42 THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



few of our hardest riders are inclined to do so, and I 

 hope to live to see the plan generally adopted. The 

 difficulty appears to exist in procuring fellows with 

 brains in their heads to ride the second horses properly, so- 

 as to bring them up fresh. However, to proceed. Perhaps, 

 thinking I was on Harkaway, who is rather slack at his 

 fences, or, more likely, fearing we might drop short, I 

 rammed my spurs into the young one's sides, and he 

 jumped further than he need have done. He kept his legs- 

 on landing, but the third step he took afterwards, his toe 

 struck the top of one of those ant-hills with which that 

 part of Leicestershire abounds, and down he went on his 

 head. He rolled completely over me, and we lay on the 

 ground together. He was up first, however for I could 

 neither stir hand nor foot ; but it was only from the wind 

 being knocked out of me, and in a very few minutes I 

 caught him. Indeed, he was walking quietly away, with 

 his back turned upon the hounds, having very little puff 

 left in him ; in other words, he appeared regularly 

 pumped out. Nor did I like his appearance at all ; it 

 was anything but pleasing. His tail was shaking his 

 flanks worked violently his nostrils were much dis- 

 tended : there was that glare of the eye, also, which 

 horses exhibit when they are much overworked : and he 

 staggered as I leaned my weight on the stirrup. I stood 

 still for a moment, but could hear nothing. ' It's all 

 over,' said I ; ' they have run away from me ; I must go 

 home ; ' and I patted the young one on the neck, saying, 

 ' Well, you have gone a good one,' and walked him along 

 a headland to a gate which led to a hard road. Here he 

 struck into a trot, without being urged to it by me, which 

 plainly showed he was recovering himself ; and the 

 bleeding from his cheek had ceased. ' Hark ! ' said I ; 

 ' surely I hear the hounds; ' but Brilliant had heard them 

 before me. From a trot he struck into a gallop, and I 

 saw them about a mile ahead of me. ' The fox will not 

 long face this wind,' said I ; ' I have a chance of dropping 

 in with them yet. By Jove, they are coming round to 

 me ; he has turned short for Quenby. I shall catch them 

 at Newton village. What a tickler the nags must have 

 had over the Newton hills ! ' 



" As I predicted, I fell in with them in a road a little 

 beyond the village. There were eleven men with the 

 hounds, and I made the twelfth ; all the rest, as O'Kelly 



