me for such speculations; the hour of my own
trial was approaching. The roan was getting troublesome, the pace
was gradually working up her mettle; and she had given three or four
preparatory bounds, as though to see whether she'd part company with me
before she ran away or not. My own calculations at the moment were not
very dissimilar; I was meditating a rupture of the partnership too. The
matrix of a full-length figure of Arthur O'Leary in red clay was the
extent of any damage I could receive, and I only looked for a convenient
spot where I might fall unseen. As I turned my head on every side,
hoping for some secluded nook, some devil of a hunter, by way of
directing the dogs, gave a blast of his brass instrument about a hundred
yards before me. The thing was now settled; the roan gave a whirl of
her long vicious tail, plunged fearfully, and throwing down her head and
twisting it to one side, as if to have a peep at my confusion, away she
went. From having formed one of the rear-guard, I now closed up with the
main body--'aspirants' all--through whom I dashed like a catapult, and
notwithstanding repeated shouts of 'Pull in, sir!' 'Hold back!' etc, I
continued my onward course; a few seconds more and I was in the thick
of the scarlet coats, my beast at the stretch of her speed, and caring
nothing for the bridle. Amid a shower of _sacres_ that fell upon me
like hail, I sprang through them, making the 'red ones' black with every
stroke of my gallop. Leaving them far behind, I flew past the _grand
maitre_ himself, who rode in the van, almost upsetting him by a side
spring, as I passed--a malediction reaching me as I went; but the forest
soon received me in its dark embrace, and I saw no more.

It was at first a source of consolation to me to think that every
stride removed me from the reach of those whose denunciations I had so
unfortunately incurred; _grand maitre, chasseurs_, and 'aspirants'--they
were all behind me. Ay, for that matter, so were the dogs and the
_piqueurs_, and, for aught I knew, the fox with them. When I discovered,
however, that the roan continued her speed still unabated, I began to be
somewhat disconcerted. It was true the ground was perfectly smooth
and safe--a long _allee_ of the wood, with turf shorn close as a
pleasure-ground. I pulled and sawed the bit, I jerked the bridle, and
performed all the manual exercise I could remember as advised in such
extremities, but to no use. It seemed to me that