he tossed his mane and whinnied with impatience. Never
have I seen such a mixture of strength and beauty and grace. I had
often wondered how the English Hussars had managed to ride over the
Chasseurs of the Guards in the affair at Astorga, but I wondered no
longer when I saw the English horses.

There was a ring for fastening bridles at the door of the inn, and the
groom tied the horse there while he entered the house. In an instant I
had seen the chance which Fate had brought to me. Were I in that saddle
I should be better off than when I started. Even Voltigeur could not
compare with this magnificent creature. To think is to act with me.
In one instant I was down the ladder and at the door of the stable.
The next I was out and the bridle was in my hand. I bounded into the
saddle. Somebody, the master or the man, shouted wildly behind me.
What cared I for his shouts! I touched the horse with my spurs, and he
bounded forward with such a spring that only a rider like myself could
have sat him. I gave him his head and let him go--it did not matter to
me where, so long as we left this inn far behind us. He thundered away
across the vineyards, and in a very few minutes I had placed miles
between myself and my pursuers. They could no longer tell, in that wild
country, in which direction I had gone. I knew that I was safe, and so,
riding to the top of a small hill, I drew my pencil and note-book from
my pocket and proceeded to make plans of those camps which I could see,
and to draw the outline of the country.

He was a dear creature upon whom I sat, but it was not easy to draw upon
his back, for every now and then his two ears would cock, and he would
start and quiver with impatience. At first I could not understand this
trick of his, but soon I observed that he only did it when a peculiar
noise--"yoy, yoy, yoy"--came from somewhere among the oak woods beneath
us. And then suddenly this strange cry changed into a most terrible
screaming, with the frantic blowing of a horn. Instantly he went mad--
this horse. His eyes blazed. His mane bristled. He bounded from the
earth and bounded again, twisting and turning in a frenzy. My pencil
flew one way and my notebook another. And then, as I looked down into
the valley, an extraordinary sight met my eyes. The hunt was streaming
down it. The fox I could not see, but the dogs were in full cry, their
noses down, their tails up, so close together that they might ha