So thoroughly was I tired out by the effects of the first day's fagging
I had undergone in many months, and so sound was the slumber into which
I sank the moment my head touched the pillow, that it scarcely seemed as
if five minutes had elapsed between my falling into sweet forgetfulness,
and my starting bolt upright in bed, aroused by the vociferous shout,
and ponderous tramping, equal to nothing less than that of a full-grown
rhinoceros, with which Tom Draw rushed, long before the sun was up, into
my chamber.
"What's this, what's this now?" he exclaimed; "why the plague arn't you
up and ready?--why here's the bitters mixed, and Archer in the stable
this half hour past, and Jem's here with the hounds--and you, you lazy
snorting Injun, wasting the morning here in bed!"
My only reply to this most characteristic salutation, was to hurl my
pillow slap in his face, and--threatening to follow up the missile with
the contents of the water pitcher, which stood temptingly within my
reach, if he did not get out incontinently--to jump up and array myself
with all due speed; for, when I had collected my bewildered thoughts, I
well remembered that we had settled on a fox-hunt before breakfast, as a
preliminary to a fresh skirmish with the quail.
In a few minutes I was on foot and in the parlor, where I found a bright
crackling fire, a mighty pitcher of milk punch, and a plate of biscuit,
an apt substitute for breakfast before starting; while, however, I was
discussing these, Archer arrived, dressed just as I have described him
on the preceding day, with the addition of a pair of heavy hunting
spurs, buckled on over his half-boots, and a large iron-hammered whip in
his right hand.
"That's right, Frank," he exclaimed, after the ordinary salutations of
the morning.
"Why that old porpoise told me you would not be ready these two hours;
he's grumbling out yonder by the stable door, like a hog stuck in a
farm-yard gate. But come, we may as well be moving, for the hounds are
all uncoupled, and the nags saddled--put on a pair of straps to your
fustian trowsers and take these racing spurs, though Peacock does not
want them--and now, hurrah!"
This was soon done, and going out upon the stoop, a scene--it is true,
widely different from the kennel door at Melton, or the covert side at
Billesdon Coplow, yet not by any means devoid of interest or animation--
presented itself to my eyes. About six couple of large heavy hounds,
with deep and pendant ears, heavy well-feathered sterns, broad chests,
and muscular strong limbs, were gathered round their feeder, the
renowned Jem Lyn; on whom it may not be impertinent to waste a word or
two, before proceeding to the mountain, which, as I learned, to my no
little wonder, was destined to be our hunting ground.
Picture to yourself, then, gentle reader, a small but actively formed
man, with a face of most unusual and portentous ugliness, an uncouth
grin doing the part of a smile; a pair of eyes so small that they would
have been invisible, but for the serpent-like vivacity and brightness
with which they sparkled from their deep sockets, and a profusion of
long hair, coal-black, but lank and uncurled as an Indian's, combed
smoothly down with a degree of care entirely out of keeping with the
other details, whether of dress or countenance, on either cheek. Above
these sleek and cherished tresses he wore a thing which might have
passed for either cap or castor, at the wearer's pleasure; for it was
wholly destitute of brim except for a space some three or four inches
wide over the eye-rows; and the crown had been so pertinaciously and
completely eaten in, that the sides sloped inward at the top, as if to
personate a bishop's mitre; a fishing line was wound about this graceful
and, if its appearance belied it not most foully, odoriferous headdress;
and into the fishing line was stuck the bowl and some two inches of the
shank of a well-sooted pipe. An old red handkerchief was twisted
rope-wise about his lean and scraggy neck, but it by no means sufficed
to hide the scar of what had evidently been a most appalling gash,
extending right across his throat, almost from ear to ear, the great
cicatrix clearly visible like a white line through the thick stubble of
some ten days' standing that graced his chin and neck.
