FRENCH HORSEMANSHIP 289 



the manege is French. As I watched the young officers cram- 

 ming their horses along in a way which argued complete inde- 

 pendence of the riding-school and the classics, I wondered 

 whatM. Triboulet, a well remembered figure of my boyhood, 

 would have said of it all. M. Triboulet was the respected 

 riding- and fencing-master of the town. He was also versed 

 in the theory of gymnastics and a shrewd exponent of the 

 arcana of dumb-bells. These were his gods, and he had 

 grown old and grey and poor in their service. I am afraid 

 he never had many pupils. To make up for this he exacted 

 from himself all the disciplines he would have imposed upon 

 others, and luckily a clever wife and the popularity of a 

 little cafe facing the barrack gates helped out the arts and 

 sciences. The ' Spectator ' would have proposed him for 

 his club, Daudet in his more clement mood would have in- 

 troduced him to us, Stevenson must have included him in 

 his 'Memories and Portraits.' Perhaps, though, Sir Walter 

 Scott would have understood him best of all, and done justice 

 to his faithfulness over a few things. Winter and summer 

 his costume never varied. A black velvet postillion cap with 

 a very high crown, a short black justaucorps, tight pepper-and- 

 salt over-alls, square-toed boots, formidable swan-necked spurs, 

 a long rapier-hke cutting whip, grey beaver gloves, a high 

 1830 black stock admirably tied— for, like Beau Brummell, he 

 never had a failure — lent suitable dignity to the inflexible 

 featuresof an ideal martinet. He hved and thought in cautions, 

 words of command, and well-imagined affairs of honour. 

 They w^ere the chosen companions of his leisure. Triboulet 

 disapproved of hunting, and looked upon the gay company 

 who swept through the alleys as so many lords and ladies of 

 misrule ; but he spent much of his time on horseback, and 

 he never spared himself, or the old milk-white flowing-tailed 

 Arab, or the streets or the landscape any one of the due 

 observances of the riding-school. 



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