226 DOGS 



seems to play with his pursuers. As you stand on 

 some knoll in a clearing you catch flying glimpses 

 of him through the tree stems : now he is bounding 

 as if the hounds were on his haunches ; then he pulls 

 up and bends his head to listen. The clamorous 

 little beagles come nearer and nearer. With a 

 leap he is across the ride and tearing through the 

 opposite thicket. I rather believe that he knows 

 that water drowns scent, and takes advantage of 

 any streamlet that comes in his way. Independently 

 of the difference in length of legs, in any case the 

 beagles are hard put to it ; if they cannot wriggle 

 under the thickets, they have no weight to break 

 through. But their clamorous and inveterate per- 

 severance absorbs the roe's attention, and unless a 

 friendly whiff of tainted air gives him warning he 

 forgets to look out for the guns. He comes glancing 

 through the boughs beneath that knoll, where you 

 stand sheltering behind the pine : rolls over to a 

 charge behind the shoulder, and you are very sorry 

 you have shot him when you look into those beautiful 

 eyes, quivering and closing in the dimness of death. 

 You vow you will never be guilty of such another 

 murder, and you never are — till the next time. 

 Then the little beagles come straggling up one by 

 one — panting, with tongues hanging out, after their 

 tremendous exertions — with burrs and fir-needles 

 clinging to their ears, and their sleek coats torn by 

 the thorns, smeared here and there with blood- 

 streaks. For though there is a breed of rough 

 beagles, as a rule they are smooth, and Nature 



