partner and myself, with the observation, "Well, my wife's not bad-
looking, is she?" and he smacked his lips like a man who has eaten a
good thing.

Falaise was the culminating point in our journey as far as incidents
went. We were to make a halt there, and, as fifteen battalions of the
National Guard were collected, the aide-de-camp, who did duty as
quartermaster too, had seen to getting suitable mounts for the King, for
us, and for Marshals Soult and Gerard, who accompanied us. The famous
fair at Guibray, near Falaise, was just over, and a circus which had
come to enliven it was still there. The circus horses were laid hands
on, and when we arrived we were agreeably surprised to find fine white
horses awaiting us instead of the ordinary nags and troop-horses we
generally had to ride. So we got into the saddle, and the review began.
Just as the King reached the right flank of the line, the band began to
play, and then an unforeseen event occurred Our proud coursers, thinking
that they were at a performance, set each of them to do his own
particular duty. The King, Marshal Soult, and two others of our party
were riding the horses who did that trick called the "Grand-Ecart," in
which all four horses draw together at the same moment. When their
riders pulled at their bridles, the four horses, feeling themselves
reined up, instantly fell into the usual circus canter. Another horse
kept wheeling round and round, and confusion became general, nobody
guessing what had happened until the aide-de-camp smote his brow, and
stopped the band.

The trouble did not end there. The National Guard was in proud
possession of one gun, which it had horsed somehow or other. A jolt
broke the axle-tree, just as it was going past. Then there was a half-
squadron of cavalry mounted on stallions or geldings. But the trumpeter