e remains on horseback for
twelve or fourteen consecutive hours; and so he goes hunting and coursing
through the woods the same animal, the stag, for two or three days, never
stopping but to eat, and never resting but for an instant during the
night." He was passionately fond of all bodily exercises, the practice
of arms, and the game of tennis. "He had a forge set up for himself,"
says Brantome, "and I have seen him forging cannon, and horseshoes, and
other things as stoutly as the most robust farriers and forgemen." He,
at the same time, showed a keen and intelligent interest in intellectual
works and pleasures. He often had a meeting, in the evening, of poets,
men of letters, and artists--Ronsard, Amadis Jamin, Jodelle, Daurat,
Baif; in 1570 he gave them letters patent for the establishment of an
Academy of poetry and music, the first literary society founded in France
by a king; but it disappeared amidst the civil wars. Charles IX.
himself sang in the choir, and he composed a few hunting-airs. Ronsard
was a favorite, almost a friend, with him; he used to take him with him
on his trips, and give him quarters in his palace, and there was many an
interchange of verse between them, in which Ronsard did not always have
the advantage. Charles gave a literary outlet to his passion for
hunting; he wrote a little treatise entitled La Chasse royale, which was
not published until 1625, and of which M. Henry Chevreul brought out, in
1857, a charming and very correct edition. Charles IX. dedicated it to
his lieutenant of the hunt, Mesnil, in terms of such modest and
affectionate simplicity that they deserve to be kept in remembrance.
"Mesnil," said the king, "I should feel myself far too ungrateful, and
expect to be chidden for presumption, if, in this little treatise that I
am minded to make upon stag hunting, I did not, before any one begins to
read it, avow and confess that I learnt from you what little I know.
. . . I beg you, also, Mesnil, to be pleased to correct and erase what
there is wrong in the said treatise, the which, if peradventure it is so
done that there is nothing more required than to re-word and alter, the
credit will be firstly yours for having so well taught me, and then mine
for having so well remembered. Well, then, having been taught by so good
a master, I will be bold enough to essay it, begging you to accept it as
heartily as I present it and dedicate it to you."

These details and this quot