1871—72.] COLONEL CHAPLIN's TtUN IN A FOG. 41 



the fog to get to them ; the rest of the fiekl groping their way 

 up wliile the chase was heing carried on in Skefiington Woods. 

 The fifteen minutes up to here was fast, but nobody saw it 

 properl}' ; and the scrambling start from John o' Gaunt was 

 simply lamentable in its disorder and disappointment. 



From this point the thread of narrative unwinds and divides 

 itself for a time, the two fibres reuniting and finally leading to 

 a common end ; in plain English, the pack split in half, each 

 part worked on its own line, at length they rejoined each other, 

 and the common end was an untimel}' one for bold Pteynard. 

 The story is not an easy one to tell ; and indeed, it was not for 

 some time afterwards that matters could be properly under- 

 stood. 



The woods were full of foxes, and they pushed one through 

 the labyrinthine depths of Skefiington and Tilton, round and 

 back again, out between the two after a lapse of time, and away 

 along the Tilton and Tugby bridle road in the valley. Scent 

 was indifi'erent, and the fox of a vacillating turn of mind. 

 Anxious to go away, he had not the heart to make a point, and 

 hung within hail of his native fastnesses, twisting to the left 

 below the woodlands. 



Meanwhile the other section of the pack had stuck persis- 

 tently to their old love : gave him not a moment's peace in 

 covert ; till, finding their attentions rather too marked to be 

 pleasant, he took advantage of the field having moved round 

 the wood to the other cry, and essayed to return from whence 

 he came. But this time the villagers of Tilton were fullj^ on the 

 qui five, had turned out in a bod}', and were formed round the 

 village like a body of francs-tireurs defending their hearths. 

 Consequently our furry friend (the adjective being thrown in 

 merely as a compliment, for his brush w-as as short of hair as a 

 soldier is of read}^ money) found the Avay blocked, and Avas 

 forced to alter his tactics. The eight or nine couple of hounds 

 wdiich got away on his track, without master or huntsmen, were 

 fortunate enough to pick up an M.F.H. on their road. Col. 

 Edward Chaplin had taken advantage of a non-hunting day 



