Page:Once a Week Volume 8.djvu/338

330 And the peer rode off to have a talk with some other tenant perhaps, far too well contented with the present, to regret those bygone days when one of his rank could have said, “Give thy best steed, as a vassal ought;” or when the “villains” doffed their caps in gaping wonder as his ancestor rode forth upon the chase, possessed possibly of the chartered privilege of ripping one of them open for a foot-warmer, should he feel so disposed.

We had now arrived at the meeting-place, where the hounds were gathered about the huntsmen, who now and then flacked their long whips, and loudly called in some one which was straggling too far from the pack. There were a few carriages, whose occupants had driven over to see the meet, and a field of about a hundred and fifty horsemen, including perhaps half-a-dozen ladies.

Precisely at the appointed time the hounds were thrown off, and the field streamed through a narrow gate into a farm roadway, following the pack to some neighbouring covert. Our party soon became separated, but I could see Anton and Lady Caroline ahead, and Delapierre riding near to Miss Morland. Danvers had taken up with some neighbours, and was somewhere close to the hounds. Miss Keith and I, with Mrs. Linton and the groom, were in the ruck of horsemen, in about the middle of the field.

I think I felt much as a man does who is going into battle for the first time—with no desire to turn back, but with something like a shrinking from the work before me. However, as my horse warmed under me while he strode at an easy canter across the soft fields of young wheat, and as I watched the flushing cheeks of my fair companion, who I began to feel certain would not return, the excitement of the scene overmastered every other consideration, and I felt that exuberant satisfaction, the mere recollection of which made me so scornfully reject Pope’s philosophy at the outset of this paper.

On we streamed in a line more than a quarter of a mile in length, following the unmade road, and although many rode over the fields, no one refused to make use of the gaps and gateways, husbanding their horses’ strength for the run. Our way led across a narrow railway bridge, which was crowded for a long time with horsemen, but having passed this, the green road became wider, the gates less frequent, and we could only keep our places with our horses at a gallop. After we had proceeded thus for about three miles from the meeting-place, the hounds were turned into a large wood, where there seemed little doubt of their finding a fox. At this point Mrs. Linton declared her intention of returning home, and commending Miss Keith to my care, which, so far as my power would go, was a work of supererogation, she with some difficulty turned her horse’s head and left us, followed by the groom.

Although I had never sat a horse for a leap in my life, and had more than a suspicion that I should break my neck or something less important, I never felt more pleasurably excited than when the first whimper of the hounds announced that they had found, and my fair companion and I galloped up to take a better place in the run. Soon the tones of the dogs changed their key, and, although we could not see them, we knew quite well that the fox had broken cover, and that the hounds were in full cry after him.

“Now, Mr. Templar, you go first,” said Miss Keith; and my horse was directly at his fullest stride, making towards a low hedge, over which the huntsmen were rising and falling in quick succession. I felt at that moment about as comfortable as if I had been charging a column of infantry, but I had sense enough to understand that Rover knew far more about it than I did; and following Lord, whom I knew to be a well-mounted and experienced chasseur, I made for the same gap towards which he was riding.

I saw his horse rise and dip down again on the other side, quickly regaining his stride, and before I could complete a wish that I was in his lordship’s position, Rover rose under me; my feet had a strong inclination to go towards the sky, and my head to take refuge upon his tail; my seat was just, and only just, firm enough to restrain me from going off backwards. I was far from having recovered myself, when a precisely opposite tendency occurred, and I had the greatest difficulty to prevent myself from embracing Rover’s graceful neck. However, the jump was over, and after one stride I was firmly seated again, and looked round just in time to see Miss Keith take the hedge in fine style. She joined me, laughing at my danger, but assuring me at the same time, to my great delight, that if that was my first jump I had sat it out very well indeed.

On we rode, galloping past a poor fellow who, muddy and hatless, was running after his horse, which was already nearly the whole length of the enclosure ahead of him. Miss Keith and I were at least well mounted; and, although I believe firmly that Rover knew how inexperienced I was, I think he was gratified by my confidence in him, for I only used the reins to check him to the pace of Miss Keith’s horse. We had passed ten or twelve meadows—since the leap—through more inviting gates, and had already left the bulk of the field behind. And now I caught sight of the fox and his pursuers, for we were gently descending over a great breadth of pasture to a ditch, which I could see made a long leap for the hounds. We were in the rear of some of our party, but still well up, and it appeared to me that this brook would be the test for awarding the honours of the hunt.

The fox, with the hounds close at his brush, was breasting the opposite incline, Reynard making for a large wood which lay about two miles distant on the top of the ridge; the field was straggling, and only now and then one cleared the ditch. I saw Danvers take it among the first; Lady Caroline was urging her mare towards it, and as her ladyship was about the most imponderable being ever seen among womanhood, and knew her horse well, I was not surprised to see her fly across. But Anton was less fortunate: his horse refused to take the leap, and the gallant guardsman—too firm a rider to be thrown over its head—slid off, grasping the animal’s withers in his fall. Before we reached