236 



THE FOX. 



good Jesuit-Fathers at Stonyhurst, saw (as I have 

 stated in a former part of the autobiography) that, 

 nothing short of severe prohibition, could coerce 

 me, when I was bent upon a ramble amongst the 

 birds and beasts of the neighbourhood ; and fearing, 

 at the same time, that I should set a bad example 

 to the scholars, by transgressing the boundary 

 prescribed to them by the rules of the college, they 

 wisely determined to make me a privileged boy, by 

 constituting me both rat, and fox-catcher ; there 

 being no hounds kept in the neighbourhood. 



Armed with this authority, I was always on the 

 alert, when scholastic duties allowed me a little 

 relaxation ; and I became the scourge of noted 

 thieves, such as foumarts, stoats, weasles, and 

 Hanoverian rats. 



Once, it so happened, that Eeynard, (and 

 possibly other members of his family) had made an 

 excellent supper, on an unprotected flock of fine 

 young turkeys, about half grown ; — the property of 

 the establishment. Eight of these were missing 

 the next morning. It seems, that, after the four- 

 footed thief had satisfied his call of hunger, he 

 naturally bethought himself, that his wife and 

 children would like a bit of turkey for supper on 

 the following night : so he buried five of the 

 remaining victims, in an open garden which was 



