48 THE LIFE OF A FOX 



retreated, but no farther than I was obliged to do, 

 according to the plan I always adopted when 

 distressed or nearly run down. 



The distance I had run, straight ahead from 

 where I started, was found to be twenty-seven miles. 

 One of the four or five men who came in said that 

 they must have changed their fox when the hounds 

 ran through these large coverts. The reply was 

 that it was scarcely possible, as they never once 

 broke out of the road and rides, within which the 

 fox had kept during the whole time. 



It was now dark, and the hounds had full forty 

 miles to return to their own kennel. I had reason, 

 however, to know that they stopped that night 

 half way, at the Drove Kennel ; for during the 

 night I had returned back as far as I could to 

 the place whence I came, and intended to remain 

 there ; but all the middle of the next day I heard 

 the sound of the horn which I had so often heard 

 during the severe run I had had the day before, 

 and which it appears was blown with the hope 

 of its being heard by two hounds that were missed 

 the night before, having come to the earth and 

 remained some time after the pack had gone away. 

 On hearing the horn I soon left my kennel, and, 

 though very stiff, was obliged to make the best use 



