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Everybody followed in merry parties, on horseback, in carriages, or on foot, to the sound of the horns of the red coated piqueurs of the Orleans family hunt.
The courtyard was filled, in spite of the cold weather, with the populace of Compiegne; the piqueurs waved their torches; the dogs howled and yelped; the gardes blew their long cors de chasse, and it was just like last year, except that on this occasion there were two stags therefore, two sets of entrails to be devoured. Tea and cakes were passed about.
The piqueurs stood in front of the "Perron," holding the dogs back with great difficulty, for they were struggling to get loose, and yelping in their eagerness and greediness to rush forward.
When the curée takes place by torchlight the body of the animal is carried beneath the windows of the chateau, a circle is formed by the "piqueurs," or head hunters, and all who have participated in the pursuit; and, to the sound of a trumpet, loaned by the sportsmen, one of the valets de venérie cuts up the stag.
We then mounted the two char-a-bancs which were waiting for us in front of the chateau, with their postilions and four horses; the piqueurs, in their saddles, were all ready to precede us. The Emperor, Empress, the Prince Imperial, Princess Metternich, and the Archduke were in the first carriage; the rest of us were in the second about fourteen people in all.
These rooks are, properly speaking, what we call capons or piqueurs, in France; men who always carry money about them, to enable them to lend to losing gamesters, for which they receive a gratification, which is nothing for such as play deep, as it is only two per cent., and the money to be repaid the next day.
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