GODOLPHIN ARABIAN. 315 



it had contended, the spectators appeared in a state of ecstasy, and 

 cheered with renewed applause, which Scham received with dig- 

 nitied composure, as if conscious of his claims to distinction. As 

 to Agba, he was in a state of absolute hallucination — the malign 

 star had disappeared, and the glory of his horse was established. 

 They returned to Gogmagog in triumph ; and to prove his admi- 

 ration of the wondrous powers of the Barb, Hobgoblin's splendid 

 stable was appropriated to Scham, and the words, GoDOLPHiN 

 Arabian, which the noble lord had given to Scham, were engraved 

 in letters of gold on its marble pediment. 



" This celebrated horse died at Gogmao-oe:, in 1753, agfed twen- 

 ty-nine. Grimalkin had preceded him to the tomb, and Agba did 

 not long survive." 



Mr. Wallace here remarks : " And thus ends Mr. Eugene 



Sue's biography of Godolphin Arabian," adding, as stated 



at the commencement, that as a matter of course we must 



not expect historical accuracy in a romance ; but there Sire 



not many things in this that practically need correction. 



He also adds the following statement : — 



" The origin of the horse is really unknown, and all that can 

 be said on this subject is mere conjecture. It is a remarkable fact 

 that this horse attained the very highest pinnacle of fame twenty 

 years after his arrival in England, and yet there was no one, even 

 in that brief space of time, who went to the labor and ti-ouble of 

 tracing and determining his true history. The same old story is re- 

 hashed over and over again, that Mr. Coke brought him from 

 France, but nobody has sought to know from whom or how he 

 came into Mr. Coke's possession. He w^as called an Arabian, 

 but the best judges were inclined to the view that he was a 

 Barb. In forming this opinion, however, they were governed en- 

 tirely by his conformation, which is only a rule of approximate 

 accuracy, and never safe to state with certainty. The old records 

 say that Mr. Coke gave him to Roger Williams, keeper of the 

 Saint James Coffee House, London, and that he presented him to 

 the Earl Godolphin. The great success of the Darley Arabian, some 

 twenty years before, had made Eastern blood very popular at this 

 time ; and it has always been a conviction with me that Earl Go- 

 dolphin knew more about the blood and origin of this horse than 

 any of the writers who have undertaken to enlighten the world 

 about him, or he never would have bred Roxana and his other 

 good mares to him, untried as he then was. The story of the cat 

 was not invented by the novelist, but is founded on truth. Mr. 

 Pick, in his Turf Register, after enumerating a few of the more 

 prominent of his get, remarks that ' every superior horse of tho 

 present day partakes of his valuable blood.' " 



