CHASSE NEAR BERLIN. 311 



the command of the army of beaters, who were, however, 

 well paid for their services, and carried their numbers sus- 

 pended from the neck in large characters. 



Trumpeters and horn-players marched along the flanks of 

 the troop, to give the signal for departure, to mark the ex- 

 tremity of the beat, and keep the beaters in line. A vast 

 number of hares were destroyed, but no other species of 

 game. Three days subsequently I received a second invita- 

 tion to a chasse at Copnick, near Berlin. The ground was a 

 series of small plantations in the midst of fields. There was 

 neither red or black game, but only what is termed mixed. 

 Still, at the end of the day, we might have erected a large 

 tumulus with the trophies of our sport. The carts carried 

 away twenty roebucks, sixteen foxes, one hundred and thirty- 

 three hares, and a partridge. 



The king and the princes were present at the third chasse, 

 which took place in the plains of Lichtenburg, at the gates of 

 Berlin. This was a round battue, or Jcessel-treiben, which I 

 have formerly described. Those invited formed a group of 

 about forty shooters, and a whole battalion of the royal 

 Guards acted as beaters. This plain had not been shot upon 

 for five or six years, and the knowing ones prognosticated 

 that the chasse would be a failure, because the greater part 

 of the hares would have betaken themselves to the woods ; but, 

 notwithstanding this prophecy, the sport was good, although 

 very short, circumscribed, indeed, between a late breakfast 

 and an early dinner, and only composed of two battues. In 

 the first, three hundred and ninety-three hares were killed ; 

 in the second, two hundred and forty-eight ; making a sum 

 total of six hundred and forty-one, without counting the 

 wounded and those picked up afterwards. 



The first battue, during which a prodigious quantity of 

 hares were seen, would have been more productive, or 

 rather more destructive, if Heaven (protector of innocence) 



