A BATCH OF CURIOUS MATCHES 



37 



ridden on the same day. It was the day on which 

 Lord Clyde marched from Buntara on Lucknow, be- 

 fore opening the siege operations. We were in the 

 saddle at seven a.m., and were fighting all day from 

 ten or eleven till dusk. My horses had very little 

 rest, carrying orders, &c., and at seven o'clock I re- 

 ceived an order to start as soon as I had dined, and 

 meet the siege-train under Sir Robert Walpole, and 

 conduct it to its ground. I accordingly started at 

 once. I rode my English horse, and I did not get 

 back from duty till about eleven a.m. the next day. 

 I had thus been nearly twentj^- eight hours in the 

 saddle, the last twelve or fourteen of which I rode 

 my English horse, and he stood the work well. Cer- 

 tainly I was tired enough myself, and I had the full 

 means of testing the relative powers of all the horses. 

 Neither the English horse nor the Australian showed 

 any want of stamina ; the only one that flinched was 

 the stud-bred. Still, all things considered, I should 

 prefer, for a long journey in that climate or in Egypt, 

 an Arab to any other horse ; his education suits him 

 more to undergo fatigue. His stomach is habituated 

 from infancy to scanty food and water, and his frame 

 to endure heat and rough usage; above all, he is 

 sounder in the legs and feet. He is a good-tempered, 

 willing, and docile slave, and a rare agent with which 

 to traverse a distance in an open country, and, above 

 all, in his own climate in the months of May and 

 June, when the '' khamseen," or fifty days' hot wind, 



