rs gather around
their king.

At Chamblay there have been held magnificent gun shoots under the
organization of the prince and his equipage. His kennels contain
forty-eight of the finest bred hounds in France, and are guarded by
three caretakers, the goader, Carl, whose fame has reached every
hunting court of Europe and a couple of _valets des chiens_. The
prince's colours are distributed as follows: a huzzar jacket of blue,
with collar, plaquettes, and vest of grenadine and breeches of a darker
blue.

Formerly Prince Murat hunted the roe-deer in the valley of the Oise, but
many enclosures of private property having made this exceedingly
difficult in later years he is to-day obliged to go farther afield. In
the spring the equipage goes to Rosny, near Mantes, and perhaps during
the same season occasionally to Rambouillet.

The hunts at Chamblay are the perfection of the practice of the art.
Seldom is the quarry wanting. The refrain of the Ode to Saint Hubert
lauds the prowess of this great "Maitre d'Equipage."

"Par Saint Hubert mon patron
C'est quelque due de haut renom
* * *
Sonnez: ecuyers et piqueux
Un Murat vien en ces lieux."

Chamblay fortunately being neither populous nor near a great town there
is no throng of curious spectators hovering about to get in the way and
scare the game and the hounds and their followers out of their wits. The
Chasse de Chamblay is the devotion of the _vrais veneurs_; the Prince
Murat and his son, the Prince Joachim, (to-day at the military school at
Saint Cyr), the Prince Eugene Murat, the Comte de Vallon, the Baron de
Neuflize and a few famous _veneurs_ in gay uniforms come from afar to
give eclat to the hunt of the master. And the ladies: the following
names are of those devoted to the prowess of the Prince Murat--Madame la
Princesse, la Princesse Marguerite Murat, Mademoiselle d'Elchingen, the
Duchesse and the Marquise d'Albufera, the Duchesse de Camestra, and
Madame Kraft.

From this one sees that romance is not all smouldering. If other proof
were wanting a perusal of that most complete and interesting account of
the hunt in France in modern times, "_Les Chasses de Rambouillet_"
(_Ouvrage offert par Monsieur Felix Faure_) would soon establish it.
This was not a work destined for the public at large. The hunt was ever
a sport of kings in France, and though France has become Republican its
_Chasse Nationale_ at Rambouillet partakes not a li