tion the prince graciously presented his hand, expecting she would kiss it according to custom, instead of which she popped another hand, as white as snow into his, and raised it to the height of his lips. Mischief on the woman!-the lord kissed her hand, and led her into the saloon. Condé thus sanctioned the revolution in spite of himself-this was a serious affair; but he said mentally, Twenty-six years have changed every thing here, and vassalesses above all !'

"The rest of the company followed the prince and his partner into the château; not with the boorish demeanour of manumised serfs, but with the quiet dignity that bespeaks a consciousness of respectable rank in the world. There was as deep a silence as at church, in a full congregation, before service commences. The voice of the prince was alone heard, and he at last moderated it, for in Germany he had learned to speak somewhat loud,

"You, monsieur,' said he, addressing the oldest of the crowd, 'you remember me, but my memory will not let me call you by name.'

6

"The name was mentioned. The former groom of my brood mares?' replied the prince - Am not I right?' 'Yes, monseigneur-your former groom-since an officer, and wounded at Lodi. See the scar on my forehead and this cross-since my left arm was lost in the battles of France, and I have become a farmer at Chantilly.'

you, mon

"The prince inclined his head and passed to another. And sieur-your name, Right-your father was a woodcutter in my forest of Mortefontaine-he was a great poacher; God forgive him!'

"My lord, those woods now belong to me—and I can offer to your highness the liberty of killing in them as many hares as were poached by my father.'

It

"Those woods belong to you?'-the prince was visibly agitated. was in the forest of Mortefontaine that the marshal's baton of the Great Condé had been cut-he had dropped this baton in the lines at Fribourg, and it had been restored to him after the victory.

"Thanks for your offer, my friend, but I never hunt on any person's ground but my own,' rejoined the prince.

"And you,' said he, to a third, you bear a strong resemblance to JeanPierre. Are you related to Jean-Pierre, to whom I let my quarries of Creil ?'

66

My lord, I am his grandson; my father bought the quarries of the corporation of Creil, and I inherited them of my father. At this time I have formed a manufactory from the stones and chalk of the quarries that sustains half the poor in the country.'

"After a moment's emotion the prince replied. You have done well-I recognise you as the true lord of the soil-you have worthily replaced us.'

"It was with a prouder step and less bitterness of tone, that the descendant of the Great Condé continued his interrogatory.

"And you, I should know your face?'

"Yes, your highness, and I well remember the magnificent fêtes that have been held here in your young time-for I was one of your huntsmen prickers.'

"You shall be my head huntsman, my friend.'

"My lord, it is impossible.'

"How is that?'

"Yes, my lord, I was condemned to be hanged by your council of the chase for having killed a kid on the day of St. Hubert.'

"Pooh! you know that was only a form, I should have given you pardon.'

"My lord, I obtained it without troubling you!'

""Of whom?'

"Of myself. I am president of the district, and I have come with my neighbours in the name of the corporation of Creil to offer you their compliments for your happy return.'

"I accept with gratitude the good will of the community-by the voice of my hunts- I mean to say their president. Diable! Monsieur! how six-and-twenty years of absence have changed affairs!"

"Another, anticipating the address of the prince, advanced and said, presenting some papers,

"My lord, I had taken possession of one of your properties on the side of Coye. I have no title to plead, from republic or municipality, for I waited to obtain one till I could remunerate you, the rightful owner.' "The tears sprang to the eyes of Condé- Monsieur, your unexampled honesty-what reward can I offer to it?'

666

Nothing, my prince, but your sanction for my purchase on the terms I am about to explain. This property has been of little intrinsic value, from the most ancient times, until I and my eight children found the proper means of cultivating it. It now brings us in a clear income of 50,000 francs, which represents a capital of 500,000, and as I think it capable of still further improvement, I can afford to offer you that sum, in return for these title-deeds, which I hope you will restore when I have paid the purchase-money to your treasurer.'

666

Keep them, keep them, as my free gift, and God bless you and your eight children with them-for your honesty and humanity has repaid me for some of the sorrows of my past life.'

"It is wrong to say that the Bourbons have forgotten nothing. The Prince de Condé was so poor at the time that he refused this sum, that his valet had to borrow a cotton night-cap the night before for his highness' use, who had, perhaps, thought he should have found his nightcap where he left it, after twenty-six years of absence."

