I should not have thought of mentioning the +_Mares_ No. 2, so little do they deserve attention, if one of them had +not been the scene of a very strange adventure of which I was witness; +and as the description of it will give me an opportunity of speaking of +the _Mares_ No. 3, and of the third mode of taking woodcocks, I shall +profit by the circumstance to relate it. + +One day a _millionnaire_, a Lucullus, a rich banker of Paris, found +himself dreadfully ill: his body grew larger every twenty-four hours; +his neck sunk into his shoulders, his breathing became difficult, and +three or four times in the course of a week he was within a little of +being suffocated; as many times in the course of a month the gout, which +in the morning had been tearing his toes and his heels as if with hot +pincers, in the evening twisted his calves and his knees as if they were +being made into ropes. What was to be done under these circumstances? +The best physicians consulted together, and recommended him to order a +pair of hob-nailed shoes from a country shoemaker, and instantly leave +the capital. + +"Hob-nailed shoes, with donkey heels!" cried the banker, all amazed; +"and for what, in the name of goodness?" + +"Why, to run with in search of health over the wild moors and heaths, +and improve your figure by long walks in the mountains," was the reply. + +And as the only hope of health was obedience, he prepared his mind to +set off. It is true the doctors permitted him to carry with him his +cane, his flute, and his eye-glass; but he was obliged to leave behind +his carriages, his horses, his luxurious arm-chairs and his cooks; in +short, he was informed that, under the penalty of being quickly placed +under ground, and obliged to shake hands with his respectable ancestors, +and enjoy with them the nice white marble monuments under which they +reposed, he must, for the next year at least, make use of his own legs, +forget there were such things as _Rentes_, eat only when he felt hungry, +and drink when he was thirsty. + +What a sentence for a rich Parisian banker! to leave his splendid hotel +and his apartments, redolent with delicious perfumes, and play the +pedestrian up and down the footpaths in the woods, the mossy glades and +highway of the forest, or sit on a large stone at the top of a hill +under the mid-day sun, and inhale from the valleys the soft breezes, +laden with the odours of the new-mown hay, or the clover-fields in full +blossom. His box at the grand opera, lined with velvet, must too be left +behind, and many an adieu be given to the gauze-clad sylphides and +painted nightingales of that gay establishment. + +Yes, all these were to be exchanged for morning walks to the summit of +some mountain; to make his bow to Aurora, and listen to the joyous carol +of the larks chanting high in the air their hymns of praise, or +listening to their blithe little brothers of song, awakening in the +bushes, and fluttering, amidst a shower of pearls and rubies--those dewy +gems which hang in the sunny rays upon every branch. "Ah, it is all over +with me!" wheezed the plethoric banker, when the junior doctor of the +consultation of three informed him of their unanimous opinion. + +"It is all over with me, gentlemen; in the name of mercy what will +become of me, if I am put on the peasant's daily fare of buck-wheat and +roasted beans? Consider again, gentlemen." + +"It is a matter of necessity, sir," replied the trio; "your life is at +stake." + +"Dear doctors, withdraw these unwholesome words; open the consultation +afresh; pass once more in review all your scientific acquirements, your +great knowledge of chemistry, your hospital experience. Press, dear +gentlemen, between both your hands the pharmacopean sponge, and in the +name of mercy squeeze out for me some more agreeable remedy." + +"There is no other," replied the funereal-looking physicians. + +"What, is the house then really in danger?" + +"Danger! sir, why it is nearly on fire. Your heart is getting diseased, +your lungs are touched, your blood is actually scented and coloured with +the truffles you have eaten. Why, your very nose (pray excuse the +freedom of our remark), your roseate nose bears testimony to what we +say." + +"Alas, alas! this is I fear the truth; but, gentlemen, if I leave Paris, +what on earth will become of the Great Northern and the Orleans +Railways, and the funds,--my dividends, rents, and bad debts?" + +"And your feverish pulse, sir, your wrinkled liver, and your digestion, +which scarcely ever allows you to close your eyes?" + +"Yes! yes,--but my Spanish fives and Mexican bonds?" + +"And your bilious eyes and eyelids full of crows' feet, and the gout and +the rheumatism which excruciate you?--those horrid spiders which are +weaving their threads in the muscles of your calves?" + +"But my carrier-pigeons, gentlemen, source of my tenderest care; the +brokerage, the speculation for the account, and my good friend, the +Minister of the Interior, and of the _Travaux Publics_; and the snowball +of my fortune, which must stop unproductive till I recover;--how can I +leave all these to fate?" + +"Think of your respiration, which is disorganized, and the vital +principle, the torch of life, which flickers up and down in the socket, +and ere many weeks will be extinguished, unless you at once take our +advice." + +"What!" continued the votary of wealth,--"what! cannot gold purchase +health, most sapient doctors?" + +"No, sir; doctors are paid, that's all, and people cure themselves." + +"You persist, then, in saying that I am not even to take my head cook +with me?" + +"On no account whatever." + +"Then I am defunct already." + +"That you will be so, sir, in two months, if you remain here, there +cannot be a doubt." + +"Then, good heavens! where can I go? What am I to do without carriages, +without opera nightingales, and, above all things, without a head cook?" + +The night succeeding the consultation, the banker felt as if twenty +cork-screws had been driven into his calves, and he made, ere dawn, a +vow that he would leave the capital. This determination taken, the next +point to be decided was in what direction to go,--for it was not a +journey of pleasure he was about to take, but one of health; and for +once his riches were of no further use to him than to provide the means +of transit. His physicians, fashionable men, strange to say, were +sincere, and did not order him to Nice or Lucca, hot-baths, or mineral +waters, or even to the orange-groves of Hyeres, to which, when a rich +man cannot recover, they send him, in order that he may die comfortably +under Nature's warm blanket, the sun, inhaling with his last +inspirations the delicious scent of her flowers. To Spain, where, said +the invalid, they talk so loud and drink water, he would not go; nor to +Germany, the land of meerschaums and sour crout. Which direction +therefore was he to take? to which point of the compass was he to turn +the vessel's prow? + +Several times did the unhappy banker pass his geography in review, but +his knowledge of this science was indeed finite, and the Landes, +Picardy, and such like spots, alone presented themselves to his +imagination. In this predicament the light of friendship suddenly threw +a ray over his thinking faculties; he remembered my father, the +companion of his boyhood, with whom he had been brought up,--his great +friend, without doubt, but of whom he had not thought for the last ten +years. + +"By all the blue devils that dance in my brain!" said the unhappy +_millionnaire_, starting up on his bed of pain, as if he had a spring in +his back, and throwing at the nose of his astonished apothecary, who was +watching him, the draught presented to him,--"by the wig of my respected +grandfather,--by the beard of AEsculapius, I have found the real friend +who will pour over my head the oil of health." + +"My good sir," said his attendant, "pray calm yourself, and take this +pill" ... + +"Yes, that dear friend, he will set me all to rights--he will bring to +my heavy eyelids those peaceful slumbers which now, alas! I never +enjoy." + +"But, Sir," repeated the apothecary, "pray be so good as to lay down and +swallow this." + +"Back, felon of hell! horse-leech, son of a poultice! go, doctor of the +devil, and join your friend in black below." + +"But _Monsieur le Banquier_"---- + +"Off I say, off!--sinister raven, cease your croaking! Silence--take the +abominable drugs yourself--poison yourself, you wretch. Give me my +trousers, and let me dress myself. Hey, Bilboquet!--bring my hot water, +razors, and shaving soap. Hurrah! Phoebus, light the sun and put out +the stars; arise day! Into the saddle, postillions,--here, bring some +cigars. Hurrah! the wind is up; now, my stout boatmen, down to your +oars." "Halloo! halloo!" shouted his attendant, "help! help!" and he got +at both bells and rang away with might and main; but before any one came +the banker was out of bed, struck his attendant a blow in the eye, which +made him see one hundred and forty-six suns, and laid him upon the +floor, after which he commenced waltzing _en chemise_ in his delirium, +all round the room with a chair, dragging after him the unfortunate hero +of the pestle and mortar, and roaring at the top of his voice these +lines of Racine: + + Peut-etre on t'a conte la fameuse disgrace + De l'altiere Vasthi dont j'occupe la place, + Lorsque le Roi, centre elle enflamme de depit,-- + +followed by-- + + Quel profane en ces lieux ose porter ses pas? + Hola, gardes!-- + +At this moment a reinforcement most luckily arrived; but as in this +access of fever he defended himself against all comers like a bear, and +boxed away like an Englishman, they had no little difficulty in +securing him; at length, in spite of his violence, he was replaced in +his bed, like a sword into its sheath. There, however, he would not lay +quiet; first he tore the satin curtains, then he hugged his +richly-worked pillow to his breast, calling it his best and dearest +friend, and performed fifty other such antics. He obtained, in short, no +repose, until his secretary, who entered at his bidding half-dressed and +with one eye half shut, had written the following note to my father, +under his dictation,--a letter evidently written in a paroxysm of high +fever: + +"Friend of my heart, jessamine of my soul, bright party-coloured tulip +of my _souvenirs_, may the Creator pour upon your gray and venerable +head a stream from his flower-pot of blessings! + +"Dear Friend,--Several atrocious doctors, with pale noses, the very +sight of which gives one the cholic, and with black searching eyes, that +make one tremble, say that I am very ill,--that I shall die. They say +too that there is only one mode of cure, and that is to take my valuable +body into your beautiful province. It is the east wind they say, and +blue-bottles, corn-flowers, field-poppies, and the green turf; the song +of the nightingale and the beautiful moonlight nights; the hum of bees +and the bleating of sheep, which will effect this marvellous cure. It is +amongst the rocks and streams of your mountains, in long walks in your +forests, and in your valleys; in the innocent candour of your pretty +peasant girls, the pure water of your fountains, and the cream cheeses +of your dairies that I am told resides the power to retain here below my +soul, just ready to fly away. Alas! yes, I am forced to admit the fact; +I must say I am very ill, and it is my own fault;--yes, my own undoubted +fault. I have drank too deeply of voluptuous ease; I have tasted too +often the luscious grapes of forbidden pleasures. I am no longer +virtuous enough to wish to see the sun rise, and hence it is that I am +suffering intensely in the capacity of a human pincushion, in which, one +after the other, the sharpest and most pointed pins have stuck +themselves, namely, every infirmity and every disease that mortal man is +heir to. + +"In this delicate and distressing position, dear friend, I thought of +you: yes, to you, to you only, shall I owe my restoration to health. Do +not therefore be surprised if, in the course of a few days, you should +see my shadow approach your hospitable door; and prepare for it, I beg +you, a small room and a bed of dried leaves, coarse bread, and a jug of +water. It seems that in order to regenerate my blood I shall want all +these; and I shall be fortunate if, in seeking a perfect restoration to +health, I am not obliged to be a swine-herd or keep sheep, to dig, cut, +and saw wood, pick spinach, or weed the flower-beds! Quick, my friend; +light with all convenient haste the altar on which we will burn again +the incense and benjamin of friendship. Blow again the sparks now so +nearly extinguished of our happy boyish days; revive again the holy +flames of our youthful affections; and, above all things, have the +scissors ready which are to cut the Gordian knot of my complicated +diseases. Soon, in shaking you by the hand, my shadow shall say much +more." + + Yours, &c., + + +Fifteen days after the receipt of this extraordinary composition, the +banker, escorted by a lean and cadaverous-looking doctor, arrived at our +_chateau_, half strangled with a churchyard cough, and in a state of +apparently hopeless debility. He was evidently very, very ill; and if it +had not been for the sincere friendship my father had for him, I really +do not know how we could have supported the dark cloud which his +presence seemed to throw upon our house for nearly nine mortal weeks. + +No one dared either to move or speak: if you wished to laugh, it could +only be on the terrace; if to blow your nose, it was to be done in the +cellar; and as to sneezing, one was obliged to go to the bottom of the +garden. The horses' feet were wrapped up in hay-bands, so that no sound +should be heard in the court-yard; the servants went about the house in +list shoes, and all the approaches to it were knee-deep in straw. There +was an end to the _fanfares_ of the huntsman's horn, and the rollicking +chorus; guns, shot and powder, were all placed under lock and key; the +kennel was mute, and the muzzled dogs looked piteously at one another, +and hung their heads, as if they had given themselves up to the certain +prospect of being drowned. The very hares knew how matters were, and +passed to and fro before the garden-windows; and a stray wolf, which +came one evening into the court-yard, sat on his hind-quarters and +looked us impudently in the face; as to the birds, they ate up very +nearly every peach and apricot we had. The silence of the grave reigned +everywhere--the house seemed a very sepulchre, in which nothing could be +heard but the monotonous liquid bubblings of the fountains, the ticking +of the clocks, and the sighing breezes that whistled through the +casements. + +Fairly worn out with this state of things, I was thinking seriously of +leaving for the gay swamps of Holland, when a crisis occurred in the +banker's disorder, and after a severe struggle, in which every bone of +his body seemed to twist itself round, he was declared by his pallid +doctor out of danger--saved. Surrounding his bed, we drank with no +little joy to his perfect recovery, and during one entire week we +suspended on the walls of his bed-room, according to the custom in Le +Morvan, garlands of lilies and _vervenia_, interwoven with green foliage +and wild thyme. From this time he improved daily, and three months after +no one would have recognized the sick man; his face became quite rosy, +and his eyes looked full of returning health. With a gun on his +shoulder, he followed us nimbly through the vineyards, never flinched +from his bottle, sang barcarolles with the ladies, made declarations of +love to all the young girls, promised to marry each, once at least, and +danced away in the evening under the acacias with the nymphs of the +village, to whom he had always some secret to tell behind the trees, or +in some snug little corner. The woodcock season having arrived during +his stay, which was now nearly over, we determined that he should be +introduced to _la chasse aux Mares_. + +Pardon me, kind reader, for all this gossip by the way, but this is the +point at which I wished to arrive. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + Summer months in the Forest--_Mare_ No. 3--Description of it--The + Woodcock fly--The Banker has a day's sport--Arrives at the + _Mare_--Difficult to please in his choice of a hut--Proceeds to a + larger _Mare_--His friends retire--The Banker on the alert for a + Wolf or a Boar--Fires at some animal--The unfortunate + discovery--Rage of the Parisian--Pays for his blunder, and recovers + his temper. + + +During the months of June, July, and August, the great heats in our +forests are suffocating, and the woodcock, which during the livelong day +has been squatting under some mossy root, is impressed with the idea +that a bathe in a clear pool of cold fresh water would be very conducive +to its health. Thus directly the sun, red as a shot which leaves the +furnace, falls below the horizon, and that the clouds surrounding the +spot where it disappears, at first lurid and bright like fire, then +yellow like a sea of gold, become cool, pale, and at length sink into +more sober hues, the woodcock,--which waits only for this moment to open +its wings and promenade the neighbourhood,--comes forth and commences a +study of the winds. Guided by instinct, and by the fresh currents of +air that float unseen in the atmosphere, she follows the sweet upland +breezes, and soon arrives at the spring or piece of water of which she +is in search. + +The _Mares_ No. 3, in which the woodcock more especially loves to take a +bath, are almost as difficult to find as the one that I discovered, for +they are hidden in the depths of the forest; like it, also, they are for +the most part small, encircled by the thick foliage of the surrounding +trees, and consequently very dark; and the more this is the case, the +more solitary they are, and therefore the more sought after by this +bird. A woodcock never bathes in the _Mare_ No. 1; for to them resort +one after another all the large game, or those No. 2, as these are too +open. The woodcocks are discreet and bashful, and, like the wives of the +Sultan, love a retired bath-room, where they may disport themselves on +banks ever fresh and green, perfumed with wild flowers, and immerse +their fair persons in pellucid waters that have never been tainted with +a drop of blood, or covered with feathers torn from the victim of the +sportsman's gun. Thus it is therefore that the _Mares_ frequented by the +woodcock are so entirely hidden by the thick and falling branches, so +enveloped in deep shade, that you must have eyes made on purpose to be +able to discover their large brown bodies plunging in the crystal water +and wading amongst the flags. In aid of the sportsman, now as in the +spring, a little fly comes buzzing and wheeling about in the air to warn +the sportsman of the arrival of the birds, which, directly the moon's +white horn is seen glancing between the trees, arrive flapping their +wings in small parties of two and three at a time. One afternoon, when +the wind blew soft, and the sun was refulgent in the azure above, we +proposed an excursion in the forest to our friend the banker, who was +now quite convalescent. + +"What! do you wish to give me up to the beasts?" cried he, jumping up +from his seat. + +"Not at all, dear sir, pray don't be alarmed; we are merely desirous of +making you acquainted with the most innocent, the least dangerous sport +of the _chasse a l'affut_," and having convinced him, we started. +Everything went well as far as the entrance to the forest; but there the +_millionnaire_, little accustomed to walk over the stumps of underwood +and amongst the thorns, he began to drop into the rear, stopping every +now and then to rest against some tree, or disentangle his legs from +some yards of bramble, puffing and blowing, and ejaculating Oh's! and +Ha's! by dozens. + +"Courage! sir," we said, "courage! we shall arrive too late; one brisk +half-hour's walk, and we are at our posts." + +"Upon my word, gentlemen, you are really considerate; I walk, I suspect, +quite as fast as you. But"--and how was he delighted to find an excuse +for a halt--"you spoke of a _chasse a l'affut_, hiding for what I should +like to know--for bears, panthers, or crocodiles? is it this kind of +game we are to watch for?" + +"Oh! no--for woodcocks." + +"Woodcocks!--what, have you made me walk since the morning through +perfect beds of briars and over miles of large stones, escalade the +mountains, descend precipices, and brought me through water-courses and +dark ravines, to kill a few woodcocks?" + +"Would you prefer confronting a wild boar?" + +"Certainly," said the puffing convalescent; "if there was no chance of +danger, I should infinitely prefer killing a boar." + +"For to-day this is impossible." + +"Why so?" + +"Why, in the first place, there are no boars in this wood, and it is too +late to take you to those which they frequent." + +"Then we shall find only woodcocks in the place we are going to?" + +"Nothing else; at least during the half-hour we shall remain." + +"And if we were to remain more than half an hour?" + +"Oh! then we might perhaps by accident see a roebuck--perhaps a hungry +wolf." + +"A hungry wolf!--the deuce! And if there should come by chance a wolf to +the _Mare_ when I shall be all alone, what must I do?" + +"Why kill it, to be sure." + +"To be sure, why of course I should kill the ferocious animal,"--and the +banker, though smacking his fingers and whistling as if quite +unconcerned, looked very grave. Continuing our walk, we arrived at the +_Mares_. + +"Goodness," said my companion, "how dark it is here,"--looking into each +hut that was shown him. "Misericorde! if I were to ensconce myself in +this leafy cabin, this gloomy sombre hole, I should fancy myself seated +at the bottom of a blacking-bottle--I respectfully decline the honour of +occupying the hut." + +"Very well, let us proceed to another," we exclaimed. But the second +was pronounced more lugubrious and melancholy-looking than the first, +and the third not more agreeable than the preceding one. + +"It is no longer a matter of doubt," said the Parisian; "you are a +family of owls. What! place myself in these holes, these mouse-traps, in +these tumuli of leaves, where the archfiend himself, habituated to every +kind of darkness, could not distinguish anything?