tch, 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 domi