3-020-977 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"A Shooting-Party at Compiègne", from a picture by M. Janet Lange, 1865. Engraving of a photograph, by M. Richebourg, of a painting. 'The scene is laid in the "Faisanderie", and the artist has selected the moment when the Emperor is firing the opening shot. By far the greater number of the individuals...are actual portraits...At ten o'clock a flourish of trumpets announces the approach of the Imperial char-à-banc, from which in a few minutes the Emperor and his favourite dog Nero, who invariably accompanies his master on these expeditions, are seen to descend...Baron Luage, Lieutenant of the Imperial shooting-parties, now hands a loaded gun to the Emperor, which is the signal for the trumpets to sound again...The first shot, as a matter of course, belongs of courtesy to the Emperor, but no sooner has this been fired than report after report follows in quick succession...At these merciless battues...which...usually last for something like a couple of hours and a half - no less than 2000 head of game, including, of course, but not merely pheasants, but partridges, hares, rabbits, and even kids, for all is game that comes to the net on these occasions, have been brought down by eight expert guns'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.