-at the Wood of Mornay; you know it very well; and after mass we can run off for half-an-hour, just to—"' “Well, just as you like." “You know, we cannot have too many pleasures in one day ; and as I am already so fortunate-," Mademoiselle de Chevigné looked down and blushed, after throwing a tender look at her affianced husband, for she had only heard the last part of his conversation with his brother.

During the mass, which was unfortunately rather long, and especially during the exhortation, which was not particularly short, the Count de Fussey had the greatest pains in the world to conceal his impatience ; and when the curé Gayotat asked him if he was willing to take Malle. Susan de Chevigné to be his lawful wife, he seemed as if almost waking from a dream, and was within an ace of crying out: Tayant ! Tayant! (Tally-ho!)

The ceremony having been finished, the party returned to the château, and within half-an-hour the two brothers had most unaccountably disappeared, and were on their road to the Wood of Mornay, Bonnard and Denis secretly conducted my father's pack to the place, for the Marquis would not have it said that his brother's hounds had hunted upon his wedding-day. The “brisée" was inspected and pronounced all right; and as it had been agreed to kill the animal as he left the wood, they placed themselves in readiness, the Count taking the likeliest spot for the boar's approach. He said he felt no anxiety about his escaping, for the dinner would not be ready until two o'clock, and there would be plenty of time to kill him. As it turned out, he had all the luck in the world in his favour; for the boar, immediately that he was roused, ran directly towards him, and passed within ten yards of the spot where he was posted. He put his gun to his shoulder ; but instead of firing, although he had a most excellent aim, he quietly took it down, and raising his horn to his lips, sounded “la vue," “ He was rather too far off, I suppose,” said the Marquis, who just then had run to the spot. “Not a bit of it," answered the Count, " for he was only ten yards off ; and that would have been a thousand pities on such a beautiful hunting morning. To horse! to horse! we can kill him in two hours." “You are quite right," responded the Marquis; “it is not yet twelve o'clock.” The wild boar proved to be a fine vigorous fellow, who would not condescend to waste his strength in running useless rings round the place where he was found : he broke clear away at once, swam over the Saône, entered the forest of La Marche, and returned into Bresse, from which locality he had arrived—perhaps also to be married,

The brothers Fussey, however, were not inclined to relinquish their prize ; and when night came on, they found themselves seven mortal leagues from the Château de Demigny. “What a pity we are so far from home!” said the Count, with a sigh, “That's very true,"responded the Marquis: “your wife," “ I wish she could send me my pack to-morrow morning ; for to-morrow we might hunt without impropriety, and then we could finish off this devil of a pigache, which we certainly have not done yet.” “Oh! Monsieur le Comte,” said Denis, " my hounds will be fresh enough to kill him to-morrow."

They all slept at a little cabaret on the edge of the forest, and at day-break went to work again with the hunted boar, which they found near the spot where they left off the night before. It happened exceedingly fortunate that the animal as soon as refound retraced his steps, and was killed after a second brilliant chase, at no great distance from the Château de Demigny; perhaps some tender souvenir of his absent love was the cause of his voluntarily returning to die where he was first found. On that evening the Count de Fussey gallantly presented his bride with the head of this enormous boar, accompanied with a thousand apologies for his unintended absence, as the old Marquise de Chevigné, who was not particularly well provided for, gaily observed, “My dear Count, you really are a pearl of a husband." “Susan! can you forgive me?” added the Count tenderly. “What can I have to forgive you, if you have been amused ?" answered the innocent young girl. “My dear Fussey," said my father gently, who was present, “pray do not play these sort of pranks too often, upon the hope of being so easily forgiven. The greatest enjoyments become poisonous to our happiness when they are abused.” This good advice, however, was not followed; but we must with truth add, without any inconvenience or unhappiness resulting Saint Hubert watched over the good fortune of the Count.

