n worn to fit the animal, and fastened
with brand-new girths that might be expected to stretch and slacken by
the way, even a very careless traveller should have seen disaster
brewing. That elaborate system of knots, again, was the work of too many
sympathizers to be very artfully designed. It is true they tightened the
cords with a will; as many as three at a time would have a foot against
Modestine's quarters, and be hauling with clenched teeth; but I learned
afterwards that one thoughtful person, without any exercise of force,
can make a more solid job than half a dozen heated and enthusiastic
grooms. I was then but a novice; even after the misadventure of the pad
nothing could disturb my security, and I went forth from the stable-door
as an ox goeth to the slaughter.

THE GREEN DONKEY-DRIVER

The bell of Monastier was just striking nine as I got quit of these
preliminary troubles and descended the hill through the common. As long
as I was within sight of the windows, a secret shame and the fear of
some laughable defeat withheld me from tampering with Modestine. She
tripped along upon her four small hoofs with a sober daintiness of gait;
from time to time she shook her ears or her tail; and she looked so
small under the bundle that my mind misgave me. We got across the ford
without difficulty--there was no doubt about the matter, she was
docility itself--and once on the other bank, where the road begins to
mount through pine woods, I took in my right hand the unhallowed staff,
and with a quaking spirit applied it to the donkey. Modestine brisked up
her pace for perhaps three steps, and then relapsed into her former
minuet. Another application had the same effect, and so with the third.
I am worthy the name of an Englishman, and it goes against my conscience
to lay my hand rudely on a female. I desisted, and looked her all over
from head to foot; the poor brute's knees were trembling and her
breathing was distressed; it was plain that she could go no faster on a
hill. God forbid, thought I, that I should brutalize this innocent
creature; let her go at her own pace, and let me patiently follow.

What that pace was there is no word mean enough to describe; it was
something as much slower than a walk as a walk is slower than a run; it
kept me hanging on each foot for an incredible length of time; in five
minutes it exhausted the spirit and set up a fever in all the muscles of
the leg. And yet I had to keep clos