ed the
power to bring her from it, and even then she waited for the second call
before entering the dining-room.

Roland and Sir John, as we have said, had divided their time between
their visit to Bourg and their preparations for the morrow's hunt. From
morn until noon they were to beat the woods; from noon till evening they
were to hunt the boar. Michel, that devoted poacher, confined to his
chair for the present with a sprain, felt better as soon as the question
of the hunt was mooted, and had himself hoisted on a little horse that
was used for the errands of the house. Then he sallied forth to collect
the beaters from Saint-Just and Montagnac. He, being unable to beat
or run, was to remain with the pack, and watch Sir John's and Roland's
horse, and Edouard's pony, in the middle of the forest, where it was
intersected by one good road and two practicable paths. The beaters,
who could not follow the hunt, were to return to the chateau with the
game-bags.

The beaters were at the door at six the following morning. Michel was
not to leave with the horses and dogs until eleven. The Chateau des
Noires-Fontaines was just at the edge of the forest of Seillon, so the
hunt could begin at its very gates.

As the battue promised chiefly deer and hares, the guns were loaded with
balls. Roland gave Edouard a simple little gun which he himself had used
as a child. He had not enough confidence as yet in the boy's prudence
to trust him with a double-barrelled gun. As for the rifle that Sir John
had given him the day before, it could only carry cartridges. It was
given into Michel's safe keeping, to be returned to him in case they
started a boar for the second part of the hunt. For this Roland and
Sir John were also to change their guns for rifles and hunting knives,
pointed as daggers and sharp as razors, which formed part of Sir John's
arsenal, and could be suspended from the belt or screwed on the point of
the gun like bayonets.

From the beginning of the battue it was easy to see that the hunt would
be a good one. A roebuck and two hares were killed at once. At noon two
does, seven roebucks and two foxes had been bagged. They had also seen
two boars, but these latter had only shaken their bristles in answer to
the heavy balls and made off.

Edouard was in the seventh heaven; he had killed a roebuck. The beaters,
well rewarded for their labor, were sent to the chateau with the game,
as had been arranged. A sort of bugle was