Hence it is that "his estates become the refuge of all the scoundrels in the canton." The effect of his indifference is terrible and it is to react against him: to-morrow, at the club, the attorneys whom he has multiplied will demand his head, and the bandits whom he has tolerated will place it on the end of a pike.
One-point remains, the chase, wherein the noble's jurisdiction is still active and severe, and it is just the point which is found the most offensive.

Formerly, when one-half of the canton consisted of forest, or waste land, while the other half was being ravaged by wild beasts, he was justified in reserving the right to hunt them; it entered into his function as local captain.

He was the hereditary gendarme, always armed, always on horseback, as well against wild boars and wolves as against rovers and brigands.

Now that nothing is left to him of the gendarme but the title and the epaulettes he maintains his privilege through tradition, thus converting a service into an annoyance.

Hunt he must, and he alone must hunt; it is a physical necessity and, it the same time, a sign of his blood.