WARWICK WOODLANDS. 131 



narratable particulars, would appear but as a repetition of the 

 last, to the mere listener to make a long tale short, on the 

 third day he doubled back, took us directly over the same 

 ground and in the middle of the day, on Saturday, was roused 

 in view by the leading hounds, from the same little swamp in 

 which the five had harbored during the early winter. No man 

 was near the hounds when he broke covert. But fat Tom, who 

 had been detached from the party to bring up provisions from 

 the village, was driving in his sleigh steadily along the road, 

 when the sharp chorus of the hounds aroused him. A minute 

 after, the lame scoundrel limped across the turnpike, scant thir- 

 ty yards before him. Alas ! Tom had but his double-barrel, 

 one loaded with buck shot, the other merely prepared for part- 

 ridge he blazed away, however, but in vain ! Out came ten 

 couple on his track, hard after him ; and old Tom, cursing his 

 bad luck, stood to survey the chase across the open. 



" Strange was the felon's fate ! The first fence, after he had 

 crossed the road, was full six feet in height, framed of huge split 

 logs, piled so close together that, save between the two topmost 

 rails, a small dog even could have found no passage. Full at this 

 opening the wolf dashed, as fresh, Tom said, as though he had 

 not run a yard ; but as he struggled through it, his efforts shook 

 the top rails from the yokes, and the huge piece of timber falling 

 across his loins, pinned him completely ! At a mile off I heard 

 his howl myself, and the confused and savage hubbub, as the 

 hounds front and rear, assailed him. 



" Hampered although he was, he battled it out fiercely ay, 

 heroically as six of our best hounds maimed for life, and one 

 slain outright, testified. 



" Heavens ! how the fat man scrambled across the fence ! he 

 reached the spot, and, far too much excited to reload his piece 

 and quietly blow out the fierce brute's brains, fell to belaboring 

 him about the head with his gun-stock, shouting the while and 

 yelling ; so that the din of his tongue, mixed with the snails 

 and long howls of the mangled savage, and the fierce baying of 

 the dogs, fairly alarmed me, as I said before, at a mile's distance ! 



" As it chanced, Timothy was on the road close by, with Pea- 

 cock ; I caught sight of him, mounted, and spurred on fiercely 

 to the rescue ; but when I reached the hill's brow, all was over. 

 Tom, puffing and panting like a grampus in shoal water, covered 

 garments and face and hands with lupine gore, had finished 

 his huge enemy, after he had destroyed his gun, with what he 