--thank you, gentlemen. +As to you, you can see clear; but by the great telescope of the +observatory, if I were to get into one of these rustic ovens, I should +not in five minutes be able to distinguish the end of my nose--I should +not be able to find my way to my breeches-pocket." + +"But, my dear sir," said I to him, when alone, for my two friends were +now snugly seated in the rejected huts, "you are very difficult to +please, and it becomes embarrassing, for these cabins are all alike; +when you have seen one you have seen a dozen. Now this, believe me, is a +capital one; come, seat yourself here." + +"I am much obliged to you, not that one; for this pool of water in +particular has something very sinister about it; the spot feels raw, and +has an unpleasant wolfish air." + +What was to be done? While debating thus, I remembered that at some +little distance from the place where we then were, stood two large +farms, Les Fermes des Amandiers, and that, at a distance of half a mile +beyond them, there was a magnificent _Mare_, in the style, it is true, +of _Mare_ No. 2, large and open, and yet it would be as useless to wait +for woodcocks there as it would be to hope to catch a trout in the +basins of Trafalgar-square. Such a spot seemed to me admirably +calculated for the banker; I resolved, therefore, to conduct him to it. + +"If this hut does not please you," said I, "follow me, and quickly." + +"Where are you going to take me?" + +"Oh! do not alarm yourself, I have just thought of a place that will +suit you exactly: a charming spot, delightfully scented by a thicket of +honeysuckles; but you must be on the alert. See, the sun is nearly below +the summit of the tallest oaks--we shall not have more than one hour of +daylight; and I must return here." + +When we arrived at the _Mare_ of which I was in search, the immediate +neighbourhood of it was already silent and deserted. "Heavens!" said the +enchanted banker, "what a delightful spot! Quick!--where shall I place +myself? Let us look for the hut--ha! here it is, but half in ruins;" for +it had not, in all probability, been occupied three times in the last +three years; we were obliged therefore to cut some branches, and roughly +repair it; and the banker, having crept into the interior, like a sweep +up a chimney, requested to have his last instructions. + +"Well, when night has nearly closed in," said I, laughing under my +moustache, "be on the _qui vive_. The woodcocks will be here, but move +not; be like a statue for a few minutes; let them approach--let them +come, fly and whirl, and look about them; then, when reassured by your +silence, they will fall into the shallow water, paddle in the grass, and +plunging throw their legs into the air. At that moment they are yours. +Take your time and a deliberate aim, and miss them not. The sport over, +remain where you are, and on our return we will join you." + +"All you say is very clear and very pretty," replied the banker; "but I +feel already a horrid cramp in my left leg; and if I am to remain +crumpled up in this hut, like a Turk taking his coffee, or like a monkey +gnawing an apple, when you come for me I shall have lost the use of my +limbs." + +"Oh! if that is likely to be your fate, walk about--stretch your legs; +you have yet twenty minutes before dark. Adieu, sir, adieu; and good +luck attend you; for myself, I must be off to my post." But I had gone +scarcely thirty yards when he shouted after me, "Oh! Henri--my dear +young friend--come back. Here! see, a pack of wolves! What do I say? no; +a whole family of bears has passed this way! Look! the border of the +_Mare_ is ploughed up by the feet of these savage brutes." + +"Bears, sir! those marks are merely the trampling of the shepherds' +dogs." + +"Shepherds' dogs! Stoop down--look closer; do you mean to tell me that +the shepherds' dogs have made these prints of cloven feet in the mud?" + +"No! those are holes made by the young calves from some neighbouring +farm, that came to drink here," I replied, repressing a laugh. + +"Nonsense! Henri; calves, indeed! they are the marks of buffaloes and +wild boars. You cannot deceive me; for I know something about such +things. Why, this _Mare_ is, I have no doubt, the rendezvous of all the +beasts of the forest for ten miles round. Thank you, I don't intend to +remain here." + +"Not remain! why you will, if you are correct, have far better fun than +we shall. Come, get into the hut." + +"Remain with me, and divide the honour of the sport." + +"Me? no: I thank you,--adieu! and keep your eyes about you." + +"Halloo! Henri, come back. By the spectacles of my grandmother, what +will become of me? I am a fool! I have lost my sight--I have forgot my +eye-glass." + +"Try to do without it." + +"Impossible! it is useless--without an eye-glass I cannot see a yard +before me; I shall most certainly leave this _Mare_. I shall be off with +you." + +"My dear sir," said I to him, "you must know and feel that if I thought +there was the most remote chance of danger, I would not leave you alone; +you really have nothing to fear--if you come with me, you will be +dreadfully in the way, and without doing the least possible good. The +huts are so very small, that there is only sufficient room for one: we +shall kill nothing, and be laughed at into the bargain." + +"But these terrible quadrupeds; what if they should come and devour me +when you are gone?" + +"I tell you you have nothing to fear." + +"Very well, then I will believe you; after all, I am not a coward, but +a man: a royal tiger would not frighten me, and in spite of these sombre +looking trees waving to and fro, this silence, and the solitary look of +the place, I remain; yes, by Jupiter, I remain; only barricade me in the +rear, cut some thick branches, palisade me well round--there, now I +think you may leave me, I require nothing more--and yet one word; if I +were in danger, do you think you would hear me if I called?" + +"Certainly, a whisper may almost be heard in the forest at night--the +trees conduct the slightest sound." + +"Well, then, give me a shake of your hand. Adieu." + +"Adieu, sir; be patient, and, above all, wait for our return." + +"Let me alone for that; never fear my leaving this hut alone." + +"And cover your head well, for nothing is so likely to give one cold as +the night air rushing into the ears." + +"And mind, now, don't pray forget me. If you are not here in +three-quarters of an hour, I shall fire signals of distress, and make +the forest ring again with my maledictions." + +But without waiting to hear anything further, I was off, and soon +reached my post. The sport, as usual, was pretty good; my friends and +myself killed four couple of woodcocks, and the _affut_ over, we turned +our steps towards the banker's cabin. No report of a gun had yet been +heard in his direction, but suddenly, and when we were scarcely five +hundred paces from the hut, and I was on the point of announcing our +arrival by a shrill whistle--two barrels were discharged one after the +other--then followed a long and heavy groan, and after that a cry of +distress. In a few seconds we bounded to the spot, and found our friend +stretched on the grass outside his hut, without his hat, his eyes +staring wildly about him, and his hair in disorder. He was trembling +with emotion, and pointed to a black animal, half hid in the water and +the rushes, which seemed very large, and was rolling from side to side +in the agonies of approaching death. Fright, downright fright, had tied +the banker's tongue; and while he is collecting his senses, allow me to +tell you, good reader, what had occurred in our absence. + +Dumb and motionless, as directed, he had, during half an hour, waited +anxiously for the woodcocks; but the woodcocks had for a very long time +forgotten the road to this _Mare_; not one came--there was no sport for +him. He had already fancied he heard us returning in the distance, and +that his cramped legs would be set at liberty, and his twisted body +again assume the perpendicular, when all at once a cold perspiration +stood upon his brow, terror seized him; for behind, nay, almost close to +him, he heard advancing the heavy tramp and loud breathing of a wild +beast, and before he had time to observe what kind of an animal it was, +the brute passed so close to the hut that he pressed it down, and rushed +on to the _Mare_. More dead than alive, the banker lay half-squeezed in +a corner of his cabin, and panting for breath, dared scarcely move. +After a few minutes, however, he hazarded a careful glance outside, and +not twenty paces from him saw the immense quadruped bathing, and rolling +himself quietly in the water. + +"It is a gigantic boar," said he to himself, "as large as a horse, and +as old as Methuselah--no doubt the patriarch of the forest--what tusks +he must have! Let us observe." And with a courage which did him credit, +he, after some time, suppressed his fear, and felt in the pocket of his +game-bag for two balls, which, with trembling hands, he slipped into +his gun. After this he again looked out, and reconnoitred the movements +of the enemy; but so great was the obscurity, that he could discover +nothing--unless, indeed, it was a dark mass which walked and jumped +hither and thither, rolled, frolicked, and rejoiced in his refreshing +bath. The heart of the Parisian was greatly agitated, and beat as if it +would split his flannel waistcoat; nevertheless, he took good and +deliberate aim at the black object in front, and though exceedingly +terrified, he cocked his gun, and in a perfect fever of excitement let +fly both barrels, falling immediately backwards in a corner of his hut, +perfectly bewildered with his own courage. A deep groan followed, and at +the end of a few minutes of agony and suspense, our friend, seeing no +tiger in the act of springing upon him, hazarded another look, when he +still heard the creature moaning, and groaning, and floundering in the +water. + +The fact was, he had by a miracle, and without seeing, done that which +he never could have done at mid-day,--his two balls had perforated the +animal's head and neck. Observing the monster raising itself with +difficulty, and endeavouring to withdraw its legs from the sticky mud in +which they were fixed, the courage of despair rushed into his heart--he +left the hut, upsetting everything in his way, and precipitated himself +upon his adversary with a view of despatching him with the butt end of +his gun, or making him retreat further into the _Mare_, when imagine his +consternation and fear,--at the very moment his uplifted arm was +stretched out, like Jupiter's in the act of hurling a thunderbolt, the +animal raised himself on his haunches, looked him full in the face, +opened two enormous jaws, put up two very long ears, and instead of a +roar full of rage and ferocity, sent forth the most agonizing and +dolorous bray that was ever heard from the throat of any ass, French, +English, or Spanish! Yes! it was an ass the banker had mortally wounded; +an unfortunate ass, which, driven by thirst and the heat of the weather, +had left his shed at the neighbouring farm-house, to quench it and +refresh himself with a bath. + +Surprise, shame, horror, and confusion began to dance a polka in the +banker's brain, and made him utter the hoarse cry which we had heard. +While we were yet gazing at each other the poor creature, by a last +effort, raised his bleeding head once more above the water, and +collecting all the strength he had left, scrambled from the _Mare_, +gave a half-suffocating and plaintive bray, and casting a look full of +reproach upon the gasping banker, which seemed to say, "I die, but I +forgive you," fell dead at our feet. + +A convulsion of laughter from the party, now all assembled, followed; +even the birds, awakened from their slumbers, began to sing and partake +of the general hilarity. + +"Halloo! Mr. Three per Cent.," said one, "this is what you call +sporting, is it--killing starved woodcocks? Fie! sir." + +"You are three infamous vagabonds," replied the Parisian, catching his +breath, and picking up his hat. + +"What! sir." + +"Why, you are a trinity of rascals, I repeat." + +"Why, what's the matter?" + +"Abominable hypocrites, I say; this is a piece of acting, a trick which +you have kindly put upon me--this ass was driven here by you, or by some +one at your suggestion; I see clearly how it is." + +"See clearly, do you? it is a pity, then, you did not a few minutes +ago." + +"It is an infernal plot, I say; think you that I came into this wretched +country of forests to kill donkeys?" + +"Well! but whose fault is it, sir; why did you not bring your +eye-glass?" + +"My eye-glass; I don't require one, gentlemen, to enable me to see that +you have made a fool of me." + +"My dear sir, reflect for a moment." + +"No, gentlemen, I feel indignant at the paltry joke you have played upon +me--you knew that my sight was weak, and on that infirmity you have +practised a very shameful trick; you have said to yourselves, 'Send an +ass to this Parisian, he will no doubt take it for a wild boar.' Be off, +gentlemen, depart; let me have a clear horizon, or I shall proceed to +extremity." + +"Monsieur le Banquier, if you do not become a little more reasonable, we +shall leave you to your reflections and to yourself, and pretty pickings +you will be for the wolves." + +"So much the better; I wish to remain, I desire it; and after the gross +insult you have offered me, I shall certainly not be beholden to you as +a guide, or return to the town in your company." And he kicked the dead +carcass before him in his rage. + +"But, Monsieur le Banquier, the night is getting chilly and damp, and +remember you are only just convalescent; come, let us be off." + +"Gentlemen, I have already told you I shall not accompany you." + +"Why, this is madness, sir." + +"Anything you please; but thus it shall be. I will not leave this wood +until I have killed a wolf; yes, I must have a wolf; it is only in the +blood of a wolf that I can wash out the insult I have received; and I +will remain in the forest eight days, fifteen, three months, if +necessary. I will live on acorns, ants, toad's eggs, and roots, but by +the soul of that stupid brute that lays there," and he gave the deceased +ass a second kick, "I will not budge until I have killed a wolf: enable +me to slaughter a wolf, and I will follow you; nay, what is more, +forgive you." + +"Monsieur le Banquier, let us in the first place tie a stone round the +neck of this unfortunate animal, and throw his body into the _Mare_, and +then, as we are the only witnesses of this adventure, we swear that we +will never divulge it to any one, or make the slightest allusion to it; +and, as we are men of honour, you will of course believe us;--the secret +shall be kept inviolable. On the other hand, as we are to a certain +extent responsible for your health, and as your remaining here any +longer in this cold wind will seriously endanger it, do not feel +discomposed if we defer to another day the pleasure of seeing you kill a +wolf, and request you will accompany us back to the _chateau_." + +With various flattering speeches and consoling words, to heal his +mortification, we at length succeeded in bringing him away with us; many +a laugh had we on our road home, and many were the promises given that +we would never reveal the events of the evening. But, alas! the secret +came out on the following day, for before twelve o'clock had struck, a +peasant came knocking at the door, howling, crying, bawling like a blind +beggar, and demanding who had killed his ass. His importunity succeeded; +the murderer was brought to light, the banker cheerfully paid for his +shot, and laughed heartily at the adventure; but in spite of his +apparent philosophy, I remarked that from that moment he never met an +ass that he did not turn away his head; and this is the kind of game +that one finds in _Mare_ No. 2. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + The _Cure_ of the Mountain--Toby Gold Button--Hospitality--The + _Cure's_ pig--His hard fate and reflections--The _Cure_ of the + plain--His worth and influence--The agent of the Government--Landed + Proprietors--Their influence--The Orator--Dialogue with a Peasant. + + +If the Burgundian curates dwelling in the richest parts of the province +are fat, sleek, and jovial members of the Establishment,--if in their +cellars are to be found the best and most generous wines, and on their +tables the most exquisite dishes,--the _cures_ of that portion of Le +Morvan which is immediately adjacent to Burgundy enjoy the same +abundance, and appreciate the advantages of good living equally with +them. But this is not the case with their _confreres_ who reside in the +uplands, amongst the arid and volcanic mountains, without roads, and the +thickly timbered hill-district which joins the Nivernais. There the +village pastors are poor, thin, and badly fed; fairly buried in the +forest, and surrounded by a population more wretched and squalid than +the rats of their own churches;--they seem as it were abandoned by +everybody. That which I am about to relate will prove this, and show +what a deplorable existence theirs is, and the ingenious methods to +which they are obliged to have recourse to keep up a fair outside. + +One of them thus exiled to a most deserted part of our forests, and who, +the whole year, except on a few rare occasions, lived only on fruit and +vegetables, hit upon a most admirable expedient for providing an animal +repast to set before the _cures_ of the neighbourhood, when one or the +other, two or three times during the year, ventured into these dreadful +solitudes, with a view of assuring himself with his own eyes that his +unfortunate colleague had not yet died of hunger. The _cure_ in question +possessed a pig, his whole fortune: and you will see, gentle reader, the +manner in which he used it. + +Immediately the bell of his presbytery announced a visitor, (the bell +was red with rust, and its iron tongue never spoke unless to announce a +formal visit,) and that his cook had shown his clerical friend into the +parlour, the master of the house, drawing himself up majestically, said +to his housekeeper (_cures_ fortunately always have, cousins, nieces, or +house-keepers), as Louis XIV. might have said to Vatal, "Brigitte, let +there be a good dinner for myself and my friend." Brigitte, although she +knew there were only stale crusts and dried peas in her larder, seemed +in no degree embarrassed by this order; she summoned to her assistance +"Toby, the Carrot," so called because his hair was as red as that of a +native of West Galloway, and leaving the house together, they both went +in search of the pig. + +Toby the Carrot, a youth of seventeen, was the presbyter's page, a poor +half-starved devil that the _cure_ had taken into his service, who +lodged him badly, boarded him worse, and gave him no clothes at all; but +who, nevertheless, in his moments of good-humour--they were rare--and no +doubt to recompense him for so many drawbacks, would call him "Toby +Gold-button." At this innocent little pleasantry, this touch of +affability, Toby grinned from ear to ear, made a deep reverence, and put +the compliment carefully into his pocket, regretting however, no doubt, +that he had nothing more substantial and savoury than this to eat with +his coarse dry bread. Toby was a very useful servitor to the _cure_; he +was always on the alert; fat did not check his rapid movements, and from +the time the Angelus rang in the morning to Vespers in the evening, his +long skinny legs were constantly going. He drew the water, peeled and +washed the onions, blacked the shoes--and how _cure's_ shoes do +shine!--rang the chapel-bell, gathered the acorns for the pig, intoned +the Amen when his master said mass, swept and weeded the garden, snared +the thrushes--which he cooked and eat in secret--and, dressed in a white +surplice, carried the cross and the Viaticum, and accompanied the _cure_ +at night when on his way to offer the last consolations of religion to +some dying poacher in the forest. These expeditions were sometimes +across the mountains, and along the dry bed of some torrent, in which, +according to Toby's notion, they would have certainly perished had not +the _Bon Dieu_ been with them. + +But we must return to our parson's pig, which after a short skirmish was +caught by Brigitte and her carrotty assistant; and notwithstanding his +cries, his grunts, his gestures of despair and supplication, the inhuman +cook, seizing his head, opened a large vein in his throat, and relieved +him of two pounds of blood; this, with the addition of garlic, shallots, +mint, wild thyme and parsley, was converted into a most savoury and +delicious black-pudding for the _cure_, and his friend, and being +served to their reverences smoking hot on the summit of a pyramid of +yellow cabbage, figured admirably as a small Vesuvius and a centre dish. +The surgical operation over, Brigitte, whose qualifications as a +sempstress were superior, darned up the hole in the neck of the +unfortunate animal, and he was then turned loose until a fresh supply of +black-puddings should be required for a similar occasion. This wretched +pig was never happy: how could he be so? Like Damocles of Syracuse, he +lived in a state of perpetual fever; terror seized him directly he heard +the _cure's_ bell, and seeing in imagination the uplifted knife already +about to glide into his bacon, he invariably took to his heels before +Brigitte was half way to the door to answer it. + +If, as usual, the peal announced a diner-out, Brigitte and Gold-button +were soon on his track, calling him by the most tender epithets, and +promising that he should have something nice for his supper, skim-milk, +&c.; but the pig, with his painful experience, was not such a fool as to +believe them; hidden behind an old cask, some faggots, or lying in a +deep ditch, he remained silent as the grave, and kept himself close as +long as possible. + +Discovered, however, he was sure to be at last, when he would rush into +the garden, and running up and down it like a mad creature, upset +everything in his way; for several minutes it was a regular +steeple-chase--across the beds, now over the turnips, then through the +gooseberry-bushes; in short, he was here, there, and everywhere; but in +spite of all his various stratagems to escape the fatal incision, the +poor pig always finished by being seized, tied, thrown on the ground, +and bled: the vein was then once more cleverly sewn up, and the inhuman +operators quietly retired from the scene to make the _cure's_ far-famed +black-pudding. Half dead upon the spot where he was phlebotomized, the +wretched animal was left to reflect under the shade of a tulip-tree on +the cruelty of man, on their barbarous appetites; cursing with all his +heart the poverty of Morvinian curates, their conceited hospitality, of +which he was the victim, and their brutal affection for pig's blood. + +I shall now endeavour to give the reader a description of the curate of +the plain; but he should clearly understand that I do not present this +character to him as the general standard of ecclesiastical +excellence,--quite the contrary; I am sorry to say I think it an +exception. My sketch, therefore, applies only to those _cures_, who +reside in a remote rural district like that of Le Morvan; I advance +nothing that I have not seen myself, and if I should ever have the +pleasure of meeting any of my English friends in Le Morvan, I could +introduce them to ten _cures_ one and all similar in every respect to +the ecclesiastic I am about to pourtray. + +In the interior of this district, that is to say in the midst of her +rich plains, and in the hilly but not mountainous parts of it, the +_cures_ are quite of another stamp; less poor than the herbivorous +gentleman we have just described, but not so well to do as those of +Burgundy; living