The Merry Past 



driving either four-in-hand, the horses all too far 

 from their work, the leaders with very long traces, 

 seldom tight (for these dressy coachmen did not know 

 how to keep the tits up to their traces), or with five 

 horses, the leaders having a postilion, with cocked hat 

 and jack-boots. The nobility mostly went to covert 

 in close carriages, the horses being led, like those of 

 the royal hunt, each led-horse being covered with a 

 rich cloth, corresponding with the livery of the owner, 

 and with the family arms, or cipher and coronet, at 

 each corner. That of the Comte d'Artois was dark 

 green with splendid gold lace ; the livery being that 

 colour and crimson, laced richly with gold. It had 

 a fine effect in the field, although an unsporting 

 appearance, being more military-looking than any- 

 thing else. The Prince de Conde's trappings were 

 buff and crimson velvet, with silk embroidery of the 

 latter colour. 



Marie Antoinette wore the uniform of the royal 

 hunt, with a quantity of gold lace, and as great a 

 profusion of fine white ostrich feathers in her riding- 

 hat. She generally arrived in a voiture de chasse^ 

 drawn by eight fine English bay horses, driven by a 

 giant of a charioteer of most uncoachmanlike appear- 

 ance — a desperate driver, but a bad whip. The 

 animals went at a furious rate, and Her Most Christian 

 Majesty had much the appearance of a sovereign of 

 ancient times making a triumphal entry into some 

 conquered state. 



The Princess Elizabeth, sister to the King, who 

 afterwards fell a victim to revolutionary fury, was 



74 



