CHAPTER VIII 



SOME CATS OF FRANCE 



" Ella jouait avec sa chatte ; 

 Et c'etait merveille de voir 

 La main blanche et la blanche patte 

 S'ebattre dans l'ombre du soir." 



IN the year 1865 a juge de pair of Fontainebleau, 

 from whom several householders had demanded 

 legal protection for their cats, pronounced this 

 admirable judgment. 



" That the domestic cat is not a thing of naught, 

 but the property of its master, and, as such, entitled 

 to the shelter of the law ; 



"That the utility of the cat as a destroyer of 

 mischievous rodents being indisputable, equity de- 

 mands the extension of indulgence to an animal 

 which the law tolerates and protects ; 



