A SHARP BURST AND A HARD RUN. 97 



less to the left of tlie pack, which were bearing slightly 

 to the left, while Magher, Beaufort, Campbell, Good- 

 ricke, Holjoke, and Alvanley, lay close at the right 

 hand of the tail hounds, though a few yards astern of 

 them. Matuschevitz and Fairfax lay yet further to 

 the right, but the latter was almost abreast of the 

 leading hounds, having kept his line quite straight, 

 instead of bearing to the southward, by which he had 

 gained something in headway, though he had increased 

 nis distance from the pack. At this moment Jardi- 

 nier came next yet farther to the right, standing up 

 in his stirrups, and pointing forward with his hunting- 

 whip toward the next fence, as if to challenge Fairfax, 

 to whom, either from jealousy or the mere natural 

 perversity of his temper, he seemed to have taken an 

 instinctive dislike. 



Some fifty or sixty yards to the rear of this the 

 first flight, came fifteen or twenty others, who, though 

 many of them capital horsemen and bold riders, had 

 lost time and way through indecision, by riding for 

 the gateway instead of breasting the ox-fence, and it 

 was clear enough that if the scent held and the present 

 pace were to be kept up they would have all they 

 could do to maintain their present ground, without 

 gaining on their leaders. 



Half a mile to the left, or the southward, the bulk 

 of the field, who had chosen the western edge of the 

 gorse at the throw ofi", might be seen to the number 

 of two hundred scarlet jackets, with a sprinkling of 

 green, indicative of Ned Christian and his burly bro- 

 ther yeomen, and a few neat black cut-a-ways, well to 

 the front of these latter — for who ever saw a fox-hunt- 

 ing parson who did not fly the first soar — were seen 

 streaming straight away in a line nearly parallel to 

 the course taken by the fox, though somewhat favored 

 by the southwardly inclination of his line, and hoping 

 175 



