The Press. (Stafford Springs, Conn.) 1883-1935, 1898-07-14
THE WEREWOLF.

When surfeited with the adulation
which I received at court and wearied
by the constant round of gayety which
constituted my life in Paris, it was my
habit to seek as retreat the old manor
house of Kerzigolet, all estate lost in
the depths of Brittany, and which had
belonged for centuries to my husband q
family. Bounded as it was upon one
side by the sea and upon the other by
the forest, my seclusion was complete.
Still, in order to lose for short space
my identity, indeed my very personal
ity and sex, adopted male attire and
SO arrayed in a hunting suit spent a
few weeks securing the woods, hunting,
fishing and riding with old Gruigny
(my husbands overseer) as sole compan-
ion and attendant Maids, fripperies
and furbelows were for the time left be-
hind in the gay metropolis.
Here was as free as airl Even in
the village, five miles westward, / was
known only as "M. lie Marquis, and
when I staggered jauntily up the aisle
of the little village church on Sunday
morning, with my spurs jangling and
my sword clanking behind me, who
could have dreamed that was the ia
NOUS toast and beauty Of the court
the celebrated "Marquise de B.?''
The forest abounded i'll game. Cru
igny and I rarely failed to return from
our expeditions with game bags over
laden with feathery and furry spoils.
Many were the legends and stories
told in the outlying villages Of that al
most impenetrable forest, and 1t had
been my ambition for years to explore
it even to it's very depth, but had ever
been held in check by old Gruigny, who
told me, crossing himself the while, the
most blood curdling tales relating to a
certain werewolf which was said by
the peasants to haunt the heart of the
grand, mysterious woods.
cit is not that Nine. la Marquise
would fear wolf, were or not were, y
the old man would grumble in his thick
mustache, ''but it is always preferable
to meet a foe, canny or uncanny, III a
spot where a gun can be leveled straight
at him, and in that tangled under
growth, as Mme la Marquise knows,
there would be no use in aiming at all. P"
One evening, about an hour before
sunset, as l was sauntering slowly
homeward on horseback along the edge
of the forest, the reins hanging loose
on my mares neck, noticed with sur
prise that the four dogs who accompa-
MED me had disappeared. I whistled
and called for time in vain, and final
ly concluded that they had lost me run
uing after game and would find their
way back to the manor house before
me, for was still good three miles
from home. Before the thought had
fairly formed itself in my mind, how
ever, chorus of frantic, furious barks
broke upon my ear, rising and falling
in widest excitement.
"What have they unearthed?'' Iwon-
dered. sit can surely be no ordinary
game,'' and as the sound grew nearer
and seemed to be scarcely 100 yards dis
tant I rose in my stirrups and tried tc
peer through the dense foliage. 1t was
just then that my mare took fright and
started ON a dead run, not down the
road, but half rearing she swerved as
though terrified and turned into mar
row forest glade. snatched at the reins
helplessly, for with the bit between he1
teeth I was powerless, and she tore
blindly on as though maddened by fear.
Scarcely had time indeed to bend my
head upon the creatures name and by
so doing avoid being stunned, if not