Page:Helen Leah Reed - Napoleons young neighbour.djvu/112

86 "Sir," said the confident Betsy, "I don't believe you can ride that horse."

"I! Don't you think me a good rider?"

"Yes; I think you look better on horseback than any one I have ever seen."

"Only look!" Napoleon was trying to draw her out.

"But you really ride better than anyone else, as I told you the other day when you rode around the lawn. I didn't suppose any one could make a horse wheel in such a narrow circle."

"Yet you think this Arab could conquer me!"

"But it looks so ugly,—I mean its disposition."

The Emperor, without replying directly, called Archambaud to him and bade him dismount, while he took his seat on the fiery horse. The girls looked on in horror, but Napoleon only smiled the more, as he compelled the horse to pass the cloth and continued his discipline until he made the creature put his foot on it.

Archambaud gazed open-mouthed, hardly knowing whether to laugh or to cry. The Emperor persevered, and in a short time the