46 WARWICK WOODLANDS. 



up ! No ! no ! he waves his hat and points this way ! Can 

 he have missed? No! he has got a fox! — he lifts it out 

 by the brush — there must have been two, then, on foot 

 together. He has done it well to get that he has killed 

 away, or they would have stopped on him! 



Hush! the leaves rustle here besides me, with a quick 

 patter — the twigs crackle — it is he! Move not for your 

 life, Peacock! There! he has broken cover fairly! Now 

 he is half across the field ! he stops to listen ! Ah ! he will 

 head again. No! no! that crash, when they came upon 

 the warm blood, has decided him — away he goes, with his 

 brush high, and its white tag brandished in the sunshine 

 — now I may halloa him away. 



"Whoop! gone awa-ay! whoop!" 



I was answered on the instant by Harry's quick — 



"Hark holloa ! get awa-ay ! to him hark ! to him hark ! 

 hark holloa !" 



Most glorious Artemis, what heaven-stirring music! 

 And yet there are but poor six couple; the scent must be 

 as hot as fine, for every hound seems to have twenty 

 tongues, and every leaf an hundred echoes ! How the 

 boughs crash again ! Lo ! they are here ! Bonny Belle 

 leading — head and stern up, with a quick panting yelp! 

 Blossom, and Dangerous, and Dauntless scarcely a length 

 behind her, striving together, neck and neck; and, by 

 St. Hubert, it must be a scent of twenty thousand, for 

 here these heavy Southrons are scarcely two rods behind 

 them. 



But fidget not, good Peacock ! fret not, most excellent 

 Pythagoras ! one moment more, and I am not the boy to 

 baulk you. And here comes Harry on the gray ; by 

 George! he makes the brushwood crackle! Now for a 

 nasty leap out of the tangled swamp! a high six-barred 

 fence of rough trees, leaning toward him, and up hill ! 

 surely he will not try it ! 



Will he not though ? 



See! — his rein is tight yet easy! his seat, how beautiful, 

 how firm, yet how relaxed and graceful ! Well done, in- 

 deed! He slacks his rein one instant as the gray rises! 

 the rugged rails are cleared, and the fii-m pull supports 

 him! but Harry moves not in the saddle — no! not one 

 hair's breath ! A five foot fence to him is nothing ! You 

 shall not see the slightest variation between his attitude 



