POACHING IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY lor 



would be killed, the next day a roe, and the day 

 after a half-grown wild boar dropped to the rejected 

 candidate's gun. The keepers were furious, and the 

 sportsman drove them to despair by exaggerating his 

 slaughter. Fresh reports reached the Prince from day 

 to day. ' How is it,' he asked his favourite keeper, 

 ' that you do not find some means of freeing me from 

 this scoundrel ? ' ' Alas ! ' the keeper answered, ' the 

 fellow always stays upon his own ground, and we can- 

 not get hold of him. Only yesterday he shot three 

 pheasants before my face ! ' 



A stag hunt had been arranged for the morning of 

 the following day. The hunters assembled and were 

 about to start, when a keeper arrived to report that the 

 stag which they had hoped to course had been shot 

 by the poacher above named. The Prince burst into 

 a furious rage, and drove off in his carriage to interview 

 the King himself. When he arrived at the Tuileries, his 

 dress disordered and his manner confused, Charles X. 

 inquired the cause of his disturbed state. He at 

 once broke out into a tirade against poachers, and the 

 sovereign listened with sympathy to his description of 

 the murdered stag. Twenty minutes after, the Lord 

 Chancellor appeared in the Tuileries, obedient to a 

 royal mandate. After hearing all the facts, this high 

 functionary decided that the poacher had only acted 



