ourse he could say nothing; but he would certainly be
dismissed the next day. He was married--had nothing but his salary; it
would be a terrible blow to him.

I was very much perplexed, particularly as the time was short and I
couldn't get hold of the mayor. So we called a family council--Henrietta
and Francis were both at home--and decided that we must let our fete
take place without the cure. The school-master was very grateful, and
said he would take my letter to the post-office. I had to write to the
cure to tell him what we had decided, and that he might go to Reims.

One of our great amusements in the winter was the hunting. We knew
very well the two gentlemen, Comtes de B. and de L., who hunted the
Villers-Cotterets forest, and often rode with them. It was beautiful
riding country--stretches of grass alongside the hard highroad, where
one could have a capital canter, the only difficulty being the
quantity of broad, low ditches made for the water to run off. Once the
horses knew them they took them quite easily in their stride, but they
were a little awkward to manage at first. The riding was very
different from the Roman Campagna, which was my only experience. There
was very little to jump; long straight alleys, with sometimes a big
tree across the road, occasionally ditches; nothing like the very
stiff fences and stone walls one meets in the Campagna, or the
slippery bits of earth (tufa) where the horses used to slide sometimes
in the most uncomfortable way. One could gallop for miles in the
Villers-Cotterets forest with a loose rein. It was disagreeable
sometimes when we left the broad alleys and took little paths in and
out of the trees. When the wood was thick and the branches low, I was
always afraid one would knock me off the saddle or come into my eyes.
Some of the meets were most picturesque; sometimes in the heart of the
forest at a great carrefour, alleys stretching off in every direction,
hemmed in by long straight lines of winter trees on each side, with a
thick, high undergrowth of ferns, and a broad-leaved plant I didn't
know, which remained green almost all winter. It was pretty to see the
people arriving from all sides, in every description of
vehicle--breaks, dog-carts, victorias, farmer's gigs--grooms with led
horses, hunting men in green or red coats, making warm bits of colour
in the rather severe landscape. The pack of hounds, white with brown
spots, big, powerful animals, gave the valets de