CHAPTER THIRTY FOX-HUNTING 



their cry come nearer, he came quietly and leisurely along, 

 till he reached the track where we had crossed the corrie; 

 when, cautiously stopping with his nose to the ground, he 

 changed his careless manner of running to a quick canter, 

 halting now and then, and snuffing the air,to find out where 

 the enemy was concealed. Just then, too, the hounds ap- 

 peared to have turned to our direction, and another fox 

 came in view, entering the corrie to my right hand at a 

 great pace, and making directly towards me, though still 

 at a mile's distance. The first fox had approached within 

 sixty or seventy yards of the fox-hunter, when I saw a 

 small stream of smoke issue from the rocks, and the fox 

 staggered a little, and then I heard the report of the gun. 

 The foxes both rushed down the hill again, away from us, 

 one evidently wounded; when, the echo of the shot sound- 

 ing in every direction, first on one side of the corrie, then 

 on another, and then apparently on every side at once, 

 fairly puzzled the poor animals. The wounded fox turned 

 back again, and ran straight towards where the fox-hunter 

 was,while the other came towards me. He was within shot, 

 and I was only waiting till he got to an open bit of ground, 

 over which I saw he must pass, when the hounds appeared 

 in full cryat the mouth ofthe corrieby which he had entered. 

 Reynard stopped to look; and stretching up his head and 

 neck to do so, gave me a fair shot at about sixty yards off. 

 The next moment he was stretched dead, with my ball 

 through him; while the other, quite bewildered, ran almost 

 between the legs of my fellow-chasseur, and then turned 

 back towards the dogs; who, meeting him full in the face, 

 wounded as he was, soon caught and slew him. In a short 

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