302 SPOUTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



of which I might kill as many as I pleased ; but, in the 

 month of November, when the ground is as bare as the palm 

 of your hand, permission to shoot partridges seemed very 

 much like a mockery, or, at all events, a very bad joke. The 

 Germans, however, are too matter-of-fact a people, and far 

 too kind, to laugh at strangers. The merchant who ob- 

 tained the permission, and the Government functionary who 

 gave it, knew very well what they were about, and, although 

 the centre of the cantons was most religiously preserved for 

 his Saxon majesty, bad luck to the hares that strayed to the 

 borders. 



One of the great advantages resulting from my five per- 

 missions was the proximity of the ground. The five 

 cantons are at the very gates of Dresden, on the left bank of 

 the Elbe, and I could get to my ground in a drosky, or 

 fiacre, for the modest sum of ten groschen. A young under- 

 keeper was sent to conduct us (my friend and myself), who 

 had still all the privileges of a superior officer, for he carried 

 a very good gun, a prize which he had taken from some 

 delinquent, and one of three, according to his own account, 

 he had seized from sportsmen shooting without permission; 

 in Germany the keepers being permitted to disarm all 

 persons found under similar circumstances, which is generally 

 the only penalty inflicted. 



I started seven hares in the first field I set foot in, and my 

 companion about the same number, but we were in the midst 

 of the king's preserves, and surrounded by eyes and ears. It 

 must not be understood by this that the King of Saxony is 

 a sort of feudal tyrant, who owns in his proper person all 

 the soil in his kingdom far from it. The old king, father 

 of the reigning prince, had made a gift to the state of all the 

 domains of the crown, reserving to himself a very small civil 

 list, and leaving himself at the mercy of his subjects; an 

 example rarely followed. Still he had retained some of the 

 ancient prerogatives of the crown, and amongst them the 



