And when his mother kissed him, he responded coldly to her caress and seemed to be thinking of deep and serious things.
He killed bears with a knife, bulls with a hatchet, and wild boars with a spear; and once, with nothing but a stick, he defended himself against some wolves, which were gnawing corpses at the foot of a gibbet.
* * * * * One winter morning he set out before daybreak, with a bow slung across his shoulder and a quiver of arrows attached to the pummel of his saddle.

The hoofs of his steed beat the ground with regularity and his two beagles trotted close behind.

The wind was blowing hard and icicles clung to his cloak.

A part of the horizon cleared, and he beheld some rabbits playing around their burrows.
In an instant, the two dogs were upon them, and seizing as many as they could, they broke their backs in the twinkling of an eye.
Soon he came to a forest.

A woodcock, paralysed by the cold, perched on a branch, with its head hidden under its wing.