32 THE MASTER OF THE HOtTNBS. 



have my drives cut to pieces, and my hares and pheasants driven 

 all over the country by your confounded dogs." 



" The remedy, my lord," replied Beauchamp, " lies in your 

 own hands ; you can forbid the hounds drawing your coverts at 

 all, which is a mere form I would readily dispense with, as we 

 seldom find a fox there." 



" That is no concern of mine, Mr. Beauchamp ; if foxes 

 don't fancy my woods, I can't help their taste ; they are free to 

 come and go when they like, I suj)pose ?" 



" I wish this were the case, my lord j but your keeper's 

 motto is. Vestigia nulla retrorsum.^^ 



" He tells me, sir," replied Lord Mervyn, " that he never 

 destroys a fox, and I believe him." 



" Then who does, my lord ? since two dead foxes were found 

 buried in the field close to your home wood, last week." 



" By whom, sir ? I wish to know who dared to be prowling 

 about my chief preserve 1 " inquired Lord Mervyn, becoming 

 very excited. 



" The person who found them," replied Beauchamp, very 

 coolly, " was my whipper-in, who was sent in search of a stray 

 hound, and called at your keeper's house, to inquire if he had 

 /geen him^ and in riding across the field, his horse stumbling over 

 some loose earth, the roan dismounted, and then he found a 

 brace of dead foxes, recently killed, with their legs broken in 

 traps." 



"Put them there himself, I dare say," rejoined Lord Mervyn, 

 " to accuse my men of killing them." 



" That, my lord," interposed Bob Conyers, " I'll answer for, 

 he never did." 



" And pray, who asked your opinion, Mr. Conyers ? " in- 

 quired Lord Mervyn. 



" I choose to express it, sir, in defence of an honest servant, 

 who is unjustly accused," retorted Bob. 



" Tlien, sir," replied Lord Mervyn, in a furious passion, " I 

 neither wish for your company, Mr. Beauchamp' s, his hounds, 

 or his whippers-in at any of my coverts again." 



" Glad to hear it, my lord ; an open foe is preferable to a 

 pretended friend ; and now you have taken up the cudgels 

 against half the county, we shall soon see who will be the first 

 to cry, * Hold, enough.' " 



" I care neither for you, nor any of your ragamuffin fol- 

 lowers," replied Lord Mervyn, his passion carrying him beyond 

 all bounds. 