under a state of things altogether peculiar to +themselves, far from the great cities, and yet in direct communication +with them, they are obliged by a common interest to identify themselves +with the events of the day. Every curate of the plain possesses an +immense influence in his parish and neighbourhood, and as at a moment +their support may be of great use in a political point of view, the +government, which is alive to everything, caresses, smiles on, and +cajoles them. + +In the moorland districts, also, and in the little villages which border +the great forests, the _cures_ are everything, and do everything. They +perform the part of judge, doctor and apothecary, banker and architect, +carpenter and schoolmaster; they give the designs for the cottages, mark +the boundaries of estates, receive and put out the savings of their +flocks, marry, baptize, and bury, offer consolation to the afflicted, +encourage the unfortunate, purchase the crops, and sell a neighbour's +vineyard. They represent the sun, by the influence of whose rays +everything germinates and lives; it is their hand--the hand of +justice--that arrests and heals all quarrels; the unselfish source from +whence good counsels flow--the moral charter from which the peasant +reads and learns the duties of a citizen. + +Ask not the population of our plains and forests, and secluded +agricultural districts, to which political party they belong; if they +are republicans, royalists, socialists or communists, reds or blues, +whites or tricolor,--they know nothing of all this. Their +opinions--their religion--are those of _Monsieur le Cure_. They know his +prudence, his charity, his good sense; they know he loves them like a +father; that he would not leave them for a bishopric--no, not for a +cardinal's scarlet hat;--that as he has lived, so will he die with them: +that is enough for them. Thus they consult him when they wish to form +an opinion for themselves, much in the same way as a sportsman, anxious +to take the field, looks up at the chanticleer on some village-steeple +to know what he ought to think of the cloudy sky above; and when they +see the good man sauntering past their cottages, with head erect and +animated step, smiling, and evidently full of cheerful, charitable +thoughts, and on good deeds intent, kissing the little children, giving +a rosy apple to one, and a playful tap to another; offering a sly word +of hope to the young girls, and a few kind ones to the aged and +infirm,--all the village is elated; and the old maids fail not to +present him with a fat fowl, or some such substantial expression of +their respect. But if, alas! the good _cure_ should appear walking with +a slow and solemn step, his hands behind his back, his eyes fixed upon +the ground, and an anxious and thoughtful look upon his brow, his flock +gaze at one another, and whisper in an under tone that something is +amiss. + +At the epoch of political convulsions and revolutions, when systems and +governments, men and ideas, arise and disappear, as if they went by +steam,--when the authorities in the great towns wish to interfere with +the police regulations and customs that govern the agricultural +classes,--when they attempt to force them to gallop at full speed on the +high road of progress as they call it, and that to attain this desirable +end, handsome young men arrive from Paris in black coats and white +neckcloths, furnished with a marvellous flow of eloquent sophisms, +pretending to prove to the simple and honest peasants that in order to +be more free, happy, and rich, they must, without further ado, kill, +burn, and destroy,--the villagers, quite mystified, listen with open +mouth; but as to understanding what the gentleman in black--the dark +shadow of the government of progress--so glibly states, he might as well +be talking Turkish or Japanese. Every one looks at _Monsieur le Cure_, +they scan his face, and ask him what they are to do; and let him only +feel angry or disgusted with the wordy nonsense, and just make one sign, +or raise one finger, and 1200--aye, 2000 men would in a trice surround +him, and send the orator and all his staff to preach their pestilential +doctrines under the turf, and this without more ceremony and remorse +than if they were so many mad dogs. Poor fools! who think it possible to +change a people in a few weeks, and imagine that a fine discourse from +lips unknown and unloved will have a deeper effect upon men's minds +than the admonitions of a pastor, whose life has been without reproach, +and adorned with every practical virtue. + +Yes, the influence exercised in our rural districts by the _cures_ is +great, and this influence is well merited, for it is never abused--and +never used unless for the benefit and happiness of the flock confided to +their care. Without any motive of a personal nature, without ambition in +any sense to which that word can apply, they preach the Catholic +religion in all its simplicity, accepting and considering as brothers +all those who really desire to follow the example of their Saviour +Christ--all those who really love to do good; unworldly and unselfish, +they would think themselves dishonoured, their reputation sullied, if +the gown, which gives them in the eyes of the people a sacred character, +served as a cloak, a pretext to cover a dishonourable or disgraceful +action. + +It is also remarkable, and speaks volumes in their favour, that the +bishops are almost always at war with these poor and self-denying +_cures_, and would wish to see them take more interest in temporal +affairs, which they do not in the least understand; they would fain put +into their mouths the language of anger and bitter feeling, alike +foreign to their natures and the religion of their Divine master. The +large proprietors also, those who live on their estates and do not press +hard upon their dependants, enjoy great consideration, and share largely +with the _cures_ the hold they have on the affections of the people. +They frequently direct the opinions of the masses, and, with the +exception of their pastors, are the only class our rural population know +and revere. As to the generality of our statesmen, good, bad, or +indifferent, their names, brilliant as they may be, are not half so well +known in our villages as that of the most obscure labourer, the humble +artizan who knows how to file a saw or make a wheel. + +"Who is that gentleman, sir?" said a Morvinian of the plain to me one +day, pointing to a tall thin man, with a bald head, and a pair of gold +spectacles on his nose,--a notability of the legislative assembly who +was going to step into the village tribune. + +"That gentleman?" I replied; "he is an orator." + +"Ah! an orator: and pray what sort of a bird is that? what is he going +to chirrup about?" + +"An orator is not a bird, my good fellow; he does not sing, he makes +very fine speeches." + +"And what of them?" + +"What of them? why they teach men their duty." + +"Their duty in what?" continued the peasant, with his pinching logic. +"Is it the duty of a father, of a son, of a soldier, of a baker?" + +"Not at all; the duty of a citizen." + +"Citizen? I don't understand, sir," said the peasant. + +"Well, your political duties, if you like it better." + +"I am still none the wiser. And so this fine gentleman, with his yellow +spectacles and bald head, is not going to tell us anything about crops, +vineyards, planting, or sowing?" + +"No; but he will teach you your duty as a man, as a Frenchman, a +citizen--a member of the great human family; he will teach you your +rights; what you can and should demand of your government under the +articles 199, 305, 1202, 9999 of the charter--the last charter." + +"Sir, I am ashamed to have troubled you; I thank you much for your +explanation; I wish you a very good morning; for mathematics you see, +sir, do send me to sleep, and our _cure_ will tell me all about it on +Sunday. I shall go back to the forest, and finish my job of yesterday." + +And are not these simple-minded men much in the right? is not all the +good sense on their side?--they, who living by the axe, the plough, and +the produce of the earth, think only of their trees and their fields, +and ask of God but health and strength to work, rain and sun to nourish +the vines and gild their harvests. They leave to those who possess their +confidence, because they have never deceived them, the care of their +political interests; the care of setting and keeping them in the right +path, and of directing them in that current of life, slow it is true, +but which nevertheless is more effectual towards ameliorating the +condition, and eventually increasing the happiness of the human race, +than all the new-fangled doctrines promulgated by the statesmen and +philosophers of France. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + The wolf--His aspect and extreme ferocity--His cunning in hunting + his prey--His unsocial nature--Antiquity of the race--Where found, + and their varieties--Annihilated in England by the perseverance of + the kings and people--Decrees and rewards to encourage their + destruction by Athelstane, John, and Edward I.--Death of the last + wolf in England--Death of the last in Ireland. + + +The wild and furious wolf, both prudent and cowardly, is, from its +strength and voracity, the terror and the most formidable pest of the +inhabitants of those districts of France in which it is found. Provided +by Nature with a craving appetite for blood, possessing great muscular +powers, and an extraordinary scent, whether hunting or laying in ambush; +always ready to pursue and tear its victim limb from limb, the +wolf,--this tyrant,--this buccaneer of the forest lives only upon +rapine, and loves nothing but carnage. + +The aspect of the wolf has something sinister and terrible in its +appearance, which his sanguinary and brutal disposition does not belie. +His head is large, his eyes sparkle with a diabolical and cannibal look, +and in the night seem to burn like two yellow flames. His muzzle is +black, his cheeks are hollow, the upper lip and chin white, the jaws and +teeth are of prodigious strength, the ears short and straight, the tail +tufty, the opening of the mouth large, and the neck so short that he is +obliged to move his whole body in order to look on one side. His length +in our forests, from the extreme point of the muzzle to the root of the +tail, is generally about three feet; his height two and a half feet. The +colour of his hair is black and red, mingled with white and gray; a +thick and rude fur, on which the showers and severe cold of winter have +no effect. The limbs of this animal are well set, his step is firm and +quick, the muscles of the neck and fore part of the body are of unusual +strength,--he will easily carry off a fat sheep in his mouth, without +resting it on the ground, and run with it faster than the shepherd who +flies to its rescue. His senses are delicate and sensitive in the +extreme; that of smelling, as I have before remarked, particularly: he +can scent his prey at an immense distance,--blood which is fresh and +flowing will attract him at least a league from the spot. When he +leaves the forest, he never forgets to stop on its verge; there turning +round, he snuffs the breeze, plunges his nostrils deep into the passing +wind, and receives through his wonderful instinct a knowledge of what is +going on amongst the animals, dead or alive, that are in the +neighbourhood. + +The declared and uncompromising enemy to almost everything that has +life, the wolf attacks not only cows, oxen, horses, sheep, goats, and +pigs, but also fowls and turkeys, and especially geese, for which he has +a great fancy. In the woods also he destroys large quantities of game, +such as fawns and roebucks; and even the wild boar himself, when young, +is sometimes brought to his larder, for the wolf is one of that +voracious tribe which professes a profound contempt for vegetable diet, +and cannot do without flesh; hence the number of his devices for +supplying his table and varying his bill of fare is astonishing. But +mankind, it must be said in all justice, are not behindhand with him; +they are always on the alert; they meet him with tricks as clever as his +own, heap snare on snare to take him, and the result is that Mr. Lupus, +in spite of his strength, his agility, his practical experience, and +cunning instincts, often stretches out his limbs in death in the dark +ravines of the forest--the victim of his enemy's superior intelligence. + +Obliged during the day to hide himself in the most solitary parts of the +woods, he finds there only those animals whose rapid flight enables them +to escape his clutches. Sometimes, however, after the exercise of +prodigious patience on his part, by lying in wait the whole day, at a +spot where he knows they will be certain to pass when the sun goes down, +a defenceless roebuck will occasionally fall into his jaws. + +This chance on the sly producing nothing, when night has set in he seeks +the open country, approaches the farms, attacks the sheepfolds, +scratches his way under the doors, and entering wild with rage, puts +everything to death--for, to his infernal spirit, destruction is as +great a pleasure as the satisfaction of his hunger. + +When the dogs growl in an under tone, when they are restless and +agitated, and snuff the wind as it drives in eddies through the +shutters, "The wolf is abroad," say the peasants. + +If these runs in the open country by the light of the moon afford no +supper, he returns to the depths of his lair, or takes up the scent of +some roebuck, tracks it like a hound, and though his hope is small +indeed of ever catching it, he perseveringly follows the trail, trusting +that some other wolf, famished like himself, will head the timid animal +in its flight, and seize it as it passes, and that, like staunch +friends, they will afterwards divide the spoil between them. + +But the reverse more often occurs,--and foiled and disappointed, he then +becomes, though naturally a dastard and full of fear, absolutely +courageous; the fire of hunger consumes his stomach, he fears nothing, +and braves every danger; all prudence is forgotten, and his natural +ferocity is wound up to such a pitch, that he hesitates not to meet +certain destruction, attacks the animals that are actually under the +care of man, man himself,--throws himself suddenly upon the poor +benighted traveller, and gliding slowly and softly, with the stealthy +movements of a serpent, seizes and carries off with him to the depth of +the forest the infant sleeping in its cradle, or the little, helpless, +innocent child which, ignorant of danger, laughs and plays at the +cottage-door. + +Unsociable as well as savage, with a heart harder than the ball which +drills the ghastly hole in his side, loving only himself and his dark +solitudes, the wolf never associates with its own kind; and when, by +accident, it happens that a few are seen together, be sure the meeting +is not a Peace Congress, or a party of pleasure. The assembled wolves +represent a society of reds, preparing the arrangements for a combat, in +which many a stream of blood shall flow, amidst the most fearful and +horrible cries. If a wolf intends to attack a large animal,--for +instance, an ox or a horse,--or if he desires to put a watch-dog, whose +strength disquiets him, or whose vigilance incommodes him, out of his +way, he roves about the lonely paths of the forest, raising a sharp +prolonged cry, which immediately attracts other wolves in the +neighbourhood; and when he finds himself surrounded by a numerous troop +of his colleagues, bound together by no other tie than the common object +they all have in view for the moment, he conducts them to the attack, +and should the farmer be not there to out-manoeuvre them, it will be +odd indeed if the animal that they have agreed to destroy does not fall +a victim to their plans. The expedition over, the valiant brotherhood +separate, and each returns in silence to his thicket, whence they emerge +to reunite, when slaughter and blood call them forth again to make +common cause. + +Wolves attain their full size in three years, and live from fifteen to +twenty; their hair, like that of man, grows gray with years, and like +him also they lose their teeth, but without the advantage of being able +to replace them; the race of wolves is as old as the flood,--even older, +for their bones have been found in antediluvian remains. They are found +in all countries on the New Continent as well as the Old. "They exist," +observes Cuvier, "in Asia, Africa, and America, as well as in Europe; +from Egypt to Lapland; everywhere, in fact, excepting in England." How +an animal so detestable and so universally hated should have continued +to perpetuate itself, when every other species of savage beast on the +face of the earth diminishes in an infinitely greater proportion, is a +problem difficult to solve. + +Fourrier, in his "_Theorie Harmonique et comparative des especes_," +remarks truly, that each species of the human race corresponds with some +species of the brute creation. The wolves in the forest represent the +Jews in the towns; and he asserts, that it being possible only to +compare the voracity of the one with the rapacity of the other, these +two races, which are identical by reason of their several +characteristics, will never perish, never become extinct, except +together. But the Jews decline to acknowledge the relationship thus +assumed and the paradoxical connexion between themselves and this race +of animals; they deny that the idiosyncrasies are in any degree similar, +and persist in placing this luminous idea of Fourrier's on a level with +that of the sea of lemonade, which will, according to the same author, +one day surround our planet. + +The bones and teeth of wolves are often discovered, as I have already +said, amongst the _debris_ of the antediluvian world. + +In the Holy Scriptures, too, there are several observations respecting +the wolf,--in them it is stated that he lives upon rapine, is violent, +cruel, bloody, crafty, and voracious; he seeks his prey by night, and +his sense of smell is wonderful. False teachers are described as wolves +in sheep's clothing; and the Prophet Habakkuk, speaking of the +Chaldeans, says, "Their horses are more fierce than the evening wolves." +And again, Isaiah, describing the peaceful reign of the Messiah, +writes,--"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard +shall lie down with the kid: and the calf and the young lion and the +fatling together, and a little child shall lead them." + +The wolf varies in shape and colour, according to the country in which +it lives. In Asia, towards Turkey, this animal is reddish; in Italy, +quite red; in India, the one called the beriah is described as being of +a light cinnamon colour; yellow wolves, with a short black mane along +the entire spine, are found in the marshes of all the hot and temperate +regions of America. The fur of the Mexican wolf is one of the richest +and most valuable known. In the regions of the north the wolf is black, +and sometimes black and gray: others are quite white; but the black wolf +is always the fiercest. The black is also found in the south of Europe, +and particularly in the Pyrennees. Colonel Hamilton Smith relates an +anecdote illustrative of its great size and weight. At a _battue_ in the +mountains near Madrid, one of these wolves, which came bounding through +the high grass towards an English gentleman who was present, was so +large that he mistook it for a donkey; and whatever visions of a ride +home might have floated across his brain for the moment, right glad was +he on discovering his error, to see his ball take immediate effect. + +In former days, the Spanish wolves congregated in large packs in the +passes of the Pyrennees; and even now the _lobo_ will follow a string of +mules, as soon as it becomes dusk, keeping parallel with them as they +proceed, leaping from bush and rock, waiting his opportunity to select a +victim. Black wolves also are found in the mountains of Friuli and +Cattaro; the Vekvoturian wolf of Siberia, described by Pallas, is one of +the darkest variety. In Persia and in India wolves are trained and made +to play tricks and antics as monkeys and dogs are in Europe. At Teheran, +Bankok, and Arracan, a well-trained wolf that can dance a polka of the +country, sing a national air, and preserve a grave face during five +minutes, with a pair of spectacles on his nose, will fetch as much as +500 dollars. + +"In China," remarks Colonel Smith, "wolves abound in the northern +province of Shantung;" and Buffon, quoting from Adanson, asserts, that +"there is a powerful species of the wolf in Bengal, which hunt in packs, +in company with the lion." "One night," says Adanson, "a lion and a wolf +entered the court of the house in which I slept, and unperceived, +carried off my provisions; in the morning my hosts were quite satisfied, +from the well-marked and well-known impressions of their feet in the +sand, that the animals had come together to forage." Colonel Smith +observes, that "the French wolves are generally browner and somewhat +stronger than those of Germany, with an appearance far more wild and +savage: the Russian are larger, and seem more bulky and formidable, from +the great quantity of long coarse hair that cover them on the neck and +cheeks." + +"The Swedish and Norwegian are," he says, "similar to the Russian; but +appear deeper and heavier in the shoulder; they are also lighter in +colour, and in winter become completely white. The Alpine wolves are +yellowish, and smaller than the French. This is the type of wolf that is +commonly found in the western countries of Europe; and it was, in all +probability, this species that once infested the wild and extensive +woodland districts of the British Islands; for that wolves were once +exceedingly numerous in England, is as certain as that the bear formerly +prowled in Wales and Scotland, and with the former was the terror of the +inhabitants. How dangerous to them, and how very common they must have +been, is evident from the necessity that existed in the reign of +Athelstane, 925, for erecting on the public highway a refuge against +their attacks. A retreat was built at Flixton, in Yorkshire, to protect +travellers against these ravenous brutes. King John, in a grant quoted +by Pennant, from Bishop Littleton's collection, mentions the wolf as one +of the beasts of the chase that, despite the severe forest laws of the +feudal system, the Devonshire men were permitted to kill. Even in the +reign of the first Edward, they were still so numerous that he applied +himself in earnest to their extirpation, and enlisting criminals into +the service, commuted their punishment for a given number of wolves' +tongues;--he also permitted the Welsh to redeem the tax he imposed upon +them, by an annual tribute of 300 of these horrid animals." + +That Edward, however, failed in his attempt to extirpate them, is +evident from a _mandamus_ of that monarch's successor, to all bailiffs +and legal officers of the realm, to give aid and assistance to his +faithful and well-beloved Peter Corbet, whom the King had appointed to +take and destroy wolves (_lupos_) in all forests, parks, and other +places in the counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, and Salop, +wherever they could be found. In Derbyshire, certain tenants of lands, +at Wormhill, held them on condition that they should hunt the wolves +that harboured in that county. The flocks of Scotland appear to have +suffered a great deal from the ravages of wolves in 1577, and they were +not finally rooted out of that portion of the island till about the year +1686, when the hand of Sir Evan Cameron made the last of them bite the +dust. + +Wolves were seen in Ireland as late as the year 1710, about which time +the last presentment for killing them was found in the county of Cork. +The Saxon name for the month of January, "wolf-moneth," in which dreary +season the famished beasts became probably more desperate; and the term +for an outlaw, "wolfshed," implying that he might be killed with as much +impunity as a wolf, indicate how numerous wolves were in those times, +and the terror and hatred they inspired. In every country the +inhabitants have declared this ferocious brute the enemy of man; and in +order, if possible, to annihilate him, have employed every device;--the +result in England has been most satisfactory. The Esquimaux, that +distant and half-frozen people, have their own peculiar way of trapping +wolves; and it is somewhat singular that their ice wolf-trap, as +described by Captain Lyon, resembles exactly, except in the material of +which it is made, that of France, though it is very certain no Morvinian +ever went so far as the Melville peninsula to take a hunting lesson from +an Esquimaux. The very birds of prey, those flying thieves of the air, +are used for wolf-hunting amongst some of the savage nations of the +earth. The Kaissoks take them with the help of a large sort of hawk, +called a _beskat_, which is trained to fly at and fasten on their heads, +and tear their eyes out; and the Grand Khan of Tartary has eagles tamed +and trained to the sport in the same way as we have our packs to hunt +the roebuck and wild boar. + +In the sombre forests of the Nivernais and Burgundy, where wolves are +still numerous, and where they occasion the farmers great loss by the +destruction of their cattle, they are destroyed in every way imaginable. +General _battues_ are held, and private hunting parties meet, a +multitude of traps set, pits dug, the sportsman and the peasant lie in +wait for them, and dogs and cats, well stuffed with deadly poison, are +placed near their haunts in the thick underwood. Nevertheless, and in +spite of all these crafty inventions and open war with them, the wolves +scarcely diminish in number; they still present the same formidable +phalanx, and seem determined to defy their destroyers. