220 ADVENTURES IN THE WILDERNESS. 



I patted her neck, and spoke loving and clieerfii! 

 words to her. I called her my beauty, my pride, 

 my pet. And did she not understand me ? Every 

 word ! Else why that listening ear turned back 

 to catch my softest whisper ? why the responsive 

 quiver through the frame, and the low, happy 

 neigh ? " Well," I exclaimed, as I leaped from her 

 back at the close of the review, — alas ! that words 

 spoken in lightest mood should portend so much ! 

 — ' well, Gulnare, if you should die, your life has 

 had its triumph. The nation itself, through its ad- 

 miring capital, has paid tribute to your beauty, and 

 death can never rob you of your fame.' And I 

 patted her moist neck and foam-flecked shoulders, 

 while the grooms were busy with head and loins. 



" That night our brigade made its bivouac just 

 over Long Bridge, abnost on the identical spot 

 where, four years -before, I had camped my compa- 

 ny of three months' volunteers. AVith what ex- 

 periences of marcli and battle were those four 

 years filled ! For three of these years Gulnare had 

 been my constant companion. With me she had 

 shared my tent, and not rarely my rations, for in 

 appetite she was truly human, and my steward 

 always counted her as one of our ' mess.' Twice 

 had she been wounded, — once at Fredericksburg, 

 through the thigh ; and once at Cold Harbor, where 

 a piece of shell tore away a part of her scalp. So 

 completely did it stun her, that for some moments 



