THE GOLDEN SPUR

Another sympathetic boy and horse story (Rocking Hill Road-- 1959) crosses over and turns back to France just before the let-them-eat-cake riposte. Jacques, a stableboy to Louis XVI, is particularly attached to the mare Isabeau. He also finds a golden spur, returns it to its owner, Sablot, a page sponsored by Lafayette, and wins the boy's grateful friendship. In time Isabeau, injured in a joust by a lance, is sold to a shopkeeper and Sablot gives Jacques the spur with which to redeem her. This he does, although he rides her to her death in order to warn the King of the outbreak to come... A pint-sized, picaresque story which pays some attention to its framework for the fail safe formula of a boy and a horse.