BAD MANAGEMENT 49 



the Grated Duke had desired him to inform me that he 

 was greatly pleased with the grey, who, so the Grand Duke 

 said, was getting every day handsomer and handsomer, which 

 really meant fatter and fatter. 



The fine grey weight-carrying hunting mare which I 

 had selected for the Duke Paul, and which I had bought for 

 a long price from Mr. Sam Hames, had bad luck from gross 

 mismanagement. On the morning after her arrival in the 

 stables of the Chevaliers Gardes, the veterinary surgeon of 

 that regiment wanting to be a bit zealous, especially as she 

 belonged to a Grand Duke, produced his clinical ther- 

 mometer, took her temperature, and conveyed her out of my 

 sight for ever. As far as I could see, there was nothing the 

 matter with the mare beyond her being slightly upset by the 

 sudden transition from the keen sea air of early winter to a 

 hot and badly ventilated loose box. Sorel tells me that as 

 soon as she had recovered from her supposed indisposition, 

 which she did in a few days, she was sent out of town to the 

 Grand Duke's stables. No provision having been made for 

 her clothing, she went out without a single rug on her, with 

 the temperature a long way below freezing-point. As a 

 mistake had been made about the time of the departure of 

 the train, the mare was kept standing outside the station for 

 some hours, with the natural result that she got inflammation 

 of the lungs and went wrong in her wind. Had I been 

 informed, as I ought to have been, of her intended move- 

 ment, I would of course have taken every necessary provi- 

 sion for her comfort and safety, and would have seen her 

 boxed in the train. 



I learned that several of the officers who saw my break- 

 ing before the Grand Duke at Krasnoe Selo, and possibly 

 the Grand Duke himself, did not look upon my work that 

 day as a proof that I was capable of tackling the wild horses 

 of the steppes. In this they were quite right, and I was 

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