ST. CLOUD. 145 



CHAPTER XT. 



ST. CLOUD ANECDOTES OF CHAELES X. 



THE only royal residence where Charles X. really felt him- 

 self at home and led the life of a country gentleman, which 

 he had been so long accustomed to, was at St. Cloud. 



When he resided at that palace, he acted much on this 

 principle. He had generally strolled out in the morning, 

 before breakfast, with his gun, sometimes alone, and some- 

 times in company with the Due d'Angouleme, or his son the 

 Dauphin, to shoot rabbits in the preserves immediately 

 around the chateau, where they were very numerous, having 

 no enemies but the king, and a few poachers to whom not 

 even the royal preserves were sacred. The king was very 

 fond of these private shooting-parties, without any of the 

 pomp and ceremony of the Court ; and when he was accom- 

 panied by his son, was accustomed to mix up with his sport 

 many impressive remarks and reflections upon their past life 

 and present circumstances. 



On the 15th July, 1829, the king left the chateau, alone 

 and on foot, to visit Madame la Dauphine, at Villeneuve 

 1'Etang, which he often did, taking his way through the 

 grande allee which leads to Yille d'Avray, Suddenly, upon, 

 entering one of the solitary and transversal alleys, he per- 

 ceived an individual before him humming some old military 

 song, and hardly able to support his body in that horizontal 

 position that nature intended. It was evident that the man, 

 whether poacher or some other suspicious character, was in 

 that happy frame of mind from the effects of liquor that 

 levels all ranks and conditions, and puts him completely at 



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