262 THE FOREST AND THE FIELD. 



out-door exercise to recruit my strength before re- 

 turning to the Crimea. I occupied a good deal of 

 my time in examining horses, as I wanted to re- 

 place poor " Desert-Born ;" but I saw nothing at 

 all likely to suit me, for even the most common-place 

 looking animals fetched exorbitant prices. At 

 last, through the kindness of my friend Lieut.- 

 Colonel Magnan, of the Etat-Major of the JFrench 

 Army, who gave me a letter of introduction to an 

 officer of the remount, I was allowed to pick one 

 from out of a batch of Syrian horses intended for 

 a regiment of dismounted dragoons ; and went to 

 the Daud Pacha Barracks (two miles out of Stam- 

 boul), where the French cavalry were quartered, for 

 that purpose. I was turning away, not at all 

 satisfied with their appearance, as they were too 

 slight, and not of the requii'ed height for my pur- 

 pose, when I was accosted by an officer of 

 hussars, who offered to show me a magnificent 

 horse that no one would buy on account of in- 

 curable vice. He was a Saclaye Arab, bred near 

 Blida in Algeria, and bought by a colonel of 

 cavalry for three thousand francs in that country, 



