246 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



bassador, who was presumably little accustomed to horse- 

 exercise, ' has lasted forty-five months ; during that time we 

 have never been a fortnight in the same place.' Cavalle, 

 another Venetian diplomatist, informed his Government 

 that Fran9ois I.'s hunting expenses amounted to 150,000 

 ecus a year. But even this unfriendly critic admitted he 

 got value for his money. ' If,' he adds, ' you could see what 

 the Court of France means, and what is done for the money, 

 you wouldn't think it dear.' 



Francis II. 's reign was in many ways anxious and un- 

 comfortable. But the Tuscan ambassador Tornabuoni 

 writes thus to the Grand Duke Cosmo I. in the thick of a 

 storm centre : ' 'In the midst of the most serious anxieties 

 hunting goes on just the same. No one knows where it will 

 all end, but stag-hunting is the great business of the Court ; 

 it is the only way apparently of getting things into motion ' ; 

 and again he writes, ' It would appear that MM. de Guise force 

 this poor devil of a prince into these amusements. They 

 wish to see him entirely absorbed in them, as this will mean 

 that they can keep the direction of affairs in their own 

 hands.' ^ 



Early in March 1560 the air was full of disquieting 

 rumours. Privy conspiracy whispered in the corridors of 

 Amboise. Any and every night one half of society at Court 

 expected to wake up with its throat cut next morning by 

 the other half. Yet nothing was allowed to stand in the 

 way of hunting. In the middle of it all, when men's hearts 

 were failing them for fear, both conspirators and conspired 

 against set out for a week's hunting at Chenonceaux with a 

 levity worthy of the chorus in ' Madame Angot.' Chantonnay, 

 a keen observer, writes to his friend Cardinal de Granvelle : 

 ' In three days these people seem to have got rid of all their 



' Doculnents Inidits : Nigociations avec la Toscane, t. iii. p. 421. 

 - Documents Inddits : Nigociations avec la France, t. iii. p. 421. 



