A RIDE WITH A MAD HORSE IN A CAR. 211 



him to frenzy or blinding him with fear ; but 

 touches, soft and gentle as a woman's, caressing 

 w^ords, and oats given from the open palm, and 

 unfailing kindness, were the means I used to ' sub- 

 jugate' him. Sweet subjugation, both to him 

 who subdues and to him who yields ! The wild, 

 unmannerly, and unmanageable colt, the fear of 

 horsemen the country round, finding in you, not 

 an enemy but a friend, receiving his daily food 

 from you, and all those little ' nothings ' wdiich go 

 as far with a horse as a woman, to win and retain 

 affection, grows to look upon you as his protector 

 and friend, and testifies in countless w\ays his fond- 

 ness for you. So when I saw this horse, with 

 action so free and motion so graceful, amid that 

 storm of bullets, my heart involuntarily went out 

 to her, and my feelings rose higher and higher at 

 every leap she took from amid the wdiirlwind of 

 fire and lead. And as she plunged at last over 

 a little hillock out of range and came careering 

 toward me as only a riderless horse might come, 

 her head flung wildly from side to side, lier nostrils 

 widely spread, her flank and shoulders flecked with 

 foam, her eye dilating, I forgot my wound and all 

 the wild roar of battle, and, lifting myself invol- 

 untarily to a sitting posture as she swept grandly 

 by, gave her a ringing cheer. 



" Perhaps in the sound of a human voice of 

 happy mood amid tlie awful din she recognized a 



