42 A HISTORY OF THE PEECHERON HORSE 



instance, to wit, a gray or white with clean-cut head, 

 heavy shoulders, wide back and quarters and, 

 usually, clean limbs, is significant. 



Corroborating the work of the artists, at least in 

 respect to the color, may be cited a verse from the 

 old-time ballad recounting the deeds of valor per- 

 formed by one Charles de Trie, a valiant knight of 

 The Perche. It was sung by the wandering minstrels 



and ran as follows: 



"Ce blau sire de Trie, 

 Sur son blanc destrier, 

 Centre gent ennemie 

 S'en va guerroyer." 



This old French has been freely translated: 



"On charger white the sire of Trie 

 Against the foe has gone to war." 



M. Du Hays, whose great affection for the Per- 

 cheron led him to prepare his beautifully-written 

 history of the breed, remarks that in his childhood 

 he had often been rocked to sleep to the tune of 

 this old song, embodying as it did one of the old 

 traditions of the province. 



The Probable Foundation. — That the blood of the 

 Arab, derived from the spoils of the great Saracenic 

 rout, may have been the source of the style and 

 beauty of the war horses used several centuries later 

 by the Crusaders against the Moslems, is not a vio- 

 lent assumption. That the French nobles brought 

 back Arabian stallions from the Holy Land is not 

 at all improbable. That these were used upon the 

 mares of The Perche and other provinces is easily 

 possible. But upon neither point is there any real 



