THE PEECHERON HOESE. 19 



which were found a horse, a stag, a boar, some fish, a grape 

 vine, and other native products of the country ; but the 

 horse was indubitably of the Arab form, which goes to 

 prove, either that at that remote period there were 

 Arabians in the country, or that the native local race from 

 which the portrait was taken resembled the Arabian. 



These historical data, these inductions, incomplete as 

 they may be, lead to the belief that for antiquity the 

 Percheron yields to no other of our French races, and that 

 'the soil which has nourished and preserved it, must be 

 one of the best in France for horse breeding. 



Under the feudal rule and inhabited by tenants ever at 

 war, Perche must always have been an equestrian country, 

 and the horse must have been there in every age the 

 companion of man. He must have been really a first 

 class necessity. In those times of continued war and 

 hostile surprises, what property was more movable and so 

 easily taken to a place of safety ? How glorious the pos- 

 session of such noble coursers, and like the Rotrous, to 

 own more than could be counted, as was proudly shown 

 by the heraldic chevrons upon their broad banners, dis- 

 played from the towers of Mortagne and Nogent ! 



But had the Percheron then, as a race, the character- 

 istics it now possesses ? This is not probable ; it must have 

 been lighter, but still possessing within itself the charac- 

 ter which it now presents. The essential point is to prove 

 that there was, at that period, a native race ; and if the ex- 

 traordinary life formerly led there if the aspect of the 

 country, which must have been always fertile if the 

 historical inductions do not prove it the universal tradi- 

 tion of the whole country should not leave us in any 

 doubt in respect to the fact. 



Let us, then, take no account of the silence of historians. 

 This silence is no proof of the non-existence of the Per- 

 cheron. Most of these writers were gentlemen of the 



