get leave for a month, what is that, when it is over? I want to hunt every day, all my life, if I could; and hunt, too, as the King never has yet done.'

"At this moment my valet Lamalle entered with the writing apparatus for which I had sent him. Le Vicomte de la Tour-en-Voisore rushed to meet him-took the writing things, and threw them all out of the window. He then sat himself quietly down, and said to us, Gentlemen, just listen to what I have to say.'

"You must fancy, my friend" (it was my father who was all this time speaking, aud who broke off the thread of his discourse from time to time, to address himself more directly to me)-"you must fancy, my friend, what a state of anxious excitement this project of the Vicomte's had caused in us all. He was a man habitually apathetic, cold, reserved, and who invariably preferred to leave everything to chance, pretending that it was much more convenient and agreeable to scramble out of an annoyance, than to take the trouble of running after a pleasure. In seeing him, then, so animated with regard to his new project, we judged that some sudden change had miraculously come over him, the effect of his new and ardent passion for the chase; and we approached him as if we were afraid of not catching every word which fell from his tongue. He continued, and I repeat after him.

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You are perfectly right,' he said, 'to refuse to take your equipage to Lunéville, were it only to keep it there for two months. If it only gave offence to our superior officers, why it would not be of so much consequence; but some of our comrades, who are not so highly favoured by fortune as we are, might look upon it as an intention to eclipse them; and we ought by all means to steer clear of any course which may wound their amour propre. Therefore, my advice is that you should not take this equipage to Lunéville.'

Then let us write!' we all cried out at once, rather disappointed at what he had to tell us.

"Wait an instant,' said le Vicomte de la Tour-en-Voisore, and hear what I have further to propose. Let us all take each an equipagede-chasse, adopting a costume that all our comrades can conveniently wear. There will be no jealousy; the vanity of no one will suffer; and every one will be so highly delighted, that we cannot fail to be successful in our project; and I am sure that in fifty years' time the world will not nave ceased to talk of the wonderful chases of the Gendarmerie de Lunéville.'

"We were all struck with the rationality of the proposal, and, having thanked him, congratulated him, and we agreed to enter more fully upon the subject on the morrow, and reduce to some sort of regular plan how the project was to be carried out. As I had an equipage for hunting the wild boar, I was to be exempt from any further arrangement with regard to my establishment; but the other three of my comrades drew lots for the different honours with which they were to be invested as masters of the other packs. Menou's chance gave him the equipage de cerf; Blangy was to procure a pack to hunt the roebuck; and the office of louvetier fell to De la Tour-en-Voisore. It was decided, moreover, that upon our return to the garrison, as soon as our comrades had been apprised of our intentions, to offer one of them an equipage to hunt the hare. When this proposal

was afterwards made, it was immediately adopted by the Count de Choiseul à la mode de Bretagne; and I must add that the whole scheme produced not the slightest invidious feeling in any one, but, on the contrary, met with the most universal approbation. All this took place about the time of All Saints' day; and in less than a month, the corps of "Messieurs les Officiers de la Gendarmerie," having at their head Monsieur le Maréchal de Castries commandant en premier, and Monsieur le Marquis d'Antichamp commandant en second, all met together in that magnificent exercising ground at Lunéville, which is an humble imitation of the Champ-de-Mars at Paris. You are aware, my dear friend, that, admirer as I am of by-gone days, I have no wish to grumble at the present; but I must say that I think it would be a difficult thing to find in these times such an establishment as could then be boasted of. The Gendarmerie, which had the honour of leaving dead forty-two officers in the midst of that terrible affair with the English at Fontenoy, had since been recruited from the very best and oldest families in the Monarchy-that is to say, from amongst those warlike families whose valour and loyalty dated their long existence from a truly ancient and noble stock, and were not indebted for their illustrious position to the infamy of a husband or the frailty of a woman. They were a really elegant and chivalrous race, which civilization had polished without corrupting, and which was possessed of all the virtues of private life, and which now shone forth as sublimely as their public career had been brilliant. The oldest amongst them had not seen more than thirty summers over his head, and if there was any inequality of fortune, the good-fellowship which was the mainspring of the whole fraternity was a perfect safeguard against the slightest presumption arising which could inflict a wound upon the most sensitive disposition.

