in imitation of that already possessed by the Chateau de
Fleury. It was a great rarity as a garden accessory, and was more than a
quarter of a league long and forty metres wide. Bassompierre said in his
memoirs that Henri IV made him a wager that it could be filled with
water in two days. It actually took eight.

To the north of the park, Henri IV built, under the name of La
Menagerie, what he called a _maison de plaisance_, but which was really
the forerunner of the animal house at Versailles.

To all these works of Henri IV in the gardens at Fontainebleau is
attached the name of Francine. There were two brothers of the name,
Thomas and Alexandre, and it was the latter who chiefly occupied himself
with the Parterre, the Chaussee and the Grand Canal at Fontainebleau. In
the Jardin de la Reine he erected the celebrated Fontaine de Diane which
finally gave its name to the garden itself. The fountain was designed by
Barthelemy Prieur, and was cast in 1603. The original bronzes are now in
the Louvre, those seen at Fontainebleau to-day being later works (1684).

The Forest of Fontainebleau is a dozen leagues in circumference, and of
an area of nearly thirty-five thousand acres. Its beauty, its natural
beauty, is unrivalled. Rocks, ravines, valleys, patriarchal oaks and
beeches, plains, woods, glades, meadows, lawns and cliffs, all are here.
Its population of stag and deer was practically exterminated during the
Revolution of 1830, but nevertheless it sustained its reputation as a
great hunting-ground for long afterwards.

The Royal Hunt invariably centered at La Croix du Grand Veneur, a
notable landmark of the forest even now, at the intersection of four
magnificent forest roads. Its name comes from a legend of a spectral
black huntsman who was supposed to haunt the forest, and who appeared
for the last time, in reality or imagination, to Henri IV shortly before
his assassination.

In 1854, one of the last and most gorgeous of Fontainebleau hunts was
given by Louis Napoleon. The emperor spent lavishly for the equipment of
the hunt, and granted liberal stipends to the attendants that they might
caparison themselves with some semblance of picturesque dignity; horses
and dogs were furnished and cared for on the same liberal scale.

The costuming of a hunting party under such conditions was not the least
appealing of its picturesque elements. Three-cornered hats, gold lace,
knee breeches, silk stockings and other costly pr