t, though it might have passed on the blunt
and thick witted islander, no one with brains a whit better than those
of a wild boar would have thought of passing such a trick upon the
accomplished Court of Burgundy."

"Send him who will," said the Duke fiercely, "he shall return on their
hands in poor case.--Here!--drag him to the market place!--slash him
with bridle reins and dog whips until the tabard hang about him in
tatters!--Upon the Rouge Sanglier!--ca, ca!--Haloo, haloo!"

Four or five large hounds, such as are painted in the hunting pieces
upon which Rubens and Schneiders laboured in conjunction, caught the
well known notes with which the Duke concluded, and began to yell and
bay as if the boar were just roused from his lair.

[Rubens (1577-1640): a great Flemish artist whose works were sought by
kings and princes. He painted the history of Marie de Medicis in the
series of colossal pictures now in the Louvre. He was knighted by Philip
IV of Spain and Charles I of England.]

[Schneiders, or Snyders: a Flemish painter of the seventeenth century.]

"By the rood!" said King Louis, observant to catch the vein of his
dangerous cousin, "since the ass has put on the boar's hide, I would set
the dogs on him to bait him out of it!"

"Right! right!" exclaimed Duke Charles, the fancy exactly chiming
in with his humour at the moment--"it shall be done!--Uncouple the
hounds!--Hyke a Talbot! [a hunter's cry to his dog. See Dame Berner's
Boke of Hawking and Hunting.] hyke a Beaumont!--We will course him from
the door of the Castle to the east gate!"

"I trust your Grace will treat me as a beast of chase," said the fellow,
putting the best face he could upon the matter, "and allow me fair law?"

"Thou art but vermin," said the Duke, "and entitled to no law, by the
letter of the book of hunting; nevertheless, thou shalt have sixty
yards in advance, were it but for the sake of thy unparalleled
impudence.--Away, away, sirs!--we will see this sport."

And the council breaking up tumultuously, all hurried, none faster
than the two Princes, to enjoy the humane pastime which King Louis had
suggested.

The Rouge Sanglier showed excellent sport; for, winged with terror,
and having half a score of fierce boar hounds hard at his haunches,
encouraged by the blowing of horns and the woodland cheer of the
hunters, he flew like the very wind, and had he not been encumbered
with his herald's coat (the worst possible habit for a runne