m, slipped the bit
into his mouth, buckled the throat-band, raised him to his feet,
backed him out, and leaped upon his back before he had time to get his
eyes right opened. But open them now he did, and that with a
vengeance; he pawed, and struck the walls with his fore-feet, till the
fire flashed from the stones; and then he reared till he fell right
back upon the pavement. I was prepared for this, and slipped off him
as he went down, and then leaped on him again as he rose. I had not as
yet touched him with whip, bridle, or spur; but now I gave him the
curb and the spurs at the same instant. He gave one mad bound, and
then went off at a rate that completely eclipsed the speed of the
fleetest horse I had ever ridden. He could not trot, but his gallop
was unapproachable, and consisted in a succession of leaps, performed
with a precision, velocity, and strength, absolutely bewildering.

He fairly overturned all my preconceived notions of a fast horse. On
he thundered, till we came under the shadow of a fir-wood, and then,
whether out of mischief or dread of the darkness, he halted
instantaneously, his fore-feet so close together that you might have
put them into a bucket. Owing to the depression of his shoulders--for
he had no more withers than an ass--the way that he jerked down his
head, and the suddenness of the stop, a monkey, although he had been
holding on with his teeth, must have been unseated. For me, I was
pitched a long way over his head, but alighted upon a spot so soft and
mossy, that it looked as if some kind hand had purposely prepared it
for me. Had I been in the slightest degree stunned, or unable to
regain my feet, that instant he would have torn me to pieces with his
teeth, and beaten my mangled body into the earth with his hoofs. But I
at once sprang to my feet, and faced him. I could have escaped by
leaping into the wood; but my blood was up, my brain clear, and my
heart gave not one extra pulsation. There he stood upon his hind-legs
nearly upright, beating the air with his fore-feet, his mouth open,
his upper lip curled, his under one drawn down, his large white teeth
glancing like ivory in the moonlight. As soon as he saw me upon my
feet, he gave a yell such as I had never heard from a horse before,
save once, and which I believe is never elicited from that animal,
except when under the domination of frantic rage or fear.

This unearthly cry roused every living thing within hearing. An army
of r