When the immortal Don set out to ring all the bells of merriment, he was followed by one clown.

Charles Courtier on the other hand had always been accompanied by thousands, who really could not understand the conduct of this man with no commercial sense.

But though he puzzled his contemporaries, they did not exactly laugh at him, because it was reported that he had really killed some men, and loved some women.

They found such a combination irresistible, when coupled with an appearance both vigorous and gallant.

The son of an Oxfordshire clergyman, and mounted on a lost cause, he had been riding through the world ever since he was eighteen, without once getting out of the saddle.