"As soon as all our more important preliminaries had been well arranged, we began to think a little about the uniform which would be most convenient for our party. We were determined on no account to adopt the English style of dress, which was then beginning to show itself in the taste evinced by some of the best society; consequently we decided upon a uniform which, at any rate, could boast of originality, if it had nothing better to recommend it. It was resolved then at once to adopt an unpretending costume of the chase, and which consisted of a sky-blue coat slightly braided, chamois-skin waistcoat, and white doeskin breeches, large jack-boots, and a French hat. I need not tell you how neatly all our things were made; but when the powder and pigeons' wings' were added to our hair, we really were the sprucest company of chasseurs that were ever assembled together. Upon the day fixed for our review, previous to commencing operations in earnest, the great gate of the establishment was thrown open, and at the sound of twenty hunting horns, we beheld our different equipages de chasse, defile before us, conducted by our ten piqueurs and twenty valets-de-chiens. That of the Marquis de Menou, as destined to hunt the noblest animal, led the van; then came De La Tour-en-Voisore; after him, Blangy; then mine; and lastly, Choiseul, who had sent expressly into Switzerland to purchase sixty small hounds, which were sold by a nobleman who had given up hunting, and which had the character of being the most beautiful pack to hunt the hare on the continent. Les honeurs de la séance' were accorded to this meute with

out one dissenting voice, for nothing could be imagined more lively, or elegant, or in better condition, than these sixty hounds; to look at them, you might have fancied that each had been brought up upon the lap of some Duchess, and fed on cream and biscuits de Reims. The other equipages were also not wanting in effect, particularly that belonging to Menou, who had recruited his forces from the far-famed Poitiers. Mine was the least brilliant in appearance, but amongst them I recognized forty of my steady old Ardenniars, and ten couples of young hounds of first-rate blood, which only wanted one good season's work to make them perfect; moreover I had engaged Denis, my old piqueur, who on one unlucky day I had permitted to accept an offer from S. A. R. Monseigneur le Prince de Condé to become his chef d'equipage but whom I had induced to return once more to my service. The review of the different packs having been terminated, and the congratulations and laudations finished, the whole party met at the Maréchal de Castries', where a magnificent breakfast awaited us. It was twelve o'clock when we rose from table, and as it was rather too late in the day to attempt to hunt a stag or a boar, it was resolved that we should content ourselves with trying to kill a hare or two with the little porcelaine pack belonging to the Count de Choiseul. These little beauties were the admiration of every one; but the regular amateurs had some doubts as to their future merits, when put to the test of the more serious trials of a laborious chase: they asked themselves how were their delicate velvet ears to stand the scratching of the thorns in the covers, and how were those transparently slender legs to wade through the mud, which they seemed to pierce like needles, or to escape being broken like bits of glass? I was myself one of the most mistrustful of the prophets, and hinted my fears to my friend the Marquis d'Antichamp. Have you ever been to a ball?' he said. 'Belle question!' I responded, with astonishment; but I don't see what that has to do with the matter?' Why, you will invariably see,' he resumed, that the most delicatelooking women can invariably dance the longest; and I am thoroughly convinced that it will be the case with these little playthings of hounds.' 'I believe, after all, you are right,' I observed.

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"But to return to my subject. We marched out of garrison at the head of our little pack, receiving, as we rode along the streets of Lunéville, the most bewitching smiles and congratulations from the windows on either side of us; and when we had arrived at the edge of a small wood, about half a league from the town, we uncoupled. This wood was really as thick as a fagot of thorns: you could hardly find a hole to allow a weasel to creep in. There were a great many persons, especially foot-people, assembled to witness our début; and as they willingly lent their aid to uncouple the hounds, it was done so quickly, that all the pack were let loose at the same instant. The moment that they arrived at the edge of the almost impenetrable-looking cover, they seemed to work their way into it as if by magic: at one glance they were invisible. For the first quarter-of-an-hour we heard nothing but a rustling of the underwood, which grew fainter as it became more distant. The piqueurs, who were unable to ride into the wood, occasionally sounded their horns, to encourage the pack to try through the brushwood; but we could hear nothing of the hounds for some time, until at last a most delicious harmony burst simultaneously from the

