256 THE CREAM OF LEICESTERSHIRE. [Season 



half a dozen were left ; when, at 3.50, a cub really left the 

 gorse, and the signal ran out for the mdefatigable pack. From 

 every bush of the gorse, which even in its ill-scenting humour 

 could not daunt them, they sprang to the horn and holloa ; and 

 spread the whole field to catch up the track they were told was 

 there. As straws launched into a stream they struck the 

 cuiTent, and converged in its flow. We talk of scent. We 

 know nothing even of its influence, its action, or its instinct. 

 The guiding magnetism that apjieals to a hound is an element 

 apart and inexplicable. Red herring nor violets could direct a 

 human nose : and that hounds should fling themselves on to 

 the scent of a fox is an allowed phenomenon. 



This, though, Avas not to be a run. The cub was beat 

 already; and sought only the sanctuary of his patron saint. 

 He reached the laurels of the Hall, and skirted its windows. 

 Huntsman and-jiarty clattered through the stableyard, to meet 

 the hounds beyond — only to find half of them puzzling round 

 the house — the others huddled up against the library lattice. 

 No doubt the fox liad jumped through the open window; the 

 hounds would not leave it ; old Wisdom was already inside ; 

 and the others could but with difficulty be prevented from 

 following her. Two or three ready horsemen were out of their 

 saddles in a moment, and into the Colonel's sanctum — searching 

 among iron safes, routing among the archives of the Burnaby 

 family, poking their whips behind rows of ancient volumes, 

 tr3dng every dark corner, and even probing the chimney. 

 Wisdom, too, sniifed about hither and thither, whimpering with 

 excitement. The frightened housemaids flocked in, and, as 

 soon as they were sufficiently recovered, aided dihgently in the 

 search. But nowhere could Reynard be found; and hounds 

 were taken back round the walls and through the shrubbery — 

 for it was certain that he must be hid close by. And so he 

 was. He had jumped at the window in his extremity, tm-ned 

 back from it, and found refuge in a hole in the kitchen gai'den. 

 A culvert, some twenty yards long, carried the sm-plus water 



