268 MANAGEMENT OF HOUNDS. 



that is your affair ; this was alwa3's a favourite place for 

 foxes before you came, and I am satisfied in my own 

 mind that you kill them ; nothing that you can say will 

 alter my opinion. Instead, therefore, of drawing your 

 coverts once a month, I will draw them once a fortnight, 

 and at the end of the season (when pheasants ramble so 

 much) once a week, if possible, so that you will lose 

 more pheasants that way than by foxes. Your master 

 tells me you have the strictest orders from him to pre- 

 serve them, and find them I will, or drive every pheasant 

 out of the covert." " Did master tell you this, Sir ?" 

 said the keeper. " Yes," I said, " he has, and many 

 other gentlemen also." " Well, then," he said, " I don't 

 like to be blamed in this manner, and if you will promise 

 to keep it secret, I will let you know something more 

 about the business ; but you must first promise me that 

 you will never say a word to any living man whilst I am 

 here, or I shall lose my place." " Your secret," I said, 

 will be safe with me ; and, for your satisfaction, it is not 

 the only one of this kind I am the keeper of." " Well, 

 then. Sir, I have secret orders from my master to kill 

 every fox I can." " Very well," I replied, we now un- 

 derstand each other, but I suspected this was the case 

 long ago." We almost always found a fox there after- 

 wards, but the keeper had a difficult game to play., as he 

 often told me, to satisfy his master — but being thus let 

 behind the scenes, I helped him out, although his secret 

 was never divulged by me, nor has it been, until now, 

 notwithstanding he has long since been consigned to that 

 place where many of his victims lie buried. 



A true sportsman once remarked of the country I 

 hunted, " What with fellows who preserve foxes and 



