CHESTER'S STORY 95 



covert one day when I heard the voice of a man 

 who was hunting hounds which turned out to be 

 Mr. A^Hiite's, and as they were close to me before I 

 heard them, my only chance was to leave the 

 covert immediately ; but in the first field I was 

 met by some men on horseback who frightened me 

 back again. I was not seen by the hounds, which 

 ran out of the wood on my scent as far as I had 

 gone, but were turned back, not without a little 

 loss of time, which was a favourable occurrence for 

 me. I went straight through the wood and away 

 on the opposite side, and soon found that they 

 were after me. I kept on, but not in a straight 

 line, which rather puzzled the gentleman who was 

 hunting them. They came at length to a final 

 check, and could hunt no farther. I thought that 

 if Harden had been hunting them, there was one 

 cast which he would have made, and that was to 

 the left of the field where they lost the scent ; for 

 although each of the other sides were tried by cast- 

 ing the hounds that way twice over, they were 

 never taken once round beyond the field to the 

 left ; and to this I attribute by escape, for I was 

 nearly beaten, and it appeared that the pack which 

 I found such difficulty in shaking off and defeat- 

 ing by turning so short as I had done during the 