cover, and in two minutes we viewed away the hare, as the little porcelain dogs of the Count de Choiseul emerged from the thicket, executing the most marvellously delicious concert you could imagine. There was then no more doubt about their capabilities, and we were all in extacies at their performance. The hare kept entirely to the open country, with the exception of now and then passing through a small copse, which gave a pleasing variety to the run, which lasted about an hour and a-half; and I must confess that I never in my life witnessed anything more ravishing than the chase with these little creatures so nimble and so elegant, and which run so well together, and so harmoniously. When they were running along the furrows, you would have taken them for a flock of white pigeons skimming the earth: when they glided into cover, they had the appearance of so many spirits of air returning to their secret abodes; and after the hare was killed, would you believe it? not one of these ravishing little fairies would plunge its muzzle into the blood. 'Fi, donc !' was quite sufficient to make them all lie down upon the grass of a beautiful meadow where the finish took place, and where they waited to be recoupled, like so many graceful pretty women waiting for their cloaks and shawls at the termination of a ball. I must then agree with the Marquis d'Antichamp, who made use of so happy a comparison as he had done with regard to the elegance as well as the lasting capabilities of our new acquisition.

"Such, then, was our debut; and a more brilliantly poetical one could not well be imagined. Choiseul was elated to the very heavens with his discovery; and the renown of these little Swiss porcelain dogs,' for the name I had given them lasted with them during their whole career, at length reached the chamber of his Majesty at Versailles, who requested us to let him have a couple of them for himself, which, of course, was immediately complied with; and in an effusion of that loyalty for which the corps was ever celebrated, a messenger was immediately despatched with three couples of the handsomest of the pack."

This story of my father's, although it seemed to me rather fantastic in some of its details, charmed me exceedingly; but I could not help indulging my propensity, perhaps not a very filial one, for joking him a little upon his enthusiasm. "Well!" I said, "I don't think much of this victory of yours after all, for sixty hounds to vanquish a poor little timed thing like a hare. Why, if you had put her into a tub, and let the pack bay round her for five minutes, the very noise would have been quite sufficient alone to have destroyed her: and then, again, when you talk about covering the pack with a table cloth, which is a beautiful idea-why, I have seen the worst packs in the world as close together as to be able to be covered with a good-sized mantle; yes, indeed!”

"And how often might you have seen that ragged assembly of hounds so close together in chase?" demanded my father, getting quite excited. "Often," I replied.

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Often, as the saying is, means nothing. I hate those vague expressions, which always have to me the air of untruth: it puts me in mind of one of those tremendous story tellers, one of whom I was well acquainted with in early life, who invariably met our demonstration of incredulity at some of the miraculous accounts of his feats, by as

serting that he was quite sure of what he was advancing; for that he had done it a hundred times.'

"Well! is that all you have to tell me," I inquired, rather impatiently, "of your wonderful chases at Lunéville ?"

"Why, you are mad," he replied; "I have not yet begun.”

"A la bonne heure," I said to myself; and trying to rouse my father up to the highest pitch of his enthusiasm, "I don't think much of what you have as yet told me about your hunting, after all," I observed, and affected to believe that the subject had been perfectly exhausted. I could see in the expression of my father's countenance, at my last remark, a mixture of half-irony and disdain at my pretended unbelief. I was not displeased at this; for I knew by long experience, that his best energies would be put forth to recite some of the best stories of his long and interesting career as a sportsman. Having stretched himself into a more comfortable attitude in his easy-chair, and having deliberately placed his right foot across his left knee, and having moreover satisfied the longings of his nasal organ with a most prodigious and lasting supply of snuff, my beloved and excellent parent commenced his second hunting story. (To be continued.)

AMATEURS AND PROFESSIONALS.

BY HARRY HIEOVER.

We all know there exists a direct line of demarcation between the professional and non-professional, in all the pursuits and avocations that both undertake, or rather perform; and such distinction may at first appear so perfectly demonstrative as to require but little consideration, and less, or perhaps no explanation. It will not, however, be found quite so easy in many cases as it may be imagined, to find out the precise distinguishing point or line where the limit of the amateur ends, and that of the professional begins, or vice versâ.

Professors their are, goodness (or rather badness) knows, in plenty in all cases; and most people, I imagine, have found such class particularly numerous among friends and acquaintance; but when they are really called upon, they fall off so much on trial, that they, so far from shewing themselves even amateurs, are found to be " journeymen, and bad ones too"-they act up to their professions "so abominably."

Returning to professionials, in the ordinary phases of professions, I consider the distinctive marks to be-one who has been taught any craft by a professor, with a view to acting professionally, as a means of making an income, or adding to one. If a man has been thus qualified, but has never acted professionally, he cannot be termed a professional; though if a man may be self-taught, and makes a