The Best Four teen- Han der in England. 201 



the village 5 and so she probably would have done, had not every- 

 thing conspired against me on this eventful morning. She turned 

 up the village lane as sharp as an eel - } and when T got a hundred 

 yards up it, who should I see cantering slowly along before me but 

 my friend the vet. He was perfectly astonished when he saw who 

 it was, as I galloped past him, and could hardly believe that I was 

 on the same mare that he had but a few days before pronounced 

 as quiet as a lamb. Anxious to see the end of this wild-goose chase, he 

 clapped spurs to his old Rozinante, and followed me. The clattering 

 of hoofs behind her sent my mare along, and in a few minutes I was 

 in the village, in the middle of which the church stood. Chunee Villa 

 was right opposite ; and just as the old nabob was coming out of his 

 gate, with his daughter on his arm, to cross over to the church, I 

 shot by him, closely followed by the vet., who was making des- 

 perate play with both whip and spurs to close in upon me. I saw 

 all, as it were, through a mist the country people who were as- 

 sembled in the churchyard waiting for the clergyman, stood amazed, 

 and the old officer, after remarking to his daughter " that it was the 

 most disgraceful scene he had ever witnessed in his life," led her 

 into the church. A little further on I met the clergyman and his 

 family. And now the mare, as if knowing that she had done all 

 the mischief she cared about, pulled up, and I jumped off just as 

 the vet. rode up and breathlessly inquired, " Why, whatever are 

 you up to, Master Tom ?" It was a little while before I could get 

 breath sufficiently to explain myself ; and then, to his astonishment, 

 he found that it was no " lark," as he at first imagined it to be. 



I dare not turn back till the people were well in church. We then 

 led both our horses home by a cross-country road, which passed the 

 back of my old friend's lodge, where I arrived in about an hour 

 after I had left it a rather different figure from what I was when 

 I last rode up to his door. The old gentleman had been in a state 

 of great anxiety till I returned. He had gone down to the turnpike- 

 gate to pick up a little news, and had taken care to measure the 

 jump, the tape showing from where the mare bated to where she 

 fell, measuring over the stile, just 23 feet, or only two less than Jack 



