LIFE AT ELLERAY. 91 



but suddenly three horsemen double a turn in the road, and come 

 flying into sight with the speed of a hurricane, manifestly in pursuit 

 of the fugitive bull : the bull labors to navigate his huge bulk to 

 the moor, which he reaches, and then pauses, panting, and blowing 

 out clouds of smoke from his nostrils, to look back from his station 

 amongst rocks and slippery crags upon his hunters. If he had con- 

 ceited that the rockiness of the ground had secured his repose, the 

 foolish bull is soon undeceived ; the horsemen, scarcely relaxing 

 their speed, charge up the hill, and speedily gaining the rear of the 

 bull, drive him at a gallop over the worst part of that impracticable 

 ground down into the level ground below. At this point of time 

 the stranger perceives, by the increasing light of the morning, that 

 the hunters are armed with immense spears fourteen feet long. 

 "With these the bull is soon dislodged, and scouring down to the 

 plain below, he and the hunters at his tail take to the common at 

 the head of the lake, and all, in the madness of the chase, are soon 

 half ingulfed in the swamps of the morass. After plunging together 

 for ten or fifteen minutes, all suddenly regain the terra Jirma, and 

 the bull again makes for the rocks. Up to this moment there had 

 been the silence of ghosts ; and the stranger had doubted whether 

 the spectacle were not a pageant of aerial spectres, ghostly hunts- 

 men, ghostly lances, and a ghostly bull. But just at this crisis, a 

 voice (it was the voice of Mr. Wilson) shouted aloud, ' Turn the 

 villaiu ; turn that villain ; or he will take to Cumberland.' The 

 young stranger did the service required of him ; the villain was 

 turned and fled southwards ; the hunters, lance in rest, rushed after 

 him ; all bowed their thanks as they fled past ; the fleet cavalcade 

 again took the high road ; they doubled the cape which shut them 

 out of sight ; and in a moment all had disappeared, and left the 

 quiet valley to its original silence, whilst the young stranger and 

 two grave Westmoreland ' statesmen' (who by this time had come 

 into sight upon some accident or other) stood wondering in silence, 

 and saying to themselves, perhaps, 



' The earth hath bubbles as the water hath ; 

 And these are of them I' 



" But they were no bubbles : the bull was a substantial bull ; and 

 took no harm at all from being turned out occasionally at midnight 

 for a chase of fifteen or eighteen miles. The bull, no doubt, used to 



