r and in their
distinctively French costume, a marked contrast to the representative
of insolent Albion. These favorites of the Prince, each wearing
full-brimmed, three-cornered hats, very flat and very wide-spreading,
beneath which grinned their swarthy, tanned, and wrinkled faces, lighted
by three pairs of twinkling eyes, were noticeably lean, sinewy, and
vigorous, like men in whom sport had become a passion. All three were
supplied with immense horns of Dampierre, wound with green worsted
cords, leaving only the brass tubes visible; but they controlled their
dogs by the eye and voice. Those noble animals were far more faithful
and submissive subjects than the human lieges whom the king was at that
moment addressing; all were marked with white, black, or liver spots,
each having as distinctive a countenance as the soldiers of Napoleon,
their eyes flashing like diamonds at the slightest noise. One of them,
brought from Poitou, was short in the back, deep in the shoulder,
low-jointed, and lop-eared; the other, from England, white, fine as a
greyhound with no belly, small ears, and built for running. Both were
young, impatient, and yelping eagerly, while the old hounds, on the
contrary, covered with scars, lay quietly with their heads on their
forepaws, and their ears to the earth like savages.

As the Englishman came up, the royal dogs and huntsmen looked at each
other as though they said, "If we cannot hunt by ourselves his Majesty's
service is insulted."

Beginning with jests, the quarrel presently grew fiercer between
Monsieur Jacquin La Roulie, the old French whipper-in, and John Barry,
the young islander. The two princes guessed from afar the subject of
the altercation, and the Master of the Hunt, setting spurs to his horse,
brought it to an end by saying, in a voice of authority:--

"Who drew the wood?"

"I, monseigneur," said the Englishman.

"Very good," said the Prince de Cadignan, proceeding to take Barry's
report.

Dogs and men became silent and respectful before the Royal Huntsman, as
though each recognized his dignity as supreme. The prince laid out the
day's work; for it is with a hunt as it is with a battle, and the
Master of Charles X.'s hounds was the Napoleon of forests. Thanks to the
admirable system which he has introduced into French venery, he was able
to turn his thoughts exclusively to the science and strategy of it.
He now quietly assigned a special duty to the Prince de Loudon's
establi