Boy’s fate befitted a soldier’s dog: on the fatal field of Marston Moor, where many a gallant cavalier was slain, he also fell, shot to the heart. As The More True Relation, a Puritan statement, says: “Here also was slain that accursed cur which is here mentioned by the way, because the Prince’s dog hath been so much spoken of, and was prized by his master more than creatures of much more worth.” [Illustration: PURITAN CARICATURE OF THE DEATH OF PRINCE RUPERT’S WHITE HOUND BOY. (_From old pamphlet in British Museum._)] Even his master’s grief at his loss was a subject of derision; and shortly after Boy’s death a squib appeared, called: “A Dogge’s Elegie, or Rupert’s Teares for the late defeat given him at Marston Moor neere York ... where his beloved Dogge, named Boye, was killed by a valliant souldier who had skill in Necromancy.” (He is said to have used a silver bullet, Boy being proof against leaden ones.) An old pamphlet contains a queer woodcut, representing his death, and then several lines of doggerel, beginning: “Sad Cavaliers, Rupert invites you all That doe survive, to his Dog’s Funerall.” So lived and perished Boy, his master’s well-loved friend, his master’s enemies’ aversion--and almost the only instance in history of an animal being the object of violent party-hate. Prince Rupert had other pets, both dogs and horses, but none so dear as his white hound. Perhaps the most affecting instance of his feeling after Boy’s death, is shown in a letter to Will Legge, written in 1661. It bears “the dolefull news that poor Royall at this time is dying, after being the cause of the death of many a stag. By heaven,” he bursts out, “I had rather lose the best horse in my stable!” With this--as a last pleasant memory of Rupert--we will leave him. _VI._ _PETS IN ARTIST LIFE._ VI. PETS IN ARTIST LIFE. For the artist pets have a peculiar value. Not only are they companions and live playthings--they are also “properties.” Portrait and landscape painters use them as accessories; animal painters and sculptors find in them their models. They live in close companionship with their human friends, and the tie between them is usually warm and lasting. An exception might be the cat whose fur was sacrificed to the early genius of Benjamin West. In default of brushes, the lad used first the long hairs from her tail, then the shorter ones from her body--until she was half-shorn. True, one of his biographers assures us that he laid hold of her “with all due caution, and attention to her feelings”; but this is clearly a post-mortem statement--he had never interviewed Pussy!