he would
instantly wheel about and seize it, and then, whisking his tail and
shaking his long forelock, resume his course again. It was fine, too, to
mark the haughty indifference he manifested towards that whip-cracking
monster who stood in the centre, and affected to direct his motions. Not
alone did he reject his suggestions, but in a spirit of round defiance
did he canter up behind him, and alight with his forelegs on the
fellow's-shoulders. I am not sure whether the spectators regarded the
tableau as I did, but to _me_ it seemed an allegorical representation of
man and his master.

The hard breathing of a person close behind me now made me turn my head,
and I saw the jailer, who had come with my supper. A thought flashed
suddenly across me. "Go down to those mountebanks, and ask if they will
sell that cream-colored pony," said I. "Bargain as though you wanted
him for yourself; he is old and of little value, and you may, perhaps,
secure him for eighty or ninety florins; and if so, you shall have ten
more for your pains. It is a caprice of mine, nothing more, but help me
to gratify it."

He heard me with evident astonishment, and then gravely asked if I had
forgotten the circumstance that I was a prisoner, and likely to remain
so for some time.

"Do as I bade you," said I, "and leave the result to me. There, lose no
more time about it, for I see the performance is drawing to a close."

"Nay, nay," said he; "the best of all is yet to come. The pretty Moorish
girl has not yet appeared. Ha! here she is."

As he spoke, he crept up into the window beside me, not less eager for
the spectacle than myself. A vigorous cheer, and a loud clapping of
hands below announced that the favorite was in sight long before she was
visible to our eyes.

"What can she do?" asked I, peevishly, perhaps, for I was provoked how
completely she had eclipsed poor Blondel in public favor. "What can she
do? Is she a rope-dancer, or does she ride in the games of the ring?"

"There, there! Look at her; yonder she goes! and there's the young
Prince--they call him a Prince, at least--who follows her everywhere."

I could not but smile at the poor jailer's simplicity, and would
willingly have explained to him that we have outlived the age of
Cinderella. Indeed, I had half turned towards him with this object, when
a perfect roar of the crowd beneath me drew off my attention from him
to what was going on below. I soon saw what it was that entranc