MODE OF TAMING AND BREAKING-IN HORSES. 379 
what apparent indifference the horse faced the fire, than of 
evident satisfaction and pride to Monsieur le maitre du manege to 
witness such conquest achieved through his art. 
The scene I have been attempting to describe occupied alto- 
gether about a couple of hours in its performance, by which time 
there appeared to be produced in the animal that degree of subjec- 
tion (exhaustion]) necessary to render him obedient to any act or 
forbearance that might be required of him, however repugnant 
such act by nature or dislike might prove to him, this being the 
apparent end for which the previous part of the lesson had been 
instituted. The avowed object was to break the horse into harness, 
a situation which heretofore had proved unbearable to him. 
By way of preparation, a skeleton harness was first put ’on, and to 
the breeching of it a couple of spiked rouleaux were attached, which 
played against the horse’s quarters whenever he moved his hind 
limbs, especially when he jumped or kicked. Soon afterwards a cart 
arrived, and the animal was put-to in it. No sooner, however, did he 
find himself once again harnessed to a carriage — the situation of all 
others to which he was said to have the greatest aversion — than 
his repugnant nature boiled fresh up within him, and got the better 
of those good feelings of obedience and submission which the 
spiked balls of M. Leonard appeared to have engendered in him ; 
and the consequence was — diable Vimporte — he stubbornly refused 
to stir an inch from the spot where he stood. Such a renewed act 
of insubordination was not to be borne. The pelters fired away at 
him with refreshed vigour ; ball after ball flew at his muzzle ; 
while M. Leonard, hurriedly searching in his box of apparatus, 
produced an awful fresh tormentor, in the shape of a spiked bludgeon , 
with which he belaboured the mechant’s, sides until the blood oozed 
out. The animal still refused to advance ; when at last descended 
so heavy a blow, that the staff broke and the horse bolted. Being 
once got into a humour to move, he was reined in and pelted afresh, 
and in the end made to trot quietly with the cart behind him, up 
and down the road in the park, in front of the barracks, to the 
satisfaction of his noble master, and the evident delight of Monsieur 
le maitre du manage. 
The next day the animal was to take another lesson, seven in 
all being required to complete the course. To-morrow came, but 
our expectations were damped by the intelligence that the horse 
was too unwell to leave his stable. 
In being a witness of such strange, severe, castigatory treatment 
as I have been detailing, I must confess there were moments 
when I would willingly have interposed to shield the poor brute, 
vicious and restive as he was represented to be, from the painful 
punctures and contusions inflicted by the balls hurled at him ; and 
