Mr. Kir by and the Foreigners. 67 



should be confiscated, that he determined to sell every- 

 thing off at once. Accordingly he asked Count Rotosch- 

 pin, who had been betimes at his stables, to make him a 

 3OO/. 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, SOQ/." " 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 I'll 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 sar- 

 donically inquired of Mr. Kirby if he liked his offer. 

 " I should be cheating myself, sire," replied the repre- 

 sentative of all the Tykes at the Court of St. Peters- 

 burg ; " 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. Remonstrance was a dangerous game ; 

 so Mr. Kirby sorrowfully 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 Hambletonian, 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 Koutightsoff'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. 

 Petersburgh to close with a nobleman who had bee? 

 nibbling at her from the evening she landed. " Any 

 news at St. Petersburg, Kirby ? " was the apparently 



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