Part 6 (2/2)
”Why, what's the matter with her? does she kick?” inquired I.
”She'll try and pitch you off, if possible, and if she can't do that, she'll bolt with you, and then the Lord have mercy upon you!”
This was encouraging, certainly!
”You are an honest fellow, James,” replied I; ”and I am much obliged to you. Ride her I must, my honour is at stake, but I'll be as careful as I can, and, if I come back safe, you shall have half a crown.”
”Thank you, sir,” was the reply, ”I shall be glad enough to see you come back in any other way than on a shutter, without the money.”
Of a truth, the race of Job's comforters is not yet extinct, thought I, as I turned to look for Coleman, who had been up to this moment employed in superintending the operation of saddling Punch, and now made his appearance, leading that renowned steed by the bridle.
”Why, Fairlegh, you are not going to ride that vicious brute to be sure; even Lawless won't mount her, and he does not care what he rides in general.”
”Nevermind about Lawless,” said I, a.s.suming an air of confidence I was very far from feeling; ”she won't eat me, I daresay.”
”I don't know that,” rejoined Coleman, regarding Mad Bess with a look of horror; ”c.u.mberland, don't let him mount her.”
”Nay, I can't prevent it; Fairlegh is his own master, and must do as he likes,” was the answer.
”Come, we can't keep the men standing here the whole day,” said I to Coleman; ”mount Punch, and get out of my way as fast as you can, if you are going to do so at all”--a request with which, seeing I was quite determined, he at length unwillingly complied, and having, after one or two failures, succeeded in throwing his leg over the cob's broad back, rode slowly out of the yard, and took up his station outside in order to witness my proceedings.
”Now, then,” said I, ”keep her as steady as you can for a minute, and as soon as I am fairly mounted give her her head--stand clear there.”
-39--I then took a short run, and, placing one hand on the saddle, while I seized a lock of the mane with the other, I sprang from the ground and vaulted at once upon her back, without the aid of the stirrup, a feat I had learned from a groom who once lived with us, and which stood me in good stead on the present occasion, as I thereby avoided a kick with which Mad Bess greeted my approach. I next took up the reins as gently as I could, the men let go her head, and after a little plunging and capering, though much less than I had expected, her ladys.h.i.+p gave up hostilities for the present, and allowed me to ride her quietly up and down the yard. I then wished c.u.mberland (who looked, as I thought, somewhat mortified) a good-afternoon, turned a deaf ear to the eulogies of Mr. Snaffles and his satellites, and proceeded to join Coleman. As I left the yard my friend James joined me, under the pretence of arranging my stirrup leather, when he took the opportunity of saying:--
”She'll go pretty well now you're once mounted, sir, as long as you can hold her with the snaffle, but if you are obliged to use the curb--look out for squalls!!!”
CHAPTER V -- MAD BESS
”Away, away, my steed and I, Upon the pinions of the wind, All human dwellings left behind, We sped like meteors through the sky,
With glossy skin and dripping mane, And reeling limbs, and reeking flank, The wild steed's sinewy nerves still strain Up the repelling bank.
We gained the top, a boundless plain Spreads onward.
My heart turned sick, my brain grew sore, And throbbed awhile, then beat no more, The sky spun like a mighty wheel, And a slight flash sprang o'er my eyes, Which saw no farther.”
_Mazeppa_.
OUT of consideration for the excitable disposition of Mad Bess we took our way along the least bustling streets we could select; directing our course towards the outskirts of the town, behind which extended for some miles a -40--portion of the range of hills known as the South Downs, over the smooth green turf of which we promised ourselves a canter. As we rode along Coleman questioned me as to what could have pa.s.sed while he was seeing Punch saddled, to make me determine to ride the chestnut mare, whose vicious disposition was, he informed me, so well known, that not only would no one ride her who could help it, but that Snaffles, who was most anxious to get rid of her, had not as yet been able to find a purchaser. In reply to this I gave him a short account of what had occurred, adding my more than suspicion that the whole matter had been arranged by c.u.mberland, in which notion he entirely agreed with me.
”I was afraid of something of this sort, when I said I was sorry you had made that remark about cheating to him this morning--you see, he would no doubt suppose you had heard the particulars of his gambling affair, and meant to insult him by what you said, and he has done this out of revenge. Oh, how I wish we were safely at home again; shall we turn back now?”
”Not for the world,” said I--”you will find, when you know me better, that when once I have undertaken a thing, I _will_ go through with it--difficulties only make me more determined.”
”Ah!” said Coleman, ”you should get somebody to write a book about you, that is the kind of disposition they always give to the heroes of novels, the sort of character that will go and run his head against a brick wall to prove that it is the harder and thicker of the two--they knock out their brains though, sometimes, in doing it, when they happen to have any--it is very pretty to read about, splendid in theory, but I much doubt its acting so well if you come to put it in practice.”
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