MR. KIRBY AND THE FOREIGNERS. 75 



at his stables, to make him a jSSOO offer for Brough, 

 if he knew of any one who would buy that horse 

 and ten out of the eleven mares in one lot. " I 

 know a gentleman, or at least one who calls himself 

 a gentleman, that Count Koutightsoff, who'll take 

 them !" was the response, and to him Mr. Kirby 

 accordingly went. The Count asked him their names, 

 and ordered him to go home and bring a list with 

 the prices marked. As he somewhat suspected how 

 it would be, he returned with a list headed with 

 " Bay horse Brough, 500." " The mares are culled 

 ones, I conclude," said the Count, as he glanced at 

 the list ; and then, pointing to Brough' s price, he 

 added, " I'll give you that for the whole eleven, or 

 Til take them to-morrow for nothing; take your 

 twenty minutes to think of it :" and with this he left 

 the room. Punctual to a moment, he reappeared in 

 full uniform, and sardonically inquired of Mr. Kirby 

 if he liked his offer. " I should be cheating myself, 

 sire/' replied the representative of all the Tykes at 

 the Court of St. Petersburg ; ( ' I should not clear 

 my expenses if I took your price/' " And you're 

 trying to cheat me, you English rascal ; I'll pinch 

 your ear for it" was the fierce rejoinder. Remon- 

 strance was a dangerous game ; so Mr. Kirby sor- 

 rowfully led the eleven, as he was directed, to the 

 Emperor's stables, and received Brough's price for 

 the lot on delivery. One mare, sister to Hambleto- 

 nian, had not been included in the lot ; and on the 

 very morning that the news of the Emperor Paul's 

 death brought smiles into every face except Kou- 

 tightsoff's (who went flying across the Neva, not on 

 Brough, but on foot, in a grey peasant suit), Mr. 

 Kirby sleighed five or six miles out of St. Petersburg 

 to close with a nobleman who had been nibbling at 

 her from the evening she landed. " Any news at St. 

 Petersburg, Kirby?" was the apparently off-hand 

 question which was put to him when he entered ; 



