A CARPET KNIGHT. 185 



" Most readily will I give you his history, partly collected 

 from the hill-men, and partly from my own observation ; 

 for when his grand affair took place I heard and saw all." 



" He is a French noble, who has had the merit of bring- 

 ing himself into notice as a famous shot ; not, as I conceive, 

 from any feats of skill that he has actually performed, but 

 simply from his excellent soi disant qualities. He is, as 

 you see, beautifully equipped ; that, indeed, no one can 

 deny : dressed, too, in the most elaborate style. See how 

 knowingly his rifle is slung in the German fashion. I 

 assure you that, what with his gay good humour, and 

 foreign singularity, he has attracted a considerable degree 

 of observation : ' His discourse is sweet and voluble ; ' but 

 aged ears by no means ' played truant with his tales; ' for 

 John Crerer and the older sportsmen discovered properties 

 in him quite adequate, they said, to destroy the sport of a 

 whole season. What was to be done? If he remained in 

 the glen, it was imperative on him to be totally silent : 

 singing French airs was out of the question. The deer, 

 said the Duke, were not to be had as in the time of Orpheus ; 

 on the contrary, it was more becoming to be mute, and to 

 lie concealed like Marius in the marshes of Minturnae, and 

 somewhat better. But it seemed quite evident that nothing 

 short of the combined powers of laudanum and a strait- 

 waistcoat could effect any restraint upon our gentleman. 

 These were not at hand, and if they had been so, it might 

 perhaps have been thought somewhat inhospitable to have 

 used them ; so that idea was dropped at once. In this 

 dilemma it was deemed advisable to send him up with the 

 drivers, to plague you : in short, it was resolved that he 

 should evacuate the glen. He started joyfully, for he was 

 a famous walker out of all sight the best in France ; 

 indeed no one of any nation was equal to him. But the 

 hill-men asserted that this was not his particular walking- 

 day ; so that, I am told, he soon became most deplorably 

 exhausted, and, according to all accounts, delayed the drive 

 at least an hour or so. Fortune bounteously gave him 

 many fair shots ; but, alas, what she distributed with one 

 hand, she took away with the other ; for he missed them 

 clean every one." 

 13 



