EEMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 249 



gendarmes, wb.icli otherwise I probably might 

 have done. He had a very decent, queer- 

 looking dog, who trotted not faster than we 

 walked, but with a capital nose, and a dead 

 hand at catching a hare on her form ; and we 

 had, during the time I spent at Eennes, some 

 little private poaches of our own on bye-days, 

 when we always got something. 



When I got home I caught it from the 

 General for my exploits, but my not returning 

 quite empty-handed mollified him a little ; for 

 he was an uncommon poacher himself. Also, 

 he had not much time to scold, as there was a 

 grand dinner and ball at the Prefecture, for 

 which there was barely time to dress. Don't 

 cry out, gentle reader. This was forty-five 

 years ago, and I was barely eighteen, and 

 dinners and balls on Sundays were then the 

 rule, not the exception, abroad. Moreover, I 

 think the world was not a bit more wicked 

 then than now. As the English friend of the 

 General, I was nearly as much a lion as himself 

 that night. My ride from Paris and shooting 

 exploit of the morning — which every one 

 assured me ought to have sent me to prison — 

 made the good people of Eennes think me 

 madder than Englishmen in general. I could 

 speak French perfectly, and sing and dance 



