The very decided disfavour in which physical exercises were held by women had its counterpart among the men, and very largely diminished their ardour for anything in the way of sport or athletics. Even at the court of Julius II. a young cardinal was mercilessly chaffed because, instead of showing his visitors his books, coins, or pictures, he hurried them off to a jumping-match in his garden! In France the taste for violent exploits utterly died out, at least in court circles. When ladies were by, there was much talk, in language borrowed from the romances, about the virtue of arms and the nobility of valour, and as they spoke the striplings brandished inoffensive swords. Tournaments were in favour as a show adapted to captivate ladies’ eyes, and purely decorative—barring accidents! Some in silver habits, others in red, green, and blue, the combatants would make a few passes, and when they had done, the victor, followed by his pages, galloped all round the fine-sanded lists, to receive his meed of applause. After all, the ladies had little appreciation for this relic of barbarism; they did not see the philosophic necessity of equipping oneself with lance and steed to run the _grand prix_ of life; in their view that prize was called “repose and sovereign joy”; and that is not won at a gallop. The question of the chase gave rise to somewhat various opinions. Hunting, like war, gave man pleasure; to him it was a noble and sacred occupation, since its end was the shedding of blood,—a point in which it displeased the platonists. But, on the other hand, man is a born fighter, and he should only be encouraged to work off his combativeness against animals created precisely to be slaughtered by him. There is nothing criminal in the trade of butcher, and it is far better to kill an ox than a man, a boar than an ox. The chase was thus a valuable expedient. But in an age of such exquisite refinement, when the infinite sweetness of the Beautiful came at length to penetrate men to the very marrow, people became more fastidious, and asked themselves if any brilliant idea could be derived from the chase, or if it was not a sufficient concession to the animal spirits to ramble about casually, to take the air without excuses, and to go out riding under the eyes of the ladies, even though too manifestly like a groom exercising his cob. Perhaps that would have been better. But the chase was popular at Rome.