BREAKING COVERT.
"There's a double ditch and bank that will do as well," Miss Tristram
had said when she was informed that there was no gate out of the
wood at the side on which the fox had broken. The gentleman who had
tendered the information might as well have held his tongue, for Miss
Tristram knew the wood intimately, was acquainted with the locality
of all its gates, and was acquainted also with the points at which it
might be left, without the assistance of any gate at all, by those
who were well mounted and could ride their horses. Therefore she had
thus replied, "There's a double ditch and bank that will do as well."
And for the double ditch and bank at the end of one of the grassy
roadways Miss Tristram at once prepared herself.
"That's the gap where Grubbles broke his horse's back," said a man in
a red coat to Peregrine Orme, and so saying he made up his wavering
mind and galloped away as fast as his nag could carry him. But
Peregrine Orme would not avoid a fence at which a lady was not afraid
to ride; and Felix Graham, knowing little but fearing nothing,
followed Peregrine Orme.
At the end of the roadway, in the middle of the track, there was the
gap. For a footman it was doubtless the easiest way over the fence,
for the ditch on that side was half filled up, and there was space
enough left of the half-broken bank for a man's scrambling feet; but
Miss Tristram at once knew that it was a bad place for a horse. The
second or further ditch was the really difficult obstacle, and there
was no footing in the gap from which a horse could take his leap. To
the right of this the fence was large and required a good horse, but
Miss Tristram knew her animal and was accustomed to large fences. The
trained beast went well across on to the bank, poised himself there
for a moment, and taking a second spring carried his mistress across
into the further field apparently with ease. In that field the dogs
were now running, altogether, so that a sheet might have covered
them; and Miss Tristram, exulting within her heart and holding in her
horse, knew that she had got away uncommonly well.
Peregrine Orme followed,--a little to the right of the lady's
passage, so that he might have room for himself, and do no mischief
in the event of Miss Tristram or her horse making any mistake at
the leap. He also got well over. But, alas! in spite of such early
success he was destined to see nothing of the hunt that day! Felix
Graham, thinking that he would obey instructions by letting his horse
do as he pleased, permitted the beast to come close upon Orme's track
and to make his jump before Orme's horse had taken his second spring.
"Have a care," said Peregrine, feeling that the two were together on
the bank, "or you'll shove me into the ditch." He however got well
over.
Felix, attempting to "have a care" just when his doing so could be
of no avail, gave his horse a pull with the curb as he was preparing
for his second spring. The outside ditch was broad and deep and well
banked up, and required that an animal should have all his power. It
was at such a moment as this that he should have been left to do his
work without injudicious impediment from his rider. But poor Graham
was thinking only of Orme's caution, and attempted to stop the beast
when any positive and absolute stop was out of the question. The
horse made his jump, and, crippled as he was, jumped short. He came
with his knees against the further bank, threw his rider, and then in
his struggle to right himself rolled over him.
Felix felt at once that he was much hurt--that he had indeed come to
grief; but still he was not stunned nor did he lose his presence of
mind. The horse succeeded in gaining his feet, and then Felix also
jumped up and even walked a step or two towards the head of the
animal with the object of taking the reins. But he found that he
could not raise his arm, and he found also that he could hardly
breathe.
Both Peregrine and Miss Tristram looked back. "There's nothing
wrong I hope," said the lady; and then she rode on. And let it be
understood that in hunting those who are in advance generally do
ride on. The lame and the halt and the wounded, if they cannot pick
themselves up, have to be picked up by those who come after them. But
Peregrine saw that there was no one else coming that way. The memory
of young Grubbles' fate had placed an interdict on that pass out
of the wood, which nothing short of the pluck and science of Miss
Tristram was able to disregard. Two cavaliers she had carried with
her. One she had led on to instant slaughter, and the other remained
to look after his fallen brother-in-arms. Miss Tristram in the mean
time was in the next field and had settled well down to her work.
"Are you hurt, old fellow?" said Peregrine, turning back his horse,
but still not dismounting.
"Not much, I think," said Graham, smiling. "There's something wrong
about my arm,--but don't you wait." And then he found that he spoke
with difficulty.
"Can you mount again?"
