84 A MONTH IN" THE FORESTS OF FRANCE. 



in the same position, and making about as filthy a 

 dressing and dismembering of a carcase as can well 

 be imagined, the joints being severed at once, and 

 when the animal was warm. The boar ought to have 

 been, as the Scotch say, " grullocked," or disem- 

 bowelled, on the spot where he was killed, and the 

 hounds blooded or rewarded with his entrails. But, 

 as I have before remarked, the last thing that enters 

 a French huntsman's head is the requirements of the 

 hounds. 



We were a long time waiting for dinner, as the 

 party was a very large one, as well as unexpected; 

 but at last it was set before us with the kindest pro- 

 fusion and hospitality, and done ample justice to. 

 Dinner being over, and the carriage ordered, I strolled 

 forth into the sweet, fresh, silent night, and leaning 

 over a gate, set my eyes on the deep dense forest and 

 my heart on a scene in England. There above me, 

 still in the clear blue heaven, were the same constel- 

 lations, that on a summer's night had elsewhere, and 

 so lately yet so far away, looked down on me when 

 intensely happy. Though I had changed my situa- 

 tion by hundreds of miles by sea and land, there were 

 those same bright stars exactly in the same spot im- 

 mediately over my head, as if to teach the soul it 

 cannot wander from the sight of Heaveut Those 