When the revolution broke out shortly afterwards, the two inseparable brothers did not immediately discontinue the chase. It was not that they were insensible to the misfortunes of the times, or indifferent to the dangers which threatened the royal family ; but they were neither soldiers, nor deputies, nor belonging to any profession ; and they could find no other means to console themselves for their useless position, than to abandon themselves more than ever to their ruling passion. The suppression of the titles of the nobility did not seem to affect them; but the law which passed in 1790 greatly annoyed them; for in the first place it forced them to take out a “ port d'armes,” and that seemed to them a humiliation ; moreover, the game laws permitted every body to keep hounds, a measure which threatened the perfect annihilation of all the game, and was consequently an irreparable grievance. From the date of that announcement, they considered France as irrevocably lost ; in effect, the “gardes de chasse” had begun to conduct themselves in an insolent manner towards their employers; the châteaux became less hospitable ; poaching, which no one dared to at. tempt to suppress, cleared the forests of the game ; in fact, there was no prospect excepting to emigrate, for those who had the least wish to keep their heads upon their shoulders. But the difficulty was, where to go to ; and this consideration was a source of unhappiness to the brothers. “It is of no use to go to England,” they said : “there is only fox-hunting, which is a most expensive amusement; and we are well aware that no Frenchman is sufficiently accomplished as a horseman to compete with the English squirarchy, who are allowed to be the boldest cavaliers in the world. In Germany they know nothing of hunting, excepting to strangle the animals they may have taken in their nets. In Italy and in Spain there is no hunting. What are we to do? what can be devised ?” Cruel incertitude! in presence of which the two brothers felt, for the first time in their lives, their accustomed energy to fail them. The youngest, who had become, as I informed you, the nephew of my father by his marriage, lived almost continually at the Château de Demigny, and it was at that place that he had formed the resolution to emigrate. At length the day of his departure was fixed ; so near was it, that the future exile was cursing a fit of the gout, which he was afraid would either prevent his going away, or oblige him to stop on the road if it became more violent. The circumstances looked grave, and he had great fear that the least delay would prevent him from leaving the kingdom; besides, their system of so rigorously preserving the game, and of punishing all who might be caught infringing upon the game laws, had made him innumerable enemies, who were in their turn become not only powerful, but most revengeful ; and if he had not taken refuge at the château of my father, he would long ere that time have figured as one of the unfora tunate victims to the bad feeling of the lower orders. The doctor, who attended him, and to whom he had confided his intentions, had come to see him. Finding him rather better, he said he now considered this little attack as well as over, provided he took proper care of himself. “ No more exciting beverages for the internal system, and no more getting wet through for the outward part of the body," said the Doctor ; "attend to these two precautions, and I will answer for it that you have no return of your complaint.” Monsieur de Fussey was a particularly sober man, and consequently there was no great difficulty in following the first half of the doctor's advice; and as to the second, that was still more easy, as the room in which the patient sat was a comfortable, dry, and cheerful apartment, and perfectly well warmed. It happened to be in the month of October ; the Count de Fussey was reclining in an easy arm chair, wrapped up in a very warm dressing gown, his legs encased in flannels, reading some old work upon hunting, when he suddenly fancied he heard Denis's voice, conversing with somebody in the next chamber, which was occupied by le Chevalier de Riolet, a friend of my father's, and who was an ardent lover of the chase. Monsieur de Fussey listened, and heard the following little dialogue :—“ You are quite sure," said the Chevalier, “that there are two of them ?” “Yes sir," replied Denis, “ a stag and a hind.” “ It will be a sad pity to let some d-d sansculotte kill them.” “That it certainly would,” replied Denis. “Well then! take a dozen of your hounds, which you can depend on as the steadiest and best hunters, and we will contrive to hunt these two beasts with the aid of my fusilio ;" that was the chavalier's little attempt at wit, meaning that he would have a shot at the deer as they passed him. “Mind particularly that the Count de Fussey knows nothing about the matter; if he goes and gets wet, the gout will assuredly mount into his stomach and kill him. How far is it to reach the brisée ?!” “ Twenty minutes' walking ; the animals are harboured close to · La levée de Batard.'” “Go and get the hounds ready, and I will be with you in five minutes.”

“Ah! ah ! my fine fellows,” thought the Count de Fussey, “ that is the way you intend to cheat me, is it? Well! Morbleu ! we will see how it is." And as old Sixty-five had thrown away his crutches, so he immediately cast from him his blankets, his flannels, his wrappers, and bolted his door to prevent being surprised by any intruder. First of all he looked out the largest and easiest pair of boots that he could find, one of which slipped on to the sound leg as easily as possible ; but when it came to the turn of the other, he could in no way manage it: it gave him such a torture that he thought he should have dropped, or even screamed out. “Bah!” cried the patient, “I will wear a slipper on that foot.” He then went to the “cabinet de toilette,” where his hunting clothes were kept; but his valet had gone out, and taken the key with him

