252 THE COOKERY OF THE PHEASANT 



were pillaged and wrecked there were forced sales of 

 the wines ; when the domains of the aristocrats were 

 put up to public auction, the gardes-chasse were sent 

 into involuntary retreat, and the peasants had the run 

 of the woods. Pheasants and partridges poured into 

 the capital, and Beauvilliers, when he wrote his 'L'Art 

 du Cuisinier ' — which does due honour to the phea- 

 sant — shows that he had taken advantage of his op- 

 portunities. Yet the great man had reason to lament 

 the ingratitude of his compatriots, and he lived to see 

 himself eclipsed by his younger rival Vdry. At least, 

 it was V^ry who contracted to furnish the tables of 

 the allied sovereigns when they paid their unwelcome 

 visit to Paris in 1814. Brillat-Savarin is eloquent in his 

 praise of Beauvilliers' great work. He says that it bears 

 the stamp of enlightened practice, and was a treasury of 

 original and ingenious research, to which all subsequent 

 writers have been indebted for materials. 



Until things settled down under the Restoration 

 the restaurateurs enjoyed a monopoly of the best 

 Parisian cooking. Even when the French nobles had 

 come back with their diminished fortunes they could 

 not afford to give high salaries, and indeed they 

 seldom entertained. There were no longer Marshals 

 who were expected to lavish their pay and appoint- 

 ments in the service of the Empire, though personally, 