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + The _battues_ of May and December--The gathering of + sportsmen--Distribution in the forest--The _charivari_--The fatal + rush--Excitement of the moment--The volley--The day's triumph, and + the reward--The peasants returning--Hunting the wolf with + dogs--Cub-hunting--The drunken wolf. + + +In the first days of May, that interesting epoch in which in the forest, +the woods, and the plain, the majority of all animals are with young; +and in the commencement of December, the period of storm and tempest and +the heavy rains, which precede the great snows, two general _battues_ +take place in Le Morvan. To these all the tribe of sportsmen--the good, +the bad, and the indifferent--are invited; in short, every one in the +neighbourhood who loves excitement attends. Gentlemen, poachers, and +_gens-d'armes_, young conscripts and old soldiers, doctors and +schoolmasters, every one who is the fortunate possessor of a gun, a +carbine, a pistol, a sabre, a bayonet, or any other weapon, presents +himself at the rendezvous. Bands of peasants, also, armed with +bludgeons, spears, broomsticks, cymbals, bells, frying-pans, sauce-pans, +and fire-irons (it is impossible to make too much noise on the +occasion), arrive from every point of the compass, and add their numbers +to those already assembled. On the day agreed upon, therefore, and at +the spot indicated, a small army is on foot, which, full of ardour and +thirsting for the combat, brandish with shouts their various weapons and +kitchen utensils, drink to the success of the enterprise, and wait with +no little impatience the signal to place themselves in march, and attack +the enemy. The commander of these assembled forces,--generally the head +ranger of the forest,--having under his orders a battalion of sub +_gardes-de-chasse_, directs their movements. + +This mode of taking the wolf is conducted with very great order and +circumspection; everything is well arranged beforehand; the ravines and +deep underwood, which the wolves are known to resort to, have been +carefully ascertained; the number of guns and rifles necessary to +surround this or that wood are told off, and the whole plan is so well +prepared, the execution of it is so prompt, every one is so well aware +of what he has to do, that in one day a large tract of country is +carefully beaten. + +In these _battues_, those who have fire-arms form two sides of a +triangle, and are placed with their backs to the wind, along the roads +which border the wood the _traqueurs_ are about to beat. On no account +ought they to fire to their rear, but always to the front; and in order +to prevent, in this respect, misunderstanding and accident, the _garde_, +whose duty it is to place each sportsman at his post, breaks a branch, +or cuts a notch in the tree before him, in order that in a moment of +hesitation and excitement this broken bough or barked spot may remind +him of his real position. The base of the triangle or the cord of the +arc (for this curved line had more the shape of a great bow slightly +strung than any other geometrical figure) is formed of the peasants, +who, side by side, wait only for the last signal to advance, when they +commence their euphonious concert--a _charivari_ not to be described. + +The arrangements and preparations, conducted in profound silence, being +terminated, the signal is given, when the tumult, which at once breaks +forth, produces intense excitement. The forest, hitherto silent, and +apparently without life, is suddenly awakened with confused noises, +metallic and human--the peasants shout, halloo, sing, and bang together +their pots, kettles, and pieces of iron, striking every bush and thicket +with their staves, and scaring every animal before them. Flights of +wood-pigeons, coveys of partridges, birds of every size, species, and +plumage, pass like moving shadows above their heads. The owls, too, +suddenly aroused from sleep, leave their dark holes, and, blinded by the +light, fly against the branches in their alarm with cries of +terror--probably imagining the order of night and day is reversed, and +that the unusual and unearthly noises proclaim that the end of the world +has arrived for the owls. Then come the roebuck and the foxes, bounding +and breaking through the underwood, and the hares and rabbits, which +jump up under the feet of the beaters. + +Motionless as a mile-stone at your post, and rifle ready, this flying +legion of animals gives you a twinge of impatience, for you must allow +them a free passage, as in these _battues_ one dare not fire at +anything, save and except the great object of the day, the wolf. Wolves +alone have the honour on these important occasions of receiving the +contents of your double-barrel. But the cowards, divining what is in +preparation for them, are the last to show themselves; as the line +advances, they trot up and down the portion of the wood thus enclosed, +seeking for an outlet, or some break in the line; and they never make up +their minds to advance to the front until the tempest of sounds behind +them is almost ringing in their ears. But now the thunder of voices, +till then distant, approaches, and the cries and hallooing of the +peasants, like a flowing tide, forces them to draw nearer to the +huntsmen. + +Whether or no, that fatal line must now be passed, and the few minutes +that precede the last movement of the wolves towards it brings to every +sportsman sensations impossible to describe. He knows the brutes are in +his rear, approaching, and a feeling like an electric current runs at +this exciting moment from one to the other; every man's finger is on his +trigger, his pulse throbs at a feverish pace, his heart beats like the +clapper of a bell in full swing--all, to take a surer aim, kneel, or +place their back against the nearest tree, and each offers up a prayer +for aid to his patron saint. This nervous moment has sometimes such an +effect upon ardent and excitable imaginations, that I have observed many +young sportsmen look very queer, some actually tremble and one shed +tears. But the _traqueurs_ are at hand, and the largest and boldest of +the wolves, placing themselves in front, are preparing for the fatal +rush--one more _charivari_ from the peasants and their sauce-pans +decides them, when the whole troop bound forward, yelling and howling +upon the line, in passing which a storm of balls and buck-shot salute +and assail them in their course. + +The death of from thirty to forty wolves is generally the result of the +day's exertions, without counting the wounded, which always escape in +greater or less numbers. The Government give a reward of twenty francs +for every wolf, and twenty-five for every she-wolf, and these sums being +immediately divided amongst the peasants, they return to their homes not +a little pleased, singing their old hunting ballads, stopping +occasionally by the way at some village inn for a glass, where they may +be seen cutting capers, with the true peasant notions of the dance. On a +fine day, with the blue sky above, the forest breathing perfume, and the +sun shedding over it its golden rays, the passing game, the distant +halloo! of the _traqueurs_, the gun-shots which suddenly rattle around +you, the watching for and first view of the wolves, put the head and the +heart in such a state of excitement, as once felt can never be +forgotten. The May and December _battues_ are, therefore, looked forward +to with immense impatience; and nothing short of sudden death, or an +injured limb, prevents the country-people from hastening with alacrity +to the rendezvous. + +Wolves are likewise hunted all the year round, with dogs, by gentlemen, +in the neighbourhood of the forest. But this sport is very fatiguing and +weary work, if that animal alone is employed; for nothing is so +difficult as to get up with a cunning old wolf, whose sinewy limbs never +tire, and whose wind never fails--who goes straight ahead, ten or +fifteen miles, without looking behind him; if he meets with a _Mare_, or +stream of water on his road, then your chance is indeed up,--for into it +he plunges, and makes off again, quite as fresh as he was when he left +his lair. + +The best and most expeditious mode of taking a wolf is, to set a +bloodhound on him, bred expressly for this particular sport; large +greyhounds being placed in ambush, at proper distances, and slipped, +when the wolf makes his appearance in crossing from one wood to another. +These dogs, by their superior swiftness, are soon at his haunches, and +worry and impede his flight, until their heavy friend the hound comes +up; for the strongest greyhound could never manage a wolf, unless he was +assisted in his meritorious work by dogs of large size and superior +strength. The huntsmen, well mounted, follow and halloo on the hounds; +every one runs, every one shouts, the forest echoes their cries, and +wolf, dogs, and sportsmen pass and disappear like leaves in a whirlwind, +or the demon hounds and huntsmen of the Hartz. And now the panting +beast, with hair on end and foaming at the mouth, bitten in every part, +is brought to bay--his hour is come--no longer able to fly, he sets his +back against some rock or tree, and faces his numerous enemies. + +It is then that the oldest huntsman of the party, in order to shorten +his death-agony, and save the dogs from unnecessary wounds, dismounts, +and, drawing a pistol from his hunting-belt, finishes his career before +further mischief is done. When a ball hits a wolf and breaks one of his +bones, he immediately gives a yell; but if he is dispatched with sticks +and bludgeons, he makes no complaint. Stubborn, and apparently either +insensible or resolute, Nature seems to have given him great powers of +endurance in suffering pain. Having lost all hope of escape, he ceases +to cry and complain; he remains on the defensive, bites in silence, and +dies as he has lived. In a sheepfold the noise of his teeth while +indulging his appetite is like the repeated crack of a whip. His bite is +terrible. + +The months of September and October, the period for cub-hunting, afford +capital sport. The young wolves are not like the old ones, strong enough +to take a straight course, and they consequently can rarely do more than +run a ring; when tired, which is soon the case, they retire backwards +into some hole or under a large stone, where they show their teeth and +await, with a juvenile courage worthy of a better fate, the onset of +their assailants. The mode of separating the cubs from their mother, +who, with maternal tenderness (for that feeling exists even in a wolf), +always offers to sacrifice her life for her young, is by turning loose +two or three bloodhounds. These first distract her attention, and then +pursue her so closely that at last she thinks it prudent to decamp, and +seek safety in flight; when these dogs have fairly got her away, and +their deep music dies away in the distance, others are laid on the scent +of the cubs, and the sport ceases only with the death of the litter. A +young wolf may be tamed; but it is not wise to place much confidence in +his civilization: with age he resumes his nature, becomes ferocious, and +sooner or later, should the occasion present itself, will return to his +native woods;--for as water always flows towards the river, so the wolf +always returns to his kind. + +In the summer, the wolves, like the gypsies, have no fixed residence; +they may then be met with in the standing barley or oats, the vineyards +and fields; they sleep in the open country, and seldom seek the friendly +shelter of the forest, except during the most scorching hours of the +day. Towards the end of August I have often met them in the vineyards, +apparently half drunk, scarcely able to walk, in short, quite unsteady +on their legs, almost ploughing the ground up with their noses, and +staring stupidly about them. Every well-kept vineyard ought to be as +free from stones as possible, and therefore the peasants, when they +weed, dig a trench about the vines, or prune them, always remove at the +same time whatever stones or flints they may meet with; these are piled +at the end of the vineyard in a heap of about twenty feet square and six +feet high, called a _meurger_. + +On these _meurgers_ the breezes of summer waft every description of +seed, and they are consequently soon covered with verdure, shrubs, +brambles, and wild roses, which from a distance give them the appearance +of a small copse or thicket. These elevated and shady spots are the +favourite retreats of game in the middle of the day; here they love to +repose and take their _siesta_ in the cool--here the red partridges meet +to have a gossip--hither the young rabbits scuttle to recover their +various alarms, and the trembling hare also squats and conceals herself +the moment a dog or a gun appears in the adjoining vineyard. Of course +these green mounds have a corresponding value in the eyes of the +sportsmen, who always find in them something to put up. + +Often, therefore, walking gently on the soft ground, have I stolen to +one of these _meurgers_, and throwing in a stone, generally turned out +some partridges and rabbits that were there quietly ensconced; I have +also, and greatly to my surprise, heard there the growl of a wolf, +which, rising lazily amongst the bushes, stumbled and fell, and was +evidently incapable of getting further. A salute from both barrels, with +small shot, scarcely tickled his skin; but it brought him once more on +his legs, though only to fall again,--when, having reloaded, I advanced +on him and administered a double dose in his ear, which had the desired +effect. The fact was, he was quite drunk, though not disorderly. + +These wolves, during the ardent heats of August, suffer dreadfully from +thirst; and finding no water, take to the vineyards, and endeavour to +assuage it by eating large quantities of grapes, very cool, and no doubt +very delightful at the time; but the treacherous juice ferments, +Bacchanalian fumes soon infect their brain, and for several hours these +gentlemen are for a time entirely deprived of their senses. What a field +for Father Mathew; but never, I am certain, has the worthy Apostle of +Temperance ever dreamed of offering the pledge to the wolves of Le +Morvan--the rub would be to hang the medal round the necks of these +Bacchanals of the forest. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Wolf-hunting, an expensive amusement--The _Traquenard_--Mode of + setting this trap--A night in the forest with Navarre--The young + lover--Dreadful accident that befell him--His courage and efforts + to escape--The fatal catastrophe--The poor mad mother. + + +Wolf-hunting in the forests is an expensive amusement, whether they are +killed by the method I have described,--namely, of employing beaters, +and shooting them when breaking through the line of sportsmen, or +running them down with dogs. The peasants and _traqueurs_ have to be +paid, in the first case; hunters and hounds have to be purchased and +maintained, in the second, without counting the innumerable incidental +expenses which a kennel of hounds always brings in its train. This kind +of establishment is too extravagant for our country-gentlemen, and thus +it is that for one wolf killed in the great meetings, or with the dogs, +thirty are taken in pits and snares, or by some species of stratagem. + +Every small farmer or large proprietor, to protect his family and his +cattle,--every shepherd, to protect himself and his flock, invokes to +his aid the genius of strategy; and as the mind of man is a sponge full +of expedients, from which once pressed by the hard fingers of necessity +many an ingenious device is extracted, innumerable are the various +seductive baits that in our plains and forests are placed in the way of +the gluttonous appetite of the wolf; and I shall now describe the +inventions that are more generally adopted. + +The favourite trap employed in Le Morvan is the _Traquenard_. This is +the most dangerous, and the strongest that is made, requiring two men to +set it; it has springs of great power, which once touched, the jaws of +the trap close with tremendous force. Each jaw, formed of a circle of +iron, four or five feet in circumference, is furnished along its whole +length with teeth shaped like those of a saw, but less sharp, which shut +one within the other. To these redoubtable engines of destruction is +attached an iron chain, six feet in length, and at the other end of it +is a bar of iron with hooks; these hooks or grapnel, which catch at +everything that comes in their way, impede the escape of the wolf when +once seized, and prevent him from going any great distance from the spot +where he has been caught. The trap should not be tied or fixed in any +way, for then the wolf would probably in his first bound, his first +frantic movement of terror, either break some part of it, or in his +violent endeavours to escape, succeed, only leaving a leg behind him. + +In placing the trap and chain, a little earth is taken away, so that +both are on a level with the turf; after which, the jaws being opened, +they are covered with leaves in as natural a manner as possible. Great +care must be taken by the person who sets the trap that he does not +touch it with his naked hand; this should invariably be done with a +glove on, otherwise the wolf--always extremely difficult to catch by +reason of his delicate sense of smell--would be awakened to his danger. +The mode of taking the wolf by means of the _Traquenard_, is as +follows:--A spot having been selected in the depths of the forest, and +in a sombre pathway unfrequented by the beasts of prey, the trap is set +about an hour before the sun goes down, and a dog, young pig, a sheep, +or some other animal which has been dead a few days, is divided into +five parts; one of the portions is suspended to the lower branch of the +tree, under which the trap is set; and the other four, being each +attached to a withe or the band of a faggot,--not rope, for in that the +wolf detects the hand of man, and he hates the smell of the +material,--are drawn by men along the ground in the direction of the +four points of the compass. These men are mounted either on horseback, +or on an ass, or they put on a pair of _sabots_ and walk, each of them +dragging after him, through the wood and along the unfrequented paths, +his portion of the bait, stopping every now and then to let the soil +over which it passes be as much as possible impregnated with the smell +of the flesh on the verge of corruption. + +The _traineur_ should always walk as much as possible through those +parts of the forest that are the clearest of underwood, for in these +spots the wolf is least on his guard; and when he has thus traversed +from 2,500 to 3,000 paces--the distance required in order to give the +animal, (who will at first follow his track with caution and even +suspicion,) time to regain his confidence--he stops, throws the bait +over his shoulder, and walks home, leaving the result to chance, and the +hunger of the savage game. When four or five other traps have been set +for the same night, in a radius of three or four miles thus prepared, it +rarely happens that some of these various lines--which intersect each +other on every side and in every direction, taking in a considerable +surface of ground--are not hit upon during the night by the roving +wolves: and be sure that each wolf whose olfactories discern the scented +line, and who at length arrives at the trap, is a wolf taken. + +Well do I remember the fever of impatience with which I was seized, the +first time I was present at the preparations for this sport, and the +desire I had to know what would be the result of our machinations; so +much so, indeed, that the arrangement being completed, I positively +refused to return to the _chateau_;--climbing into a thick tree, distant +about a hundred paces from the trap, I passed the whole night there on +the watch, shivering in my jacket, sitting astride upon one branch, my +feet on another, and Navarre at my side. Poor Navarre! he had in the +beginning of the evening brought all his astronomical knowledge to bear +upon me, with a view of proving that the night would be terribly +unwholesome; that we should have a furious hurricane and be deluged with +rain, blinded by the lightning, and terrified by the