An old green coat, the skirts of which had long since been docked by the
encroachment of thorn-bushes and cat-briers, with the mouth-piece of a
powder-horn peeping from its breast pocket, and a full shot-belt
crossing his right shoulder; a pair of fustian trowsers, patched at the
knees with corduroy, and heavy cowhide boots completed his attire. This,
as it seemed, was to be our huntsman; and Booth to say, although he did
not look the character, he played the part, when he got to work, right
handsomely. At a more fitting season, Harry in a few words let me into
this worthy's history and disposition. "He is," he said, "the most
incorrigible rascal I ever met with--an unredeemed and utter vagabond;
he started life as a stallion-leader, a business which he understands--
as in fact he does almost every thing else within his scope--thoroughly
well. He got on prodigiously!--was employed by the first breeders in the
country!--took to drinking, and then, in due rotation, to gambling,
pilfering, lying, every vice, in short, which is compatible with utter
want of any thing like moral sense, deep shrewdness, and uncommon
cowardice.
"He cut his throat once--you may see the scar now--in a fit of delirium
tremens, and Tom Draw, who, though he is perpetually cursing him for the
most lying critter under heaven, has, I believe, a sort of fellow
feeling for him--nursed him and got him well; and ever since he has hung
about here, getting at times a country stallion to look after, at others
hunting, or fishing, or doing little jobs about the stable, for which
Tom gives him plenty of abuse, plenty to eat, and as little rum as
possible, for if he gets a second glass it is all up with Jem Lyn for a
week at least.
"He came to see me once in New York, when I was down upon my back with a
broken leg--I was lying in the parlor, about three weeks after the
accident had happened. Tim Matlock had gone out for something, and the
cook let him in; and, after he had sat there about half an hour, telling
me all the news of the races, and making me laugh more than was good for
my broken leg, he gave me such a hint, that I was compelled to direct
him to the cupboard, wherein I kept the liquor-stand; and unluckily
enough, as I had not for some time been in drinking tune, all three of
the bottles were brimful; and, as I am a Christian man, he drank in
spite of all I could say--I could not leave the couch to get at him--two
of them to the dregs; and, after frightening me almost to death, fell
flat upon the floor, and lay there fast asleep when Tim came in again.
He dragged him instantly, by my directions, under the pump in the
garden, and soused him for about two hours, but without producing the
least effect, except eliciting a grunt or two from this most seasoned
cask.
"Such is Jem Lyn, and yet, absurd to say, I have tried the fellow, and
believe him perfectly trustworthy--at least to me!
"He is a coward, yet I have seen him fight like a hero more than once,
and against heavy odds, to save me from a threshing, which I got after
all, though not without some damage to our foes, whose name might have
been legion.
"He is the greatest liar I ever met with; and yet I never caught him in
a falsehood, for he believes it is no use to tell me one.
"He is most utterly dishonest, yet I have trusted him with sums that
would, in his opinion, have made him a rich man for life, and he
accounted to the utmost shilling; but I advise you not try the same, for
if you do he most assuredly will cheat you!"
Among the heavy looking hounds, which clustered round this hopeful
gentleman, I quickly singled out two couple of widely different breed
and character from the rest; your thorough high-bred racing fox-hounds,
with ears rounded, thin shining coats, clean limbs, and all the marks of
the best class of English hounds.
"Aye! Frank," said Archer, as he caught my eye fixed on them, "you have
found out my favorites. Why, Bonny Belle, good lass, why Bonny Belle!--
here Blossom, Blossom, come up and show your pretty figures to your
countryman! Poor Hanbury--do you remember, Frank, how many a merry day
we've had with him by Thorley Church, and Takely forest?--poor Hanbury
sent them to me with such a letter, only the year before he died; and
those, Dauntless and Dangerous, I had from Will, Lord Harewood's
huntsman, the same season!"
"There never was sich dogs--there never was afore in Orange," said Tom.
"I will say that, though they be English; and though they be too fast
for fox, entirely, there never was sich dogs for deer"
"But how the deuce," I interrupted, "can hounds be too fast, if they
have bone and stanchness!"
"Stanchness be darned; they holes them!"
