Captain Middleton 



of the other's coat. His victim could not make out at first 

 what the audience were laughing at so consumedly, and was 

 desperately angry when he discovered the cause. On another 

 of their visits to the distressful country I Zingari played the 

 9th Lancers, when by way of filling up the time after lunch, 

 " Bill " Beresford, having provided such of the cricketers as 

 were given that way with a mount, had out the Regimental 

 Draghounds for a run. And when we add that prominent 

 amongst the flannel attired riders were *' Bay " Middleton 

 and " Cat " Richardson, it may be imagined that the fun soon 

 became fast and furious. 



The following tribute to his memory is from the sympathetic 

 pen of Prince Charles Kinsky, an intimate of long standing, 

 and his associate in many of the bear-fights of which the 

 subject of our memoir was so fond. 



" Yes, poor old ' Bay,' he certainly was one of the best 

 friends of my younger days, and although much older than 

 myself, liked me, I know, because he loved a boy keen for the 

 horse, keen for the chase, and keen about riding races over 

 a country. Another reason why he took to me from the first, 

 was because he thought I could hold my own in a bear-fight 

 — an amusement which was in full swing when I first came 

 over to England. I shall never forget the bear-fight at his 

 bachelor dinner at the Cafe Royal, the night before his wedding. 

 If I had to fight one man that night, I had to fight twenty, 

 and ' Bay ' was certainly the hardest of them all to tackle. 

 As hard as iron, I don't think I ever knew a man whose every 

 muscle in his body felt so hard as his. When his blood was 

 up, he became almost cruel in a fight, so keen was he ; and 

 good and warm-hearted fellow though dear old * Bay ' was in 

 his cooler moments, his best friend could not expect any pity 

 from him so long as the fight lasted. He and I had an adventure 



381 



