little morning hawking-party on the banks of the Beuvion, or
in the woods of Chiverny, Monsieur crossed the Loire, went
to breakfast at Chambord, with or without an appetite and
the city of Blois heard no more of its sovereign lord and
master till the next hawking-day.

So much for the ennui extra muros; of the ennui of the
interior we will give the reader an idea if he will with us
follow the cavalcade to the majestic porch of the castle of
the states.

Monsieur rode a little steady-paced horse, equipped with a
large saddle of red Flemish velvet, with stirrups in the
shape of buskins; the horse was of a bay color; Monsieur's
pourpoint of crimson velvet corresponded with the cloak of
the same shade and the horse's equipment, and it was only by
this red appearance of the whole that the prince could be
known from his two companions, the one dressed in violet,
the other in green. He on the left, in violet, was his
equerry; he on the right, in green, was the grand veneur.

One of the pages carried two gerfalcons upon a perch, the
other a hunting-horn, which he blew with a careless note at
twenty paces from the castle. Every one about this listless
prince did what he had to do listlessly.

At this signal, eight guards, who were lounging in the sun
in the square court, ran to their halberts, and Monsieur
made his solemn entry into the castle.