"I don't think I'll mind that. Perhaps I'd better sit down." Then
Peregrine Orme knew that Graham was hurt, and jumping off his own
horse he gave up all hope of the hunt.
"Here, you fellow, come and hold these horses." So invoked, a boy who
in following the sport had got as far as this ditch did as he was
bid, and scrambled over. "Sit down, Graham: there; I'm afraid you
are hurt. Did he roll on you?" But Felix merely looked up into his
face,--still smiling. He was now very pale, and for the moment could
not speak. Peregrine came close to him, and gently attempted to raise
the wounded limb; whereupon Graham shuddered, and shook his head.
"I fear it is broken," said Peregrine. Graham nodded his head, and
raised his left hand to his breast; and Peregrine then knew that
something else was amiss also.
I don't know any feeling more disagreeable than that produced by
being left alone in a field, when out hunting, with a man who has
been very much hurt and who is incapable of riding or walking.
The hurt man himself has the privilege of his infirmities and may
remain quiescent; but you, as his only attendant, must do something.
You must for the moment do all, and if you do wrong the whole
responsibility lies on your shoulders. If you leave a wounded man on
the damp ground, in the middle of winter, while you run away, five
miles perhaps, to the next doctor, he may not improbably--as you
then think--be dead before you come back. You don't know the way;
you are heavy yourself, and your boots are very heavy. You must stay
therefore; but as you are no doctor you don't in the least know what
is the amount of the injury. In your great trouble you begin to roar
for assistance; but the woods re-echo your words, and the distant
sound of the huntsman's horn, as he summons his hounds at a check,
only mocks your agony.
But Peregrine had a boy with him. "Get upon that horse," he said at
last; "ride round to Farmer Griggs, and tell them to send somebody
here with a spring cart. He has got a spring cart I know;--and a
mattress in it."
"But I hain't no gude at roiding like," said the boy, looking with
dismay at Orme's big horse.
"Then run; that will be better, for you can go through the wood. You
know where Farmer Griggs lives. The first farm the other side of the
Grange."
"Ay, ay, I knows where Farmer Griggs lives well enough."
"Run, then; and if the cart is here in half an hour I'll give you a
sovereign."
Inspirited by the hopes of such wealth, golden wealth, wealth for a
lifetime, the boy was quickly back over the fence, and Peregrine was
left alone with Felix Graham. He was now sitting down, with his feet
hanging into the ditch, and Peregrine was kneeling behind him. "I am
sorry I can do nothing more," said he; "but I fear we must remain
here till the cart comes."
"I am--so--vexed--about your hunt," said Felix, gasping as he spoke.
He had in fact broken his right arm which had been twisted under him
as the horse rolled, and two of his ribs had been staved in by the
pommel of his saddle. Many men have been worse hurt and have hunted
again before the end of the season, but the fracture of three bones
does make a man uncomfortable for the time. "Now the cart--is--sent
for, couldn't you--go on?" But it was not likely that Peregrine Orme
would do that. "Never mind me," he said. "When a fellow is hurt he
has always to do as he's told. You'd better have a drop of sherry.
Look here: I've got a flask at my saddle. There; you can support
yourself with that arm a moment. Did you ever see horses stand so
quiet. I've got hold of yours, and now I'll fasten them together. I
say, Whitefoot, you don't kick, do you?" And then he contrived to
picket the horses to two branches, and having got out his case of
sherry, poured a small modicum into the silver mug which was attached
to the apparatus and again supported Graham while he drank. "You'll
be as right as a trivet by-and-by; only you'll have to make Noningsby
your headquarters for the next six weeks." And then the same idea
passed through the mind of each of them;--how little a man need be
pitied for such a misfortune if Madeline Staveley would consent to be
his nurse.
[Illustration: Felix Graham in trouble.]
No man could have less surgical knowledge than Peregrine Orme, but
nevertheless he was such a man as one would like to have with him if
one came to grief in such a way. He was cheery and up-hearted, but at
the same time gentle and even thoughtful. His voice was pleasant and
his touch could be soft. For many years afterwards Felix remembered
how that sherry had been held to his lips, and how the young heir of
The Cleeve had knelt behind him in his red coat, supporting him as he
became weary with waiting, and saying pleasant words to him through
the whole. Felix Graham was a man who would remember such things.
