mbord, for it is no easy thing to get in order
such an establishment as Count Saxe set up, in that vast palace. There
were four hundred rooms, and thirteen grand staircases, to say nothing
of the smaller ones, and there was stabling for twelve hundred horses.
The king had given Count Saxe permission to increase his body-guard of
Uhlans, in view of the war known to be coming, and all these men and
horses had to be assigned to their proper quarters, and provided for
otherwise. The hunting establishment alone required the services of
more than a hundred men; for there were wolves and wild boars to be
hunted besides smaller game, in the forests of Chambord, and the
plains of Salon. It is in this region that Thibaut of Champagne, so
the peasants believe, follows his ghostly hunt. Often, at midnight,
the winding of his horn echoes through the darkness of the forest, and
the cry of his dogs from the nether world rings to the night sky--so
say the peasants. I never saw or heard this supernatural hunt.

With the internal management of the castle I had nothing to do.
Beauvais was promoted to be _maitre d'hotel_, and a hard enough time
he had, losing, in one year, a very good head of hair over it. The
only authority I was made to assume was over the pages of honor. There
were ten of these brats, all dressed in yellow silk breeches and
waistcoats, and black velvet coats, and they gave me more trouble,
grief and perplexity than my whole battalion of Uhlans. Will it be
believed that these little rascals in yellow silk, of whom the eldest
was barely fourteen, kept me perpetually in anxiety about fighting
duels among themselves?

They would beg, borrow or steal rapiers, and sneaking away by night or
in the early morning, would fight on the edge of the moat on a little
embankment, from which they were extremely likely to tumble into the
water, if they missed each other's swordpoints. I could not cure them
of it, but whenever I caught them I cuffed them soundly. They made
great outcry over this, being of the best blood of France. But when
they ran with their tales to my master--particularly one little
Boufflers, who was about to run me through--my master always told
them that I was of the royal blood of Tatary; so it was rather an
honor, than a disgrace, for me to lay hands on them.

Let it not be supposed that all these labors and perplexities put
Francezka out of my mind for one hour. Nor had Count Saxe forgotten
her. He caused me t