of this kind, yet he was, nevertheless, the keenest
sportsman of his day. This tyrant of the Castle of Plessis-les-Tours, who
was always miserly, except in matters of hunting, in which he was most
lavish, forbade even the higher classes to hunt under penalty of hanging.
To ensure the execution of his severe orders, he had all the castles as
well as the cottages searched, and any net, engine, or sporting arm found
was immediately destroyed. His only son, the heir to the throne, was not
exempted from these laws. Shut up in the Castle of Amboise, he had no
permission to leave it, for it was the will of the King that the young
prince should remain ignorant of the noble exercises of chivalry. One day
the Dauphin prayed his governor, M. du Bouchage, with so much earnestness
to give him an idea of hunting, that this noble consented to make an
excursion into the neighbouring wood with him. The King, however, managed
to find it out, and Du Bouchage had great difficulty in keeping his head
on his shoulders.

One of the best ways of pleasing Louis XI. was to offer him some present
relating to his favourite pastime, either pointers, hounds, falcons, or
varlets who were adepts in the art of venery or hawking (Figs. 139 and
140). When the cunning monarch became old and infirm, in order to make his
enemies believe that he was still young and vigorous, he sent messengers
everywhere, even to the most remote countries, to purchase horses, dogs,
and falcons, for which, according to Comines, he paid large sums (Fig.
141).

On his death, the young prince, Charles VIII., succeeded him, and he seems
to have had an innate taste for hunting, and soon made up for lost time
and the privation to which his father had subjected him. He hunted daily,
and generously allowed the nobles to do the same. It is scarcely necessary
to say that these were not slow in indulging in the privilege thus
restored to them, and which was one of their most ancient pastimes and
occupations; for it must be remembered that, in those days of small
intellectual culture, hunting must have been a great, if not at times the
only, resource against idleness and the monotony of country life.

Everything which related to sport again became the fashion amongst the
youth of the nobility, and their chief occupation when not engaged in war.
They continued as formerly to invent every sort of sporting device. For
example, they obtained from other countries traps, engines, and
hunting