"Non, mais j'ai le soulier du boucher," etc.
After what seemed an eternity, the wagon of the doctor appeared, so did the schimmel. The wagon of the doctor, usually dragged by two animals, had a pole in the middle, to which the schimmel was attached, giving him a very sidelong gait. The question now was, who was to drive the schimmel attached to the pole?
The young man who milked the cows, killed the pigs, dressed the Count, picked the fruit, drove the Countess, waited at table, served everybody, did everything, and smelled awfully of the stables—could he be spared?
Well, he was spared, and off we started majestically, but sideways, waving a courtly adieu. We reached home in a drenching rain, wondering what on earth ever possessed us to want to go to visit the noble B——s. I don't think I ever want to see that establishment again, and I don't think I ever shall.
FÜRSTENBERG, December.
DEAR M.,—The Duke of Nassau had promised to come here to shoot wild boars, for which this forest is celebrated. Count Westphal sent invitations far and wide to call his hunting friends together. Before the arrival of the Duke, carriage after carriage entered the courtyard; oceans of fur-coats, gun-cases, valises, bags, and fur-lined rugs were thrown about in the hall, to be sorted out afterward. Then the Duke drove up in a sleigh with four horses, his aide-de-camp, two postilions, and a friend, both of them so wrapped up in pelisses and immense fur-caps that you could only see the tips of their red noses, like danger signals on railroads. No wonder! They had had three hours of this cold sleigh-ride!
The quiet old schloss was transformed. Each guest had his own servant and chasseur. The servants helped to wait at dinner. The chasseurs cleaned the guns, lounged about smoking their pipes, and looking most picturesque in their Tyrolean hats, with their leather gaiters, short green jackets, and leather belts, in which they carried their hunting- knives and cartridges.
His Highness (who is very short and what one calls thick-set) was accompanied by a secretary, a chasseur, a valet, two postilions, two grooms, and four horses. He had six guns, six trunks, and endless coats of different warmth. In the twinkling of an eye cigar-cases, pipes, photographs, writing-paper (of his own monogram), and masses of etceteras were spread about in his salon, as if he could not even look in his mirror without having these familiar objects before his eyes.
At twelve o'clock, high—very high—lunch was served. The servants brought in the eatables in monstrous quantities, and disappeared; the guests helped themselves and one another, and when without occupation fed the fire, where logs smoldered all day.
At a reasonable hour, after cigars and cigarettes had been smoked, the sleighs were ordered to be in readiness in the courtyard. Thirty or forty treibers (beaters) had been out since early morn. The Count has fourteen thousand acres to be beaten, therefore an early start was necessary.