The Merry Past 



The Baroness had no musical talent herself, though 

 there was an antiquated barrel-organ which played 

 but one tune, " La Chasse Henri Quatre." The 

 interior of the house bore every evidence of its owner's 

 sporting tastes. Partridges and other stuffed birds 

 exhibited in glass cases, bridles and saddles of every 

 description, guns and pistols, powder-flasks and shot- 

 belts in all varieties, but all out of date, and ante- 

 diluvian, pervaded the house from dining-room to 

 attic, as well as the stairs and landings, a strange 

 medley of antiquated appurtenances of the chase. 



Her living pets were a paralytic owl in a cage, and 

 two little dogs somewhat of the King Charles breed ; 

 these were a great delight to her, and she had taught 

 them some tricks. " Fais dos-a-dos pour Le Roi " 

 was the favourite ; but her pets were too fat and 

 lazy almost to bark, being generally obliged to lean 

 against the wall or the leg of a chair when they went 

 through their exercises. 



A bitter hater of Bonaparte, she would have seen 

 him and all his dynasty hanged on the avenue trees ; 

 and she was the first to hoist the dra-peau hlanc on 

 the steeple of Zudguerke when the Bourbons re- 

 turned to France. 



This brave old lady indeed was an ultra-loyalist, 

 and overweeningly attached to the old Game Laws ; 

 the very thought of a poacher, it was declared, was 

 enough to prevent her sleeping for a month. 



Her only excursions abroad were to St. Omer in 

 her carriage, as antediluvian as all the rest — a positive 

 hen-roost. 



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