re after nightfall. The darkness seemed haunted by the image of
the beast.

The brothers d'Arville determined to find and kill him, and several times
they brought together all the gentlemen of the country to a great hunt.

They beat the forests and searched the coverts in vain; they never met
him. They killed wolves, but not that one. And every night after a battue
the beast, as if to avenge himself, attacked some traveller or killed
some one's cattle, always far from the place where they had looked for
him.

Finally, one night he stole into the pigpen of the Chateau d'Arville and
ate the two fattest pigs.

The brothers were roused to anger, considering this attack as a direct
insult and a defiance. They took their strong bloodhounds, used to pursue
dangerous animals, and they set off to hunt, their hearts filled with
rage.

From dawn until the hour when the empurpled sun descended behind the
great naked trees, they beat the woods without finding anything.

At last, furious and disgusted, both were returning, walking their horses
along a lane bordered with hedges, and they marvelled that their skill as
huntsmen should be baffled by this wolf, and they were suddenly seized
with a mysterious fear.

The elder said:

"That beast is not an ordinary one. You would say it had a mind like a
man."

The younger answered:

"Perhaps we should have a bullet blessed by our cousin, the bishop, or
pray some priest to pronounce the words which are needed."

Then they were silent.

Jean continued:

"Look how red the sun is. The great wolf will do some harm to-night."

He had hardly finished speaking when his horse reared; that of Franqois
began to kick. A large thicket covered with dead leaves opened before
them, and a mammoth beast, entirely gray, jumped up and ran off through
the wood.

Both uttered a kind of grunt of joy, and bending over the necks of their
heavy horses, they threw them forward with an impulse from all their
body, hurling them on at such a pace, urging them, hurrying them away,
exciting them so with voice and with gesture and with spur that the
experienced riders seemed to be carrying the heavy beasts between 4 their
thighs and to bear them off as if they were flying.

Thus they went, plunging through the thickets, dashing across the beds of
streams, climbing the hillsides, descending the gorges, and blowing the
horn as loud as they could to attract their people and the dogs.

And now, suddenly,