THE CHASSE IN SAXONY. 301 



the chief merchants of the city with my usual question, " Is 

 there any shooting to be had 1" " Impossible !" he replied, 

 at the same time seizing one of my wrists with a grasp 

 sufficiently strong to destroy the last spark of hope ; " at the 

 end of May there is no shooting, except the larger kind of 

 game." "Well?" "And that is only found in the royal 

 forests." " Well T Permission must be obtained." "Well?" 

 Here the merchant made a long pause, and looking at me 

 with mute astonishment, replied, with accents of pity, "What 

 are you .thinking about, my dear sir ? Why, you are not 

 even a baron !" 



I was more fortunate in the following month of November, 

 just at the moment when the winter chasse begins. Almost 

 in the centre of the vast German empire, Saxony unites 

 to simple manners and ancient hospitality a very extensive 

 knowledge of agriculture and different branches of industry. 

 That most difficult of problems, how to live well and at the 

 same time economically, can be here realized. Of all the 

 countries through which I have travelled, I should say that 

 Saxony (including all classes) is the most prosperous and 

 happy, as Ireland is decidedly the most miserable. 



This time I was not likely to receive the same answer I 

 did on a former occasion, as the chasse, under certain re- 

 strictions, was open to everybody. I addressed, therefore, 

 the same question to the same individual, and the following 

 day, with an air of quiet satisfaction, he placed in my hands 

 a sheet of paper, regularly signed and sealed, which con- 

 tained five permissions to shoot over five chasses royales. 

 I was delighted. I beheld myself in imagination amidst 

 herds of deer and troops of boars in the royal parks; but 

 alas! we must never judge by appearances. These per- 

 missions were for the open plains only, where nothing but 

 partridges and hares were to be found ; besides, the hares 

 were royal property, so that the partridges only remained, 



