H.I .M. The Empress of Austria. 275 



" Your Majesty," I replied, " I cannot conceive 

 how I deserve that honour." 



'' I will tell you," said she ; " my sister has been 

 riding with you, and you have given her so much 

 pleasure in the field, that every night, after you 

 had had a run, she did write to me and say so 

 much about it that I thought I must come and 

 ^ see what it was like ! " 



'' Your Majesty will be heartily received," I said, 

 '' and no pains will be spared to find good sport 

 for you." 



We then went to Fire Furze, a nice covert, 

 which has the advantage of being situate in a 

 rich vale of grass ; and it was a very favourite 

 place with the Grafton Masters for getting away 

 to after spending time in the forest. However, 

 on this occasion this good covert proved to be 

 blank. We then drew on to another, also belong- 

 ing to the Duke of Grafton, called the Colonel's 

 Covert ; there we found and ran smartly, but 

 shortly, to ground. 



We then went to Stoke Park and found there, 



and went away with a good scent, but not over 



our best country. Still, there was a good deal 



of jumping, which afforded the Royal Ladies much 



pleasure. Their pilots had enough to do to 



keep with the hounds. Without jumping it was 



T 2 



