FEATS OF HORSEMANSHIP 217 



Prince of Wales's riding-house, Pall Mall, when the 

 Bey, accompanied by Colonel Moore, his interpreter, 

 and Mahomet Aga, his principal officer, a young man 

 of apparently great agility, entered the riding-house 

 where the Prince and his royal brothers waited, 

 attended by several noblemen, to witness the man- 

 agement of the horse, which never before could be 

 ridden by anybody. One of the Mameluke's saddles 

 being fixed by the grooms, the animal was led out of 

 the stable into the riding-house, in so rampant and 

 unmanageable a state that every one present con- 

 cluded that no one would ever attempt to mount him. 

 There was never a greater model of equine beauty ; 

 he was spotted like a leopard, and his eyes were so 

 fiery and enraged as to indicate the greatest danger 

 to any one who dared to mount him. Being led 

 round the boundary, Mahomet Aga made a spring, 

 seized him by the reins, and in an instant vaulted on 

 the back of the animal, which, finding itself encum- 

 bered by a burden that it had never before felt, and 

 goaded by the tightness of the Egyptian saddle, gave 

 loose to his passion, and in the height of his ferocity 

 plunged, but in vain, in every direction. The Mame- 

 luke kept his seat daring this outbreak of temper for 

 more than twenty minutes, to the utter astonishment 

 of the Prince and every beholder: at last the ap- 

 parently ungovernable animal was reduced to so 

 tame a state as to yield to the control of the rider. 

 The Prince expressed himself highly gratified, and 



