break into the glade a-head of us. How fervently we desired that our friends to the right and left of us might not see them, and some untimely shout, or ill-directed shot, drive them back into the wood. But we were in luck. Our neighbours were straining their eyes among the branches of the forest; ours alone were fixed on the open space before us. On the three rascals came, running neck and neck, and just far enough apart to give G― and I a clear shot at the outer pair. Little time was left us to observe them; their long slouching gallop soon brought them up within fifty yards of us; our gunmuzzles were now peeping over the heather tops; and so well had we calculated our distance that we fired almost at the same instant. Both of our shots took effect; that of G most effectually. It had entered the broad chest of the animal, and passing to the heart, he made one tremendous leap into the air, and dropped quite dead. My ball had not told so true. It had shattered the right shoulder of the wolf, which, after a few rolls on the ground, limped off towards the wood. Another ball, however, from my second barrel gave him his quietus before he reached it.

In the mean time a scene of a most extraordinary character had occurred on my right. The third wolf, directly that his companions had fallen, bolted away towards the spot where the Maire was posted, and my companion, who was determined to have a slap at it, fired just as it was passing the tree against which the consequential little fellow was resting. The wolf galloped on unharmed; but at the same instant the little Maire dropped screaming to the ground, where he rolled about, bellowing and kicking in a most extraordinary manner. I felt almost paralysed at the sight; but G—, whom I believed had accidentally shot the Maire, to my utter astonishment, coolly took up his rifle, and resting it on his knee, fired at the escaping wolf. The distance was great, but Purdie performed his duty well; the ball snapped the spine of the animal, and the three wolves lay dead around us. I now rushed towards the fallen Maire, followed, though with less alacrity, by G. Kicking and sprawling, and to all appearance in the last agonies of death, it would have moved a heart of stone to see the poor fellow as he lay on the sward, his spirit to all appearance about to wing its flight. His jokes, the race over the sands, all were forgotten; the sad uncertainty of life was most painfully depicted, and the altered appearance which the merry household, with whom we had passed the preceding evening, would present when informed of the sad bereavement which they had sustained, flashed before my eyes.

But there are tides in the affairs of men;" there are sudden changes from grief to joy; the cheek this moment wet with a scalding tear may the next be wreathed with a smile, or the beaming eye become glazed with agony. The Maire was not dead, he was only kilt ; and the tears, which I have no doubt were about to flow most plentifully at the untimely fate of our little friend, now welled over amid irresistible laughter. For some time neither G-nor I could speak; the wolf-hunt was forgotten, the ringing shots of the hunters were unheard, all were for the time alike unheeded, and the ludicrous catastrophe of the Maire alone engrossed our attention. My companion's ball had taken effect, not upon the person of his worship, but upon one of his stilts, and had snapped it in twain nearly at half length. Thus deprived of his "fair proportions," the Maire dropped instantaneously, utterly unconscious of the nature and extent of the accident which

had befallen him. No wonder then, that, stunned by the fall, and his nerves somewhat unstrung by the suddenness of the shock, the poor fellow should suppose that it was all over with him; while, to add to his confusion, he had bumped his nose against the tree in his descent, and the blood streaming copiously from it, seemed to confirm the idea of his being desperately wounded.

"Je suis mort! je suis mort!" screamed the little hero of the morning, as G—— and I, having somewhat regained our composure, were preparing to reduce him to his legitimate stature by unlacing the now useless sangues. "Je suis mort!" continued he, as having drawn his hand across his face, he held the bloody member up before him, "je ne reverrai plus ma famille. Oh, mon Dieu! mon Dieu!" Having at length separated him from his sangues, we placed him on his feet, with his back to the tree, but as his moaning still continued, and he did not even then seem sure of his existence, G― suggested the propriety of making him swallow a little of the cordial which the gourd swung from his belt contained. This was accordingly accomplished, and had a wonderful effect in calming his nervous system. Gradually the woful expression of his countenance disappeared; limb after limb was stretched out to ascertain the damage which they had received; until, at length, having discovered that a bleeding nose was the only injury which had befallen his person, he began to consider what really had caused him so much alarm.

