116 A MONTH IN THE FORESTS OF FRANCE. 



lation ; but if all the laws are as thoroughly evaded 

 as the one for the possession and use of firearms, it 

 would need no skilful lawyer " to drive a coach and 

 six through their acts of Parliament." Besides this, 

 in regard to this particular enactment, and while the 

 law prohibits the sale of powder, yet the Government 

 tacitly recognises the possession of arms and ammu- 

 nition, by empowering and commanding the louvetier, 

 or gentleman appointed to compass the destruction of 

 wolf and wild boar when the depredations of those 

 animals are visible, to call out hundreds of the male 

 population, ivitli their guns, to aid in hunting them. 

 This blowing hot and cold with the same breath is 

 not a fault which I should have expected to have 

 found under the cocked-hats of France. 



Resolved not to go home without a dish of fish, we 

 kept hard at our work in casting the net ; and it was 

 only when the half-hour bell for dressing sounded at 

 the chateau, that, to keep ourselves warm, not having 

 a dry thread on us, we began to skip towards the 

 locality of dinner. 



Having held a consultation as to what it was best 

 to do on the following morning, as venison was 

 wanted for the table, and the hounds in no condition 

 for hard work, and the horses not quite fit to go, it 

 was, as advised by me, resolved to take out some of 



