CHAPTER IX. 



APPLICATION OP THE PRECEDING PRINCIPLES TO THE PER- 

 FORMANCE OP THE HORSES, PARTISAN, CAPITAINE, NEPTUNE, 

 AND BURIDAN. 



The persons who systematically denied the efficacy of 

 my method ought, necessarily, also to deny the results 

 shown to them. They were forced to acknowledge that 

 my performance at the Cirque- Olympique was new and 

 extraordinary, but attributed it to causes, some more 

 strange than others; all the while insisting that the 

 equestrian talent of the rider did not go for nothing in 

 the expertness of the horse. According to some, I was 

 a second Carter, accustoming my horses to obedience 

 by depriving them of sleep and food ; according to 

 others, I bound their legs with cords, and thus held 

 them suspended to prepare them for a kind of puppet- 

 show ; some were not far from believing that I fascin- 

 ated them by the power of my looks. Finally, a certain 

 portion of the public, seeing these animals perform in 

 time to the sound of the charming music of one of my 

 friends, M. Paul Cuzent, insisted seriously that they 

 undoubtedly possessed, in a very great degree, the 

 instinct of melody, and that they would stop short with 

 the clarionets and trombones. So, the sound of the 

 music was more powerful over my horse than I was 

 myself ! The animal obeyed a do or a sol nicely touched ; 

 but my legs and hands went for nothing in their effects. 

 Would it be believed that such nonsense was uttered by 



