THE KING'S ARRIVAL. 137 



The Compte d'Egberti presented his hunting-knife to the 

 king, and the first ecuyer held his majesty's stirrup, whilst 

 another supported his saddle on the opposite side. 



They arrive at the spot where the stag has been turned 

 out. The old dogs, that are destined to make what is called 

 the attack, are uncoupled. The piqueurs encourage them by 

 voice and horn. During this time the commandant, officers, 

 and pages are keeping a keen look-out over the roads and 

 rides, and the king remains alone in the carrefour, awaiting 

 the signal that the stag has been viewed. 



Eight different roads converged into this point, and each 

 led to scenes not less interesting as a landscape than the 

 souvenirs they recalled. Here was the avenue towards 

 Plessis-Piquet, with its sombre lake and old park and terrace, 

 both associated with the name of Colbert, and the clever 

 and witty Picard ; there the road to Chatenay, with its 

 ancient steeple, that dates from the twelfth century. It 

 was here that Queen Blanche came to offer up her prayers, 

 and that the sceptic Yoltaire was baptized. 



Here, in 1794, upon a stone, the remnant of a royal 

 monument which his doctrines had assisted to deface, sat a 

 disciple of Dalembert and Clairault. It was after the 10th 

 of May, a period in France when no head was safe from 

 the scaffold. He was then hiding himself in the wood of 

 Yerrieres proscribed, pursued by the revolutionary blood- 

 hounds, and dying of hunger and fatigue, disowned and 

 rejected by his old friends and partizans. It was upon this 

 stone that he reclined at last, and determined to go to the 

 village of Clamart, and attempt to procure a morsel of bread. 

 He had hesitated some time before coming to this resolution, 

 and had drawn from his pocket a little box, the contents of 

 which would soon relieve him from all earthly cares, and 

 had weighed the alternative of certain death or a chance of 

 life. He rose, however, and took the road to Clamart, and 



