Even Republican France has its national hunt yearly, at Rambouillet, and visiting monarchs are invariably expected to partake in the shooting.
Rambouillet, the hameau and the forêt, was anciently under the feudal authority of the Comtes de Montford, afterward (1300) under Regnault d’Augennes, Capitaine du Louvre under Charles VI., and still later under Jacques d’Augennes, Capitaine du Château de Rambouillet in 1547. Louis XVI. purchased the château for one of his residences, and Napoleon III., as well as his more illustrious namesake, was specially fond of hunting in its forests.
Since 1870 the château and the forest have been under the domination of the state.
There is a chapter in Dumas’ “The Regent’s Daughter,” entitled “A Room in the Hotel at Rambouillet,” which gives some little detail respecting the town and the forest.
There is no hotel in Rambouillet to-day known as the “Royal Tiger,” though there is a “Golden Lion.”
“Ten minutes later the carriage stopped at the Tigre-Royal. A woman, who was waiting, came out hastily, and respectfully assisted the ladies to alight, and then guided them through the passages of the hotel, preceded by a valet carrying lights.
“A door opened, Madame Desroches drew back to allow Hélène and Sister Thêrèse to pass and they soon found themselves on a soft and easy sofa, in front of a bright fire.
“The room was large and well furnished, but the taste was severe, for the style called rococo was not yet introduced. There were four doors; the first was that by which they had entered—the second led to the dining-room, which was already lighted and warmed—the third led into a richly appointed bedroom—the fourth did not open....
“While the things which we have related were passing in the parlour of the Hôtel Tigre-Royal, in another apartment of the same hotel, seated near a large fire, was a man shaking the snow from his boots, and untying the strings of a large portfolio. This man was dressed in the hunting livery of the house of Orleans; the coat red and silver, large boots, and a three-cornered hat, trimmed with silver. He had a quick eye, a long, pointed nose, a round and open forehead, which was contradicted by thin and compressed lips.”