THE 'BIG stable' 131 



(four years), Straclella (three years), Jarnicoton (two 

 years), Villafranca (two years), La Reine Bertlie (two 

 years), Sonchamp (yearling), and others, inchiding 

 above all the celebrated Fille de I'Air (ex-Capucine II., 

 a yearling), remarkably cheap (as it happened) at about 

 340/. And so, after some two years' existence, there 

 was an end of the ' Big Stable,' which had accomplished, 

 in that short period, for French horses and their re- 

 putation more than anybody would have thought likely 

 to be done in much less than a generation. It was not 

 a lucky ' split ' for Baron Niviere ; for there was Count 

 F. de Lao;rang:e left ' sinofle-handed ' indeed, but in 

 possession of Fille de I'Air, the heroine of 1864, and 

 Gladiateur (foaled that very year, 1862), the hero of 

 1865. 



