The moon had quartered; and her narrow band poured a mild light on
Kholstomír, standing in the middle of the yard, with the horses
clustered around him.
"The principal and most surprising consequence to me of the fact
that I was not the property of the count nor of God, but of the
equerry," continued the piebald, "was that what constitutes our chief
activity--the eager race--was made the cause of my banishment. They
were driving Lebedi around the ring; and a jockey from Chesmenka was
riding me, and entered the course. Lebedi dashed past us. He trotted
well, but he seemed to want to show off. He had not that skill which I
had cultivated in myself; that is, of compelling one leg instantly to
follow on the motion of the other, and not to waste the least degree
of energy, but use it all in pressing forward. Lebedi dashed by us. I
entered the ring: the jockey did not hold me back.
"'Say, will you time my piebald?' he cried; and when Lebedi came
abreast of us a second time, he let me out. He had the advantage of his
momentum, and so I was left behind in the first heat; but in the second
I began to gain on him; came up to him in the drozhsky, caught up
with him, passed beyond him, and won the race. They tried it a second
time--the same thing. I was the swifter. And this filled them all with
dismay. The general begged them to send me away as soon as possible,
so that I might not be heard of again. 'Otherwise the count will know
about it, and there will be trouble,' said he. And they sent me to the
horse-dealer. I did not remain there long. A hussar, who came along to
get a remount, bought me. All this had been so disagreeable, so cruel,
that I was glad when they took me from Khrénova, and forever separated
me from all that had been near and dear to me. It was too hard for me
among them. Before _them_ stood love, honor, freedom; before me labor,
humiliation,--humiliation, labor, to the end of my days. Why? Because I
was piebald, and because I was compelled to be somebody's horse."