A SHARP BURST AND A HARD RUN. 99 



upon the binding. But the viscount was too knowing ; 

 and probably his impetuous and obstinate mood would 

 not have suffered him in any event to pull up. As it 

 was, he did what was unquestionably for the best, 

 kept him held hard but spurred him right onward 

 through the deep, and by a vigorous and well-timed 

 lift carried the Smolensko clear over the hedge, though 

 his heels tipped it, as he landed safely. 



Still he had taken something, if it were but a little, 

 out of his horse, and as much Fairfax had saved, and 

 two or three of the old hands nodded their approba- 

 tion. 



The whole of the first flight got over safely, but two 

 or three crashes in the rear, and a stray horse or two 

 coming up riderless, with flowing reins and flying 

 stirrups, showed that the field was already thinning 

 rapidly. The next field was one of the worst in 

 Leicestershire to gallop over cleverly — an old piece of 

 grass, which would have been wet had it not been 

 laid down in very deep furrows, almost as deep as 

 grips, and steep, high-backed ridges, dotted and broken 

 up by mole-hills. Instinct led Fairfax, for certainly 

 he had never seen, much less ridden across a field in 

 the least degree like that before, to lay his horse a 

 little diagonally across the furrows, and he of course 

 did so to the left, bringing him still closer to the line 

 of the leading hound, and as he raised his eyes he ob- 

 served that the others had done the like, and so felt 

 that he had done well. His horse, too, a great advan- 

 tage, evidently was a made hunter, and knew tho- 

 roughly what he was about, being previously accus- 

 tomed to such ground, so that he got along very well, 

 skimming over the furrows in his stride, and alighting 

 stout and steady on the crown of every ridge. His 

 good fortune, of which in this instance he was not un- 

 aware, for he perceived himself deficient in the pecu- 

 liar qualities of hand and horsemanship which would 



