96 IOX-HOUXD, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



Covert ; and to pull up hot and excited, as the hounds swam 

 the swollen current of the Wreake, and gained the covert 

 beyond. Half swimming, half wading, wholly wet, the field 

 followed through what is generally a ford. Men tucked their 

 legs on to their horses' necks. Fair ladies allowed the muddy 

 water to touch only such portion of their apparel as they 

 nowadays purchase from Peel and Tautz. But neither sex was 

 spared by the yellow flood, which tried hard to sweep them 

 bodily down-stream. And their perils and difficulties had only 

 just begun when five-and-twenty minutes from the start. 

 Now they found that Reynard had played them the unhandsome 

 trick of recrossing the river immediately beyond the covert ; 

 and, as soon as a crawling puffing luggage train allowed them, 

 they had to avail themselves of the railway and its bridge, in 

 order to get back over the stream. By this time hounds had 

 disappeared somewhere in the direction of Melton: and, though 

 riders made all haste to double out of the railway, over a heap 

 of sleepers and the thorn fence at the foot of the embankment, 

 the next mile or two was only a gallop on guess. 



They got news, but no sight, as they passed by Wyndham 

 Lodge and the outskirts of the town ; but it was several minutes 

 more before they found the pack hunting busily among the 

 lines of railway that converge into Melton from the west. 

 Their fox had rounded the town, and now sought refuge in 

 confusion. Already there was a babel of sound and signal. 

 Porters, platelayers, and signalmen flocked forth from every 

 side to shout and help. Red flags were waved to protect the 

 pack ; green ones to attract the huntsman whither the fox had 

 gone. White gates were thrown open for the passage of all 

 who could cross the first iron way, to venture into the most 

 curious labyrinth that ever foxhunting entered. Queer excava- 

 tions had to be jumped ; bits of old thorn or timber fences still 

 blocked the way between embankments and cuttings ; and at 

 every few yards it seemed as if the Hunt was fairly entrapped. 

 Now came a lofty banked line which for the moment threatened 

 to put an end to all further progress ; till someone discovered a 