thunder; and that, +in the way of eating and a cordial, the only thing he had in his +game-bag was a sorry piece of black bread, hard enough to break the +tooth of a boar. I had a stiff tustle with him before he gave in; but +finding he could not damp the burning curiosity which devoured me, and +that my ears were deaf to the somewhat rough music of his reasoning and +his predictions, the worthy man at length closed the fountain of his +eloquence, and, though growling and mumbling in an under tone at my +juvenile obstinacy, which had deprived him of his bed and his supper, +quietly took his seat in the tree; then drawing from the bottom of his +pocket some tobacco and a short pipe--his consolation in his greatest +misfortunes--he whiffed away, burying his irritated countenance in his +breast by way of showing his vexation. + +It seems to me but yesterday these eight hours passed in the forest in +the silence of that starlight night, hid in the branches, and waiting +for the wolves! We caught three, and nine galloped under the very oak in +which we were seated. This midnight scene was exciting beyond +description; and the worthy Navarre, notwithstanding his pipe, his +fox-skin cap, and his goat-skin riding-coat, caught such a melancholy +cold, that he did nothing but sneeze and hoop the whole of the next day, +making more noise than all the dogs and cattle in the farm put together. + +Wolf-hunting with traps has its dangers and its inconveniences, and the +_Traquenard_ must be used with great caution. Every morning it should be +visited and shut; otherwise a man, a horse, a dog, or some other animal, +may fall into it, and be taken. In order, therefore, as much as possible +to prevent accidents, our peasants, farmers, and poachers, when using +this kind of trap, always tie stones, or little pieces of dead wood, to +the bushes and branches of the trees near the spot in which it is set; +they likewise place the same kind of signal at the extremity of the +pathway which leads to the trap, as a warning to those who may walk that +way; and the peasants, who know what these signals dancing in the air +with every puff of wind mean, turn aside, and take very good care how +they proceed on their road. + +In spite of all these precautions, however, very sad occurrences will +sometimes happen in our forests. Some years ago a trap was placed in a +deserted footway, and the usual precautions were taken of hanging stones +and bits of wood in the approach to the path at either end. The same +day, a young man of the neighbourhood, full of love and imprudence--upon +the eve, in fact, of being entangled in the conjugal "I will"--anxious +to present to his _fiancee_ some turtle-doves and pigeons with rosy +beaks, with whose whereabouts he was acquainted, left his home a little +before sunset to surprise the birds on their nest; but he was late, the +night closed in rapidly, and with the intention of shortening the road, +instead of following the beaten one he took his way across the forest. +Without in the least heeding the brambles and bushes which caught his +legs, or the ditches and streams he was obliged to cross, he pressed on; +and after a continued and sanguinary battle with the thorns, the stumps, +the roots, and the long wild roses, came exactly on the path where the +trap was set. The night was now nearly dark, and, in his agitation and +hurry, thinking only of his doves and the loved one, he failed to +observe that several little pieces of string were swinging to and fro in +the breeze from the branches of a thicket near him. Dreadful indeed was +it for him that he did not; for suddenly he felt a terrible shock, +accompanied by most intense pain, the bones of his leg being apparently +crushed to pieces--he was caught in the wolf-trap! + +The first few moments of pain and suffering over, comprehending at once +the danger of his position, he with great presence of mind collected all +the strength he had, and by a determined effort endeavoured to open the +serrated iron jaws which held him fast: but though despair is said to +double the strength of a man, the trap refused to give up its prey; and +as at the least movement the iron teeth buried themselves deeper and +deeper with agonizing pain into his leg, and grated nearly on the bone, +his sufferings became so intense that in a very few minutes he ceased +from making any further attempts to release himself. Feeling this to be +the case, he began to shout for help, but no one replied; and as the +night drew in he was silent, fearing that his cries would attract the +notice of some of the wolves that might be prowling in the +neighbourhood, and resolved to wait patiently and with fortitude what +fate willed--what he could not avert. He had under his coat a little +hatchet, a weapon which the Morvinians constantly carry about with them, +and thus in the event of his being attacked by the dreaded animals, he +trusted to it to defend himself; but he was still not without hope that +the wolves would not make their appearance. + +The night lengthened; the moon rose, and shed her pale light over the +forest. Immovable, with eyes and ears on the _qui vive_, his body in the +most dreadful agony, he listened and waited: when, all at once, +far--very far off, a confused murmur of indistinct sounds was heard. +Approaching with rapidity, these murmurs became cries and yells; they +were those of wolves--and not only wolves, but wolves on the track, +which must ere a few minutes could elapse be upon him. A pang of horror, +and a cold perspiration poured from his face;--but fear was not a part +of his nature, and by almost superhuman efforts, and, in such an awful +moment, forgetting all pain, he dragged himself and the trap towards an +oak tree, against which he placed his back. + +Here leaning with his left hand upon a stout staff he had with him when +he fell, and having in his right his hatchet ready to strike, the young +man, full of courage, after having offered up a short prayer to his God, +and embraced, as it were, in his mind his poor old mother and his bride, +awaited the horrible result, determined to show himself a true child of +the forest, and meet his fate like a man. A few minutes more, and he was +as if surrounded by a cordon of yellow flames, which, like so many +Will-o'-the-wisps, danced about in all directions. These were the eyes +of the monsters; the animals themselves, which he could not see, sent +forth their horrible yells full in his face, and the smell of their +horrid carcases was borne to him on the wind. Alas! the _denouement_ of +the tragedy approached. The wolves had hit upon the scented line of +earth, and following it; hungry and enraged, were bounding here and +there, and exciting each other. They had arrived at the baited spot.... + +What passed after this no one can tell--no eye saw but His above: but on +the following morning when the Pere Seguin, for he was the unfortunate +person who set the _Traquenard_, came to examine it, he found the trap +at the foot of the oak deluged with blood, the bone of a human leg +upright between the iron teeth, and all around, scattered about the turf +and the path, a quantity of human remains: bits of hair, bones,--red and +moist, as if the flesh had been but recently torn from them,--shreds of +a coat, and other articles of clothing were also discovered near the +spot; with the assistance of some dogs that were put on the scent, three +wolves, their heads and bodies cut open with a hatchet, were found dying +in the adjacent thickets. The bones of their victim were carried to the +nearest church; and on the following day these mournful fragments, which +had only a few hours before been full of life and youth and health, were +committed to the earth. + +When the venerated _cure_ of the village, after previously endeavouring +in every possible way by Christian exhortation to prepare his aged +mother to hear the sad tale, informed her that these remnants of +humanity was all that was left of her boy, she laughed--alas! it was the +laugh of madness--reason had fled! Many a time have I met the aged +creature strolling in a glade of the forest, or seated basking in the +sun outside the door of her cottage. Her complexion was of the yellow +paleness of some old parchment, she was always laughing and +singing--always rocking in her arms a log of wood, a hank of hemp, or +bundle of fern--objects which to her poor crazy eyes represented her +child;--her child as it was in its tender years: she called it by his +name, she kissed, embraced and dandled it, rocked it on her knees; and +when she thought it should be tired, sang those lullabies which had +soothed the slumbers of him who was now no more. I have witnessed the +horrors of war, I have heard many a tragic story, but never has my heart +been more touched with feelings of profound grief than the day on which +I first met this poor creature--this widowed mother, then seventy years +of age--singing and walking in the forest, carrying and dandling in her +shrivelled arms a shawl rolled up; kissing and talking to the silent +bundle, smiling on it,--sitting at the foot of a tree, and opening that +bosom in which the springs of life had for years been dried, to nurse +and nourish once more what seemed to her still her baby boy. + +The morning after the dreadful catastrophe of which I have just spoken, +the path in which this terrible tragedy took place was closed, and trees +were planted along its length, so that no person could in future pass +that way. But the Pere Seguin has often shown me the oak, at the foot of +which during that fearful night the young peasant suffered such agonies, +made such incredible efforts, and drew with such indomitable courage his +last breath. This tree is still called by the peasants, "The Widow's +Oak," or, "The Oak of the Wolves." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + Shooting wolves in the summer--The most approved baits to attract + them--Fatal error--Hut-shooting--Silent joviality--The approach of + the wolves--The first volley--The retreat--The final slaughter--The + sportsman's reward--The farm-yard near St. Hibaut--The dead + colt--The onset--Scene in the morning--Horrible accident--The + gallant farmer--Death of the wolves, the dogs, and the peasant--The + wolf-skin drum--Anathema of the naturalists. + + +When the sportsman does not absolutely care about sleeping in his own +bed, and will not be denied the pleasure of shooting a wolf himself, a +drag is run similar to those we have already mentioned, but other parts +of the proceedings are conducted in a manner widely different. In the +first place, there is no trap; then, instead of the piece of flesh, the +great attraction, being put in an obscure and hidden path, it should, on +the contrary, be placed in an open spot, on the border of a wood, in a +glade, or in a field on the verge of the forest, in order that the +sportsman who is laying in wait, in ambush, may be able to see what is +passing; he must, too, conceal himself as much as possible, either in a +thicket under the foliage, in a hut made with the boughs of trees, or +in a hole dug in the ground; but he should always be so placed that he +is against the wind, and if the moon is up he ought to take especial +care that he is in the shade. + +But it sometimes happens that the sportsman, at a moment when there is +no time to run a drag,--for instance, after dinner when smoking a cigar, +he suddenly takes it into his head to kill a wolf, and it is too late to +bait the spot; nevertheless the hunter will have nothing less than his +wolf. Before leaving home, therefore, he orders his servant to bring him +a duck; this he puts into his pocket, and shouldering his gun, seeks the +depths of the forest alone. Having found a favourable spot,--a place +where four roads meet is that, if possible, generally chosen,--he hangs +the unfortunate duck by the leg to the branch of a neighbouring tree, +which, as if divining the part that he is intended to play in the piece, +flaps his wings, and begins to cry and quack most vehemently. + +Extraordinary as it may appear, it is well known that the cries of the +duck and the goose are those most readily heard by a wolf, and +consequently it is by no means a rare occurrence to see one of these +animals arrive. An unweaned lamb, which is always bleating for its +mother, is also an excellent decoy-bait to attract them. + +In the months of May and June, when the sportsman happens to tumble upon +a she-wolf, the cubs of which are suckling, a drag may be run with one +of them; the mother will for certain follow the track, and, if you are +not properly on your guard, and well prepared to receive her, it is +equally certain she will play you a very unpleasant trick, and make you +feel that it is not wise to excite the maternal tenderness of a wild +animal. But it is in winter that the wolves are more especially +dangerous, and it is in this rough season that war to the knife is +declared against them. The peasants, as well the wood-cutters and +charcoal-burners of the forest, having then no employment, assemble in +small bands, furnish themselves with provisions for several days, and +armed with ponderous and clumsy fowling-pieces, go in search of the wild +cat and the wolf, the roebuck and the boar. + +On these occasions, as in all those where fire-arms are used, the +chapter of accidents is seldom without a page relating some sad history. +Two young men of the village of Akin, near Vezelay, one of whom was +engaged to the sister of his companion, having made their arrangements, +set out to hunt together in this manner, trusting that a heavy bag might +pay for the expenses of the wedding fete. As luck would have it, they +soon fell upon the traces of a boar, and separating at the entrance of a +dark ravine, to beat for and watch the animal, were lost to view. But a +short time had elapsed when the young man who was about to be married +observing, though not clearly, between the trees and bushes a large +black mass, which moved to and fro, and which he imagined was the boar +listening, brought his gun to his shoulder, and, firing, lodged two iron +slugs in the body of his comrade, who, advancing towards him, his +shoulders being covered with a black sheepskin, had stooped down for a +few seconds to tie the strings of his leggings, or his shoes. + +When the trees are devoid of foliage and the snow covers the ground, +when the forest is melancholy and cold, and the wolves famished with +hunger, a rather original mode of taking them by night is adopted. A few +days previously to the one appointed for the purpose, a large glade in +the very thickest part of the forest having been selected, a carpenter +and his assistant, with a well-furnished bag of tools, start for the +spot. There, choosing some suitable trees, or branches of young +pollards, they cut down a sufficient number, place them in the ground so +as to form a hut of twelve yards square, leaving between each tree an +interval of about four inches; strengthening the edifice by beams at the +base, and boards nailed transversely seven feet from the ground. + +This open hut thus prepared, and which, at fifty paces distance, ought +not, if well constructed, to be distinguishable from the trees, is left +open to the inspection of the beasts of the forest for several nights in +succession, in order that they, always suspicious of the most trifling +circumstance, may get accustomed to it. Two or three ducks, a goose, and +sometimes a sheep, are fastened during these nights near the hut, with a +view of alluring the wolves and inducing them to visit the mansion. + +The day, or rather the appointed evening, having arrived (a star or +moonlight night being selected), the assembled huntsmen, and a long line +of servants, betake themselves to the forest, leading by the head four +calves, and carrying with them a cask of cold meat, a hamper of wine, a +box of cigars, and a horse-load of pale _cogniac_--a few camels and +dromedaries added to this cavalcade, and one would have a complete +picture of a tribe of Bedouins preparing to pass the Great Desert. +Arrived in the forest about nightfall, and well and duly shut up in +their Gibraltar of wood, the sportsmen may eat, drink, and smoke, and +converse in an undertone; but a heavy fine is invariably inflicted on +those who make the least noise. No one is permitted to sneeze, talk +loud, or laugh; as to blowing one's nasal organ vigorously, the thing is +absolutely forbidden; no one is allowed to have a cold, much less an +influenza, for at least eight hours, and every sportsman is careful that +the wine and the viands take each their proper line of road; if either +should unfortunately diverge, the gentleman must choke rather than +cough--as to the servants, they do every thing by gesture and signal; +and woe betide the John that speaks--chance may be, his tongue is thrown +to the wolves. + +When night has set in, the four calves are led out from the stockade and +fastened to strong posts which have been fixed in front of each face of +the hut. Silence now reigns supreme, and the wolves,--the spur of famine +in their insides, mad in short with hunger,--begin to sniff the breeze +and run their noses over the rank dewy grass of the underwood. At this +point of my narrative I must bespeak the forbearance of the Society for +the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and beg them to read on to the +end, and weigh well the question and the result, before they bring an +action against me for what follows. The calves in question having been +placed, they each--must I write it?--receive an incision in the neck, +the effect of which is that the blood flows slowly, and they bleat +without ceasing;--such is the custom, as it is said, with butchers to +make veal white and pleasing to the eye of the epicure; a really inhuman +habit--but when the deed is done with a view to the extermination of +wolves, I think there is little doubt but Mr. Martin himself would have +used a fleam in the cause. + +This operation over, the sportsmen divide, post themselves, with their +guns ready, on each side of the hut, and wait with beating hearts the +arrival of the expected four-footed visitors. Nine o'clock passes--ten, +half-past--not a sound is heard in the forest; the sportsmen who look +out on the snowy scene around them observe nothing; all without is +dreary silence, broken at intervals by the poor ruminating creatures in +front, the cry of a solitary owl, the fall of some dead branch which age +and the tempest has separated from the giant oak, the sudden spring of +the squirrel awakened by the noise, and, in the interior of the cabin, +by the soft gurgling of the ruby wine escaping joyfully from its glass +prison-house, to cheer the heart of the impatient _chasseur_--and who +knows better than he how to empty a flask of genuine Burgundy? + +We will, therefore, imagine some of the party enjoying themselves after +this fashion; when suddenly the calves are heard to rise, to bellow and +groan, strain at the ropes with which they are fastened, and endeavour +to escape; every cigar is at once extinguished, the comic changes to the +serious--the wolves are on the scent. A few minutes more, and black +spots are seen dotted about here and there on the snow; these increase +in number and approach,--they are the wolves that observe and listen; +the frantic terror of the calves is redoubled; the black spots become +larger, they advance still nearer, and at length the animals may clearly +be distinguished. The wolves imagine the calves have come astray. What a +charming thing if they could carry them off to the dark ravines they +inhabit! The great square hut, silent as Harpocrates, and the smell of +man, make them hesitate; but a hunger of many days (and we know that +man, the image of his Maker, will eat man, his fellow, in his +extremity) and the smell of blood prevail and overcome their fears. Four +or five wolves rush forward, and endeavour to remove the calves; the +attempt is vain, the ropes are strong, and so are the posts to which the +animals are fastened: unable, therefore, to succeed, and stretched +across their dying victims, they plunge their ravenous jaws into the +palpitating flesh, forget their alarm in so delicious a supper, and eat +and drink to their heart's content. The rest of the pack thus +encouraged, and afraid of being too late, now advance at a gallop to +share in the repast. + +It is then, and amid the yells, the disputes, and the bloody encounters +occasioned by a division of the spoil, that the sportsmen open their +fire. The first volley puts the wolves to flight, and they retire to a +short distance. But again all is silent, they soon return to the +carcases they cannot make up their minds to desert; other wolves also, +that have been in the rear, attracted by the cries and smell of their +wounded companions, and the blood of the calves, arrive and take part in +the strife, so that during several hours the forest echoes with repeated +volleys. At length the calves are fairly eaten up, when the fortunate +survivors of the fray, gorged and satiated, take to flight, and +disappear like a band of black demons into the recesses of the forest. +It is then the sportsmen leave their hut, stretch their limbs, count the +dead, dispatch their wounded enemies, and, clothed in thick fur cloaks, +sit as if at the bivouac round a large fire, passing the remaining hours +of the night in emptying more bottles, excavating more pies, drinking +more punch, and telling better stories than those which I have had the +pleasure of laying before the reader. + +The morning has scarcely dawned and the party is on the road home, when +a crowd of peasants arrive with their dogs, who, following the bloody +traces of the wolves in the snow, dispatch those which, though wounded, +have been able to leave the spot--for the sight of a dead wolf is to a +Morvinian as delightful as the possession of one is profitable. Having +killed his ferocious enemy, the peasant cuts off his head and his four +feet, which he fastens crosswise at the end of his staff; then arraying +himself in his best and most showy clothes, his hat ornamented with +flowers and ribbons streaming in the breeze, like those in the cap of an +English recruit, he is off, the left foot foremost, to the mayor of his +parish to receive the reward offered by the government. But his road to +his worship is anything but direct; he performs what he terms the grand +tour, visits every village in his way, makes his bow to the women, calls +at the sheep-farms and the _chateaux_, showing, with no little pride and +exultation, his wolf's head, and receives at each some acknowledgment +for the service he has rendered the community,--money, a dozen of eggs, +a pound of lard, a bit of pork, bread, flour, flax, or salt, &c. He who +kills the wolf, and carries the spoils as a trophy in this manner, is +accompanied by the musician of the neighbourhood, who marches before him +blowing his bagpipe with the force of an ox; behind him is one of the +strongest men of the village, with a large bag on each shoulder, who +carries the presents, and imitates the cry and yells of a wolf when the +piper is tired. It will not therefore be