G60 THE LOVE-CHILD. 



soon as I became conscious of where I was, stole on tiptoe to the 

 window for information. In the high road from the peak of Transom 

 Torr, which the front of Ezra's cottage commanded for nearly a 

 quarter of a mile,, there was to me a most appalling piece of work. 

 At one timid, anxious, furtive peep through the jessamine which 

 partially shaded the window, I saw that I had occasioned a frightful 

 commotion. The living picture before me told its story in an 

 instant. From what I saw, the conviction flashed upon me that some 

 good-natured friend had gone down to my grandmother, and told her 

 about Squire Patch having uncoupled the bloodhounds on my track. 

 The old woman, as a matter of course, had mounted her palfrey, and 

 come off at full speed to the rescue. On reaching the scene of 

 action, Death, the younger of the bloodhounds, having a dash of the 

 bull-dog breed in her derived from her sire, had pinned the Ned. 

 Sir Simon, perceiving the nose of his friend between the jaws of a 

 dog, had torn the latter from neck to navel. Sin, a witness of the 

 catastrophe, having no bull-dog blood in her veins, had taken to her 

 heels Sir Simon, who went to great lengths when he was put up, 

 had followed, supported by my desperate grandmother and her 

 enraged Ned. 



All this, as I subsequently ascertained, had taken place ; but, as I 

 have said, the facts flashed upon me at a glance. First came the 

 liver-coloured blood-hound, Sin, a single object the very centre 

 of the living picture, fat, gasping, and scarcely able to maintain a 

 gallop : drops of burning sweat rolled over her red fevered tongue 

 (the only part in which dogs perspire) ; her eyes were bloodshot, and 

 the protruded pupils were dragged backward, and fixed in horrid 

 alarm on her pursuers ; her tail was between her legs, her back was 

 smooth, not a hair on it was elevated. Next came Sir Simon : his 

 tusks were gory ; he frequently licked his hirsute lips ; the bristles on 

 his back were all bolt upright ; his tail, which naturally had a trifling 

 curl, looked as though he had tied it into a knot; by setting in 

 action some of the muscles about his jaws, his long rugged tusks 

 were fully developed he grunted with glee. 



My granny and her Ned followed. The old lady was in a des- 

 perate plight. Her cap had blown off, and her long grizly hair, 

 divided into numerous ropy rat's tails, shot out in straight lines from 

 the back of her head. Her brown sinewy arms were in violent motion, 

 for she was urging the Ned, by thumping his neck with her white 

 fists, soddened in soap suds, to increase his speed. But this ex- 

 ertion on her part was needless. The Ned seemed to be personally 

 interested in the exploit ; his lips were margined with crimson foam ; 

 the spirit of vengeance beamed forth from his dark eyes ; his ears 

 lay flat on his neck ; his flexible and wounded upper lip was in con- 

 stant motion; he frequently revealed his long teeth, and evidently 

 had an intense desire to have a scrunch at the bones of the blood- 

 hound. 



Squire Patch and his visitors the troop of boys who had followed 

 me from Transom Torr two or three gamekeepers that infernal pos- 

 tilion who flogged me so the blacksmith, hot from his forge the tai- 

 lor, in slippers Mr. Snikes, the shoemaker, trying to tuck up his in- 

 tractable new leathern apron old hobbling Holloway Shriek, the 



