e a bulldog, and furiously attacked people whom she
disliked, which decided M. Finguerlin to sell her. She was bought for
Mme. de Lauriston whose husband, one of the Emperor's aides-de-camp, had
written to her to get his campaigning outfit ready. When selling the
mare M. Finguerlin had forgotten to mention her fault, and that very
evening a groom was found disembowelled at her feet. Mme. de Lauriston,
reasonably alarmed, brought an action to cancel the bargain; not only
did she get her verdict, but, in order to prevent further disasters, the
police ordered that a written statement should be placed in Lisette's
stall to inform purchasers of her ferocity, and that any bargain with
regard to her should be void unless the purchaser declared in writing
that his attention had been called to the notice. You may suppose that
with such a character as this the mare was not easy to dispose of, and
thus Herr von Aister informed me that her owner had decided to let her
go for what anyone would give. I offered 1,000 francs, and M. Finguerlin
delivered Lisette to me, though she had cost him 5,000. This animal gave
me a good deal of trouble for some months. It took four or five men to
saddle her, and you could only bridle her by covering her eyes and
fastening all four legs; but once you were on her back, you found her a
really incomparable mount.

'However, since while in my possession she had already bitten several
people, and had not spared me, I was thinking of parting with her. But I
had meanwhile engaged in my service Francis Woirland, a man who was
afraid of nothing, and he, before going near Lisette, whose bad
character had been mentioned to him, armed himself with a good hot roast
leg of mutton. When the animal flew at him to bite him, he held out the
mutton; she seized it in her teeth, and burning her gums, palate, and
tongue, gave a scream, let the mutton drop, and from that moment was
perfectly submissive to Woirland, and did not venture to attack him
again. I employed the same method with a like result. Lisette became as
docile as a dog, and allowed me and my servant to approach her freely.
She even became a little more tractable towards the stablemen of the
staff, whom she saw every day, but woe to the strangers who passed near
her! I could quote twenty instances of her ferocity, but I will confine
myself to one. While Marshal Augereau was staying at the chateau of
Bellevue, near Berlin, the servants of the staff, having o