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The days of the chasse a courre the gentlemen appear in red coats and the ladies in green-cloth dresses. Those that had le bouton put it in their buttonhole. You may be sure I wore mine! All the carriages, the horses, and grooms were before the terrace at two o'clock, and after the usual delay we drove off to the forest. Their Majesties and the Prince Imperial were on horseback.
The Emperor was perfectly delightful, witty, amusing, and laughing continually, with such a keen appreciation he seemed really to enjoy himself. As the programme in our room this morning read, chasse a courre, on went the green dress for the second time, and, of course, the button. The Duchess de Fernan Nunez asked me to drive with her, which I was happy to do, as I like her very much.
The chasse a courre is generally fixed for the last day of the serie; but their Majesties, at the suggestion of the thoughtful Vicomte Walsh, ordered it to be changed to this afternoon, in order that the operetta should arrive at a riper stage of perfection. Would it ever be near enough? We had never had a moment yet when we could rehearse all together.
"Tiens, Jacques!" he cried, "voila un bateau qui courre sur les brisants!" "Quoi?" carelessly asked the other. "Vous moquez vous!" But the one who had first spoken repeated what he'd said, to the effect that there was "a boat drifting on the rocks, and likely to be wrecked."
With me it is all ups and downs; at breakfast I am 'way up to the very top, and at dinner 'way down. After dejeuner the Master of Ceremonies inquires what you wish to do; that is to say, if there is nothing special mentioned on the programme, such as a review, or manoeuvers, or a chasse a courre, when all are expected to join. Do you wish to walk?
"Other days, other ways" never had a more strict application than to la chasse a courre in France. Two accounts are here given of two comparatively modern figures in the French hunting field, which show the great store set by the sport in France.
As we were about to return to Paris, we met a friend of M. Gaston Menier on his way from the latter's country-house near Villa-Cotterets, where the memorable chasses a courre take place in the forest, which, under normal conditions, abounds in deer and stags. The chateau had been used as the headquarters of a brigade of Bavarian infantry.
On the programme for to-day there stood chasse a courre; but of course cela tombait dans l'eau, as would have been its natural end anyway in this weather. None of the ladies donned their green costumes, as even one was so sure that the day would be passed indoors. At dejeuner I was fortunate enough to sit between Prince Metternich and the Marquis de Gallifet.
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