The King was fond of hunting and the chase held an important part in the service of the royal household.  The conditions of the sport were determined with a formality in keeping with the other affairs of Versailles.  There were two divisions of the chase—­the hunting and the shooting.  The first had to do with the chase of the stag, deer, wild boar, wolf, fox and the hare.  The shooting had to do with smaller game.  Here was also falconry, though in this Louis was not particularly interested.  The chase was conducted by the Grand Huntsman of France, and his duties were enormous and varied.  Under him the Captain General of the Toils kept the woods of Versailles well stocked with stag, deer, boars, and other animals caught in the forests of France.  Some idea of the pomp and ceremony of the hunt may be obtained from the following account which was printed in the Mercure Galant in 1707: 

“The toils were placed in the glades of Bombon.  In the inclosure there were a large number of stags, wild boars, roebucks, and foxes.  The court arrived there.  The King, the Queen of England (the wife of James II, then in exile), her son, Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne, and Madame (the Duchesse d’Orleans, wife of Monsieur) were in the same carriage, and all the princesses and the ladies followed in the carriages and caleches of the king.  A very large number of noblemen on horseback accompanied the carriages.  Within the inclosure there were platforms, arranged with seats covered with tapestry for the ladies, and many riding-horses for the nobles who wished to attack the game with swords or darts.  They killed sixteen of the largest beasts, and some foxes.  Mgr. le Duc de Berry slew several.  This chase gave much pleasure on account of the brilliancy of the spectacle, and the large number of nobles who surrounded the toils.  A multitude of people had climbed into the trees, and by their diversity they formed an admirable background.”

Stag hunting was even more impressive in ceremonial details.  After the chase the “quarry” was usually held by torchlight at Versailles, in one of the inner courts, and the ceremony of the quarry was as follows:  “When His Majesty had made known his intentions on the subject, all the huntsmen with their horns and in hunting-dress came to the place where the quarry was to be made.  On the arrival of the King, who was also in hunting-dress, the grand huntsman, who had received two wands of office, gave one to the King, and retained the other.  The dogs were held under the whip about the carcass of the stag until the grand huntsman, having received the order from the King, gave the sign with his wand that they should be set at liberty.  The horns sounded, and the huntsmen, who while the hounds were held under the whip had cried, ‘Back, dogs!  Back!’ shouted now, ‘Hallali, valets!  Hallali!’ When the quarry had been made, that is to say, when the flesh had been torn from the bones,