154 SPORTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



CHAPTER XII. 



CHARLES X. LAST CHASSE AT RAMBOUILLET THE 26TH JULY, 1830. 



I HAVE collected from various sources the following anec- 

 dote, which I believe to be strictly true : 



The village of Rainbouillet was just awaking. The church 

 bells had not yet sounded the angelus ; but the lowing of the 

 cows was heard, which the girls were driving to their pas- 

 turage. The sun had risen above the horizon, and its first 

 beams lit up the lofty roofs, and shone upon the broad 

 windows of the chateau. The morning exhalations from the 

 green meadows, the nearly ripened grain, and the leaves 

 warmed by the influence of the rising sun, embalmed the 

 air. In the forest, the thrush and blackbird whistled their 

 morning orisons; magpies were already chattering on the 

 branches, and the transparency of the atmosphere, the deep 

 blue of the sky, the dark shadow of the woods, the buzzing 

 of insects, in one word, the whole harmony of nature, an- 

 nounced a magnificent and warm summer's day. 



At this early hour several valets des limiers* issued from 

 the royal kennel, and entered the forest at different points : 

 they were about to beat the woods in various quarters for 

 the traces of deer. One of these valets des limiers had pene- 

 trated as far as the Poteau du Chene du Roi. He had broken 

 off a branch, and placed it on the ground so that the broken 

 end might indicate the direction he had taken, and was 

 exciting the hound under his charge both by his voice and 

 his caresses. 



* Keepers who had the charge of bloodhounds. 



