"I was well versed in the anatomy of the horse. Loving horses from my
very childhood, there was little in veterinary practice with which I
was not familiar. Instinctively, as soon as the symptoms had developed
themselves, and I saw under what frightful disorder Gulnare was
laboring, I put my hand into my pocket for my knife, in order to open
a vein. _There was no knife there_. Friends, I have met with many
surprises. More than once in battle and scout have I been nigh death;
but never did my blood desert my veins and settle so' around my heart,
never did such a sickening sensation possess me, as when standing in
that car with my beautiful mare before me marked with those horrible
symptoms, I made that discovery. My knife, my sword, my pistols even,
were with my suit in the care of my friend, two hundred miles away.
Hastily, and with trembling fingers, I searched my clothes, the
lunch-basket, my linen; not even a pin could I find. I shoved open
the sliding door, and swung my hat and shouted, hoping to attract some
brakeman's attention. The train was thundering along at full speed, and
none saw or heard me. I knew her stupor would not last long. A slight
quivering of the lip, an occasional spasm running through the frame,
told me too plainly that the stage of frenzy would soon begin. 'My God,'
I exclaimed in despair, as I shut the door and turned toward her, 'must
I see you die, Gulnare, when the opening of a vein would save you? Have
you borne me, my pet, through all these years of peril, the icy chill of
winter, the heat and torment of summer, and all the thronging dangers
of a hundred bloody battles, only to die torn by fierce agonies, when so
near a peaceful home?'

"But little time was given me to mourn. My life was soon to be in peril,
and I must summon up the utmost power of eye and limb to escape the
violence of my frenzied mare. Did you ever see a mad horse when his
madness is on him? Take your stand with me in that car, and you shall
see what suffering a dumb creature can endure before it dies. In no
malady does a horse suffer more than in phrenitis, or inflammation of
the brain. Possibly in severe cases of colic, probably in rabies in its
fiercest form, the pain is equally intense. These three are the most
agonizing of all the diseases to which the noblest of animals is
exposed. Had my pistols been with me, I should then and there, with
whatever strength Heaven granted, have taken my companion's life, that
she