"No earthstoppers in these parts, Frank," cried Harry; "and as the
object of these gentlemen is not to hunt solely for the fun of the
thing, but to destroy a noxious varmint, they prefer a slow, sure,
deep-mouthed dog, that does not press too closely on Pug, but lets him
take his time about the coverts, till he comes into fair gunshot of
these hunters, who are lying perdu as he runs to get a crack at him."
"And pray," said I, "is this your method of proceeding?"
"You shall see, you shall see; come get to horse, or it will be late
before we get our breakfast, and I assure you I don't wish to lose
either that, or my day's quail-shooting. This hunt is merely for a
change, and to get something of an appetite for breakfast. Now, Tim, be
sure that every thing is ready by eight o'clock at the latest--we shall
be in by that time with a furious appetite."
Thus saying he mounted, without more delay, his favorite, the gray;
while I backed, nothing loth, the chestnut horse; and at the same time
to my vast astonishment, from under the long shed out rode the mighty
Tom, bestriding a tall powerful brown mare, showing a monstrous deal of
blood combined with no slight bone--equipped with a cavalry bridle, and
strange to say, without the universal martingal; he was rigged just as
usual, with the exception of a broad-brimmed hat in place of his fur
cap, and grasped in his right hand a heavy smooth-bored rifle, while
with the left he wheeled his mare, with a degree of active skill, which
I should certainly have looked for any where rather than in so vast a
mass of flesh as that which was exhibited by our worthy host.
Two other sportsmen, grave, sober-looking farmers, whom Harry greeted
cheerily by name, and to whom in all due form I was next introduced,
well-mounted, and armed with long single-barreled guns, completed our
party; and away we went at a rattling trot, the hounds following at
Archer's heels, as steadily as though he hunted them three times a week.
"Now arn't it a strange thing," said Tom, "arn't it a strange thing, Mr.
Forester, that every critter under Heaven takes somehow nat'rally to
that are Archer--the very hounds--old Whino there! that I have had these
eight years, and fed with my own hands, and hunted steady every winter,
quits me the very moment he claps sight on him; by the eternal, I
believe he is half dog himself."
"You hunted them indeed," interrupted Harry, "you old rhinoceros, why
hang your hide, you never so much as heard a good view-holloa till I
came up here--you hunted them--a man talk of hunting, that carries a
cannon about with him on horseback; but come, where are we to try first,
on Rocky Hill, or in the Spring Swamps?"
"Why now I reckon, Archer, we'd best stop down to Sam Blain's--by the
blacksmith's--he was telling t'other morning of an eternal sight of them
he'd seen down hereaway--and we'll be there to rights!--Jem, cus you,
out of my way, you dumb nigger--out of my way, or I'll ride over you"--
for, traveling along at a strange shambling run, that worthy had
contrived to keep up with us, though we were going fully at the rate of
eight or nine miles in the hour.
"Hurrah!" cried Tom, suddenly pulling up at the door of a neat
farm-house on the brow of a hill, with a clear streamlet sweeping round
its base, and a fine piece of woodland at the farther side. "Hurrah! Sam
Blain, we've come to make them foxes, you were telling of a Sunday,
smell h-ll right straight away. Here's Archer, and another Yorker with
him--leastwise an Englisher I should say--and Squire Conklin, and Bill
Speers, and that white nigger Jem! Look sharp, I say! Look sharp, cuss
you, else we'll pull off the ruff of the old humstead."
In a few minutes Sam made his appearance, armed, like the rest, with a
Queen Ann's tower-musket.
"Well! well!" he said, "I'm ready. Quit making such a clatter! Lend me a
load of powder, one of you; my horn's leaked dry, I reckon!"
Tom forthwith handed him his own, and the next thing I heard was Blain
exclaiming that it was "desperate pretty powder," and wondered if it
shot strong.
"Shoot strong? I guess you'll find it strong enough to sew you up, if
you go charging your old musket that ways!" answered Tom. "By the Lord,
Archer, he's put in three full charges!"
