day were quite a new experience for me. I had never seen anything like
it. The shooters were placed in a semicircle, not very far apart. Each
man was provided with a high double ladder. The men stood on the top
(the women seated themselves on the rungs of the ladders and hung on
as well as they could). I went the first time with W., and he made me
so many recommendations that I was quite nervous. I mustn't sit too
high up or I would gêner him, as he was obliged to shoot down for the
rabbits; and I mustn't sit too near the ground, or I might get a shot
in the ankles from one of the other men. I can't say it was an
absolute pleasure. The seat (if seat it could be called) was anything
but comfortable, and the detonation of the gun just over my head was
decidedly trying; still it was a novelty, and if the other women could
stand it I could.

For the second battue I went with Comte de B. That was rather worse,
for he shot much oftener than W., and I was quite distracted with the
noise of the gun. We were nearer the other shooters, too, and I
fancied their aim was very near my ankles. It was a pretty view from
the top of the ladder. I climbed up when the battues were over. We
looked over the park and through the trees, quite bare and stripped of
their leaves, on the great plains, with hardly a break of wood or
hills, stretching away to the horizon. The ground was thickly carpeted
with red and yellow leaves, little columns of smoke rising at
intervals where people were burning weeds or rotten wood in the
fields; and just enough purple mist to poetize everything. B. is a
very careful shot. I was with him the first day at a rabbit battue
where we were placed rather near each other, and every man was asked
to keep quite to his own place and to shoot straight before him. After
one or two shots B. stepped back and gave his gun to his servant. I
asked what was the matter. He showed me the man next, evidently not