Under Two Flags

gainst Brother to Fairy." "Three to five on Pas de Charge." "Nineteen to six on Day Star." "Take the Field bar one," rose above the hoar

ings, even when they be the Grand Military or the Grand National. There were keen excitement and heavy stakes on the present event; the betting had never stood still a second in Town or the Shires; and even the "knowing ones," the worshipers of the "flat" alone, the professionals who ran down gentlemen races and the hypercritics wh

e Grand National Handicap, the Billesdon Coplow, the Ealing, the Curragh, the Prix du Donjon, the Rastatt, and almost every other for which he had entered. Yet, despite this, the "Fancy" took most to Bay Regent; they thought he would cut the work out; his sire had

eauty," and the reckless dash of his well-known way of "sending the horse along with all he had in him," which was undeniably much more like a fast kill over the Melton country, than like a weight-for-age race anywhere. "You see the Service in his stirrups," said an old nobbler

at one time two points

. They just go by Godolphin heads, and little feet, and winners' strains, and all the rest of it; and so long as they get pedigree never look at substance; and their bone comes no bigger than a deer's. Now, it's force as well as pace that te

popular in the Ring, because he was like his backers-"a swell." They thought him "showy-very showy," "a picture to frame," "a lu

a Guardsman or a Hussar only exercised his just privilege as a jockey in "roping" after selling the race, if so it suited his book. "He's 'meant,' that's clear, 'cause the swells have put all their pots on him-but if

furrow; a lane with very awkward double fences laced in and in with the memorable blackthorn, a laid hedge with thick growers in it and many another "teaser," coupled with the yawning water, made the course a severe one; while thirty-two starters of unusual excellence gave a good field and promised a close race. Every fine bit of steeple-chase blood that was to be found in their studs, the Serv

men in the Horse Artillery, men in all the Arms and all the Regiments that had sent their first riders to try for the Blue Ribbon, were backing their horses with crackers, and jotting down figure after figure, with jeweled pencils, in dainty books, taking long odds with the fields. Carriages were standing in long lines along the course, the stands were filled with almost as bright a bevy of fashionable loveliness as the Ducal brings together under the park trees of Goodwood; the horses were being led into the inclosure for saddling, a brilliant sun shone for the nonce on the freshest of February noons; beautiful women were fluttering out of their barouches in furs and velvets, wearing the colors of the jockey they favored, and more predominant than any were Cecil's scarlet and white, only rivaled in prominence by the azure of the Heavy Cavalry champion, Sir Eyre Montacute. A drag with four bays-with fine hunting points about them-had dashed up, late

ting to alter that teaser, make it less awkward, you know; but I wouldn't because I thought it would look as if I lessened it for you,

taken down. Why, that's where I shall thrash Bay Regent," said Bertie se

. "Between ourselves, Cecil, that fellow is

the press, in a loose brown sealskin coat, with a little strip of scarlet ribbon round his throat, nodding to this peer, taking evens with that, exchanging a whisper with a Duke, and squaring his book with a Jew. Murmurs followed about him as if he were the horse himself-"looks in racing form"-"looks used up to me"-"too little hands surely to hold in long in a sp

his brother's riding, as though he had the Bank of England at his back. Indeed, save that the lad had the hereditary Royallieu instinct of extravagance, and, with a half thoughtless, half willful improvidence, piled debts and difficulties on this rather brainless and boyish head, he had much more to depend on than his elder; old Lord Royallieu doted on him, spoilt him, and de

whom Berkeley was taking long odds on the race; he raised his eyebrows, and his face d

in a low tone to the Earl of Constantia, with whom he was talking. The Ear

an turned pallid under his florid skin, and tried to edge imperceptibly away; but the density of the throng prev

e the

ief witness against him in a very scandalous matter at York, and who had warned him that if he ever saw him again in the Ring he would hav

ith a hoarse laugh. "Are you the whole Jockey Club,

was not one so great for him as a scene, and the eager bloodshot eyes of the Ring were turning

e said wearily, "leave thi

and ready to brazen the matter out. "Make me, my cock o' fine feathers! Put me

es and prey, "the swells," that he let himself be forced along backward in sheer passive paralysis of astonishment, while Bertie, profoundly insensible to the tumult that began to rise and roar about him, from those who were not too absorbed in the business of the morning to note what took place, thrust him along in the single clasp of his right hand outward to where the running ground swept past the Stand, and threw him lightly, easily, just as one may throw a

breathless, austere, and, of course, too late. Bertie turne

uld interfere in; take care that person doesn'

n Davis pressed before him through the mob, forced their way up as quickly as they could; but before they reached the spot Cecil was sauntering back to

pology was required for having so far wandered from all the canons of

hing. Fellow was trying to 'get on' with the young one, too. Don't bet with those riff-raff, B

rather than thankful for his brother's i

st clear the ring of such rascals; a welsher ought not to dare to show his face here; but, at the same time, you oughtn't to have gone unsteadying your muscl

ne in to-day for exertion; a little more or less is n

red him to such instantaneous action with that disreputable personage; who, beyond doubt, only rec

