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The Wolf by guille de Marpissant.
This is what the old Marquis D'Arville told

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us after Saint Hubert's dinner at the
house of the Baron de Ravelle. We

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had killed a stag that day.
The Marquis was the only one of the

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guests who had not taken part in
the chase. He never hunted. During

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that long repast, we had talked
about hardly anything but the slaughter of animals.

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The ladies themselves were interested in bloody
and exaggerated tales, and the orators

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imitated the attacks, and the combats
met against beasts, raised their arms,

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romanced in a thundering voice. Monsieur
D'Arville talked well, in a certain flowery,

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high sounding, but effective style.
He must have told this story frequently,

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for he told it fluently, never
hesitated for words, choosing them with

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skill to make his description vivid.
Gentlemen, I have never hunted, neither

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did my father, nor my grandfather, nor my great grandfather. This last

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was the son of a man who
hunted more than all of you put together.

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He died in seventeen sixty four.
I will tell you the story of

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his death. His name was Jean. He was married father of that child

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who became my great grandfather, and
he lived with his younger brother Francois D'Arville,

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and our castle in Lorraine, in
the midst of the forest. Francois

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D'Arville had remained a bachelor for love
of the chase. They both hunted from

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one end of the year to the
other, without stopping, and seemingly without

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fatigue. They loved hunting, understood
nothing else, talked only of that lived

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only for that they had at heart, that one passion, which was terrible

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and inexorable. It consumed them,
had completely absorbed them, leaving a room

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for no other thought. They had
given orders that they should not be interrupted

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in the chase for any reason whatever. My great grandfather was born while his

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father was following a fox, and
Jean D'Arville did not stop the chase,

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but exclaimed the deuce. The rascal
might have waited till after the view halloo.

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His brother Francois was still more infatuated. On rising, he went to

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see the doll, then the horses. Then he shot little birds about the

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castle, until the time came to
hunt some large game in the countryside.

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They were called monsieur le Marquis and
Messier Lecadet, the nobles then, not

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being at all like the chance nobility
of our time, which wishes to establish

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an hereditary hierarchy in titles. For
the son of a marquis is no more

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account nor the son of a viscount
of Baron, than a son of a

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general is a colonel by birth.
But the contemptible vanity of today finds profit

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in that arrangement. My ancestors were
unusually tall, bony, hairy, violent

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and vigorous. The younger, still
taller than the older, had a voice

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so strong that, according to a
legend of which he was proud, all

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the leaves of the forest shook when
he shouted. When they were both mounted

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to set out hunting, it must
have been a superb sight to see those

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two giants straddling their huge horses.
Now toward the midwinter of that year,

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seventeen sixty four, the frosts were
excessive, and the wolves became ferocious.

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They even attacked belated peasants roamed at
night outside the houses, howled from set

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to sunrise, and robbed the stables, And soon a rumor began to circulate.

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People talked of a colossal wolf with
gray or almost white, who had

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eaten two children, not off a
woman's arm, strangled all the watchdogs in

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the district, and even come without
fear into the farmyards. The people in

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the houses affirmed that they had felt
his breath and that it made the flame

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of the light's flicker, and soon
a panic ran through all the province.

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No one dared go out anymore after
nightfall. The darkness seemed haunted by the

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image of the beast. The brothers
Darville determined to find and kill him,

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and several times they brought together all
the gentlemen of the country to a great

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hunt. They beat the forest and
searched the coverts in vain. They never

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met him. They killed wolves,
but not that one, and every night

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after about to the beast, as
if to avenge himself, attacked some traveler,

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killed someone's cattle, always far from
the place where they had looked for

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him. Finally, one night he
stole into the pigpin of the Chateau d'arvy

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and ate the two fattest pigs.
The brothers were roused to anger. Considering

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this attack as a direct insult and
a defiance, they took their strong bloodhounds

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used to pursue dangerous animals, and
they set off to hunt, their hearts

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filled with rage, from dawn until
the hour when the empurpled sun descended behind

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the great naked trees. They beat
the woods without finding anything. At last,

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furious and disgusted, both were returning, walking their horses along the lane

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board with hedges, and they marveled
that their skill as huntsmen should be baffled

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by this wolf, and they were
suddenly seized with a mysterious fear. The

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elder said that beast is not an
ordinary one. You would say it had

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a mind like a man. The
younger answered, perhaps we should have a

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bullet blessed by our cousin the bishop, or pray some priests to pronounce the

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words which are needed. Then they
were silent. Jean continued, look,

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how red the sun is. The
great wolf will do some harm tonight.

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He had hardly finished speaking when his
horse reared that a francois began to kick.

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A large thicket covered with dead leaves
opened before them, and a mammoth

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beast entirely gray, jumped up and
ran off through the wood. Both utter

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a kind of grunt of joy and
bending over the necks of their heavy horses.

