The captain told Miss Lydia a story about bandits, which had the advantage of bearing no resemblance to the robber tales with which she had been so frequently regaled, on the road between Naples and Rome, and he told it well.

At dessert, the two men, left alone over their claret, talked of hunting--and the colonel learned that nowhere is there more excellent sport, or game more varied and abundant, than in Corsica.

"There are plenty of wild boars," said Captain Ellis.
"And you have to learn to distinguish them from the domestic pigs, which are astonishingly like them.

For if you kill a pig, you find yourself in difficulties with the swine-herds.

They rush out of the thickets (which they call _maquis_) armed to the teeth, make you pay for their beasts, and laugh at you besides.