It is extensive, umbrageous, and the poor
captives within its borders have enough air and space around their
eyes to give them a semblance of liberty. For the special feast-day
on which we visited it the place had been arranged with particular
adaptation to the character of the time. There were elephant-races and
rides upon the camels free to all ladies who would make the venture.
In addition to the zebras, gnus and Shetlands, there was that species
of race-horse which never wins and never spoils a course, being
of wood and constructed to go round in a tent, and never to arrive
anywhere or lose any prizes. The pelicans were in high excitement, for
all along their beautiful little river, where it winds through bowery
trees, a profusion of living fish had been emptied and confined here
and there by grated dams, so that the awkward birds had opportunity
to angle in perfect freedom and to their hearts' content. In the
more wooded part of the garden a mimic hunt had been arranged, and
sportsmen in correct suits of green, with curly brass horns and baying
hounds, coursed through the grounds, following a stag which, though
mangy and asthmatic, may yet have been a descendant of the fawn that
fed Genevieve of Brabant. We had re-entered one of the grand alleys,
and were receiving again the little tribute of encomiums which the
greater privacy of the groves had pretermitted--we were parading
happily along, conscious of nothing to be ashamed of, our
orange-blossoms glistening, our veil flying, our broadcloth and
wedding-favors gleaming--when we met another group, which, though more
furtively, bore that matrimonial character which distinguished our
own.
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