Time and again True had warned Black Baby of this very dog, but the lamb, having known only love and kindness all his little life, forgot, and frolicked gaily towards him! William Howe cried out in delight, “Sick him, Cornwallis!” The cosset lamb stood an easy mark for the dog and in an instant lay gasping on the ground, the blood flowing from a horrid wound in his throat. His sobbing breath found an echo in True’s heart and for the first time the colt lost control of himself. Overcome with a thirst for vengeance, and, screaming as only a horse does when the strait is desperate, he plunged and reared. With a well-aimed blow of his hard, very dark, front-feet he knocked the dog senseless. This did not satisfy the lamb’s champion; he stamped the body of the wicked beast into the earth, crushing bones as if they had been straws! Furiously he bit, and finally caught the limp carcass in his strong teeth and threw it high in the air. For the moment he was a demon and sought, savagely, for more ways to wipe the remains out of existence! Suddenly he remembered William Howe who stood at a distance, pelting him with stones. Uttering another fierce cry he turned upon the boy, baring his teeth hideously between his firm lips. Howe made for the fence, where the desperate rabbit had sought cover, and scrambled over, thinking to be safe on the other side; he did not know the colt was descended from the “birds of the desert!” True was not even _aware_ of a barrier! As if he had wings he soared over it, doubling his hind-feet close under his body a little to one side. A tree was all that saved the boy’s life. Swinging up by a low-hanging branch, with the agility of a cat, he found himself out of breath and out of reach of the colt’s gleaming teeth. From wide, scarlet nostrils the hot and excited breath of the maddened animal reached his bare feet. The Tory scent that came down to True only increased his anger, but not being able to reach the boy, he resolved that the kicking he owed him could be postponed--for years, if necessary--but some day, _some day_, it would be delivered! Furthermore--he would kick nothing until that day arrived and he met this boy again on level ground! How he kept his vow we shall see later. FOOTNOTES: [1] According to Joseph Battell. Encyclopedia Britannica says 1793. [2] In 1776, Sir William Howe commanded an army of 55,000 men in an effort to put down “the wicked rebellion.” CHAPTER II. TRUE IS BROKEN TO HARNESS. Even, pleasant and cheerful was True’s natural disposition, but besides these traits there were others that went to make up the peculiar perfection horse-flesh had attained in the twenty-five years before his birth.