In running through the wood the boy first encountered three horsemen.
They were the judge, with his daughter Madeline and Miss Furnival.
"There be a mon there who be a'most dead," said the boy, hardly able
to speak from want of breath. "I be agoing for Farmer Griggs' cart."
And then they stopped him a moment to ask for some description, but
the boy could tell them nothing to indicate that the wounded man
was one of their friends. It might however be Augustus, and so the
three rode on quickly towards the fence, knowing nothing of the
circumstances of the ditches which would make it out of their power
to get to the fallen sportsman.
But Peregrine heard the sound of the horses and the voices of the
horsemen. "By Jove, there's a lot of them coming down here," said he.
"It's the judge and two of the girls. Oh, Miss Staveley, I'm so glad
you've come. Graham has had a bad fall and hurt himself. You haven't
a shawl, have you? the ground is so wet under him."
"It doesn't signify at all," said Felix, looking round and seeing the
faces of his friends on the other side of the bank.
Madeline Staveley gave a slight shriek which her father did not
notice, but which Miss Furnival heard very plainly. "Oh papa," she
said, "cannot you get over to him?" And then she began to bethink
herself whether it were possible that she should give up something of
her dress to protect the man who was hurt from the damp muddy ground
on which he lay.
"Can you hold my horse, dear," said the judge, slowly dismounting;
for the judge, though he rode every day on sanitary considerations,
had not a sportsman's celerity in leaving and recovering his saddle.
But he did get down, and burdened as he was with a great-coat, he
did succeed in crossing that accursed fence. Accursed it was from
henceforward in the annals of the H. H., and none would ride it but
dare-devils who professed themselves willing to go at anything.
Miss Tristram, however, always declared that there was nothing in
it--though she avoided it herself, whispering to her friends that she
had led others to grief there, and might possibly do so again if she
persevered.
"Could you hold the horse?" said Madeline to Miss Furnival; "and I
will go for a shawl to the carriage." Miss Furnival declared that to
the best of her belief she could not, but nevertheless the animal was
left with her, and Madeline turned round and galloped back towards
the carriage. She made her horse do his best though her eyes were
nearly blinded with tears, and went straight on for the carriage,
though she would have given much for a moment to hide those tears
before she reached it.
"Oh, mamma! give me a thick shawl; Mr. Graham has hurt himself in the
field, and is lying on the grass." And then in some incoherent and
quick manner she had to explain what she knew of the accident before
she could get a carriage-cloak out of the carriage. This, however,
she did succeed in doing, and in some manner, very unintelligible
to herself afterwards, she did gallop back with her burden. She
passed the cloak over to Peregrine, who clambered up the bank to get
it, while the judge remained on the ground, supporting the young
barrister. Felix Graham, though he was weak, was not stunned or
senseless, and he knew well who it was that had procured for him that
comfort.
And then the carriage followed Madeline, and there was quite a
concourse of servants and horses and ladies on the inside of the
fence. But the wounded man was still unfortunately on the other side.
No cart from Farmer Griggs made its appearance, though it was now
more than half an hour since the boy had gone. Carts, when they are
wanted in such sudden haste, do not make their appearance. It was two
miles through the wood to Mr. Griggs's farm-yard, and more than three
miles back by any route which the cart could take. And then it might
be more than probable that in Farmer Griggs's establishment there was
not always a horse ready in harness, or a groom at hand prepared to
yoke him. Peregrine had become very impatient, and had more than once
invoked a silent anathema on the farmer's head; but nevertheless
there was no appearance of the cart.
"We must get him across the ditches into the carriage," said the
judge.
"If Lady Staveley will let us do that," said Peregrine.
"The difficulty is not with Lady Staveley but with these nasty
ditches," said the judge, for he had been up to his knees in one of
them, and the water had penetrated his boots. But the task was at
last done. Mrs. Arbuthnot stood up on the back seat of the carriage
so that she might hold the horses, and the coachman and footman got
across into the field. "It would be better to let me lie here all
day," said Felix, as three of them struggled back with their burden,
the judge bringing up the rear with two hunting-whips and Peregrine's
cap. "How on earth any one would think of riding over such a place as
that!" said the judge. But then, when he had been a young man it had
not been the custom for barristers to go out hunting.
