they reached the indicated
spot. As the pair approached Lysander, he uttered a low, growling noise;
but as the Schoolmaster brushed past him, and the sagacious animal had
full scent of his garments, he broke out into one of those deep howls
with which, it is asserted by the superstitious, dogs frequently
announce an approaching death.

"What, in the devil's name, do all these cursed animals mean by their
confounded noise?" said the Schoolmaster to himself. "Can they smell the
blood on my clothes, I wonder? for I now recollect I wore the trousers I
have on at present the night the cattle-dealer was murdered."

"Did you notice that?" inquired Jean Rene of Father Chatelain. "Why, I
vow that, as often as old Lysander had caught scent of the wandering
stranger, he actually set up a regular death-howl."

And this remark was followed up by a most singular confirmation of the
fact; the cries of Lysander were so loud and mournful that the other
dogs caught the sound (for the farmyard was only separated from the
kitchen by a glazed window in the latter), and, according to the custom
of the canine race, they each strove who should outdo the other in
repeating and prolonging the funereal wail, which, according to vulgar
belief, always foretells death. Though but little given to superstitious
dread, the farm-people looked from one to another with a feeling of
wonder not unmixed with awe. Even the Schoolmaster himself, diabolically
hardened as he was, felt a cold shudder steal over him at the thought
that all these fatal sounds burst forth upon the approach of him--the
self-convicted murderer! while Tortillard, too audacious and hardened to
enter into such alarms, with all the infidelity in which he had been
trained, even from his mother's arms, looked on with delighted mockery
at the universal panic, and was, perhaps, the only person present devoid
of an uneasy feeling; but, once freed from his apprehensions of
suffering from the violence of the animals, he listened even with
pleasure to the horrible discord of their long-drawn-out wailings, and
felt almost tempted to pardon them the fright they had originally
occasioned him, in consideration of the perfect terror they had struck
into the inhabitants of the farm, and for the gratification he derived
from the convulsive horror of the Schoolmaster. But after the momentary
stupor had passed away Jean Rene again quitted the kitchen, and the loud
cracking of his whip soon put an end t