their gauzy medium that the eye strove to discover 

 the motions of the hunters below. Sometimes a 

 breath of wind made the scene visible, the blue 

 rill glittering as it twined itself through its rude 

 and solitary dell. They then could see the 

 shepherds springing with fearless activity from one 

 dangerous point to another, and cheering the dogs 

 on the scent, the whole so diminished by depth 

 and distance, that they looked like pigmies. 

 Again the mists close over them, and the only 

 signs of their continued exertions are the halloos 

 of the men and the clamours of the hounds, 

 ascending as it were out of the bowels of the 

 earth. When the fox, thus persecuted from one 

 stronghold to another, was at length obliged 

 to abandon his valley, and to break away for a 

 more distant retreat, those who watched his 

 motions from the top slipped their greyhounds, 

 which, excelling the fox in swiftness, and equalling 

 him in ferocity and spirit, soon brought the 



plunderer to his life's end. 



Walter Scott. 



126 



