en entertained, he answered with a
shrug of the shoulders.

"Entertained? As if one could be in this vale of tears! There really
is nothing remarkable about a tiger-hunt. The danger and excitement
concern the poor devils of Hindoos, who rouse the game. I sat in my
howdah on a very quiet elephant and fired as if I were shooting at a
target. Buy some big cats from Asia or Africa, put them into a cage in
your park, and shoot till you kill them. It is about the same thing.
True, the scenic effects are less glaring, there are fewer
supernumeraries, and there is not so much shrieking and struggling on
the stage. But that seems to me rather an advantage, and one doesn't
have the heat and the snakes."

His hearers laughed, and an old gentleman remarked:

"You have mental colour-blindness, my dear Prince, and I should not
like to have you guide the engine of my life-train."

He had hit the mark. Prince Louis saw life uniformly grey. How
infinitely true are Schiller's words:

"Each mortal heart some wish, some hope, some fear,
Linked with the morrow's dawn, must cherish here
To bear the troubles with which earth is rife,
The dull montony [Transcriber's note: monotony?] of daily life."

But Prince Louis wished, hoped, feared nothing, and when he thought of
the future he beheld it in the form of a drowsy monster, yawning
noisily. He longed like a languishing lover for some excitement,
pursued it to the end of the world, but did not succeed in finding it.

He was just on the eve of going to Norway to hunt reindeer, when the
war of 1870 broke out. In 1866 he had been in Africa and did not hear
of the events of the summer until everything was over. This time he
asked permission to join his regiment, the first dragoon-guards, which
of course was granted. To tell the truth, he was influenced less by
patriotism and enthusiasm than, in addition to propriety, the hope that
military life would afford him new sensations.

Had he deceived himself this time also? It almost seemed so; for,
during the fortnight which he had spent in the enemy's country, he had
as yet experienced nothing unusual. When a person is attended by two
capable servants, and has an unlimited amount of money at his disposal,
he need suffer no discomfort even in the field, especially during a
victorious advance, and as yet there had been no opportunity for
individual deeds of heroism, or perilous adventures.

Thus he had again relapsed i