The sounds of a chiming bell broke in upon the narrative, and my old man observed:

"It is in that church, whose bell is now recalling me to my home, that repose the hearts of seven Condés. Under a pillar, whose base a child might cover with its hands-rests seven hearts, whose renown filled the wide world !"+

In 1793, the patriots of Chantilly, willing to imitate the patriots of Paris, who desecrated the vaults of St. Denis, tore these seven hearts

Louis XVIII. exercised the same generosity when Prince Alexandre Berthier presented him with the title deeds of the domain of Grosbirs. The king kept them twenty-four hours, and then returned them signed and sealed by his own hand.

It was on this circumstance that Miss Agnes Strickland founded an original poem, published in the "Keepsake" of 1835, called "The Seven Hearts of Condé."

from their silver boxes. The silver boxes they took into their own keeping, very patriotically, but they threw the seven hearts away, under the wall of a garden that was contiguous to the church, where they remained without wasting or decay for upwards of two years. One Sieur Petit having found them, took care of them privately till the restoration in 1815, when they were restored to the Prince de Condé, who had them re-inclosed in silver, and buried anew beneath the slender pillar, their former resting-place.

Evening began to close as my centigenarian told me this anecdote of the Seven Hearts of the great Condés, and the air of the forest became too chill for one of his great age.

"It is, perhaps, my last sunset," said he to me as he gave an earnest look at the sinking sun, and turned his steps homewards-" yet it is beautiful, as beautiful as that which I saw shine on the numberless windows of the château that memorable evening, when the Count du Nord, under which name the heir of all the Russias, afterwards Paul I., came to visit us."

"Yet another history?" said I.

"Consider, if you do not relate it to

me from memory, some of it may be lost; tell it me, and then I will ask no more of you but your blessing."

The centigenarian lent on my arm, and continued.

After

"The Count du Nord visited the King of France at Paris. At court they spoke of Chantilly; he would see it. The Prince de Condé was willing to receive him with all the munificence of his ancestors. the usual routine of walking, dining, and playing, had brought its accustomed ennui, the prince proposed to the Count du Nord at ten o'clock one night a hunting party in the forest. The serious tone in which this proposal was made, astonished Paul, who could not imagine what species of hunting could be carried on at that time of night: however, he accepted the invitation with the same gravity with which it was given.

"On a signal given by the prince, the horses, all saddled and bridled, were conducted into the court, where the dogs, gentlemen, valets, and huntsmen, were all ready, some in the saddle, some on foot, according to their offices. The horns sounded, the princes of the house of Condé and his imperial highness, with some ladies, mounted to pursue this extraordinary chase.

"The night was beautiful, a profound calm brooded over the magnificent woods of La Sylvie, the turf threw up its faint perfume of the night, and the silent stars burnt in the dim purple of a summer midnight sky. I will not dwell on the natural astonishment of the horses and dogs, awakened from their sleep to obey the imperious voice of the chase, at an hour when all creatures repose, even the trees. They searched in vain for their sun and dew, and for those volumes of lively air which return with the sharp sound of crystal, the bayings, the neighings, and the fanfarade of the passing hunt. Subdued, as all animals are in the night, the horses galloped without spirit, and the dogs with depressed ears and searching muzzles, knew not where to find their scent, on the earth full of exhalations, among which they could find no trace of game. The game was all asleep, the boar in his reedy lair, the stag was immoveable, the birds were motionless under a calm and silent sky. The great soul of the forest, with all its agitations and intelligences, was in a state of deep repose.

"As soon as our hunt had passed the grille of the château, they took what is called at Chantilly the grand route of the Constable; the party amounted to two hundred, masters and servants. At the first sound of the horn after the royal party was clear of the grille, a bright torch was seen to appear in the wood, then two, three, twenty lights. They had not proceeded forty paces when forty or fifty brilliant lines of light extended themselves on every side; to the right and left sprang up new lines of fire; glade after glade was illuminated; the birds woke, beat their wings, and sung; the stags stirred in the thicket; the boars grunted in their lairs; the dogs found their voices and roused their game; the stags recognised their enemy, man-and the horses followed in gallant style.

"It was a magnificent surprise for the Russian Prince. This forest that contains nearly eight thousand acres was illuminated in every corner, as brilliantly as a palace on a night of national rejoicing; this was effected by the means of the vassals of the house of Condé. At every ten paces stood a peasant dressed in the livery of the house, like an immoveable chandelier, holding a lighted resinous torch. The great opening in the midst of the forest, called the Carrefour de la Table, is the centre of twelve roads, each of which is three leagues in extent, every ten paces of which was illuminated by these living chandeliers, and so was every alley and pathway in the forest; thus may be calculated the vast population of vassals attached to the house of Condé. It was impossible to impress the imperial stranger in a more striking manner, of the feudal riches of that branch of the royal line.