considered astonishing if it is +always with renewed pleasure that a peasant of Le Morvan kills a wolf; +and though one becomes tired, _blaze_ with almost everything in this +mortal world, it is not the case when a gallant fellow is seen entering +a village carrying the head of this hideous monster on his pole. This +trophy, with tongue distended and mouth kept wide open by a piece of +wood to show his long yellow teeth, frightens all the little children +that see it. + +There are many other methods of taking the wolf, with a hook, a net, +with tame she-wolves _a la loge_, the poacher's method, in pits, and in +a washing-tub by the side of a pond, &c. But a description of these +several modes would occupy too much space. I cannot, however, before +taking a final leave of this subject, resist the temptation to relate +one last and most fearful incident--a frightful illustration of the +horrors to which a country infested by this animal is liable. It +happened during my sojourn at St. Hibaut, at a farm in that +neighbourhood. + +It was in the month of February, the winter was exceedingly severe, and +three feet of snow still covered the mountains; all communication +between the villages had ceased, and bands of hungry wolves besieged the +farms in the heart of the woods. + +The forest of La Madeleine, particularly full of ravines and dark +thickets, small hamlets, and solitary houses, was overrun with these +insatiable and remorseless brutes. Travellers had been devoured in the +passes of La Goulotte, and mangled and torn in the ravines of Lingou. No +one dared venture into the country when night approached. + +The farm of which I am about to speak stands just on the borders of the +forest of La Madeleine, in the midst of pastures and patches of furze; +it was full of cattle and sheep, and by the time the stars were +brilliantly illuminating the dark arch of heaven, was frequently +surrounded by troops of wolves, scratching under the walls, and loudly +demanding the trifling alms of a horse, an ox, or a man. It so happened +that at this time one of the farmer's colts died, and he determined, if +possible, to use it as a bait, which would provide him the opportunity +of destroying some of his nocturnal visitors. + +For this purpose he placed the dead body in the middle of his +court-yard, and having fastened weights to its neck and legs, to prevent +the wolves from dragging it away, he set the principal gate open, but so +arranged with cords and pulleys that it could be closed at any required +moment. Night came on; the house was shut up, the candles extinguished, +the stables barricaded, the dogs brought in-doors and muzzled to prevent +them from barking, and, in the bright starlight, on some clean straw, +the better to attract attention, lay the dead body of the colt--the +gate, as we have said, being open. All was ready, all within on the +watch, when about ten o'clock the wolves were heard in the distance; +they approached, smelt, looked, listened, grumbled, and distrusting the +open gate, paused; not one would enter. Profound was the silence and +excitement in the house. Hunger at last overcame prudence and mistrust. +Their savage cries were renewed; they became more and more impatient and +exasperated,--how was it possible to resist a piece of young horseflesh? +The most forward, probably the captain of the band, could hold out no +longer, and to show his fellows he was worthy to be their leader, he +advanced alone, passed the Rubicon, went up to the colt, tore away a +large piece of his chest, and, proud of his achievement, set off at +speed with his booty between his teeth. The other wolves, seeing him +escape in safety, regained their confidence, and one, two, three, six, +eight wolves were soon gathered round the animal, but, though eating as +fast as they could, they remained with ears erect, and each eye still on +the gate. + +Eight wolves! The farmer thought it a respectable number, and whistled, +when the four men at the ropes hauling instantly, the large +folding-gates rolled to, and closed in the stillness with the noise of +thunder,--the wolves were prisoners. Startled and terrified at finding +themselves caught, they at once deserted the small remains of the colt, +creeping about in all directions in search of some outlet by which they +might escape, or some hole to hide in, while the farmer, having secured +them, sent his household to bed, putting off their destruction till +sunrise. + +The morning dawned, and with the first rays of light master and men, for +whom the event was a perfect _fete_, set some ladders against the walls +of the court, and from them, as well as the windows, fired volleys on +the entrapped wolves. Unable to resist, the animals for some time +hurried hither and thither, crouching in every nook and corner of the +yard: but the wounds from balls which reached them behind the stones, or +under the carts, soon turned their fear into rage. They began to make +alarming leaps, and the most dreadful yells. The work of destruction +went on but slowly;--the men were but indifferent shots, the wolves +never an instant at rest;--and the rapidity and perseverance with which +they continued to gallop round, or leap from side to side of the yard, +as if in a cage, essentially baffled the endeavours of their enemies. + +The affair was in this way becoming tedious, when an unlooked-for +misfortune threw a dreadful gloom over the whole scene. + +The ladder used by one of the party being too short, the young man +placed himself on the wall, as if in a saddle, to have a better +opportunity of taking aim; when one of the wolves, the largest, +strongest, and most exasperated, suddenly bounded at the wall, as if to +clear it, but failed; subsequently the animal attempted to climb up by +means of the unhewn stones, like a cat, and though he again failed, +reached high enough almost to seize with his sharp teeth the foot of the +unfortunate lad. Terrified at this he raised his leg to avoid the +brute--lost his balance--and the same moment fell with a heart-rending +scream into the court below. Each and all the wolves turned like +lightning on their helpless, hopeless victim, and a cry of horror was +heard on every side. + +The storm of leaden hail ceased: no man dared fire again, and yet +something must be done, for the monsters were devouring their unhappy +fellow-servant. Listening only to the dictates of courage and humanity, +the noble-hearted farmer, gun in hand, leaped at once into the yard, and +his men all followed his heroic example. A general and frightful +conflict ensued. The scene which then took place defies every attempt at +description. No pen could adequately place before the reader the awful +incidents that succeeded. He must, if he can, imagine the howling of the +wolves, the piteous cries of the lacerated and dying youth, the +imprecations of the men, the neighing of the horses and roaring of the +bulls in the stables; and, more than all, the crying and lamentations of +the women and children in the house--a fearful chorus--such as happily +few, very few persons were ever doomed to hear. At last the farmer's +wife, a powerful and resolute woman, with great presence of mind +unmuzzled the dogs, and threw them from a window into the yard. This +most useful reinforcement with their vigorous attacks and loud barking +completed the tumult and the tragedy. In twenty minutes the eight wolves +were dead, and with them half the faithful dogs. The poor unfortunate +lad, his throat torn open, was dead; his courageous, though unsuccessful +defenders, were all more or less wounded, and the gallant farmer's left +hand so injured, that as soon as surgical assistance could be procured +for him, amputation was found to be necessary. + +The monsters, stretched side by side in the yard, were also stone dead, +every one of them; but not a voice on the farm raised the heart-stirring +shout of victory. Consternation and gloom reigned over it, and it was +long indeed ere the voice of mourning deserted its walls. + +The skin of the wolf is strong and durable; the woodmen, _braconniers_, +and mountaineers, make cloaks and caps of it, the tail being left on the +latter to fall over the ear by way of ornament; they likewise cover with +it the outside of their game-bags. They tan it also, and excellent shoes +are made of the leather, soft and light for summer wear,--it is likewise +made into parchment, not to write the history of their ancestors upon, +but to cover small drums, the rattle of which, on fairdays and _fetes_ +is sure to set the peasants dancing. This fact is alluded to in a song +of our province, written by a shepherd-poet, in the pleasing dialect of +Le Morvan, of which the following is a free translation: + + Hark! 'tis the wolf-skin drum, + We come! We come! + Yes, come with me sweet girl, and fair + As rosebud wild that scents the air. + The heavens are bright, the stars are shining, + Thy lovely form my arms entwining; + Together let us lead the dance + Deep in thy sylvan haunts, dear France! + Hark! I hear those sounds again, + The wolf-skin drum, the pipers' strain. + +Wealthy persons use a wolf-skin for a carriage-rug, and in the rainy +season as a mat at the door of a room. "There is nothing good in the +wolf," says Buffon, "he has a base low look--a savage aspect, a terrible +voice, an insupportable smell, a nature brutal and ferocious, and a body +so foul and unclean that no animal or reptile will touch his flesh. It +is only a wolf that can eat a wolf." "No animal," writes Cuvier, "so +richly merits destruction as the wolf." With these two funeral orations +on these incarnate fiends of Natural History, I shall close this +chapter, remarking that the anathema bestowed on them by Buffon is not +quite correct, for if wolves are dangerous, and enemies to the public +weal, and "there is nothing good" in them during their lives, they, at +least, become useful after their death. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + Fishing in Le Morvan--The naturalists--The _Gour_ of Akin--The + English lady--The mountain streams--Chateau de + Chatelux--Sermiselle--New mode of killing pike--Pierre Pertuis--The + rocks and whirlpool there--The syrens of the grotto--Chateau des + Panolas--The Cousin--The ponds of Marot and lakes of Lomervo--Mode + of taking fish with live trimmers--The Scotch farmer. + + +Having disposed of the quadrupeds of Le Morvan, I must enlarge a little +upon the finny tribe of my native province, who would, I feel sure, be +not a little annoyed if after having mentioned nearly every other +creature capable of affording amusement to the sportsman I were to pass +them over in silence. Besides, the shade of Izaak Walton would haunt me, +and his disciples no doubt wish me well hooked, if I omitted to give +them a chapter on angling,--but it shall be short, and I will avoid all +scientific discussion. Theories sufficient have been hazarded, and books +written without number from the days of old Aristotle, who arranged them +in three great divisions, the Cetaceous, the Cartilaginous, and the +Spinous; down to Gmelin, who divided them into six orders, the Apodal, +the Jugular, the Thoracic, the Abdominal, the Branchiostagous, and the +Chondropterygious. + +How men, learned and scientific men, can be so barbarous as to invent +such grotesque names as these is surprizing, or why Apicius should be +remembered for having been the first to teach mankind how to suffocate +fish in Carthaginian pickle; or Quin, for having discovered a sauce for +John Dories; or Mrs. Glasse, for an eel pie; or M. Soyer, celebrated for +depriving barbel of their sight, in order to make them grow fatter, and +be more acceptable to the epicure. Into this wilderness of discoveries, +I have no intention of introducing you, gentle reader. The wisest plan +is to cook and eat your fish in the ordinary mode--fry, broil, bake, +boil, or grill; and call a perch, a perch, not a thoracic; a pike, a +pike, &c., and pay little attention either to cooks or naturalists. + +Le Morvan, intersected by numerous rivers, streams, and runs of water, +in the liquid depths of which the various species of the fresh-water +fishy-family are found from the powerful, swift, and travelled salmon, +to the modest little gudgeon that stays quietly at home, is a country +where the angler may live in a state of perpetual jubilee; the carp, the +eel, and the pike attain an enormous size, particularly near the dams +and flood-gates, where the depth of water is great, and in the _Gours_ +or water-courses which, diverging at several points on the stream, are +constructed for supplying the flour and paper-mills with water. + +The punters of Richmond, Hampton Court, and Chertsey, with their +magnificent tackle, gentles, ground-bait, and comfortable chair, &c., +would be astonished to see the quantities of fish that are taken in one +of these _Gours_ by a half-naked peasant, with a line as thick as +packthread, during a sultry tempestuous evening in the month of June; +from thirty to forty pounds' weight of carp and eels is by no means an +unusual take,--Apodal and Abdominal, as the learned Gmelin would say. + +These _Gours_ are perfect jewels in the eyes of our fishermen; on very +great occasions, for instance, when the miller marries, or an infant +miller makes his appearance, if the occurrence should happen during the +summer season, the flood-gates of the _Gours_ are opened, when the +waters being let off to within a few inches of the bottom, the quantity +of fish taken with the casting-net is enormous. In the large _Gour_ of +Akin, the longest, the deepest, and containing more fish than any on the +Cure or the Cousin, which I mention as representing the ten or twelve +second-rate rivers of Le Morvan, I have seen as much as four horse-loads +of fish taken, though every fish under two pounds was thrown back. The +average depth of water in these rivers is from three to four feet, +except near the dams and flood-gates, where it is from twelve to +thirteen. With rivers so well supplied, sport is invariably obtained; so +that patience, a virtue generally considered absolutely necessary in the +angler, is scarcely required here, and fishing is actually a pastime of +the _beau sexe_. + +Well do I remember the astonishment, the pleasure, the delicious joy of +a young English lady we had the good fortune to have with us at Vezelay, +some few years since (where, by-the-bye, she made quite a sensation), +when for the first time, and seated comfortably upon the soft turf by +the river side, she gracefully threw her line into the great _Gour_ of +Akin; the bait had scarcely sunk, when the float was dancing about like +a dervish, and finally disappeared; the lady pulled, the fish resisted; +excited beyond measure, she redoubled her efforts, and tugging away with +both hands, at length drew from his watery home a large carp, which +flying through the air, described a splendid parabola, and landed in the +adjoining field, to the great joy of the young lady, who showed her +white teeth and laughed with might and main. But the poor devil of a +servant to whom was confided the delicate task of impaling the bait, +disentangling the line, and searching for the fish, when thus projected +over the lady's head into the long grass behind her, had plenty to do I +can aver, and did anything but laugh. + +Near the forests and the hills the rivers are much more shallow, more +clear and limpid, and flow, dance, and bubble over a gravelly bottom or +golden sands. In these the voracious trout abounds; he may be seen +allowing himself to be lazily rocked by the eddy, by the twirling +current, or reposing under the shadow of the large rocks, which, +detached from the adjacent mountains, have fallen into the river, and +been arrested in their course; here he waits for the delicious May-fly, +and the fisherman's basket is soon filled--so soon that a celebrated +doctor in our neighbourhood, whose house is situated near one of these +streams, used to send his servant every morning to take a fresh dish for +his breakfast. The largest and the best trout are found near Chatelux, +in the heart of the Morvan,--an old _chateau_, on the summit of a high +rock, ornamented with towers and turrets, and surrounded by thick and +solitary woods, in itself a lion worth seeing. + +The present Count de Chatelux was aide-de-camp to Louis Phillipe, and a +great friend of that sovereign. The river Cure flows at the foot of the +hill on which the castle is situated, and its bed at this part is +frequently divided, and forms many little islets, full of flowering +shrubs and forest trees, which give the landscape a pleasing and +picturesque appearance. From hence, for nearly twelve miles, roach, +dace, chub, and trout are numerous, and take the fly well. + +Besides the _Gours_ we have mentioned, there are three spots in the +Morvan that deserve attention in connection with fishing. These are +Sermiselle, Pierre Pertuis, and the Chateau des Panolas. Sermiselle, at +the junction of the Cure and the Cousin, at which point the road from +Paris to Lyons passes, is a charming village, full of life and gaiety. +At this spot the river begins to make a respectable figure; deep, +solemn, and silent, it seems proud of its boats and ferries; but its +waters have not that transparent appearance, that vivacious, laughing, +and brawling character which distinguished them some miles further up. +The fish in like manner resemble the stream; there are in this part +monstrous carp, majestic eels, and solemn pike; and the line should be +doubly strong if the angler is desirous of ever seeing a fish, or his +hooks again. + +At some distance above Sermiselle, where the silence and solitude of the +country still reign, a very curious mode of fishing is adopted during +the burning heat of the summer months. About mid-day, when the sun in +all its power shoots his golden rays perpendicularly on the waters, +illuminating every large hole even in the profoundest depths, the large +fish leave them, and, ascending to the surface, remain under the cool +shade of the trees, watching for whatever tit-bit or delicacy the stream +may bring with it, while others prefer a quiet saunter, or, with the +dorsal fin above the water, lie so still and stationary near some lily +or other aquatic plant, that they seem perfectly asleep. + +The enthusiastic sportsman, who fears neither storms nor a +_coup-de-soleil_, makes his appearance about this time, without, it is +true, either fishing-rod, lines, worms, flies, or bait of any +description, but having under his left arm a double-barrel gun, in his +right hand a large cabbage, and at his heels a clever poodle. The +fisherman, or the huntsman, I scarcely know which to call him, now duly +reconnoitres the river, fixes upon some tree, the large and lower +branches of which spread over it, ascends with his gun and his cabbage, +and having taken up an equestrian position upon one of the projecting +arms, examines the surface of the deep stream below him. He has not been +long on his perch when he perceives a stately pike paddling up the +river; a leaf is instantly broken off the cabbage, and when the +Branchiostagous has approached sufficiently near, is thrown into the +water; frightened, the voracious fish at once disappears, but shortly +after rises, and grateful to the unknown and kind friend who has sent +him this admirable parasol, he goes towards it, and after pushing it +about for a few seconds with his nose, finally places himself +comfortably under its protecting shade. The sportsman, watching the +animated gyrations of his cabbage-leaf, immediately fires, when the +poodle, whose sagacity is quite equal to that of his master, plunges +into the water, and if the fish is either dead or severely wounded fails +not to bring out with him the scaly morsel; thus so long as the heavens +are bright and blue, the water is warm, the large fish choose to +promenade in the sun, and the sportsman's powers of climbing hold out, +the sport continues. Sometimes the poodle and the fish have a very sharp +struggle, and then the fun is great indeed, unless by chance the +sportsman should unfortunately miss his hold in the midst of his +laughter, and drop head-foremost into the water with his cabbage and his +double-barrel. + +Pierre Pertuis on the Cure, is also a famous place for fishing, and an +extraordinary spot, and the Morvinian peasant, a highly +poetically-flavoured individual, has made it the theatre of some very +fantastic scenes. Imagine a yellow rock, of gigantic height, terminating +in a point, with its sides full of fissures, holes, and crevices, +inhabited by crows, owls, and bats, having its base in the river and its +summit crowned with a rough _chevelure_ of brambles and large creeping +plants. The lower part of this rock is intersected by holes, through +which the water rushes, tumbles, and whirls. The peasants pretend that +the river near the rock cannot be fathomed, and that this particular +spot is inhabited by fairies, nymphs, syrens, and other amiable ladies +of this description, who have superb voices, and sing from the interior +of their grottos delicious melodies of the other world, with the +charitable intention of attracting the passing traveller or fisherman, +and drowning him in the whirlpool beneath--a fate that would certainly +be inevitable, if the attraction in question could bring them within +its vortex, for certain it is that neither sheep-dogs or cattle which +have fallen in, or been drawn within reach of its power, have ever been +seen again. When the tempest rages here, the wind, rushing into the +holes and fissures, produces a kind of moaning AEolian noise, and this +with the cries of the owls and the rooks when the _mistral_ blows and +they have the rheumatism, produces, and no wonder, a superstitious +feeling of awe in the mind of the ignorant peasant. + +On the Cousin, which flows majestically through some of the most +magnificent pastures in the world, and on the summit of a large hill, +stands the charming Chateau des Panolas, the towers and walls of which, +covered with pointed roofs and weather-cocks, and surrounded by domes, +belvederes, and old-fashioned dovecots, give it at a distance the +appearance of some oriental building. The weather-cocks in particular +are of the most fanciful and grotesque designs, and it is said, and I +should think there can be no doubt of the fact, that in no other +structure have so many been seen together: it is calculated there are no +less than three hundred. In going and returning from the forest, many a +time have I and my friends, in the hey-day of youthful iniquities, +knocked one of them off with a ball from our guns, to the great anger +of the proprietor, who threatened us with his mahogany crutch from the +hall door. + +In the great ponds of Marot, and in the lakes of Lomervo--immense liquid +plains, deep and surrounded in their whole circumference by a forest of +green rushes, water-lilies, flags, and many other aquatic plants, +forming a wall of verdure--the enormous quantity of fish of every kind +is almost incredible. Nor is this extraordinary, for the waters of at +least a dozen streams from the mountains, which swarm with life, fall +into these vast reservoirs, and