"Well, it will kill him, that's all!" answered Harry, very coolly; "and
there'll be one less of you. But come! come! let's be bustling; the
sun's going to get up already. You'll leave your horses here, I suppose,
gentlemen, and get to the old stands. Tom Draw, put Mr. Forester at my
old post down by the big pin-oak at the creek side; and you stand there,
Frank, still as a church-mouse. It's ten to one, if some of those
fellows don't shoot him first, that he'll break covert close by you, and
run the meadows for a mile or two, up to the turnpike road, and over it
to Rocky hill--that black knob yonder, covered with pine and hemlock.
There are some queer snake fences in the flat, and a big brook or two,
but Peacock has been over every inch of it before, and you may trust in
him implicitly. Good bye! I'm going up the road with Jem to drive it
from the upper end."
And off he went at a merry trot, with the hounds gamboling about his
stirrups, and Jem Lyn running at his best pace to keep up with him. In a
few minutes they were lost behind a swell of woodland, round which the
road wheeled suddenly. At the same moment Tom and his companions
reappeared from the stables where they had been securing their
four-footed friends; and, after a few seconds, spent in running ramrods
down the barrels to see that all was right, inspecting primings, knapping
flints, or putting on fresh copper caps, it was announced that all was
ready; and passing through the farm-yard, we entered, through a set of
bars, a broad bright buckwheat stubble. Scarcely an hundred yards had we
proceeded, before we sprung the finest bevy of the largest quail I had
yet seen, and flying high and wild crossed half-a-dozen fields in the
direction of the village, whence we had started, and pitched at length
into an alder brake beside the stream.
"Them chaps has gone the right way," Tom exclaimed, with a deep sigh,
who had with wondrous difficulty refrained from firing into them, though
he was loaded with buckshot; "right in the course we count to take this
forenoon. Now, Squire, keep to the left here, take your station by the
old earths there away, under the tall dead pine; and you, Bill, make
tracks there, straight through the middle cart-way, down to the other
meadow, and sit you down right where the two streams fork; there'll be
an old red snooping down that side afore long, I reckon. We'll go on,
Mr. Forester; here's a big rail fence now; I'll throw off the top rail,
for be darned if I climb any day when I can creep--there, that'll do, I
reckon; leastwise if you can ride like Archer--he d--ns me always if I
so much as shakes a fence afore he jumps it--you've got the best horse,
too, for lepping. Now let's see! Well done! well done!" he continued,
with a most boisterous burst of laughter--"well done, horse, any how!"--
as Peacock, who had been chafing ever since he parted from his comrade
Bob, went at the fence as though he were about to take it in his stroke
--stopped short when within a yard of it, and then bucked over it,
without touching a splinter, although it was at least five feet, and
shaking me so much, that, greatly to Tom's joy, I showed no little
glimpse of day-light.
"I reckon if they run the meadows, you'll hardly ride them, Forester,"
he grinned; "but now away with you. You see the tall dark pin oak, it
hasn't lost one leaf yet; right in the nook there of the bars you'll
find a quiet shady spot, where you can see clear up the rail fence to
this knob, where I'll be. Off with you, boy--and mind you now, you keep
as dumb as the old woman when her husband cut her tongue out, 'cause she
had too much jaw."
Finishing his discourse, he squatted himself down on the stool of a
large hemlock, which, being recently cut down, cumbered the woodside
with its giant stem, and secured him, with its evergreen top now lowly
laid and withering, from the most narrow scrutiny; while I, giving the
gallant horse his head, went at a brisk hand-gallop across the firm
short turf of the fair sloping hill-side, taking a moderate fence in my
stroke, which Peacock cleared in a style that satisfied me Harry had by
no means exaggerated his capacity to act as hunter, in lieu of the less
glorious occupation, to which in general he was doomed.
In half a minute more I reached my post, and though an hour passed
before I heard the slightest sound betokening the chase, never did I
more thoroughly enjoy an hour.
