occasion), arrive from every point of the compass, and add their numbers
to those already assembled. On the day agreed upon, therefore, and at
the spot indicated, a small army is on foot, which, full of ardour and
thirsting for the combat, brandish with shouts their various weapons and
kitchen utensils, drink to the success of the enterprise, and wait with
no little impatience the signal to place themselves in march, and attack
the enemy. The commander of these assembled forces,--generally the head
ranger of the forest,--having under his orders a battalion of sub
_gardes-de-chasse_, directs their movements.

This mode of taking the wolf is conducted with very great order and
circumspection; everything is well arranged beforehand; the ravines and
deep underwood, which the wolves are known to resort to, have been
carefully ascertained; the number of guns and rifles necessary to
surround this or that wood are told off, and the whole plan is so well
prepared, the execution of it is so prompt, every one is so well aware
of what he has to do, that in one day a large tract of country is
carefully beaten.

In these _battues_, those who have fire-arms form two sides of a
triangle, and are placed with their backs to the wind, along the roads
which border the wood the _traqueurs_ are about to beat. On no account
ought they to fire to their rear, but always to the front; and in order
to prevent, in this respect, misunderstanding and accident, the _garde_,
whose duty it is to place each sportsman at his post, breaks a branch,
or cuts a notch in the tree before him, in order that in a moment of
hesitation and excitement this broken bough or barked spot may remind
him of his real position. The base of the triangle or the cord of the
arc (for this curved line had more the shape of a great bow slightly
strung than any other geometrical figure) is formed of the peasants,
who, side by side, wait only for the last signal to advance, when they
commence their euphonious concert--a _charivari_ not to be described.

The arrangements and preparations, conducted in profound silence, being
terminated, the signal is given, when the tumult, which at once breaks
forth, produces intense excitement. The forest, hitherto silent, and
apparently without life, is suddenly awakened with confused noises,
metallic and human--the peasants shout, halloo, sing, and bang together
their pots, kettles, and pieces of iron, striking every bush and thicket
with th