they are only fished once in every five +years. This is a delectable spot for fishermen; but, on the other hand, +as the value of these sheets of water is well understood by their +proprietors, they are sharply looked after by them and their keepers, +and it is almost as difficult to find an opportunity of throwing a line +during the day, as it is for a poacher to throw a casting net on a +moonlight night. + +Nevertheless, as the appropriation of other people's property has an +exquisite charm for some temperaments,--as a stolen apple to a child's +palate is much more delightful than one that is not--the demon of +acquisitiveness is always leaning over a man's shoulder,--that is to +say, a poacher's shoulder, or even that of a gentleman with poaching +tastes and inclinations,--to breathe in his ear bad advice. As to the +peasants in the neighbourhood, they are always consulting together, or +inventing some method by which they may circumvent the proprietors and +appropriate their fish to themselves. + +One of the happiest discoveries of the kind I ever heard of,--not the +most recent but the best,--is the following. Every person in the +possession of a cottage, possesses also a few ducks and geese, which +paddle about their humble habitations. A man who has an itching for the +thing, and who desires to become a pond-skimmer, as they are called, +carefully selects from his squadron of _palmipedes_, the strongest, the +most intelligent duck or goose of the party; his choice made, he +immediately sets to work to give him the education befitting a bird +destined for so honourable and diplomatic an employment. + +After very many trials, lessons, and lectures, more or less difficult +and tedious, the bird is taught to swim to a distance right ahead--to +turn to one side when his master sings, and return to him when he +whistles. These two primary and elementary movements, which appear so +very natural, demand, nevertheless, wonderful patience, and no little +cleverness and tact in the professor to instil--for his pupils, be it +remembered, are ducks and geese--and furnishes an example of how the +hope and love of gain has its effect on mankind. These very peasants, +who never would take the trouble to learn their letters--only +twenty-four--who would not many of them go two miles to learn how to +sign their own names, pass whole days in the gray waters of these +marshes, more often than not up to their waists in mud, whistling and +singing and twitching the legs of their unfortunate birds, and nearly +pulling them off with a string, when they either do not comprehend, or +obey as quickly as they might, the orders they receive. + +Dozens of ducks and geese that would in London or Paris be considered +highly curious and infinitely wiser than any of their species--even +those of the Capitol--are thus trained every year in Le Morvan, without +any one giving them a thought, and may be purchased, education included, +for two shillings a piece. When these winged students are so thoroughly +qualified for their duties, that they can go through their exercise +without a mistake, and are considered worthy of taking the field, the +peasant puts them into his bag, and setting off very early in the +morning to one of the great ponds I have mentioned, conceals himself +behind a thick tufty curtain of flags, from whence he can see without +being seen. + +Here, opening his bag, he takes out the half suffocated ducks or geese, +which are glad enough to find themselves once more on their favourite +element; and the intelligent birds have scarcely regained their liberty +when the peasant commences his ballad, and immediately the anchor is +apeak and they are off; he sings, he whistles, and they turn, like two +well-manned frigates, and come back to him without a moment's delay. The +act is so natural, so simple, that no one can be attracted by it; nor is +it possible to suspect a goose or a duck with its head down searching +for food, that paddles about in the weeds or on the shore, or dabbles +amongst the rushes. Should the keeper appear, the peasant is sure to be +found lying on his back half asleep, or singing or whistling, as if +mocking the lark in the clear blue sky above him. + +Nevertheless, this goose, this duck, and this man are first-rate +thieves,--cracksmen of their class; for the peasant, before he confides +his poultry to the waves, makes their toilette; sliding under the left +wing and over the right, across the body, like a soldier's belt, a +strong and well-baited pike-hook. Thus equipped and ready for the start, +the pirate birds leave on their buccaneering expedition; but they are +scarcely a stone's throw from the shore, and well clear of the little +islands of flags, when a hungry pike, observing the delicious frog +towing in the rear, seizes it, and makes off to his hole, to gorge the +bait at his leisure. More easily thought than done;--the goose stoutly +resists, and refuses to accompany the fresh-water shark to his weedy +home. A warm and obstinate engagement is the result; the peasant +watches, with approving eye, the embarassment of his feathered +accomplice, until he thinks it time to put an end to the scrimmage, when +he whistles like an easterly wind in a passion. The goose, rather +encumbered by the carnivorous gentleman below him, endeavours for some +time but in vain to obey the signal; he flaps his wings, works away with +his legs, and cackles without ceasing. The poacher encourages him with +another whistle, and at length the bird, in spite of all his adversary's +attempts to the contrary, leads the "greedy game of the deep" to the +shore, and delivers it to his master. This is, certainly, a very curious +mode of taking pike, and the live trimmer looks very puzzled when the +voracious fish is hooked; but the following anecdote, taken from the +scrap-book of Mr. M'Diarmid, shows that a Scotchman once adopted the +same method, though for a different reason. "Several years ago," he +writes, "a farmer, living in the immediate neighbourhood of Lochmaben, +Dumfriesshire, kept a gander, who not only had a great trick of +wandering himself, but also delighted in piloting forth his cackling +harem, to weary themselves in circumnavigating their native lake, or in +straying amidst forbidden fields on the opposite shore. Wishing to check +this flagrant habit, the farmer one day seized the gander just as he was +about to spring upon the blue bosom of his favourite element, and tying +a large fish-hook to his leg, to which was attached part of a dead frog, +he suffered him to proceed upon his voyage of discovery. As had been +anticipated, this bait soon caught the eye of a ravenous pike, which +swallowing the deadly hook, not only arrested the progress of the +astonished gander, but forced him to perform half-a-dozen summersets on +the surface of the water! For some time, the struggle was most +amusing--the fish pulling, and the bird screaming with all its +might,--the one attempting to fly, and the other to swim, from the +invisible enemy--the gander one moment losing and the next regaining his +centre of gravity, and casting between whiles many a rueful look at his +snow-white fleet of geese and goslings, who cackled out their sympathy +for their afflicted commodore. At length Victory declared in favour of +the feathered angler, who, bearing away for the nearest shore, landed on +the smooth green grass one of the finest pike ever caught in the Castle +Loch." + +This adventure is said to have cured the gander of his desperate +propensity for wandering. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + Village _fetes_--The first of May--The religious festivals--The + _Fete Dieu_--Appearance of the streets--The altars erected in + them--Procession from the church--Country fairs--The book-stalls at + them--Pictures of the Roman Catholic Church--Before the + _Vendange_--Proprietors' hopes and fears--Shooting in the + vineyards--The first day of the _Vendange_--Appearance of the + country--Influx of visitors at this season--The + consequences--Herminie--Her sad history--Le Morvan--Recommended to + the English traveller--Lord Brougham and Cannes--Contrast between + it and Le Morvan. + + +One of the happiest and most useful customs established by our +ancestors, was, without doubt, the village _fete_--the periodical +festival that takes place in every hamlet, and at which the inhabitants +of the adjoining _communes_ assemble on a specified day to foot it gaily +in the dance and drink each other's health glass to glass in brimming +bumpers. These joyous _fetes_, a kind of fraternal and social +invitation, which are given and accepted by the rural population when +spring and verdure made their appearance, are held all over France, and +rejoice every heart. In our day, though much shorn of its ancient +revelry, and neglected, _la fete du village_ is still kept up, for it +is, so to speak, indigenous,--a part of our social habits, and like +everything which carries within it a generous sentiment, is loved and +cherished by the people. As the day approaches every village is suitably +decorated, the women are all on the tip toe of excitement to see and be +seen, the peasant throws dull care behind him, and the artizans in the +nearest town work with renewed energy in order that they may do honour +to the occasion. Every one, in short, makes his way to the rendezvous, a +merry laugh on his lip and joy in his heart, and, lost in the tumult and +general gaiety that prevail, all forget, for some few hours, their hard +work and privations. + +These festivals offer to each either profit or amusement; the peasants +find in them a refreshing and salutary rest from toil, the tradesman +fails not to fill his pockets with their hard earnings, the clown shows +off his summersets, the young men are touched with the tender passion, +and the young girls, with their white teeth and sparkling eyes, await +with feigned indifference the proposals of their admirers. The village +_fete_ forms a bright epoch in rustic life, and the gay hours passed at +them are the happiest, the most joyous, and the most enchanting of the +year. + +Our ancestors, who knew and more thoroughly understood these matters +than we do, who loved a laugh, the dance, and the merry outpourings of +the heart, endeavoured by every means in their power to multiply them, +and, after having seized upon the name of every saint in paradise, they +managed to appropriate, and always for the same motive, all the various +occupations known in the cultivation of the fields as a good excuse for +holding more of these saturnalia. The season for sowing was one, the +hay-harvest another, the wheat-harvest, the period of felling the oaks +in the forest were excellent opportunities for establishing a new +_fete_, and consequently buying a new coat, singing a carol, drinking to +France, and skipping _des Rigodons_. For, be it said, one really does +amuse oneself in my beautiful country; yes, one amuses oneself, perhaps, +much more than one works; there are more Casinos built than acres +grubbed up, and is not this partly the reason why the land is so badly +tilled and produces only one half of what it should. But what signifies +it, after all, if this half is sufficient for us. England, they say, is +more opulent and better cultivated; be it so,--she is richer, she +manufactures more; but is she happier? + +Independently of these _fetes_, the number of which is infinite, but +which occur only, in each locality, once a year, there exist also those +merry meetings, which, like the Sunday, are understood by the peasantry +as a general holiday. Amongst these, the most animated and attractive, +and more usually marked by happy incidents, is that of the first of May. +At the earliest dawn of day, the tones of the bagpipe may be +distinguished in the distance, coming up the principal street of the +village. He who has heard this rustic sound in the happy days of his +childhood, under the shade of the elms, will always love the unmusical +and melancholy wailing of the bagpipe. The strain has scarcely died away +when all the village is alive, every one is up and dressed in his +best--the children, with enormous nosegays in each little hand, go and +present them to their delighted parents, and wish them "_un doux mois de +Mai_." + +Each house, perfumed like a parterre of flowers, opens its doors, and, +during the live long day, it is between friends and acquaintance a +series of happy smiles, and a mutual exchange of nosegays and hearty +shaking of hands. Then in the evening, when the moon has risen in the +west over the fir woods, the young lads and lasses, with their fathers +and mothers, saunter along the streets arm in arm. At short distances, +on the roofs of the houses, are seen, elevated in the air, gigantic +chaplets of flowers, illuminated by large torches of rosin. Within these +chaplets are others of smaller size. A dance, _grand rond_, is formed by +the young lovers that have carried the May to their sweethearts, who, +rising before the dawn, had already gathered the mysterious declaration +of love, perfumed and still covered with the tears of night. In this +large circle is formed another of children, about ten years of age, and +within this again, a third of quite little things; small human garlands +within the greater one. And the bagpipe plays, and all the world dance, +and every one is happy, and the evening breeze shaking the large +chaplets above showers of lilac and hawthorn bloom fall on the dancers +and rustic ballroom beneath. + +To these village _fetes_ must be added, to complete the list of our +popular holidays--the religious festivals, established by the Roman +Catholic church, which, in the eyes of our rural population, are the +most imposing and magnificent ceremonies of the year. These _fetes_ are +very little known in Protestant countries; a few details, therefore, of +one of them, taken at hazard, may please, or at least offer some point +of interest to the reader. + +In the month of June, when the heavens are all azure, when the sun +smiles on us here below, and the summer flowers are all in bloom, the +long-expected _fete_, the _Fete Dieu_, _la fete des Roses_, the feast of +Corpus Christi, one of the most brilliant festivals of the Roman +Catholic church takes place. + +Several days before, all the houses appear in a new toilette, decked out +with evergreens and branches of the vine and tamarisk, festoons of which +are suspended from window to window. All the streets of the village are +washed and swept, like a drawing-room. On the preceding evening every +garden is opened, the borders are ravaged, baskets-full of roses, +armfulls of jasmine, bunches of gilly-flowers and sweet-pea fall under a +little army of scissars and white hands. The camellias complain, the +heliotropes murmur, all the tribe of tulips are in low spirits, for each +family gathers in a perfect harvest of flowers--every one remarks to the +other--"To-morrow is the _fete Dieu_, the feast of roses--the favourite +festival of the year." And when aurora, pale with watching, rises in the +cloudless sky, when the cock, herald of the morn, proclaims the birth of +another day, when the first golden ray, traversing space, lights the +eastern casement, behind which many a lovely bosom heaves, with +anticipated conquest and excitement, the bells of the village church +are heard, and at this merry signal every one is up and soon busily +engaged superintending the preparations for the day. + +The streets, as if by enchantment, are carpeted with verdure; the pine, +the oak, and the birch, from the neighbouring forest, contribute their +young shoots and leaves; the prickly broom its yellow flowers. The +facades of the houses are hidden under their various hangings, the rich +suspend from their windows their splendid carpets; the poor, sheets as +white as driven snow. All ornament them, here and there, with roses, +pinks, and carnations. Then, at short distances down the principal +street, the young _demoiselles_ of the village erect what are termed +_reposoirs_, a kind of chapel or altar, improvised for the occasion, +which lead to an emulation and an animated rivalry perfectly terrible. +It is whose shall be the largest, best, and most elegantly decorated, +and these young nymphs, usually so reserved and so easily frightened, +become, for this week, as bold and free as so many dragoons. They enter +the house, without being announced, open the drawers, visit the +secretaries, ransack the cupboards. Pirates, with taper fingers, they +put into their baskets and reticules all the valuables they can lay +their hands on. Objects of art they are sure to seize, more especially +if they are made of the precious metals. It is who shall adorn her +_reposoir_ with gold and bronze vases, with enamelled cups, pictures, +and rich crucifixes. Important meetings are held, in some secret spot, +to determine of what form the altar shall be; if the dominating colour +shall be blue, purple, or lilac. Then there is a consultation whether +the drapery, that is to cover this temporary chapel, shall be with or +without a fringe,--a discussion which becomes more entangled with +difficulties than those in the Parliamentary Club of the Rue des +Pyramides, as to the continued existence or demise of our poor +constitution. Silk, satin, and velvet ornament the interior of the +elegant edifice; the most delicate perfumes burn in each of its corners, +and, in order further to embellish the altar on which the Holy Eucharist +is to rest for a few minutes, there is a perfect coquetting with +chaplets, festoons of gauze, crystal lamps of various colours, and +transparencies through which the subdued rays of the sun shed their +softened light. + +And, when everything is ready, when the mass has been said, when the +moment has arrived for the procession to move through the streets, the +bells ring a still merrier peal, the great folding-doors of the +principal entrance of the church are thrown open, and emerging from +thence one sees beneath the vaulted arch, first, the great silver +cross, then the banner of the blessed Virgin, carried by a beautiful +young girl, dressed in a robe of spotless white; after her come several +little children with flaxen heads, their hair parted and flowing on +their shoulders, carrying in their hands baskets ornamented with lace, +and full of poppies and corn-flowers; behind them are the children of +the choir, with their silver-chased incense burners; then two deacons, +one carrying on a silver plate the bloom of the vine, the other a head +of corn; then four men supporting a large shield, on which are twelve +loaves and a lamb, symbolical of the day; and lastly, under a canopy +enriched with gold lace and fringe, the old priest, calm and grave, who +carries in his hands the Holy Eucharist, followed by a long line of his +faithful parishioners, with the mammas and young girls two and two, +singing psalms and canticles. In this order they move along the crowded +streets, which are strewn with fennel, green branches, and leaves. + +From time to time the whole procession halts before some _reposoir_--the +little girls drop three curtsies before the beautiful altar, and scatter +high in the air handfuls of broken flowers, which shed a delicious +fragrance around; the children of the choir wave their censers to and +fro, the old priest blesses the crowd who kneel before him, and the +smoke of the incense, and the perfume of the roses, ascend towards +heaven as the adorations and prayers of all present ascend to God. This, +the holiest and most imposing _fete_ of our rural districts, is also the +one the most loved. Pity not the peasant, pity not those who are from +necessity obliged to live in these retired spots. They have their +_fetes_ as well as the rich, happier and much more magnificent, at which +they can be present and form part without paying anything. Nature, too, +source of so many marvels, whether she covers the earth with a robe of +verdure, or fields of golden corn, or that she shelters it under a +mantle of snow, presents to the husbandman some interesting scene. Have +they not also the shade and silence of the forest, the eternal freshness +of the fountains? + +It is true the peasants know nothing of Beethoven's symphony in C, they +are not familiar with the melodies of Rossini, Madame Grisi has never in +her terrible finale "_Qual cor tradisti_" made them weep, nor has the +orchestra of Monsieur Jullien made them deaf. But what are these +splendid wonders of the town to them? Have they not a melodious choir of +birds to arouse them each morning from their slumbers? have they not as +scenes, the woods, the bubbling waters, verdant valleys, real sunrises +and sunsets? Can they not, seated on the summit of some hill, round +which the breeze of evening plays, gaze upon the glorious sky above them +spangled with stars, those unfading flowers of Heaven? Say, reader, is +not this hill a charming pit-stall, and much preferable to the narrow +crimson section of the bench at the Opera? These are some of their +enjoyments; then how could they with any degree of pleasure stick +themselves up like logs of wood or trusses of hay before a row of lurid +lamps, to admire some painted men and women mincing up and down the +stage, or peer through two telescopes at forests of painted calico and +moons cut out of pasteboard, or listen to hackneyed airs which have been +sung and resung a hundred times--worn up, in short, like an old rope? + +The peasant farmer or yeoman of France, who in the midst of the most +pleasing circumstances, never forgets his own interests, has also found +it desirable for the advancement of his worldly prosperity, to establish +fairs, at which he can sell his hemp and beasts, his wine and his crops; +purchase clothes for his family, and coulters for his ploughs. + +These fairs, which are held once in each month in all the towns of +Burgundy and large villages of Le Morvan, attract a great concourse of +people, and as there is much variety in the costumes, head-dresses and +colours, the effect is highly picturesque. The mountaineer brings with +him for sale wild boar and venison, wood and wild fruits of the forest; +the inhabitant of the plain, the thousand productions of the +neighbouring manufactories. Second-rate jewellers arrive with their +boxes full of gold crosses and buckles, holy chaplets blessed at some +favourite shrine, and silver rings. + +Book-stalls are also to be seen, kept by Jesuits in disguise, the +shelves of which are loaded with inferior literature, with a perfect +deluge of breviaries, almanacks, abridgments of the Lives of the Saints, +with "Letters fallen from Heaven," in which, "Ladies and gentlemen," +shouts the proprietor, "you will read the details, truthful and +historical, of the last miracle at Rimini; also a new and marvellous +account, equally authentic, of several pictures of Christ that have shed +tears of blood. Buy, ladies and gentlemen, buy the history of these +astonishing miracles--only a penny, ladies, for which you will have into +the bargain the invaluable signature of our Holy Father the Pope, and +the benediction of our Lord the Bishop." + +But ought one to be surprised at such announcements, at such a traffic, +or that in these so-called enlightened days, not only auditors but +purchasers should be found?