His brother, the effeminate Henry III., disliked hunting, as he considered it too fatiguing and too dangerous.

On the other hand, according to Sully, Henry IV., le Bearnais, who learned hunting in early youth in the Pyrenees, “loved all kinds of sport, and, above all, the most fatiguing and adventurous pursuits, such as those after wolves, bears, and boars.”  He never missed a chance of hunting, “even when in face of an enemy.  If he knew a stag to be near, he found time to hunt it,” and we find in the “Memoirs of Sully " that the King hunted the day after the famous battle of Ivry.

One day, when he was only King of Navarre, he invited the ladies of Pau to come and see a bear-hunt.  Happily they refused, for on that occasion their nerves would have been put to a serious test.  Two bears killed two of the horses, and several bowmen were hugged to death by the ferocious animals.  Another bear, although pierced in several places, and having six or seven pike-heads in his body, charged eight men who were stationed on the top of a rock, and the whole of them with the bear were all dashed to pieces down the precipice.  The only point in which Louis XIII. resembled his father was his love of the chase, for during his reign hunting continued in France, as well as in other countries, to be a favourite royal pastime.

We have remarked that St. Germain d’Auxerre, who at a certain period was the patron of sportsmen, made hunting his habitual relaxation.  He devoted himself to it with great keenness in his youth, before he became bishop, that is, when he was Duke of Auxerre and general of the troops of the provinces.  Subsequently, when against his will he was raised to the episcopal dignity, not only did he give up all pleasures, but he devoted himself to the strictest religious life.  Unfortunately, in those days, all church-men did not understand, as he did, that the duties of their holy vocation were not consistent with these pastimes, for, in the year 507, we find that councils and synods forbade priests to hunt.  In spite of this, however, the ancient historians relate that several noble prelates, yielding to the customs of the times, indulged in hunting the stag and flying the falcon.

[Illustration:  Fig. 142.—­Hunting with the Leopard, from a Stamp of Jean Stradan (Sixteenth Century).]

It is related in history that some of the most illustrious popes were also great lovers of the chase, namely, Julius II, Leo X., and, previously to them, Pius II, who, before becoming Pope, amongst other literary and scientific works, wrote a Latin treatise on venery under his Christian names, AEneas Silvius.  It is easy to understand how it happened that sports formerly possessed such attractions for ecclesiastical dignitaries.  In early life they acquired the tastes and habits of people of their rank, and they were accordingly extremely jealous of the rights of chase in their domains.  Although Pope Clement