the latter almost sweeping the ground; and in her frolicsome gambols she
turned it over her back like a Newfoundland dog. Her slow step was a
bound; her swift motion unlike that of any other animal I ever rode, so
fleet, so smooth, so unruffled--I know nothing to which I can compare
it. Well, I made this lovely creature so fond of me by constant petting,
to which I suppose her Arab character made her peculiarly sensitive,
that my voice had equal power over her as over my docile, faithful dog.
No other person could in the slightest degree control her. Our corps,
the seventh battalion of the sixtieth Rifles, was composed wholly of the
elite of Napoleon's soldiers, taken in the Peninsula, and preferring the
British service to a prison. They were principally conscripts, and many
were evidently of a higher class in society than is usually found in the
ranks. Among them were several Chasseurs and Polish Lancers, very fine
equestrians, and as my husband had a field officer's command--on
detachments--and allowances, our horses were well looked after. His
groom was a Chasseur, mine a Pole; but neither could ride Fairy, unless
she happened to be in a very gracious mood. Lord Dalhousie's English
coachman afterwards tried his hand at taming her, but all in vain. In an
easy quiet way, she either sent her rider over her head, or by a
laughable manoeuvre sitting down like a dog on her haunches, slipped him
off the other way. Her drollery made the poor men so fond of her that
she was rarely chastised; and such a wilful, intractable wild Arab it
would be hard to find. Upon her I was daily mounted; and surely the Lord
watched over me then indeed. Inexperienced in riding, untaught,
unassisted, and wholly unable to lay any check upon so powerful an
animal, with an awkward country saddle, which by some fatality was never
well fixed, bit and bridle to match, and the mare's natural fire
increased by high feed, behold me bound for the wildest paths in the
wildest regions of that wild country. But you must explore the roads
about Annapolis, and the romantic spot called "The General's Bridge," to