ce to my horse? If Jacques be an old cavalry-man, he will have
remarked that the beast is of great value, and doubtless argue to the
worth of the rider from the merits of his 'mount.' If this explanation
was not the most flattering, it was, at all events, the best I could hit
on; and with a natural reference to what was passing in my own mind, I
asked him if he had looked to my horse.

'Oh yes, sir,' said he, reddening suddenly, 'I have taken off the
saddle, and thrown him his corn.'

What the deuce does his confusion mean? thought I; the fellow looks as
if he had half a mind to run away, merely because I asked him a simple
question.

'I 've had a sharp ride,' said I, rather by way of saying something,
'and I shouldn't wonder if he was a little fatigued.'

'Scarcely so, sir,' said he, with a faint smile; 'he's old, now, but
it's not a little will tire him.'

'You know him, then?' said I quickly.

'Ay, sir, and have known him for eighteen years. He was in the second
squadron of our regiment; the major rode him two entire campaigns!'

The reader may guess that his history was interesting to me, from
perceiving the impression the reminiscence made on the relator, and I
inquired what became of him after that.

'He was wounded by a shot at Neuwied, and sold into the train, where
they couldn't manage him; and after three years, when horses grew
scarce, he came back into the cavalry. A serjeant-major of lancers was
killed on him at "Zwei Bruecken." That was the fourth rider he brought
mishap to, not to say a farrier whom he dashed to pieces in his stable.'

Ah, Jack, thought I, I have it; it is a piece of old-soldier
superstition about this mischievous horse has inspired all the man's
respect and reverence; and, if a little disappointed in the mystery, I
was so far pleased at having discovered the clue.

'But I have found him quiet enough,' said I; 'I never backed him till
yesterday, and he has carried me well and peaceably.'

'Ah, that he will now, I warrant him; since the day a shell burst under
him at Waitzen he never showed any vice. The wound nearly left the ribs
bare, and he was for months and months invalided; after that he was sold
out of the cavalry, I don't know where or to whom. The next I saw of him
was in his present service.'

'Then you are acquainted with the present owner?' asked I eagerly.

'As every Frenchman is!' was the curt rejoinder.

'_Parbleu!_ it will seem a droll confession, then, when