and

Leaving him to his meditations, we now bethought us of our wolfhunt; but, alas! alas! it was too late, How our sport was over. many wolves had gone past us,-how many good shots we had lost while attending to the Maire, it was impossible to tell; but never did hunters less regret the interruption of their sport than GI did on that occasion. The beaters were now coming hard upon us. The crashing of the underwood as they forced their way through it, was now distinctly heard; but the wolves had long since left the wood. A few foxes and a roebuck were driven towards us; the former -true sportsmen as we were-we allowed to steal away unmolested; of the latter, however, we rendered a good account. Shortly after, the beaters emerged from the forest, and assembled round the place where we had been stationed, all anxious to learn the result of the battue. It was some time, however, before the "return of the killed" could be ascertained. Each successful hunter had his particular tale of prowess to relate; while the unfortunates had to account for their want of success by many a plausible story of "broken leg," or "miss fire." At last, however, the truth was elicited. A considerable number of wolves had been seen, some of which had broken through the lines soon after they were roused from their lair; and two, more daring than the rest, were seen to swim the river together. Four, however, besides the three which G― and I had killed, were brought in; a greater number than is generally destroyed at such battues. Several roedeer, and not a few foxes, were among the slain; and the beaters declared that they had been close upon a couple of wild boars, which "doubled" upon them, and of course escaped unharmed. Altogether, therefore, we had no reason to be dissatisfied with the first of our wolf-hunts in the Landes.

So early had the hunt commenced, that it was yet mid-day when we were congregated around the spoil. Still it was too late to renew the warfare; the wood, in which most of the animals which had es

caped had taken shelter, was at too great a distance for us to beat it before nightfall. Our hunting was therefore over for the day; but sport of another kind was in store for us.

Almost every one had brought some provisions along with him; and he who had not was cheerfully supplied by his neighbour. No one, however, had forgotten his wine-skin or his brandy-flask; and the sangues being now thrown aside, and the whole party seated in groups under the shade of the pines which grew around, a scene was presented which Wilkie would have given a great deal to witness.

The Landais are never a very abstemious race, and it may be well supposed that on such an exciting occasion as this, all the liquor they carried home was most safely stored under their belt. Mirth, of that joyous character of which a successful day's sport is always the harbinger to the hunter, now reigned around. Even the spirits of our little Maire began to revive as the jollity increased; and long before his flask was emptied he could even joke at his late misfortune.

-;

"So you took my sangue for the leg of a wolf," said he to G"pretty mistake you made, indeed! Why, if you had not killed those two wolves, we should have had you taught to shoot before we trusted ourselves again in your company."

Hitherto I had been dubious as to whether G had "served out" the Maire as he did, intentionally, or by accident; but the "lurking devil" in his eye when the subject was alluded to was to me perfectly satisfactory, "the hit had been no miss," and the practical joke of our race over the sands had been repaid with interest.

Many of the party were now dancing or singing; and, though the absence of the ladies of the Landes rendered the movements of the hunters less picturesque than they might have been, still, the ungainly caperings of so many strangely apparelled individuals to no music but that of their own "sweet voices," was a curious sight, and in keeping with the wildness of the place of revelry.

The spectacle was sufficiently amusing, and might have very satisfactorily wound up the sports of the day, but the ever fertile imagination of my companion had suggested to him a species of entertainment as novel in character as its results were ludicrous. There were few of the party who were not now in that happy state of mind which renders them "up to anything;" some of them perhaps a little in advance of this, but one and all of them determined to be as jovial as good liquor and good company could make them.

The sangues, which had been laid aside after the hunt, G― now proposed should be buckled on, and that races should take place; at the same time offering, as a prize to the swiftest, an article in much request among the chasseurs of the south a handsome powder-flask. G- had scarcely finished making the proposal before fifty at least of the party were buckling on for the contest. Old and young were eager to join issue, and a scene commenced, the absurdity of which baffles description. I have already said that the sangues were from four to five feet in length; it may therefore be supposed that mounting upon such articles is no easy matter, without having a wall or bench from which to start. The usual mode of managing the affair by the Landais is to sit on the ledge of a window of the second story of their cottage, and there fastening on the stilts, walk away from the place; or a ladder is generally leaning against the walls of the cottage, up which they mount until sufficiently high to effect their object. Here, however, there were none of the usual facilities afforded for mounting; and

every one was put to his wits to discover some method or other to get on his horse. The most active of the party having selected a pine which had a drooping branch, climbed on to it, and managed without much difficulty to effect their object. Several of the elderly ones, and some of the juniors, whose libations had placed their capacity on a level with that of their seniors, were not quite so successful. One heavy fellow, who had raised himself on the branch of a pine close to where we were sitting, had just succeeded in buckling on one of his stilts, when the branch on which he sat gave way. The leg with the stilt on was mechanically thrust out to break the fall, but the result was much the contrary. With only one support, a single stride was all that could be made, but that stride was a most important one; for, unable to deviate from the direction in which the branch broke away, the heavy carcase of the fellow landed in the centre of a group whose advanced state of jollification altogether precluded their joining in the race. So rudely and unexpectedly assaulted, considerable damage was done on the occasion both to heads and wine-skins; and the sufferers, not quite comprehending the cause of the assault, evinced their sense of its effects by heartily pommeling the unlucky wight, who rolled among them. Another fellow had, in the hurry of the moment, carried off one of his neighbours sangues instead of his own, and did not discover the mistake until he had buckled them on, and thinking that all was right, started from his place of mounting. Then he found to his surprise that one stilt was half a foot shorter than the other, and that, accordingly, to balance himself was quite impossible. So away he went staggering and limping, endeavouring to describe a circle, so as to get back to the tree from which he had sprung. But the odds were against his succeeding. The shorter stilt having sunk in the hollow of a decayed tree-root, the discrepancy of length became still greater; to recover his equilibrium was impossible, and he measured his length on the ground.

