earths.  A few young farmers in the neighbourhood, interested in the battue and able to give useful advice, graciously offered to join the party; and, last of all, Patience, in spite of his aversion for the destruction of innocent animals, consented to follow the hunt as a spectator.  On the appointed day, which opened warm and cloudless on our happy plans and my own implacable destiny, some fifty individuals met with horns, horses, and hounds.  At the end we were to play havoc with the rabbits, of which there were too many on the estate.  It would be easy to destroy them wholesale by falling back upon that part of the forest which had not been beaten during the hunt.  Each man therefore armed himself with a carbine, and my uncle also took one, to shoot from his carriage, which he could still do with much skill.

Edmee was mounted on a very spirited Limousin mare, which she amused herself by exciting and quieting with a touching coquetry to please her old father.  For the first two hours she hardly left the carriage at all, and the chevalier, now full of new life, gazed on her with smiles and tears of love.  Just as in the daily rotation of our globe, ere passing into night, we take leave of the radiant orb which is going to reign over another hemisphere, even so did the old man find some consolation for his death in the thought that the youth and vigour and beauty of his daughter were surviving him for another generation.

When the hunt was in full swing, Edmee, who certainly inherited some of the martial spirit of the family, and the calmness of whose soul could not always restrain the impetuosity of her blood, yielded to her father’s repeated signs—­for his great desire now was to see her gallop—­and went after the field, which was already a little distance ahead.

“Follow her! follow her!” cried the chevalier, who had no sooner seen her galloping off than his fond paternal vanity had given place to uneasiness.

I did not need to be told twice; and digging my spurs into my horse’s flanks, I rejoined Edmee in a cross-path which she had taken to come up with the hunt.  I shuddered as I saw her bending like a reed under the branches, while her horse, which she was still urging on, carried her between the trees with the rapidity of lightning.

“For God’s sake, Edmee,” I cried, “do not ride so fast!  You will be killed!”

“Let me have a gallop,” she said gaily.  “My father has allowed me.  You must not interfere; I shall rap you on the knuckles if you try to stop my horse.”

“At least let me follow you, then,” I said, keeping close to her.  “Your father wished it; and I shall at least be there to kill myself if anything happens to you.”