134 SPORTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



CHAPTER X. 



A CHASSE IN THE " PETITS ENVIRONS." 



THE scene opens on a fine morning about the middle of the 

 month of May. All nature sparkles with a shower of 

 emeralds, that the dew of a spring morning scatters around, 

 and the light vapours ascending from the surface of the 

 earth surround the landscape with a veil of gauze. Amidst 

 the usual movements that betoken the noise and bustle of 

 an opening day near the capital are distinguished others, 

 beginning from a limit of at least five leagues in circum- 

 ference, and converging towards a point the rendezvous de 

 la chasse. Detachments of gendarmerie d'elite, mounted 

 on their coal-black horses, are posted here and there to serve 

 as the royal escort, and servants clad in the traditional 

 costume of Louis XY. arrive from Versailles with horses for 

 the king and his suite. 



Upon the road to Versailles parties of grooms in modern 

 liveries are leading handsome thorough-bred horses, belonging 

 to their fashionable masters, who will soon follow, in various 

 equipages, to the rendezvous. Most of those who dined on 

 the previous evening at the Cafe Anglais, or the Cafe de 

 Paris, and heard that the king hunted to-day in the Petits 

 Environs, have not failed in their engagements to appear, 

 and swell the train of his Majesty Charles X. 



The officers of the hunt appear at the extremity of the 

 Versailles road; then come the pages on horseback, and 

 the porte-d"arquebuse, in his carriage, with the long cara- 

 bine destined to finish the career of the animal. After- 

 wards comes the cart, or conveyance for the stag about to be 