Several incidents equally absurd took place before the competitors were assembled at the starting-post. One of these, as it was somewhat different from the others, is worth mentioning. Two of the hunters had buckled on their sangues, and seemed to all appearance prepared for the race. One of them, however, discovered, or believed that he had discovered, that the strap of one of his sangues, which he had missed before he left the village in the morning, was doing duty on the leg of his neighbour, and he lost not a moment in taxing him with the theft. The charge was rebutted with all the vehemence of voice and gesture which a Gascon, conscious of his innocence, may be supposed to display. It had not, however, the smallest effect on the individual who made the charge. He either knew the man with whom he had to deal, or more probably had taken just that quantity of drink which suffices to make some folks, whether right or wrong, most pertinaciously insist on the correctness of their own opinion. The protestations of the accused fell, therefore, without effect on the ears of his opponent, who would be satisfied with nothing short of the immediate restitution of the article which he claimed, and which he threatened to take by force if not given up to him. This was too much for the hot blood of a Landais to submit to; the accused now no longer protested his innocence, but dared the other to carry his threat into execution. Nothing daunted by this change in the bearing of his adversary, and determined at all hazards to regain possession of his bit of leather, he advanced to seize upon it. The position, however, which his opponent

had assumed, somewhat checked his ardour. The accused (certainly the most sober of the two, although neither could be said to be actually drunk,) stepped a few paces back, and, flourishing his long pole or crook over his head, prepared to give his insulter a warm reception.

That one or other of the parties would obtain a broken head was now very evident. Those around us seemed to consider such a result a matter of necessity after such an altercation as that which had taken place. There was no use for any interference, therefore, on our part. In the Landes, as in other parts of the civilised world, individual honour must be satisfied by means of deadly shots or broken heads; and the principals had, besides, no fear of a reprimand from the priesthood for their conduct on the occasion. To it, then, the gentlemen went in right earnest, and played as pretty a game at quarterstaff as ever was seen in merry England.

The parties seemed very equally matched in regard to strength, and were proficients in the science of attack and defence; it appeared very doubtful, therefore, who should be the victor. For some time the blows fell thick and hard on both sides; several of them taking effect, but most of them being parried with great adroitness. As usual, however, at such bouts, he that could bear the hardest thumps without losing his temper triumphed. A hit somewhat sharper than ordinary told with good effect on the left shoulder of him who fought for his "shoe tie." To return it with interest, if possible, was now his sole object, and furiously he endeavoured to discharge the obligation. The blows were now all on his part; his opponent now skilfully stepping aside to avoid them; now grasping the centre of his pole, and whirling it round and round his head, with such velocity as completely to protect his person. It was easy to decide in whose favour the odds now were; although the assailant's weapon was plied with an energy and power which appeared resistless. The accused (unjustly, as it was afterwards ascertained) pursuing the same system of defence, never offered to return the blows of his opponent; in fact, he seemed determined not to strike until fatigue and passion had wrought powerfully in his favour. At length the efforts of the assailant became relaxed, his blows descended with less rapidity, and the time for finishing the contest was at hand. Watching, therefore, his opportunity, as the wearied arm of his adversary, with somewhat of its original vigour, dealt forth a blow which might have felled an ox, the injured party leaped aside, and escaping it, in an instant, and before his opponent could recover his guard, returned the blow with all his force on the unprotected shoulders of his opponent. The pole flew to pieces with the violence of the shock, and the originator of the dispute pitched head-foremost to the ground.

Such scenes are of common occurrence in the Landes; and, with the exception of some severe thwacks given and received, it is seldom that serious injury is sustained by either party. I recollect, however, a conflict between two French Basques in the vicinity of Pau, which terminated fatally. The Basques invariably carry a long walking-stick, generally knotted at the end; and, when they chance to quarrel they do not hesitate in using it pretty freely. Two of them thus armed having quarrelled and fought, one of them received a blow over the temple which killed him on the spot. This was, however, a very rare occurrence; and the shilelah* of the Basque must, nevertheless, be

* Query for Irish Antiquaries" Does not the familiar use of the "shilelah” by the Basques, - the oldest nation on the continent, - strengthen the opinion of Irish descent from the Spanish or French people, who bear that name?