“ Ma foi, tant pis, I will go just as I am, in my robe de chambre; in these days of liberty, every one can do as they like I suppose.” Hapa pily he kept the key of his guns himself, never allowing any one to touch them but himself after they had been properly cleaned; he took one, and loaded it with two balls, and then watching his opportunity, slipped down stairs without being perceived. During these preparations le Chevalier de Riolet cried out to him, as he left his room, "Adieu, Fussey ; I am going to have a hit at back-gammon with Monsieur le Curée.” “ Mind your double points,” responded the Count. As soon as he thought that the Chevalier was clear of the place, he went down stairs as quietly as he could, which was no easy matter, hobbled off to the stable, and saddled the first horse he met with, and through a small hand-gate at the back of the buildings rode away into the country, and arrived at the spot he had fixed upon, before old Denis had had time to reach the wood on foot and uncouple the hounds. The place that he had selected was a narrow slip of cover, by which the chances were a thousand to one that the deer would pass ; and even if he were not lucky in getting & shot at them there, there was still a second point to which he could cut across and meet them. As it happened, as soon as the hounds had found them, and forced them to leave the wood, a shepherd's dog seeing them running across the meadow where he was employed in watching his master's sheep, chased them, and drove them from the line by which the Count had made sure they would pass. In no way dispirited, he mounted his horse as quickly as his infirmities would allow him, and rode off as fast as he could to the second point; but the deer were going with the rapidity of the wind, and he had but about five minutes to gain the point upon which his last hopes were built. By the ordinary road, which led over a bridge that spanned a small rivulet now swollen by the autumnal rains, he would arrive rather too late ; and the only way left to him was to plunge at once into the water with his horse, and cut off the angle. He knew that wetting his feet had been forbidden by his doctor, but his Esculapius had never said one word about his taking a regular bath; and whether he ever once thought about the matter, or whether his sole idea was to achieve one more good double shot before he emigrated, we have no means of judging. Denis and the Chevalier were plodding along as fast as their legs could carry them, to gain the point that they had fixed upon, and which was some distance from the narrow pass selected by the Count de Fussey, when suddenly their ears were saluted by a distant bang! bang! at intervals of regularity which indicated the master-hand that had directed the weapon. "If I had not known that Monsieur le Comte de Fussey was sitting in his arm-chair by the fire at this moment,” said old Denis, "I could have sworn that that was his gun we heard. At any rate the deer are killed, for I cannot hear the hounds running any longer: we had better run as fast as we can, and see who it is." Away they went, and when they arrived at the spot, they found the Count as wet as a wild-duck, and as stiff as if he had had an attack of paralysis ; he pointed out to them the stag and the hind lying dead at about fifty yards from where he stood. “Your game of back-gammon has not been a very long one,” he said to the Chevalier, laughing.“ And your gout, my dear fellow, does not appear to hurt you much.” “We shall see more about that tomorrow : I beseech you to have the goodness to help me up upon my horse, for I cannot move an inch.”

That was the last time that the Count de Fussey went to the chasse. A few days afterwards he emigrated to Germany, where his brother had already arrived. They neither of them lived a very long time after that ; for they declared that the hunting in that country was so badly conducted, that they could not enjoy it, and within a few months of each other they died of broken hearts.

NOBS AND SNOBS.

BY HARRY HIEOVER.

It is a common observation, when we find anything to be of a more than usual complex nature, to say that “it would puzzle a Philadelphia lawyer to make it out.” Now whether any peculiar statistic organization of matters of transatlantic origin cause a more than usual complexity of arrangement, or whether Philadelphian lawyers are endowed with more astute powers of unravelling mysteries, I know not, nor does it matter to us Englishers ; but this I can truly say, I did once ask a veritable Philadelphian expounder of laws, if he knew the derivation of the term “ snob." He admitted he was in a “regular fix;” therefore if I use a term of which I merely know the import, I may well be excused, Nimrod, that great authority of his day, uses it, but candidly admits himself as much in the dark as to its derivation as myself. We minor planets should not criticize a star that shone so resplendently ; but, aware of the light in which Nimrod regarded the word, I think he has done something like injustice to the owner of “the little bay” in designating him by any epithet that savoured of decided inferiority ; for our author states Snob “ went well,” so much so as to attract observation and admiration where to excite either is no easy matter, and that he went as long as he could : our author as a writer did the same—no man can do more. Again, Snob, though so designated, speaks of his horse as the best in his stable. This shows he was not one accustomed to get a day now and then, with always the same pair of ears before him. But much further than this, when such a man as Lord Alvanly could, on a five days' acquaintance in the field, ask Snob to his table, any one who had had the advantage of being known to the above nobleman must be quite aware he was not in the habit of inviting guests of vulgarity of manner, or of decidedly coarse address. A “rural-looking man," as some exquisite termed our hero, Snob might be ; a provincial he was; and allowing Leicestershire men their “crown of bays," as regards their high breeding, fortunes, style, and riding, candour will not be silenced on asserting, that as finished gentlemen, and perhaps more perfect sportsmen, are to be found in the provinces, as are to be found located at Melton, Leicester, Quorndon, Oakham, Lowesby, or any of the many localities in which we find stabling and boxes to suit the extent of all studs, from the unpretending, but good and judicious rider, who with four horses gets regularly his three or four days a