such sense they may have, they must have; or else why
should this mare so fearlessly attach herself to me? By what process of
reason or instinct I know not, but there she chose me for her mastery
for when some of my men at dusk came searching, and found me,
and, laying me on a stretcher, started toward our lines, the mare,
uncompelled, of her own free will, followed at my side; and all through
that stormy night of wind and rain, as my men struggled along through
the mud and mire toward Harrison's Landing, the mare followed, and ever
after, until she died, was with me, and was mine, and I, so far as man
might be, was hers. I named her Gulnare.

"As quickly as my wound permitted, I was transported to Washington,
whither I took the mare with me. Her fondness for me grew daily, and
soon became so marked as to cause universal comment. I had her boarded
while in Washington at the corner of ------ Street and ------ Avenue.
The groom had instructions to lead her around to the window against
which was my bed, at the hospital, twice every day, so that by opening
the sash I might reach out my hand and pet her. But the second day,
no sooner had she reached the street, than she broke suddenly from the
groom and dashed away at full speed. I was lying, bolstered up in bed,
reading, when I heard the rush of flying feet, and in an instant, with a
loud, joyful neigh, she checked herself in front of my window. And
when the nurse lifted the sash, the beautiful creature thrust her head
through the aperture, and rubbed her nose against my shoulder like a
dog. I am not ashamed to say that I put both my arms around her neck,
and, burying my face in her silken mane, kissed her again and again.
Wounded, weak, and away from home, with only strangers to wait upon me,
and scant service at that, the affection of this lovely creature for me,
so tender and touching, seemed almost human, and my heart went out to
her beyond any power of expression, as to the only being, of all the
thousands around me, who thought of me and loved me. Shortly after her
appearance at my window, the groom, who had divined where he should find
her, came into the yard. But she would not allow him to come near her,
much less touch her. If he tried to approach she would lash out at
him with her heels most spitefully, and then, laying back her ears and
opening her mouth savagely, would make a short dash at him, and, as the
terrified African disappeared around the corner of the ho