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They threw them forward with an impulse
from all their body, hurling them

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on at such a pace, urging
them, hurrying them away, exciting them

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so with voice and with gesture and
with spur that the experienced strider seemed to

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be carrying the heavy beasts between their
thighs, and to bear them off as

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if they were flying. Thus they
went plunging through the thickets, dashing across

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the beds of streams, climbing the
hillsides, descending the gorges, and blowing

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the horn as loud as they could
to attract their people and the dogs.

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And now suddenly, in that mad
race, my ancestor struck his forehead against

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an enormous branch, which split his
skull, and he fell dead on the

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ground, while his frightened horse took
himself off, disappearing in the gloom which

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enveloped the woods. The younger Darville
stopped quick feet to the earth, seized

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his brother in his arms, and
saw that the brains were escaping from the

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wound with the blood. Then he
sat down beside the body, rested the

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head disfigured, and read on his
knees and waited regarding the immobile face of

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his elder brother. Little by little, a fear possessed him, a strange

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fear which he had never felt before, the fear of the dark, the

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fear of loneliness, the fear of
the deserted wood, and the fear also

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of the weird wolf who had just
killed his brother, to avenge himself upon

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them. Both, the gloom thickened, the acute cold made the trees crack.

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Francois got up, shivering, unable
to remain there longer, feeling himself

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growing faint. Nothing was to be
heard, neither the voice of the dogs

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nor the sound of the horns.
All was silent along the invisible horizon.

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And this mournful silence of the frozen
night had something about it terrific and strange.

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He seized in his immense hands the
great body of Jean, straightened it,

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laid it across the saddle to carry
it back to the chateau. Then

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he went on his way softly,
his mind troubled as if he were in

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a stupor, pursued by horrible and
fear giving images. And all at once,

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in the growing darkness, a great
shape crossed his path. It was

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the beast. A shock of terror
took the hunter, something cold like a

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drop of water, seeming to glide
down his back, and like a monk

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haunted of the devil, he made
a great sign of the cross, dismayed

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at this abrupt return of the horrible
prowler, but his eyes fell again on

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the inert body before him, and
passing abruptly from fear to anger, he

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shook with an indescribable rage. Then
he spurred his horse and rushed after the

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wolf. He followed it through the
copses of the ravines and the tall trees

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traversing woods which he no longer recognized, His eyes fixed on the white speck

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which fled before him through the night. His horse also seemed animated by a

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force and strength hitherto unknown. It
galloped straight ahead and with outstretched neck,

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striking against trees and rocks. The
head and the feet of the dead man

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thrown across the saddle. The limbs
tore out his hair, the brow beating

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the huge trunks spattered them with blood. The spurs tore their ragged coats of

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bark. Suddenly, the beast and
the horseman issued from the forest and rushed

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into a valley, just as the
moon appeared above the mountains. The valley

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here was stony, enclosed by enormous
rocks. Francois then uttered a yell of

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joy, which the echoes repeated like
a peal of thunder, and he leapt

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from his horses, cutlass in hand. The beast, with bristling hair the

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back, arched awaited him, its
eyes gleaming like two stars. But before

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beginning battle, the strong hunter,
seizing his brother, seated him on a

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rock and placing stones under his head, which was no more than a mass

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of blood. He shouted in the
ears as if he was talking to a

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death man. Look, Jean,
look at this. Then he attacked the

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monster. He felt himself strong enough
to overturn a mountain to bruise stones in

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his hands. The beast tried to
bite him, aiming for his stomach,

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but he had seized the fierce animal
by the neck without even using his weapon,

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and he strangled it gently, listening
to the cessation of breathing in his

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throat and the beatings of his heart. He laughed wild with joy, pressing

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closer and closer his formidable embrace,
crying in a delirium of joy. Look

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jean look, all resistance ceased,
the body of the wolf became limp.

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He was dead. Francois took him
up in his arms and carried him to

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the feet of the elder brother,
where he laid him, repeating in a

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tender voice, there there, there, my little sean see him. Then

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he replaced on the saddle the two
bodies, one upon the other, and

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rode away. He returned to the
chateau, laughing and crying, like Gargantua

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at the birth of pantag rule,
uttering shouts of triumph and boisterous with joy

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as he related the death of the
beast, and grieving and tearing his beard,

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and telling of that of his brother. And often later, when he

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talked again of that day, he
would say, with tears in his eyes,

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if only poor Jeanne could have seen
me strangle that beast, he would

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have died content that. I am
sure the widow of my ancestor inspired her

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orphan son with that horror of the
chase, which has transmitted itself from father

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to son as far down as myself. The Marquis Darville was silent. Someone

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asked that story is a legend,
isn't it, And the storyteller answered,

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I swear to you that it is
true from beginning to end. Then a

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lady declared, in a little soft
voice, all the same, it is

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fine to have passions like that,
and of the wolf,