V EN ERIE AND THE V A LOIS 245 



Biide, did a great deal for hunting. In his Treatise on A^enerie,' 

 Bude tells him in the dedication, ' Sire, vous avez tellement 

 dresse et poli I'exercice de la venerie, qu'elle semble estre 

 parvenue a sa perfection.' At all events, he put all the gilding 

 on just as he did to the doors and ceihngs of Fontainebleau. 

 Tornabuoni, the Tuscan ambassador, evidently ' un homnie 

 grave,' writes to the Grand Duke Cosmo I. de' Medicis : 

 ' This Court is not as other Courts are ; here they only think 

 of limiting, pretty women, entertainments, and change of 

 scene. The Court only stays in a place as long as the 

 herons last. They hunt the stag twice, then one day's deer 

 catching (' aux toiles '), and then on again somewhere else.' ^ 

 Everyday hfe was one long hunting progress. This is how 

 he describes the invasion of the country by the scarlet- 

 clad locusts : 



' Quelquefois le roi, outre ses cent pages, ses deux cents 

 ecuyers, piqueurs ou chevauchem'S, mene avec lui quatre ou 

 cinq cents gentilshommes, quelquefois il est accompagne de 

 la reine ou des reines, suivies de leurs nombreuses dames et 

 filles d'honneur. Alors tous les appartements d'en haut, 

 toutes les salles d'en bas, tous les etages, tout le chateau, 

 toute la cour, toute a chevals, toute en habits rouges, semble 

 au miheu de la campagne trotter, galoper a la suite du roi, 

 aussi en habit rouge, courant le cerf ou le sanglier.' 



This ' to-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new ' way 

 of going on quite upset all the Venetians. 



How swift we go, how softly, ah ! 

 Were life but as the gondola ! 



It certainly was not so at the Court of France to the 

 homesick envoys and secretaries. 



' Our embassy,' cries this indignant and saddle-sore am- 



' Traite de Yi'ncrie de BiuU, translated from the Latin, Paris, 18G4. 



- Documents Inidits: N^(jociationsdiplu)iiatiqiics avec la Toscanc, t.iii. p. 17. 