--that there should, in fact, be a sale for +these printed mystifications, when officers of the government and +officers of the armed force, attest on their honour the truth of these +impudent impositions upon the credulity of mankind, affirm the accuracy +and _bona fide_ character of these winking, blinking, blasphemous, +lachrymal representations? + +Yes--a sub-prefect, a mayor, and an officer of the _gendarmerie_, have +signed a document stating that they had seen a picture of Christ +shedding tears of blood! + +When archbishops order public prayers and thanksgivings for the renewal +of these pasquinades, this ridiculous mockery, can one be astonished, I +say, at the state of religious ignorance and blindness of our peasantry? +Such, with a few wretched prints representing Napoleon passing the Alps +seated on an eagle; Poniatowsky and his white horse attempting to cross +the Oder; Cambronne, with imperial moustachios, on his knees repeating +the celebrated _mot_ which he never said: "_La garde meurt et ne se rend +pas_," &c.,--such, I am grieved to confess, is the miserable +intellectual food, the wretched mental and moral stock of human and +religious knowledge that supplies the literary and artistic wants of +the greater portion of the peasants of our departments. + +At these fairs all the farm servants are engaged; those who wish to try +a change of masters, or hire themselves merely for the harvest, assemble +in the open space near the church, and then offer to those who require +them, their brawny arms, and their farming acquirements. The most +celebrated of these fairs is that held on the First of September, to +which whole hamlets send all their able-bodied men and women, who hire +themselves to the great proprietors for the _vendange_--for this in +Burgundy and Le Morvan is the great work, the chief event of the year; +it is on the _vendange_ that depend the commerce, the tranquillity and +happiness of the country. + +Monsieur B.... is ruined if the sun is obscured by clouds. Monsieur +D.... who has cunningly laid his hands upon all the barrels within +thirty miles round, will put a pistol to his head if he cannot sell his +army of hogsheads. This one relies upon his vineyard for paying his +debts--another cannot marry unless he makes three hundred tierces of +wine. Eight out of twelve, in short, reckon upon the produce of their +vines to buy a new carriage or to be saved from prison; and the agonised +mariners of the wrecked _Medusa_ never cast their eyes with more +intense anxiety towards the horizon than do these proprietors of our +vineyards every morning before the vintage. + +If it looks like rain no sunflower is more yellow than their +countenances; if the cold is unusual every face is pale, and should a +frost appear imminent, those whose affairs are the most compromised, +pack up their effects and make ready for a start. But on the other hand, +if the sky is serene and the wind warm, husbands are actually seen +embracing their wives, and promising them any toilette they may fancy. +Should the heat become Bengalic and insupportable oh! then all Burgundy +is dancing and running to the vineyards,--all the Morvinians fly to the +hills to enjoy the cool breezes and admire the luxuriant panorama +beneath and around them. + +But for some months previous to the _vendange_, no one but a proprietor +has the right to enter a vineyard; at this period a perfect calm and +silence reigns, and they become an asylum, a veritable land of Goshen, +an oasis for all the partridges, hares, and rabbits of the +neighbourhood. In order to prevent gentlemen and professional poachers +from cruising in these delightful latitudes, killing the game and +injuring the vines, a number of _gardes champetres_, generally old +soldiers, are chosen, who armed with an old sabre, post themselves on +some height which commands the vineyard, ready to lay violent hands on +any delinquent that may make his appearance. But in spite of the _garde +champetre_, his long sabre, their interminable cut and thrust, and his +eternal _de par la loi, arretez!_ there is a sport in the early morning, +called _a la traulee_, which is not without its charms. + +The vineyards of Burgundy are for the most part divided into sections, +that is to say, at from two to three hundred paces the contiguity of the +vines is interrupted, and a small road, which serves during the +_vendange_ to facilitate the communication and transport of the grapes, +is cut in the vineyard. At daylight, therefore, before the sun is above +the horizon, or the white fog hanging in the valleys has been dispersed +by his rays, and the fashionable gentleman of the town is on the point +of going to bed, the sportsman, always keen and on the alert, arrives, +walks slowly and carefully along the roads I have just mentioned, +looking cautiously right and left, and between the intervals of the +vines on either side of him. + +The rabbits hopping under the leaves, the covey of partridges bathing +amidst the dew, the hares gravely discussing among themselves the +respective merits of the heath and wild thyme, are thus surprised in +their matutinal occupations, and become the prey of the delighted +sportsman. But the moment approaches when the comparative calm and +protection which the poor animals enjoy will cease--their days of fun +and festival are numbered; their enemies up to this period have been +few--the rich proprietors, the privileged, but now the masses are +preparing, they are cleaning up their clumsy blunderbusses, and +to-morrow "the million" will take the field and assail and pop at them +from every road and pathway--for the mayor, after due consultation with +the principal personages in the village, has sent his drummer, his +Mercury, his crier, to beat a tattoo in all the public places, and +crossways, and announce in front of the _cabarets_ that the grapes being +ripe the _vendange_ is opened. + +The following day, when the last star in the heavens is disappearing, +when the doors of morning are scarcely opened, every road is covered +with long lines of waggons drawn by oxen, and a cavalcade of horses and +mules, and great asses carrying panniers may be seen galloping along in +all directions. Voices, shouts, squeaking wheels, and neighing horses +are also heard on every side, and parties of _vendangeurs_ and +_vendangeuses_, arm in arm, with baskets on their backs, and grape +knives in their belts, their broad-brimmed hats encircled with ribbons +and flowers, are seen marching along, singing many a Bacchanalian chorus +in honour of the occasion. They are on their way to the vineyards, and +like so many fauns and Bacchantes, only well draped, are with joyous +hearts ready to gather in the harvest of the ruby grape. + +In advance of this delighted and merry crowd, and always like the lark, +the first on the wing, the sportsman is already at his post,--for the +first day of the _vendange_ is, as Navarre used to say, a day of powder, +the _fete du fusil_. And now is formed a line of sometimes three hundred +_vendangeurs_ and _vendangeuses_ who starting at the same moment, ascend +the hill-side cutting the grapes, filling and emptying their baskets. +The young men strike up some jovial song in praise of wine, the girls +reply; and before this soul-stirring chorus, this burst of gay and +animated feeling, the game, astounded at the concert, break and retire +before them. Then is the moment for the sportsman, who, concealed in a +large thicket and comfortably seated at the summit of the hill, listens +and laughs in his sleeve as he hears the affrighted partridge call, and +the timid hare rushing through the vines towards him; they approach, are +within range of his gun, and ere long the shot-bag is emptied, and the +sportsman is in that rare but agreeable dilemma of not knowing what to +do with his game or his gun. + +In a wine country the _vendange_ is certainly the most exciting and +merriest season of the year--it is a succession of delightful _fetes_ in +the open air, of repasts amongst the vines and under the shade of the +peach-trees, riding-parties in the forest, whose echoes are awakened by +the melancholy notes of the horn, water-parties on the lakes, dances in +the field and round the wine-press, &c. + +Every _chateau_ is full to overflowing in Le Morvan during the month of +August,--bands of Parisians, Picards, and Normans, acquaintances +scarcely made, friends, friends'-friends, with their wives, children, +dogs, nurses, and luggage arrive each hour and by every road. Every +family is invaded, beds are doubled, plates are not to be found,--there +is only one glass for two, one knife for three; the servants, stupified +and astonished, know not how to reply or which way to turn themselves; +the cooks, half-roasted and lost amidst an army of sauce-pans, know not +what they are doing; they put mustard into the _meringues_, cruets of +vinegar in the soup--every one is on the laugh, except however the heads +of families, who rendered almost crazy by this tide of human beings +always rising, by the bell of the _porte cochere_ always ringing, pass +on from one to the other the new arrivals, with a note as follows: + +"Mons. de G.... presents his compliments to Mons. de V...., and has the +honour to inform him that not possessing in his house one bed or one +arm-chair that is not occupied, he has the pleasure of sending him two +Normans and three Parisians." + +P.S. "The two Normans are first-rate waltzers, the Parisians perfect +singers." The reply will perhaps be couched in the following strain: + +"Mons. de V.... presents his compliments to Mons. de G...., and has the +honour to inform him that being himself under the necessity of sleeping +in his cellar, he cannot, though most anxious to oblige him, receive the +two Norman dancers and the three Parisian warblers." Thus it sometimes +happens that very charming, elegant, and sensitive gentlemen, who under +ordinary circumstances would be very difficult to please, are obliged +to sleep in a barn or loft, on a very nice bed of clean straw, with a +dark lantern to light them there, and the luxury of a truss of hay for a +pillow. + +The peasants, generally speaking, do not witness the arrival of these +visitors with much pleasure,--the dandies more especially, who shod in +varnished leather, always over-dressed, musked, and starched, attract, +so they think, too much the attention of the young girls. Fathers, +mothers, and, above all, lovers, are at once on the look out. They +mistrust these fine gentlemen, whom they always designate by the +appellation of "gilded serpents." + +My friends from other departments often remarked the looks of aversion +with which the natives sometimes met them; and not comprehending the +reason, have asked me for an explanation. Do you observe, I said, that +little white house, half-hidden yonder in the poplars--there, on the +banks of the Cure? That house, a few years ago, was the abiding-place of +a happy and honest family,--a father, and his three daughters. + +The father, who in his youth was in very good circumstances, was ruined +by bad harvests, an epidemic disease in his cattle, and by other +disasters that cause the downfall of many farmers. Nevertheless, and +though his losses were great, he lived happy and even contented with his +children, who, all three of irreproachable conduct and character, and +excellent needlewomen, did their utmost to ameliorate his position. They +made dresses for the ladies in the town, worked by the day, and +sometimes, when they found their earnings during the summer months fall +short of what they thought sufficient to meet the expenses of the coming +winter, they hired themselves to some proprietor during the period of +the _vendange_. + +The youngest of the three,--Herminie, she might be about sixteen,--was a +charming girl, a true child of Nature, fresh as a wild flower, awaking +and rising every day of the year from her peaceful happy couch with the +birds of heaven, always smiling and singing. Herminie was the joy, the +favourite of the old man,--she was the linnet, the darling, and the life +of the house. One autumnal day, (the period at which, as I have before +remarked, our province abounds with strangers,) her figure attracted the +attention of one of those cursed beings, with a false heart and lying +lips, that the great cities send into our rural districts, carrying with +them desolation and mourning. I know not in what manner it occurred, +what falsehoods, what arts he used, or what traps he laid,--but he +succeeded too well in his base purpose. The poor girl was deceived. +Easily convinced,--she was too pure, too young to doubt; and her mother, +who would have been there to watch over her, was alas! sleeping in the +very churchyard in which, in the shade of the evening, she first met her +seducer. Enough,--the heartless man of the world obtained the love of +the poor and simple Herminie,--and his whim, his heartless selfish whim +gratified,--he disappeared. + +The fault, the fault of confiding woman, soon became public. Abandoned +and betrayed, the poor girl sought death as a refuge in her distress, +and threw herself into the river; but her father, who watched every +action of his daughter, was near, and saved her. A man of unusual +intelligence, and an excellent heart, his maledictions fell entirely +upon the head of him who had wronged her; for his child he had only +tears and consolation. Herminie became a mother; her sisters and friends +were earnest and devoted in their attentions, and anticipated her every +thought; but broken-hearted, she bent her head like some beautiful lily, +which has at the parent root some corroding worm. Her gaiety fled, her +songs ceased; pale and silent, she might be seen standing on some rock, +listening to the howling of the storm, or, her little boy on her lap, +seated for hours at her father's cottage door, picking some faded rose +to pieces leaf by leaf, and looking vacantly on the fragments as they +lay at her feet. + +But at the bottom of her cup of grief was still one more bitter +drop,--oh! how much more bitter than the rest! Her child, as if +inheriting the melancholy of its mother, ceased to prattle, to smile; it +did not thrive, it sickened; and in spite of all her care and watchings, +of whole nights passed in prayers to the Virgin, to her patron Saint, +and God, in spite of many an hour of repentant and sorrowing tears,--it +died! Bowed to the earth by this fresh, this overwhelming misfortune, +Herminie complained not, but she became more pale: she was sometimes +found plunged in silent but profound grief, looking towards heaven as if +seeking there the little precious being the Almighty had taken from her; +as if she was anxious to follow,--to be at rest, united with her baby +boy again. + +The _vendange_ returned once more; but the perfumed gentleman, the +villain from the capital, came not again. Herminie was desirous of +assisting in the labours of the season. "I am," said she, "strong +enough;" and though her sisters endeavoured to dissuade her, she +persisted in accompanying them to the vineyard, but there she found her +strength was unequal to the task, a smile to one, and a kind answer to +another, was all that she could give,--nevertheless it was remarked, +during the course of the day that she spoke several times out loud, as +if conversing with some invisible being. Evening arrived, and the +waggons carried off their ripe and luscious loads, leaving the young men +and girls racing up and down the pathways, and amongst the vines, +endeavouring to smear each other's faces with the purple fruit. + +Behind these laughing groups came Herminie, the expression of her dark +blue eye floating in space, and, like the flight of the swallow, resting +on nothing. Onward she slowly stepped, idly pushing before her the first +faded leaves of autumn, withered by the hoar frost; and, instead of the +intoxicating grape, she carried in her hand a _bouquet_ of the arbutus +and the _alize_, fruits without perfume, like her own heart, now without +hope or love. Night came: every eye weary with toil was closed,--the +chimes alone telling the hours of the night vibrated on the air. Towards +morning a startling cry of horror was heard from a cottage on the banks +of the Cure--Herminie was dead! that is to say, her face was paler than +usual in her sleep; but she awoke no more! I shall ever remember that +beautiful face, for I had never till then contemplated the countenance +of one whose spirit had taken its way to that country from which no +traveller returns. + +A few days, and the withered rose-leaves which the poor girl had pulled +at the cottage door were scattered by the wind; a few more, and the poor +old father followed his favourite child; and his surviving daughters, +half-crazed with grief and sorrow, left the neighbourhood. As to him who +was the original cause of this domestic tragedy,--rich, happy, perhaps a +deputy and making laws himself,--he lives, and is probably respected. We +call ourselves a civilized people; we throw into prison a man who +strikes another,--and we do not punish, we do not cast from society, we +do not even reproach the base hypocrite, who, with a smile on his lips, +and for the infamous gratification of his bad, ungovernable, selfish +passions, becomes the murderer of a whole family. Bad and rotten are the +laws which permit such infamous practices. Unworthy of trust are the +legislators who dream not--who never think of preventing these impure +and festering diseases of our social system. My friends, who had +listened attentively to the sad tale, turned from me to inspect more +closely the white cottage by the Cure, and no longer expressed any +astonishment at the severe countenances of the peasants. + +But how does it happen, will the reader say, that so delightful a +province of France as that of Le Morvan should have remained for +nineteen centuries unknown to England,--that nation of travellers who +are to be found in every corner of the globe inhabitable and +uninhabitable? How is it that such a pearl,--a sporting country +too,--should have remained buried for so long a period as it were under +the dark mantle of indifference? And is it to be credited that in a +district in which are to be found simultaneously wolves and health, wild +boar and simplicity, the best wines in the world, and all the +theological virtues, should have remained up to this day hidden--lost in +the deep shadows of its woods and the solitude of its mountains? + +In the first place, then, I must remind you that in order to reach Le +Morvan it is not necessary to traverse either the Indian Archipelago or +the Cordilleras, or black or ferocious populations. Those who have by +accident passed through it, have not been induced by its appearance to +inscribe its name in their note-books. But Le Morvan is close at hand; +Le Morvan, so to speak, touches England,--a sufficient reason, as every +one knows, for taking no interest in it. + +Every year caravans of tourists leave for Italy and the East; they go to +gaze upon the remains of what was once the palace of the famous Zenobia, +Queen of Palmyra, or to kill the lizards on the steps of the mouldering +Coliseum; one invites the scorpions of Greece to bite his leg; another +seeks the yellow fever in the Brazils; a third prefers being robbed in +Calabria, or dying of thirst in the Deserts of Lybia;--the more distant +and perilous the journey, the greater the pleasure of accomplishing it. +Such is English taste. + +Yet Le Morvan is a charming and picturesque country--a lovely region, +clad with verdure, flowers, and forest-trees, and watered by fresh, +sparkling, and silvery streams, which every one can reach without +fatigue, much expense, and without the slightest chance of danger, but +perhaps, as I have before said, its proximity is its misfortune. + +Should any one after perusing this volume desire to visit Le Morvan, he +should be aware that to do so with any degree of pleasure or profit it +is absolutely necessary to speak French fluently,--for half our +peasants are not in the least aware the earth is round, and that on it +there are other nations besides their own. To see its thousand beauties, +to fish its rivers and enter into its delightful, exciting and perilous +sports, to plunge without hesitation into the depths of its forests, the +traveller should also be accompanied by an experienced guide, and +piloted by a friendly hand. + +Le Morvan, unknown to all to-day, would come forth quickly from the +shell of obscurity in which it lies concealed, if some man of rank in +England, led thither by hazard or caprice, were to spend a few weeks +amidst its glades and vineyards, its mountains and its streams. + +What was Cannes twenty years since? who ever mentioned it in England, +who knew its beauties? Nobody. Lord Brougham passes there, stops, +selects a hill, crowns its top with a white _chateau_, scatters the gold +from his purse, and sheds over the little town the lustre of the renown +won by his versatile genius--Cannes immediately becomes the +vogue--Cannes is charming, magnificent! Cannes, certainly, with her +fields of jasmine and roses, her groves of orange-trees, her burning +sun, blue skies and sea, and her warm pine-woods, is a delightful +spot;--but Cannes is also a place of languor and sloth, a lavender-water +country. If you have the gout, if you are old and rich, if you have +delicate lungs, go to Cannes, your life will be agreeable but +enervating. + +But Le Morvan is certainly not a country for a _petit-maitre_ or a +delicate lady to live in; to enjoy yourself there you must have the fire +and energy of youth in your veins, a stout heart, the lungs of a +mountaineer, and a sinewy frame. You must love a forester's life, the +hound and the rifle; you must be a Gordon Cumming in a small way. To the +English invalid, I would recommend the ex-Chancellor's retreat; but to +him who in the full sense of the term is a sporting man, or a lover of +nature, I would say: Go--explore Le Morvan! + + + + + LIFE OF BEAU BRUMMELL. + + A FEW COPIES OF THIS WORK ARE STILL ON HAND. + + Price 10s.; Published at L1 8s. + + SAUNDERS AND OTLEY; or CAWTHORNE'S LIBRARY, + Cockspur-street. + + + SHORTLY WILL BE PUBLISHED, + + A NEW AND VERY EASY METHOD + + OF ASCERTAINING + + THE GENDER OF FRENCH NOUNS, + + Translated from the Manuscript in French + + OF THE + + LATE MONS. FOUCAULT, + MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, + + BY + + CAPTAIN JESSE, + AUTHOR OF "NOTES OF A HALFPAY;" "LIFE OF BRUMMELL;" + "MURRAY'S HAND-BOOK FOR RUSSIA," ETC., ETC. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Le Morvan, [A District of France,] Its +Wild Sports, Vineyards and Forests; with Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches, by Henri de Crignelle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LE MORVAN [A DISTRICT OF FRANCE] *** + +***** This file should be named 28573.txt or 28573.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/5/7/28573/ + +Produced by Julia Miller, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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