FOX-HUNTING 



been beforehand with thee ; and the earths are 

 stopped. 



* One moment he sits down to meditate, and 

 scratches those trusty counsellors, his ears, as if 

 he would tear them off, ** revolving swift thoughts 

 in a crafty mind." He has settled it now. He is 

 up and off— and at what a pace ! Out of the 

 way. Fauns and Hamadryads, if any be left in 

 the forest. What a pace ! And with what a grace 

 beside ! 



* Oh Reinecke, beautiful thou art, of a surety, 

 in spite of thy great naughtiness. Art thou some 

 fallen spirit, doomed to be hunted for thy sins in 

 this life, and in some future life rewarded for 

 thy swiftness, and grace, and cunning by being made 

 a very messenger of immortals? Who knows? 

 Not I. I am rising fast to Pistol's vein. Shall I 

 ejaculate? Shall I notify? Shall I awaken the echoes? 

 Shall I break the grand silence by that scream which 

 the vulgar view-halloo call? It is needless; for louder 

 and louder every moment swells up a sound which 

 makes my heart leap into my mouth, and my mare 

 into the air. . . . 



' Music ! Well-beloved soul of Hullah, would 

 that thou wert here this day, and not in St. 

 Martin's Hall, to hear that chorus, as it pours 

 round the fir-stems, rings against the roof above, 

 shatters up into a hundred echoes, till the air is 

 live with sound! You love Madrigals, or what- 



37 F 



