One beast of his
gentle mettle were worth a score of clumsy varlets like to you!
Well, said I not right, my Lord Admiral; is not the race fairly
mine, I ask?" and, careless in act as in speech, she gave the
Lord Admiral's horse, as she spoke, so sharp a cut with her
riding whip as to make the big brute rear in sudden surprise, and
almost unhorse its rider, while an unchecked laugh came from its
fair tormentor.
"Good faith, Mistress," answered Sir Thomas Seymour, the Lord
High Admiral, gracefully swallowing his exclamation of surprise,
"your ladyship hath fairly won, and, sure, hath no call to punish
both myself and my good Selim here by such unwarranted
chastisement. Will your grace dismount?"
And, vaulting from his seat, he gallantly extended his hand to
help the young girl from her horse; while, on the same instant,
another in her train, a handsome young fellow of the girl's own
age, knelt on the frozen ground and held her stirrup.
But this independent young maid would have none of their
courtesies. Ignoring the outstretched hands of both the man and
boy, she sprang lightly from her horse, and, as she did so, with
a sly and sudden push of her dainty foot, she sent the kneeling
lad sprawling backward, while her merry peal of laughter rang out
as an accompaniment to his downfall.
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