92 THE LIFE OF A FOX 



Duke of Grafton's late huntsman, under whom he 

 had been whipper-in, and that he had been doing 

 much mischief amongst us, I lost no time in leaving 

 this large covert, and was soon followed by the pack, 

 which hunted me at a fair pace, until they had 

 followed me part of the way across a dry fallow 

 field. As my good luck would have it, there was 

 also another fallow in the direction which I had 

 gone, straight beyond. It seems that Stephen, the 

 huntsman, made one or two casts with his hounds 

 across each of these fallow fields without success. 

 In his anxiety not to lose, I suppose he forgot that 

 if the hounds could not hunt scent over one fallow 

 they could not over another. He omitted to hold 

 the hounds on and across the next field of wheat 

 beyond it, and took them back towards the covert 

 where I came from, and thus it was that I escaped ; 

 for after some remark was made to him on the 

 subject, he directly took the hounds back to the 

 field beyond the fallow ; they there got on my line 

 of scent, and after hunting slowly for a couple of 

 miles, fortunately for me gave it up ; otherwise, the 

 Une I had taken was so good that I might have 

 fallen a Adctim to this persevering and promising 

 young huntsman. After a little more experience 

 he will be a dangerous enemy of ours. 