, out of the throng. "Mr. Cecil, sir, will you please com

tleman-rider race where the jocks were not at least an hour behind time, and considered themselves, on the whole, very tolerably punctual? At last, however, he sauntered into the dressing-shed, and was aided by Rake into tops that had at length achieved

oaths, and livid with a deadly passion at his exile from the harvest-field of his lawless gleanings, went his way, with a savag

ting their gold down, as all the world knows. In the inclosure, the cynosure of devouring eyes, stood the King, with the sangfroid of a superb gentleman, amid the clamor raging round him, one delicate ear laid back now and them, but otherwise indifferent to the din; with h

'scutcheon on the distaff side from a plebeian great-grandmother, who had been a cart mare, the only stain on his otherwise faultless pedigree. However, she had given him her massive shoulders, so that he was in some sense a gainer by her, after all. Wild Geranium was a beautiful creature enough: a bright bay Irish mare, with that rich red gloss that is like the glow of a horse chestnut; very perfect in shape, though a trifle light perhaps, and with not quite strength enough in neck or barrel; she would jump the fences of her own paddock half a dozen times a day for sheer amusement, and was game for anything[*]. She was entered by Cartouche of the Enniskillens, to be ridden by "Baby Grafton," of the same corps, a

f this lady is tha

of my acquaintance;

n a warm June day,

f nothing had happen

l

hat was before him, and longing for it in every muscle and every limb, while his eyes flashed fire as he pulled at the curb and tossed his head aloft, there went up a general shout of "Favorite!" His beauty told on the populace, and even somewhat on the professionals, though his legs kept a strong business prejudice against the working powers of "the Guards' Crack." The

retorted the wrathful and ever-eloquent Rake; "there's more strength in his clean flat legs, bless him! than in all the round, thick, mill-posts of your halfbreds, that have no more

, wickedest grace in the world, and would have given the world to neigh if she had dared, but she knew it would be very bad style, so, like an aristocrat as she was, restrained herself; Bay Regent almost sawed Jimmy Delmar's arms off, looking like a Titan Bucephalus; while Forest King, with his nostrils dilated till the scarle

f the Ring subsided for a second, a breathless attention and suspense succeeded it; the Guardsmen sat on their drags, or lounged near the ladies with their race-glasses ready, and their habitual expression of gentle and resigned weariness

pped-off they went sweeping out for the first

arge past them like lightning. The Irish mare gave a rush and got alongside of him; the King would have done the same, but Cecil checked him and kept him in that cool, swinging canter which c

gently back, saving his pace and lifting him over the jumps as easily as a lapwing. The second fence proved a cropper to several, some awkward falls took place over it, and tailing commenced; after the third f

s de Charge giving slight symptoms of distress owing to the madness of his first burst, the I

t and White, and he muttered in his mustaches, "Ye gods, what'

ome; cautious-with the blood of Forest King lashing to boiling heat, and the wondrous greyhound stride stretching out faster and faster beneath him, read

to the first: distressed too early, his hind feet caught in the thorn, and he came down, rolling clear of his rider; Montacute picked him up with true science, but the day was lost to the Heavy Cavalry man. Forest King went in and out over both like a bird and led for the first time

the dark earth they skimmed over; neither whip nor spur was needed, Bertie had only to leave the gallant temper and the generous fire that were roused in their might to go their way and hold their own. His hands were low, his head

rs pointed, and his greyhound stride lengthening, quickening, gathering up all its force and its impetus for the leap that was before-then, like the rise and the swoop of a heron, he spanned the water, and, landing clear, launched forward with the lunge of a spear darted through air. Brixworth was passed-the Scarlet and White, a mere gleam of bright color, a mere speck in the landscape, to the breathless crowds in the stand, sped on over the brown and level grassland; two and a quarter miles done in four minute

nishment; the poor brute rose blindly to the jump, and missed the bank with a reel and a crash; Sir Eyre was hurled out into the brook, and the hope of the Heavies lay there with his breast and forelegs resting on the ground, his hindquar

