20 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



escape. Claxton took the hmt, lost no time, and 

 making for tlie game preserve, climbed and tumbled 

 over sucli cover- palings into the Moathouse Wood, as, 

 had he not supposed that he was pursued, he never 

 would have attempted. Augustus ran, and then strode 

 off in another direction, and, knowing something of 

 the country, got into a field that did not belong to us, 

 but unfortunately not out of sight. Having detained 

 the men in explanation as long as possible, I at 

 last permitted myself to comprehend the affair, and 

 sent one home to his master to say I would look to 

 it, and invited the other to accompany me in pursuit 

 of the man we still saw, but who had taken from me 

 any power to capture him, or an^^thing belonging to 

 him, he not being then on the Cranford lands. How- 

 ever, I went up, and very high words passed be- 

 tween us, ending with an exchange of cards, and a 

 mutual determination to meet at daylight the next 

 morning, in a saw-pit, with double-barrelled pistols, 

 crammed with slugs ! We moodily separated, going 

 different waj's home to breakfast at Cranford ; and 

 the labourer strode off home to his master, with 

 an evident idea of justices of peace, and constables, 

 and the prevention of our next morning's murder. 

 We had not long finished a very merry breakfast, 

 when the farmer rode into the court-yard, to know 

 all about it, and to tell my mother that ray safety 

 had better be looked to. Telling him, of course, as 

 little as I pleased, and saying I felt under some 

 constraint in regard to the circumstances, with 

 rather a serious quarrel on my hands, I pledged 

 him to secresy for the present, and assuring him he 

 should hear further, bade him good morning. His 

 "hearing further," of course, was, that I had been 



