It is well known that after the defeat of the famous Saracen chief Abderame by Charles Martel, on the plains of Vouille, the magnificent cavalry of the foe fell into the hands of the victors, since more than 300,000 infidels were killed on that day, and the horses which they rode were, like themselves, from the East. Upon a division of the spoil a large number of these were assigned to the men of La Perche, of Orleanais, and Normandy, who composed the bulk of the French forces, and they must necessarily have left in their progeny indelible traces of their blood. La Perche, like all Christian countries, furnished, as is well known, her contingent of fighting men to the crusades, and the chronicles cite several Counts of Bellesmer, Mortagne, and Nogent, barons and gentlemen of that province, who, with many of their vassals, made pilgrimages to the Holy Land. The Abbe Faet, in a letter addressed to the Congress of Mortagne, July 16, 1843, and in his great work upon La Perche, cites in this connection a lord of Montdoubleau, Geffroy IV., and Rotrou, Count of La Perche, as having brought back from Palestine several stallions, which were put to mares, and the progeny most carefully preserved. The small number of the sires, their incomparable beauty, and manifest superiority, must have led to the _in-and-in_ breeding so much deprecated by most breeders; but the qualities of the sires became indelibly fixed upon their progeny. The lord of Montdoubleau was, it is said, the most zealous of the advocates and breeders of the new blood, and, being the most zealous, was the most successful; hence it is that the Montdoubleau stock is to this day the best in Perche. The Count Roger, of Bellesmer, imported both Arabian and Spanish horses, as did Goroze, the lord of Saint Cerney, Courville, and Courseroult; these are historical facts which have their importance. Like chronicles, it is true, exist for other provinces—for Limousin, for Navarre, for Auvergne (the land of noble horses), also for Brittany and Maine; but in the latter not the least sign of Eastern blood is perceptible. The fact is, the crusaders from all the French provinces naturally brought back with them more or less of the Eastern blood, which they had learned to appreciate on the plains of Palestine—but the truth is, it has not been preserved elsewhere; and that we in La Perche, after so many centuries, should be so fortunate as to be able to show the traces of it, should stimulate us to its careful preservation.