[Footnote: A well-known horse-dealer in Moliere's time.]
I leave you to think whether that dealer, who has such a respect for me,
would deceive me in such a matter; I am satisfied with the horse. He
never indeed sold a better, or a better-shaped one. The head of a barb,
with a clear star; the neck of a swan, slender, and very straight; no
more shoulder than a hare; short-jointed, and full of vivacity in his
motion. Such feet--by Heaven! such feet!--double-haunched: to tell you
the truth, it was I alone who found the way to break him in. Gaveau's
Little John never mounted him without trembling, though he did his best
to look unconcerned. A back that beats any horse's for breadth; and
legs! O ye Heavens!
[Footnote: Compare the description of the horse given by the Dauphin in
Shakespeare's Henry V., Act iii., Scene 6, and also that of the "round
hoof'd, short jointed" jennet in the _Venus and Adonis_ of the same
author.]
In short, he is a marvel; believe me, I have refused a hundred pistoles
for him, with one of the horses destined for the King to boot. I then
mounted, and was in high spirits to see some of the hounds coursing over
the plain to get the better of the deer.
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