32 THE MASTER OF THE HOUNDS. 



have my drives cut to pieces, and my hares and pheasants driven 

 all over the country by your confounded dogs." 



" The remedy, my lord," replied Beauchamp, " lies in your 

 own hands ; you can forbid the hounds drawing your coverts at 

 all, which is a mere form I would readily dispense with, as we 

 seldom find a fox there." 



" That is no concern of mine, Mr. Beauchamp ; if foxes 

 don't fancy my woods, I can't help their taste ; they are free to 

 come and go when they like, I suppose ?" 



" I wish this were the case, my lord ; but your keeper's 

 motto is, Vestigia nulla retrorsum" 



"He tells me, sir," replied Lord Mervyn, "that he never 

 destroys a fox, and I believe him." 



" Then who does, my lord ? since two dead foxes were found 

 buried in the field close to your home wood, last week." 



" By whom, sir ? I wish to know who dared to be prowling 

 about my chief preserve % '' inquired Lord Mervyn, becoming 

 very excited. 



" The person who found them," replied Beauchamp, very 

 coolly, "was my whipper-in, who was sent in search of a stray 

 hound, and called at your keeper's house, to inquire if he had 

 seen hini, and in riding across the field, his horse stumbling over 

 some loose earth, the man dismounted, and then he found a 

 brace of dead foxes, recently killed, with their legs broken in 

 traps." 



"Put them there himself, I dare say," rejoined Lord Mervyn, 

 " to accuse my men of killing them." 



" That, my lord," interposed Bob Conyers, " I'll answer for, 

 he never did." 



" And pray, who asked your opinion, Mr. Conyers ? " in- 

 quired Lord Mervyn. 



" I choose to express it, sir, in defence of an honest servant, 

 who is unjustly accused," retorted Bob. 



" Then, sir," replied Lord Mervyn, in a furious passion, " I 

 neither wish for your company, Mr. Beauchamp' s, his hounds, 

 or his whippers-in at any of my coverts again." 



" Glad to hear it, my lord ; an open foe is preferable to a 

 pretended friend ; and now you have taken up the cudgels 

 against half the county, we shall soon see who will be the first 

 to cry, ' Hold, enough.' " 



" I care neither for you, nor any of your ragamuffin fol- 

 lowers," replied Lord Mervyn, his passion carrying him beyond 

 all bounds. 