The loveliness of the whole scene before me--the broad rich sweep of
meadowland lying, all bathed in dew, under the pale gray light of an
autumnal morning, with groups of cattle couched still between the trees
where they had passed the night; the distant hills, veiled partially in
mist, partially rearing their round leafy heads toward the brightening
sky; and then the various changes of the landscape, as slowly the day
broke behind the eastern hill; and all the various sounds of bird, and
beast, and insect, which each succeeding variation of the morning served
to call into life as if by magic. First a faint rosy flush stole up the
eastern sky, and nearly at the self-same moment, two or three vagrant
crows came flapping heavily along, at a height so immeasurable that
their harsh voices were by distance modified into a pleasing murmur. And
now a little fish jumped in the streamlet; and the splash, trifling as
it was, with which he fell back on the quiet surface, half startled me.
A moment afterward an acorn plumped down on my head, and as I looked up,
there sat, on a limb not ten feet above me, an impudent rogue of a gray
squirrel, half as big as a rabbit, erect upon his haunches, working away
at the twin brother of the acorn he had dropped upon my hat to break my
reverie, rasping it audibly with his chisel-shaped teeth, and grinning
at me just as coolly as though I were a harmless scare-crow.
When I grew tired of observing him, and looked toward the sky again,
behold the western ridge, which is far higher than the eastern hills,
had caught upon its summits the first bright rays of the yet unseen
day-god; while the rosy flush of the east had brightened into a blaze of
living gold, exceeded only by the glorious hues with which a few bright
specks of misty cloud glowed out against the azure firmament, like coals
of actual fire. Again a louder splash aroused me; and, as I turned,
there floated on a glassy basin, into which the ripples of a tiny fall
subsided, three wood-ducks, with a noble drake, that loveliest in
plumage of all aquatic fowl, perfectly undisturbed and fearless,
although within ten yards of their most dreaded enemy.
How beautiful are all their motions! There! one has reared herself half
way out of the water; another stretches forth a delicate web foot to
scratch her ear, as handily as a dog on dry land; and now the drake
reflects his purple neck to preen his ruffled wing, and now--bad luck to
you, Peacock, why did you snort and stamp?--they are off like a bullet,
and out of sight in an instant.
And now out comes the sun himself, and with him the accursed hum of a
musquitoe--and hark! hush!--what was that?--was it? By Heavens! it was
the deep note of a fox-hound! Aye! there comes Harry's cheer, faintly
heard, swelling up the breeze.
"Have at him, there! Ha-a-ve at him, good lads!"
Again! again! those are the musical deep voices of the slow hounds! They
have a dash in them of the old Southern breed! And now! there goes the
yell! the quick sharp yelping rally of those two high-bred bitches. By
heaven! they must be viewing him! How the woods ring and crash!
"Together hark! Together hark! Together! For-ra-ard, good lads, get
for-a-ard! Hya-a-araway!"
Well halloaed, Harry! I could swear to that last screech, out of ten
thousand, though it is near ten years since I last heard it! But
heavens! how they press him! Hang it! there goes a shot--the squire has
fired at him, as he tried the earths! Now, if he have but missed him,
and Pan, the god of hunters, send it so, he has no chance but to try the
open.
By Jove he has! he must have missed! for Bonny Belle and Blossom are
raving half a mile this side of him already. And now Tom sees him--how
quietly he steals up to the fence. There! he has fired! and all our
sport is up! No! no! he waves his hat and points this way! Can he have
missed? No! he has got a fox!--he lifts it out by the brush--there must
have been two, then, on foot together. He has done it well to get that
he has killed away, or they would have stopped on him!
Hush! the leaves rustle here beside me, with a quick patter--the twigs
crackle--it is he! Move not! not for your life, Peacock! There! he has
broken cover fairly! Now he is half across the field! he stops to
listen! Ah! he will head again. No! no! that crash, when they came upon
the warm blood, has decided him--away he goes, with his brush high, and
its white tag brandished in the sunshine--now I may halloa him away.
"Whoop! gone awa-ay! whoop!"
I was answered on the instant by Harry's quick--"Hark holloa! get
awa-ay! to him hark! to him hark! hark holloa!"
