kindly compatriot, written while defeat was fresh in my
mind. Thus the epistle runs:

* * * * *

"DEAR CAMPBELL,

"My first essay on my eight hundred francs' worth of horse-power
was a sight to see.

"_Imprimis_, the stirrup-leathers were long enough for you.

"_En suite_, I gave the dear gelding his head because he took it,
and he incontinently faced a post of the French army at the Porte
d'Espagne. The sentry came to the charge and cried, _On ne passe
pas ici._ The blood-horse went at him, the sentry funked, and then,
as if satisfied with his demonstration, the blood-horse--the bit
always in his mouth--made a _demi-tour_, and faced a post of
douaniers. This also was sacred ground, it appears, but the
douaniers let the blood-horse pass, not even making the feint to
prod his inside for contraband. The scene now changes to the Place
de la Comedie (there's something in a name), where by virtue of
vigorous tugging at curb and snaffle I just succeeded in keeping my
gallant gelding off the cobble-stones. He went a burster over the
bridge by a short turn down a street and to the door of his stable,
and there he positively stopped, and I swear I felt his sides
shaking with laughter. I called the groom; said I thought it would
rain; besides, I did not know the road. On the whole, I had
reconsidered the matter, and would go to St. Jean de Luz by train.
The groom was awfully polite, pretended to believe me, and provided
a man to take forward my eight--oh, hang it! we shan't think of the
price.

"Humiliation! you will say. Yes, sir, and I feel it; but that horse
will feel it too. When I get him somewhere that none can see, and
where sentries, douaniers, and stables of refuge don't abound, I
shall ask him to try how long he can keep up a gallop; but, by the
body of the Claimant, I shall have sixteen stone on his back.

"Yours with knees unwearied and soul unsubdued."

* * * * *

At St. Jean de Luz I learned at the principal hotel that the English
milord was Captain Frederick Burnaby of "the Queen of England's Blue
Guards." He was supposed to have some secret official mission to Don
Carlos, to whose headquarters he had directed his steps, and I at once
took measures to follow in his tracks.

THE END.

* * * * *

BILLING & SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD.

_BY THE AUTHOR OF "ROMANTIC SPAIN."_

AN IRON-BOUND CITY; or