EEMINISCENOES OF THE LEWS. 255 



would be shaken to death in a quarter of a 

 league, which he would have been. At last he 

 spied my saddle, which Aimee had smuggled 

 into the carriage, thinking he might have to 

 ride in the course of the day. How Carabine 

 managed I don't know to this day ; but he put 

 my saddle on the aforesaid bar, mounted, stuck 

 his feet in the stirrups, and thus rode, as he 

 said, most comfortably into Rennes. There 

 was a dinner with the colonel of the regiment 

 that day, and a ball ; but I did not dare face it, 

 and slunk to bed. 



Next day, Carabine came to see the General, 

 and, to console me, he said he had arranged an 

 extraordinarily fine partie de chasse in another 

 and a better forest, famous for its wild boars, 

 which were reckoned the largest and most 

 savage in Brittany. At first the General 

 threatened to leave me at home, in punishment 

 of my doings the day before, which, on 

 reconsideration, turned out not so bad. On 

 the contrary, up to the somersault, Carabine 

 declared I had displayed a most innate know- 

 ledge of the noble science ; and, moreover, as 

 but for throwing myself into the wood, Aimee 

 must have bagged me, he was for the future to 

 be left at home, or, at any rate, not trusted 

 with a gun. 



