68 A TROT, AND A DINNER PARTY. 



take the hindmost, the wonder and admiration of the 

 young cog7ioseenti and trtrtoSa/tot of Melton broke out 

 into a loud hubbub of questions and answers, and odds 

 bet and taken, cries of surprise and admiration, not 

 less than of delight, at the occurrence of any thing 

 that should break the long and slow monotony of a 

 Melton Mowbray Sunday morning. 



Before they had cleared the first mile-stone, the oc- 

 cupants of the club windows were all on the steps or 

 in the street ; and happy they whose hacks were wait- 

 ing at the door, for as quick as they could grasp the 

 reins and mount without so much as setting foot in 

 stirrup, Jiey presto ! they were off at full gallop, ri- 

 ding as if for the dear life, in pursuit of Matuschevitz 

 and Cheshire, who were now literally spurring, and 

 unable at that to overtake the spanking square trot of 

 those rattlers — for there was not a particle of darting 

 or pointing in their regular and even step. The horse- 

 men had been perchance sixty or eighty yards behind 

 the wagon when it started, and though if abreast and 

 at their speed when the trotters passed the mile-stone, 

 they could undoubtedly have kept abreast with them, 

 even at that slashing pace, they had not a chance of 

 making up the lost way, nor did they gain upon them 

 a yard until they had shot past the second mile-stone 

 on the Lincoln turnpike, and had slackened their pace. 

 A minute or two afterward they had pulled up and 

 were standing stock still, champing their bits, tossing 

 their heads, and evidently by no means disinclined to 

 try another heat of it. 



The duke had jumped out of the wagon the moment 

 they stood still, and was now walking round them, ob- 

 serving every symptom of wind in their slightly heav- 

 ing flanks and wide-extended nostrils, but not one sign 

 could he discover of weariness or blowing after what 

 had seemed to him an extraordinary exertion, much 