ent over Brixworth. The turning-flags were passed; from the crowds on the course a great hoarse roar came louder and louder, and the shouts rang, changing every second: "Forest King wins!" "Bay Regent win

e t

over the grasslands and the coppices like a clarion, the grand rich voice of the Seraph leading foremost and loudest-a cheer that rolled mellow and triumphant down the cold, bright air like the blast of trumpets, and thrilled on Bertie's ear where he came down the course, a mile away. It made his heart beat quicker with a victorious, headlong delight, as his knees pressed close into Forest King's flanks, and, half stirrupless like the Arabs, he thundered forward to the gr

hen the stirrup broke, thre

the lead to keep now, there was ground to cover-and the King was losing like Wild Geranium. Cecil felt drunk with that strong, keen west wind that blew so strongly in his teeth, a p

e mastery; he set his teeth hard, and his hands clinched like steel on the bridle. "Oh, my beauty, my beauty!" he c

nd-neck race once more, across the three meadows with the last and lower fences that were between them and the final leap of all; that ditch of artificial water with the towering double hedge of oak rails and of blackthorn, that was reared black and grim and well-nigh hopeless just in front of the Grand Stand. A roar like the roar of the sea broke up from the thronged course as

Violet's wining!" "The King's neck by neck!" "The King's beating!" "The Guards will get it!" "The Guard's crack has it!" "Not yet, not yet!" "Viole

ind five bars of solid oak; the water yawning on its farther side, black and deep and fenced, twelve feet wide if it were an inch, with the same thorn wall beyond it; a leap no horse should have been given, no Steward should have set. Cecil pressed his knees closer and closer, and worked the gallant hero for the test

was very pale-pale with excitation-as his foot, where the stirrup

rling, my

, not half a second in duration, and he was lifted in the air higher, and higher, and higher in the cold, fresh, wild winter wind, stakes and rails, and thorn and water la

up the straight r

had refus

uards win!" and when his rider pulled up at the distance with the full sun shining on the scarlet and white, with the gold glisten of the embroidered "Coeur Vail

f their triumph and the fullness of their gratitude rushed from the drags and the stands to cluster to his saddle

ave you any Moselle Cup going

ging by the resigned weariness of his features, he had won the race greatly against his own will, and to his own infinite ennui. No one could have dreamt that he was thinking in his heart of hearts how passionate

ty. Then he threw himself lightly out of saddle, and, as Forest King was led away for the after-ceremony of bottling, rubbing, and clothing, his rider, regardless of the roar and hubbub of the course, and of the tumultuous cheers that we

urs as mine; if your chestnut had been as good a water jumper as

at and disappointment had cut him to the core, for Jimmy was the first riding man of the Light Cavalry; but he would not have

ards; and it is very little humiliation to lose against such riding as yours and such

he horse he had ridden. Some men there are-their name is legion-who never allow that it is their fault when they ar

spersed to look over the horses, and he had put himself out of his shell into his

them all; "Beauty" had the suffrages of the sex without exception; he was received with bright smiles and graceful congratulations, even from those who had espoused Eyre Montacute's cause, and still fluttered the

ed by them, and made his way to the center of the Stand, to the

made perfect by a shower of Spanish lace; a beautiful brunette, dashing, yet delicate; a little fast, yet i

ould have intoxicated him-a smile that might have rewarded a Richepanse for a Hohenlinden. "Superb

oo short of the gathered limbs, must have been death to both horse and rider. But, as she said it, she was smiling, radiant, full of easy calm and racing interest, as became her ladyship who had had "bets at even" before now on Goodwood fillies, and could

the tenderest eloquence into his e

while you looked on, I would at lea

mirably artistic masquerade, but it was always a little droll to each of them to se

Who shall say that chivalry is past! Tell me, Bertie; is it very delightful, that desperate effort to brea

totally worn out; can't be, naturally, because the-what-do-you-call-it?-consummation isn't attained till then. The worst of it is, it's getting comm

ave that it had a considerable indication of studied affectation, of which he, however much of a dandy he was, was wholly guiltless. "Well! you won magn

ndering why the deuce a fellow had to talk such nonsense. Yet she was Lady Guenevere, with whom he had been in love ever since they stayed together at Belvoir for the Croxton Park week the autumn previous; and who was beautiful enough to make their "friendship" as enchanting as a page out of the "Decamerone." And while he bent over her, flirting in the fashion that made him the darlin

rse him! The d--d swe