I 9 4 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER 



Colonel Magnan, of the Etat-Major of the French 

 Army, I was allowed to pick one from out of a batch 

 of Syrian horses intended for a regiment of dismounted 

 dragoons, and went to the Daud Pacha barracks (two 

 miles out of Stamboul), where the French cavalry 

 were quartered, for that purpose. I was turning 

 away, not at all satisfied with their appearance, as 

 they were too slight, and not of the required height 

 for my purpose, when I was accosted by an officer of 

 hussars, who offered to show me a magnificent horse 

 that no one would buy on account of incurable vice. 

 He was a Saclaye Arab, bred near Blida in Algeria, 

 and bought by a colonel of cavalry for three thousand 

 francs in that country ; but since his arrival in 

 Turkey he had manifested such vicious habits that 

 his owner had never mounted him. He was said to 

 have killed one groom by jumping upon him. after he 

 had knocked him down with his fore-feet, to have 

 bitten the chin off another, and to have half-eaten a 

 marechal-de-logis (sergeant-major), who had attempted 

 to ride him. I found him tied fore and aft by huge 

 cords, besides having his head fastened with a heavy 

 chain, in a small thatched mud hut about eight feet 

 by seven ; and even in this confined space no one 

 could approach him, for he lashed out with his heels, 

 and tried to seize any one going near him with his 

 teeth. He was a beautifully- shaped animal, with a 

 blood-like head, wide and deep chest, good shoulders, 

 and great length between the hip-bone and the hock, 



