“It is nothing, ladies and gentlemen—a slight accident. M. Prince begs that the public will excuse him.”
The truth was that the rider had been killed on the [p182] spot—he had broken his neck. And whilst a number of clowns tumbled into the ring, reassuring the public by their jokes, Prince’s wife and children were weeping over his body in the great whitewashed room, where the reins of the performing donkeys were hanging on the walls side by side with clowns’ wigs, training whips, and spangled tights.
FOOTNOTES
[10] J. Rothschild, éditeur, 1888.
[11] Those who are too old for the pad.
[p183]
CHAPTER VIII. THE HIPPODROME.
The re-opening of the Hippodrome and the first performance of its pantomime are a great event in each year; a festival for “society,” which for this occasion makes a large outlay in spring toilettes, and a festival for the Parisians of the “fifth floor” and the shop parlour too.