Most glorious Artemis, what heaven-stirring music! And yet there are but
poor six couple; the scent must be as hot as fire, for every hound seems
to have twenty tongues, and every leaf an hundred echoes! How the boughs
crash again! Lo! they are here! Bonny Belle leading--head and stern up,
with a quick panting yelp! Blossom, and Dangerous, and Dauntless
scarcely a length behind her, striving together, neck and neck; and, by
St. Hubert, it must be a scent of twenty thousand, for here these heavy
Southrons are scarcely two rods behind them.
But fidget not, good Peacock! fret not, most excellent Pythagoras! one
moment more, and I am not the boy to baulk you. And here comes Harry on
the gray; by George! he makes the brushwood crackle! Now for a nasty
leap out of the tangled swamp! a high six-barred fence of rough trees,
leaning toward him, and up hill! surely he will not try it!
Will he not though?
See!--his rein is tight yet easy! his seat, how beautiful, how firm, yet
how relaxed and graceful! Well done, indeed! He slacks his rein one
instant as the gray rises! the rugged rails are cleared, and the firm
pull supports him! but Harry moves not in the saddle--no! not one hair's
breadth! A five foot fence to him is nothing! You shall not see the
slightest variation between his attitude in that strong effort, and in
the easy gallop. If Tom Draw saw him now, he could have some excuse for
calling him "half horse"--and he does see him! hark to that most
unearthly knell! like unto nothing, either heavenly or human! He waves
his hat and hurries back as fast as he is able to the horses, well
knowing that for pedestrians at least, the morning's sport is ended.
Harry and I were now almost abreast, riding in parallel lines, down the
rich valley, very nearly at the top speed of our horses; taking fence
after fence in our stroke, and keeping well up with the hounds, which
were running almost mute, such was the furious speed to which the
blazing scent excited them.
We had already passed above two-thirds of the whole distance that
divides the range of woods, wherein we found him, and the pretty village
which we had constituted our head quarters, a distance of at least three
miles; and now a very difficult and awkward obstacle presented itself to
our farther progress, in the shape of a wide yawning brook between sheer
banks of several feet in height, broken, with rough and pointed stones,
the whole being at least five yards across. The gallant hounds dashed
over it; and, when we reached it, were half way across the grass field
next beyond it.
"Hold him hard, Frank," Harry shouted; "hold him hard, man, and cram him
at it!"
And so I did, though I had little hope of clearing it. I lifted him a
little on the snaffle, gave him the spur just as he reached the brink,
and with a long and swinging leap, so easy that its motion was in truth
scarce perceptible, he swept across it; before I had the time to think,
we were again going at our best pace almost among the hounds.
Over myself, I cast a quick glance back toward Harry, who, by a short
turn of the chase had been thrown a few yards behind me. He charged it
gallantly; but on the very verge, cowed by the brightness of the
rippling water, the gray made a half stop, but leaped immediately,
beneath the application of the galling spur; he made a noble effort, but
it was scarce a thing to be effected by a standing leap, and it was with
far less pleasure than surprise, that I saw him drop his hind legs down
the steep bank, having just landed with fore-feet in the meadow.
I was afraid, indeed, he must have had an ugly fall, but, picked up
quickly by the delicate and steady finger of his rider, the good horse
found some slight projection of the bank, whereby to make a second
spring. After a heavy flounder, however, which must have dismounted any
less perfect horseman, he recovered himself well, and before many
minutes was again abreast of me.
Thus far the course of the hunted fox had lain directly homeward, down
the valley; but now the turnpike road making a sudden turn crossed his
line at right angles, while another narrower road coming in at a
tangent, went off to the south-westward in the direction of the bold
projection, which I had learned to recognize as Rocky Hill; over the
high fence into the road; well performed, gallant horses! And now they
check for a moment, puzzling about on the dry sandy turnpike.
"Dangerous feathers on it now! Speak to it! speak to it, good hound!"
How beautiful that flourish of the stern with which he darts away on the
recovered scent; with what a yell they open it once again! Harry was
right, he makes for Rocky Hill, but up this plaguey lane, where the
scent lies but faintly. Now! now! the road turns off again far westward
of his point! He may, by Jove! And he has left it!
