WILY'S STORY 41 



and rowing in triumph round their victim, I took 

 an opportunity of crossing the water on another 

 side and escaped, resolving never in swimming to 

 encounter the same risk again. Nothing worth 

 relating occurred until towards the beginning of 

 the following winter. It is true that I was often 

 induced to move and to quit the wood in which I 

 lay, owing to my being disturbed by the hounds ; 

 but as they never followed me far, and were stopped 

 by the whipper-in when I left the covert, it was 

 evident they came on purpose to hunt young cubs ; 

 I therefore took care to retire to a gorse-covert 

 near Sutton Common, where none were bred, much 

 to the regret of the owner, a Rev. Baronet, who is 

 one of our greatest friends, as no keeper of his 

 would dare to destroy a fox without pain of losing 

 his place. Here I remained quiet for some months, 

 till one morning I was waked by the noise of 

 Foster the huntsman ; and shortly afterwards the 

 whimpering of a hound told me that he was on the 

 scent left by my footsteps on my way to my kennel, 

 although it was where I had passed before day, and 

 several hours had gone by. I was led by the wind 

 that day to take them over a country seldom if ever 

 gone over by them before, namely, Wolmer Forest, 

 crossing one or two rivers, from extreme dread of 



