Britomarte. 125 



the shapely and untamed Britomarte was led into the ring 

 round which the ladies and gentlemen of the party sat or 

 stood in eager expectation of what was going to be done. I 

 put the long reins on the mare, and tried to move her from 

 side to side by these means ; but she played the role of a 

 cataleptic who was dead to all external impressions. I kept 

 trying to 'bend' her through the heat of that Indian day, 

 still at the end of the two reins, though breakfast had been 

 announced and eaten and lunch was waiting on the table, 

 until I felt mad and fit to cut up and eat the sulky fiend who 

 stood in front of me refusing to move. The hum of expectant 

 conversation had ceased ; the ladies looked woefully bored ; 

 the men mixed sodas and whiskies and smoked their cheroots 

 as if they were performing a solemn, religious duty ; while I 

 kept getting more and more furious, though I dared not 

 betray my rage ; for I knew that an angry jerk at the reins 

 or a cut of the whip would bring back into the mare all the old 

 ' devil/ which was fast leaving her. At last, she took two or 

 three steps to the left ; one or two to the right ; then I managed 

 to induce her to circle to the left ; and a little later to the right. 

 Having done this, I soon got her to circle, turn, and move off, 

 by merely feeling the reins or raising my hand as a signal for 

 her to go on. I, then, put a saddle on her, and got her soon 

 as quiet as an old gentleman's hack. Her driving instruction 

 occupied only a comparatively short time, after which time 

 she went ' kindly ' for the first time in her life, after having 

 been in my hands for seven hours. ' What a terribly long 

 business ' I imagine I hear my readers saying. Seven hours, 

 I may well plead, are not a long time to do a task which 

 experienced horsemen failed to accomplish in a couple of 

 years. As Britomarte had been the victress in many battles, 

 it required an unusual amount of patience and tact to make 

 her take the all-important first step. ' Was that one lesson 

 enough to cure her of her vices for the remainder of her life ? ' 

 probably asks a reader who has not carefully studied my 

 remarks on horsebreaking. Having heard and answered 



