THE EMPIRE AND THE REPUBLIC 275 



present day, but they killed him by the same means as the 

 tortoise defeated the hare. His self-confidence led him to 

 take liberties with their perseverance. 



The French are an exact people. You should, I am told, 

 read high mathematics in French, rather than in English 

 or in German, because the French language and the French 

 imjenium guarantee a correct nicety of expression. They 

 are, as we know, in arts and crafts, sticklers for form and 

 precision. Hunting procedure is no exception. It has a 

 formidable grammar and a prosody. Even to freeing the horn 

 from the results of your efforts, there is an ascertained right 

 and wTong way of doing everything. The late Vicomte H. 

 de Chezelles, a most competent authority, devotes some 

 pages of his interesting book to what he calls the grandes 

 famous handed down in certain families of professional 

 huntsmen from generation to generation. M. de Chezelles 

 instances the Namurs, Obrys, Duvals, under the Monarchy, 

 La Trace and La Feuille of the Imperial Venerie, as all 

 having the grand style, but La Trace is his Charles Davis. 

 When Napoleon III. reconstituted the Venerie, La Trace 

 was growing vegetables, and marrying people who wished 

 to marry, as the mayor of his native town, Dangu. His 

 country and his Emperor's need called him, like another 

 Cincinnatus, to higher things. The manner in which he 

 made his report to the Grand Veneur, the noble simplicity of 

 his approach, the poise of his whip, the elegant gesture of his 

 saluting hat, the bow with which he decorated the instruc- 

 tions he might receive or inspire, were things, M. de Chezelles 

 tells us, once seen never to be forgotten. 



Now, I dare say I may have missed the subtleties of 

 doffing the lampion, or of the deployment of the whip-lash. 

 They would appear to be things only to be spiritually 

 perceived. But there is a certain kind of form which is 

 quite independent of dress regulations and the classical 



T 2 



