little bounds, squatted himself comfortably down,
waited, and, as soon as he was again within
reach, resumed the same manoeuvre. But woe
to him who continued the pursuit: the beast so
completely misled him, that he never returned
to the village to give an account of himself.

All the young men of St. Suliac had been
after him in vain. He braved them, he overturned
their plots, by showing himself on the
same evening in different places to thirty young
heroes, who, never being able to agree as to the
place nor the hour of the apparition, were obliged
to break up, swearing at the cursed animal.

This hare was of enormous size, and, as no one
ever saw its equal, it was agreed that it must
be a sorcerer, and every one had a tale concerning
it, of which the most curious was that
which obtained it the name of Campion's Hare.

Campion was a young sailor, tall, strong,
vigorous, alert, active, and with a sure eye. On
returning from service he heard tell of the wonderful
animal, the terror of the viellois;* he listened
attentively to all the stories related before
him, and one evening, a fortnight after his return,
he said, as he lit his pipe, to the sailors
who were going into the viellois with him, "Hé
bien, les gars! What's the matter, that you
seem in such a flurry?"

* Viellois. Evening meetings, where young people
assembled to tell stories, and otherwise amuse
themselves.

"We have seen the hare! He is there in
the street!"

"And there you are, all upset!" replied Campion,
with a contemptuous toss of the head.
"A hare frightens you, and you call yourselves
men!— and sailors, moreover!— like a parcel of
piou-pious.† Faith, I don't know what to make
of you! You have faced a hundred dangers in
your voyages; you have seen— all of you have
served like me— I don't speak of the Terreneuvats,‡
who have seen nothing but their village,
the island, the gulls, the codfish, and a few
grey or white bears— but you, I say, who have
seen the tigers of Bengal and Africa— you
tremble like girls before a hare of your own
country! What did you do, then, before the
serpents and leopards of America? A set of——
But that's enough; one sees your ways, and one
knows what a lot one has to do with! To show
you that your hare is nothing but a rag" (chiffe,
a term of the utterest contempt), "and isn't
worth a pipeful of tobacco, I'll wager that I'll
bring him you dead or alive within three days;
unless, indeed, the hare be the devil himself,
with whom I don't pretend to measure myself."

† Piou-piou, a term of contempt used by the
sailors for foot soldiers. Almost all the male inhabitants
of these coasts have to serve a certain time
at sea, there being a conscription for the navy as well
as the army.

‡ Terreneuvats— those employed in the cod-fishery
on the coast of Newfoundland. They are held in
small esteem by those who have served in the navy.

All the young men eagerly accepted the bet.

That same evening Campion went to look
after the hare; he had pointed out to him the
places it chiefly frequented, he watched for it
with all care, but in vain; for two months he
sought it, but without ever obtaining a glimpse
of the creature. The first bet thus lost was paid.

Then Campion made a second, and eager not
to lose it, he kept constantly on the watch.
Still the hare remained invisible: "They are a
pack of visionaries!" then said Campion, and
he ceased to trouble himself more in the matter.

He was coming home one evening from visiting
his sweetheart, thinking only of his future
marriage, and how to gain the consent of her
family, richer than himself. He turned over
his own savings, and weighed them against the
bit of land of his lady-love, when, all of a sudden,
striking his foot against something, he tripped
and came sprawling across some soft body which
struggled under him, and speedily escaped,
leaving Campion to get up and rub the sand off
his hands.

A few paces before him sat the hare. He had
had the beast under him a second ago, and there
it squatted, mocking him, sitting up on end,
and rubbing its ears as if nothing had happened.

The brave sailor quickly recovered from his
surprise. Stealing along without a sound, he
cautiously stretched forth an arm— the hare is
under his hand! but lo, a bound and the beast
is thirty yards from the murderous arm which
threatens him.

Campion, at once making up his mind to have
an end of the matter then and there, proceeded
to follow him, but without appearing to be in
pursuit. So on he went, singing, to give himself
an air of indifference, the hare skipping
and capering from furrow to furrow before him
till they entered the bourg together. As they
passed by the Port-Barrée, chance, the blind
god that sometimes plays us such scurvy tricks,
placed a cudgel at his foot. Campion stooped,
seized it, and sent it flying right on the loins of
the hare, which rolled over on his side. In delight
Campion, thinking the hare was dead, and
that he had nothing to do but carry it off and
display it at the first viellois he should come to
on his way, stooped to pick it up, when behold!
the creature, which had only been laughing at
him, rises up on its hind legs, grows bigger and
bigger, assumes a fearful aspect, tears the
cudgel out of his hand, and bestows on him
such a dressing as he never had before.

So thick and fast fell the blows that the poor
sailor's eyes flashed fire; at last, however, he
contrived to escape from them, and, perceiving
a light in a house still open, he fled thither, and
fell fainting in the middle of a viellois there assembled,
despite the lateness of the hour.

Everybody overwhelmed Campion with questions
and attentions, and as soon as he had somewhat
recovered, he exclaimed:

"Mes amis, I've lost this bet too. I have
done more than see the hare, I have felt it!"

He then related to them his doleful adventure:
every one remained terror-stricken, and
each, as he returned home, trembled at the
thought of what results this event might bring
about, seeing that the hare was clearly the devil