onsolation 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 an