"Have at him then, lads; he is ours!"
And lo! the pace increases. Ha! what a sudden turn, and in the middle
too of a clear pasture.
"Has he been headed, Harry?"
"No, no; his strength is failing."
And see! he makes his point again toward the hill; it is within a
quarter of a mile, and if he gain it we can do nothing with him, for it
is full of earths. But he will never reach it. See! he turns once again;
how exquisitely well those bitches run it; three times he has doubled,
now almost as short as a hare, and they, running breast-high, have
turned with him each time, not over-running it a yard.
See how the sheep have drawn together into phalanx yonder, in that bare
pasture to the eastward; he has crossed that field for a thousand! Yes,
I am right. See! they turn once again. What a delicious rally! An
outspread towel would cover those four leading hounds--now Dauntless has
it; has it by half a neck.
"He always goes up when a fox is sinking," Harry exclaimed, pointing
toward him with his hunting whip.
Aye! he has given up his point entirely; he knew he could not face the
hill. Look! look at those carrion crows! how low they stoop over that
woody bank. That is his line. Here is the road again. Over it once more
merrily! and now we view him.
"Whoop! Forra-ard, lads, forra-ard!"
He cannot hold five minutes; and see, there comes fat Tom pounding that
mare along the road as if her fore-feet were of hammered iron; he has
come up along the turnpike, at an infernal pace, while that turn favored
him; but he will only see us kill him, and that, too, at a respectful
distance.
Another brook stretches across our course, hurrying to join the greater
stream along the banks of which we have so long been speeding; but this
is a little one; there! we have cleared it cleverly. Now! now! the
hounds are viewing him. Poor brute! his day is come. See how he twists
and doubles, Ah! now they have him! No! that short turn has saved him,
and he gains the fence--he will lie down there! No! he stretches
gallantly across the next field--game to the last, poor devil! There!
"Who-whoop! Dead! dead! who-whoop!"
And in another instant Harry had snatched him from the hounds, and
holding him aloft displayed him to the rest, as they came up along the
road.
"A pretty burst," he said to me, "a pretty burst, Frank, and a good
kill; but they can't stand before the hounds, the foxes here, like our
stout islanders; they are not forced to work so hard to gain their
living. But now let us get homeward; I want my breakfast, I can tell
you, and then a rattle at the quail. I mean to get full forty brace
to-day, I promise you."
"And we," said I, "have marked down fifteen brace already toward it;
right in the line of our beat, Tom says."
"That's right; well, let us go on."
And in a short half hour we were all once again assembled about Tom's
hospitable board, and making such a breakfast, on every sort of eatable
that can be crowded on a breakfast table, as sportsmen only have a right
to make; nor they, unless they have walked ten, or galloped half as many
miles, before it.
Before we had been in an hour, Harry once again roused us out. All had
been, during our absence, fully prepared by the indefatigable Tim; who,
as the day before, accoutered with spare shot and lots of provender,
seemed to grudge us each morsel that we ate, so eager was he to see us
take the field in season.
Off we went then; but what boots it to repeat a thrice told tale;
suffice it, that the dogs worked as well as dogs can work; that birds
were plentiful, and lying good; that we fagged hard, and shot on the
whole passably, so that by sunset we had exceeded Harry's forty brace by
fifteen birds, and got beside nine couple and a half of woodcock; which
we found, most unexpectedly, basking themselves in the open meadow,
along the grassy banks of a small rill, without a bush or tree within
five hundred yards of them.
Evening had closed before we reached the well known tavern-stand, and
the merry blaze of the fire, and many candles, showed us, while yet far
distant, that due preparations were in course for our entertainment.
"What have we here?" cried Harry, as we reached the door--"Race horses?
Why, Tom, by heaven! we've got the Flying Dutchman here again; now for a
night of it."
And so in truth it was, a most wet, and most jovial one, seasoned with
no small wit; but of that, more anon.