Madeline, as she saw the wounded man carefully laid on the back seat
of the carriage, almost wished that she could have her mother's place
that she might support him. Would they be careful enough with him?
Would they remember how terrible must be the pain of that motion to
one so hurt as he was? And then she looked into his face as he was
made to lean back, and she saw that he still smiled. Felix Graham was
by no means a handsome man; I should hardly sin against the truth if
I were to say that he was ugly. But Madeline, as she looked at him
now lying there utterly without colour but always with that smile on
his countenance, thought that no face to her liking had ever been
more gracious. She still rode close to him as they went down the
grassy road, saying never a word. And Miss Furnival rode there also,
somewhat in the rear, condoling with the judge as to his wet feet.
"Miss Furnival," he said, "when a judge forgets himself and goes out
hunting he has no right to expect anything better. What would your
father have said had he seen me clambering up the bank with young
Orme's hunting-cap between my teeth? I positively did."
"He would have rushed to assist you," said Miss Furnival, with a
little burst of enthusiasm which was hardly needed on the occasion.
And then Peregrine came after them leading Graham's horse. He had
been compelled to return to the field and ride both the horses back
into the wood; one after the other, while the footman held them. That
riding back over fences in cold blood is the work that really tries
a man's nerve. And a man has to do it too when no one is looking on.
How he does crane and falter and look about for an easy place at such
a moment as that! But when the blood is cold, no places are easy.
The procession got back to Noningsby without adventure, and Graham
as a matter of course was taken up to his bed. One of the servants
had been despatched to Alston for a surgeon, and in an hour or
two the extent of the misfortune was known. The right arm was
broken--"very favourably," as the doctor observed. But two ribs were
broken--"rather unfavourably." There was some talk of hæmorrhage and
inward wounds, and Sir Jacob from Saville Row was suggested by Lady
Staveley. But the judge, knowing the extent of Graham's means, made
some further preliminary inquiries, and it was considered that Sir
Jacob would not be needed--at any rate not as yet.
"Why don't they send for him?" said Madeline to her mother with
rather more than her wonted energy.
"Your papa does not think it necessary, my dear. It would be very
expensive, you know."
"But, mamma, would you let a man die because it would cost a few
pounds to cure him?"
"My dear, we all hope that Mr. Graham won't die--at any rate not at
present. If there be any danger you may be sure that your papa will
send for the best advice."
But Madeline was by no means satisfied. She could not understand
economy in a matter of life and death. If Sir Jacob's coming would
have cost fifty pounds, or a hundred, what would that have signified,
weighed in such a balance? Such a sum would be nothing to her father.
Had Augustus fallen and broken his arm all the Sir Jacobs in London
would not have been considered too costly could their joint coming
have mitigated any danger. She did not however dare to speak to her
mother again, so she said a word or two to Peregrine Orme, who was
constant in his attendance on Felix. Peregrine had been very kind,
and she had seen it, and her heart therefore warmed towards him.
"Don't you think he ought to have more advice, Mr. Orme?"
"Well, no; I don't know. He's very jolly, you know; only he can't
talk. One of the bones ran into him, but I believe he's all right."
"Oh, but that is so frightful!" and the tears were again in her eyes.
"If I were him I should think one doctor enough. But it's easy enough
having a fellow down from London, you know, if you like it."
"If he should get worse, Mr. Orme--." And then Peregrine made her a
sort of promise, but in doing so an idea shot through his poor heart
of what the truth might really be. He went back and looked at Felix
who was sleeping. "If it is so I must bear it," he said to himself;
"but I'll fight it on;" and a quick thought ran through his brain of
his own deficiencies. He knew that he was not clever and bright in
talk like Felix Graham. He could not say the right thing at the right
moment without forethought. How he wished that he could! But still he
would fight it on, as he would have done any losing match,--to the
last. And then he sat down by Felix's head, and resolved that he
would be loyal to his new friend all the same--loyal in all things
needful. But still he would fight it on.