A RUN WITH HARRIERS 153 



the proceedings and manoeuvres of the hunted animal. 

 The circle was at first wide, and the hare, with her pur- 

 suers, passed close under me at a rapid rate, there being 

 only a short distance between them. The next circle 

 was much more circumscribed, and poor pussy returned 

 jaded, fagged, and completely beaten to within twenty 

 yards of my position. The hounds were then some dis- 

 tance behind her. She ran forward for about a hundred 

 yards on the open down, then, carefully retracing her 

 steps, threw herself off her line, by a few faint bounds, 

 into a small ravine, where she lay, with her head turned 

 to face and watch the approach of her enemies. 



I never shall forget the intense anxiety I then exper- 

 ienced for the fate of this poor little hare, neither could 

 I forbear almost identifying myself with her feelings at 

 this agonizing and critical moment. I could realize 

 what my own sensations would have been had I been 

 flying from a band of Indian savages, and could hear their 

 yells, and see from my ambush their dark forms leaping 

 and bounding past, brushing the very bush in which I 

 lay. One by one they flit by me, leaving my hiding-place 

 undiscovered, screaming, shouting, with glaring eye-balls 

 flashing fire, and out-hanging tongues. My heart beats 

 audibly, painfully, from agitation ; and hope begins to 

 whisper, " They have passed away, never to return," 

 when, lo ! the grisly form of a fierce old savage, slow from 

 age, but with sly, stealthy looks cast around on every side, 

 appears in sight as a basilisk to arrest every faculty of 

 my mind, and hold me entranced as his eye met mine, 

 rendering me incapable of further movement. His 

 cautious, fiend-like gaze has in a moment detected my 

 recumbent form, and, with a cry echoing far and wide, he 

 springs upon me with a sudden bound. His grasp is 



Mf 



