uld 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 c