"Paul turned to one of the princes of the family, and said, with a grace that seldom appertained to him: The King of France welcomed me as a friend, but Condé has received me like a king.'

*

"The stag took his course to the ponds in the middle of the forest— these are magnificent pieces of water, among which stands the castle of Queen Blanche, a beautiful miniature, but of genuine gothic construction: the revolution destroyed all but two towers, and the utilitarians of those times perched a windmill on them. The miller's dog bayed from the gothic loopholes, and sacks of meal were piled in rooms where still hung the scutcheons of the Montmorencies and of the Boutellins, Counts of Senlis.

"But all this change was not then, and we must pursue the Emperor Paul's hunt. The poor stag, after swimming one of the ponds, was pulled down on the banks of another. It was a scene not to be forgotten: the princes leant from their saddles, the lake threw back the red light of the torches, which glared on the castle of Queen Blanche, on the ladies, cavaliers, huntsmen, horses, and dogs.

"Supper awaited the return of this midnight hunt. The guests were received under a vast tent that appeared to be formed of tapestry, wrought in designs of hunting pictures, and wooden stags supported the draperies. At the desert the Prince de Condé said to Paul, Where does Monseigneur le Comte du Nord suppose himself to be?' "In the Chateau of Chantilly,' replied his imperial highness, in its noblest apartment; and a vast one it is.'

The last of the Condés wished to restore this beautiful specimen of gothic architecture, and the mill was pulled down and the façade renewed. Under the present regime, the castle of Queen Blanche is as smart as a house in the Chaussée d'Antin; it has, moreover, a pert porter's lodge-the first revolution was more merciful to antiquity, it only destroyed-it did not whitewash!

"The draperies on both sides unclosed as he spoke, and the heir of the Russias, to his infinite amazement, discovered that he was in the centre of the stables of Chantilly. Three hundred horses, each tied to his stall, some feeding, some being curried, and some being sponged, each attended by his groom, finished the surprising perspective.

"It was an odd idea of Condé to entertain a future emperor in the stables of his palace; but no one is ignorant that the stables of Chantilly are one of the architectural wonders of France, where scarcely any building equals their grandeur of construction, whether it regards their great extent, or the solidity of their vaulted roofs.

"At the return of the Prince of Condé to his rightful inheritance, his friends, out of delicacy, hesitated to inform him of the complete devastation made by the black band at the revolution, on the furniture and decorations of the chateau.

"Have they spared the stables?' asked Condé.

666 Yes, my

lord.'

"Then I can forgive them the rest,' he rejoined.

"The torch-light hunt just described cost the Prince de Condé a million of francs. This greatly surpassed the fête given by the great Condé to Louis XIV., that celebrated fête, on the second day of which the prince's cook, M. Vatel, out of a delicate sense of honour, threw himself on his sword, because he doubted of the arrival of the sea fish, and he deemed that the absence of these viands would reflect on his cookish reputation.

"Madame de Sevigné values the entertainments given to Louis XIV. by his kinsman, at 40,000 crowns each day; they reckon, she says, 1000 crowns alone for the jonquils, so one may judge of the rest."

The princely hospitality of Condé to Paul was worthily repaid when the Bourbons, driven from one emigration to another, arrived at the northern bound of civilisation, and took refuge in Russia, and the Emperor Paul returned the welcome given to the Count du Nord. The palace of Tzerniches was decorated a la Française, and in imitation of the château of Chantilly, the servants were dressed in the prince's livery, and over the door was written in letters of gold, Hotel de Condé.

It was now night, we were at the gate of the Hospital of Chantilly and my centigenarian bade me adieu.

GREENWICH-WHITEBAIT.

BY MR. WAGSTAFF.

I WAS recently talking in a very touching and poetical strain about the above delicate fish to my friend Foozle and some others at the club, and expatiating upon the excellence of the dinner which our little friend Guttlebury had given us: when Foozle looking round about him with an air oftriumph and immense wisdom, said,

"I'll tell you what, Wagstaff, I'm a plain man, and despise all your gormandizing and kickshaws. I don't know the difference between one your absurd made dishes and another-give me a plain cut of mutton or beef. I'm a plain Englishman, I am, and no glutton."

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