and that there was nothing for it but to dismount
and repair the evil; and I had scarcely concluded the best temporary
arrangement I was able to effect, when Lawless started in pursuit of
the cockneys. Almost at the same moment a countryman, stationed at the
outside of the gorse, shouted "Tally-ho!" and the fox broke cover in
gallant style, going away at a rattling pace, with four or five couple
of hounds on his traces. In an instant all was confusion, cigars were
thrown away, hats pressed firmly down upon the brow, and, with a rush
like the outburst of some mighty torrent, the whole field to a man swept
rapidly onward.

In the meanwhile Fanny's mare, which had for some minutes shown symptoms
of excitement, pawing the ground with her fore-foot, pricking up her
ears, and tossing her head impatiently, began, as Lawless rode off, to
plunge in a manner which threatened at every moment to unseat her rider,
and as several horsemen dashed by her, becoming utterly unmanageable,
she set off at a wild gallop, drowning in the clatter of her hoofs
Fanny's agonised cry for help. Driven nearly frantic by the ~337~~ peril
in which my sister was placed, I was even yet prevented for a minute or
more from hastening to her assistance, as my own horse, frightened by
the occurrences I have described, struggled so violently to follow his
companions as to render it very difficult for me to hold, and quite
impossible to remount, him, so that when at length I succeeded in
springing on his back, the hounds were already out of sight, and Fanny
and her runaway steed so far ahead of me, that it seemed inevitable
some accident must occur before I could overtake them, and it was with
a sinking heart that I gave my horse the rein, and dashed forward in
pursuit.

The course which Lawless had taken when he started on his wildgoose
chase was down a ride cut through the furze, and it was along this turfy
track that Rose Alba was now hurrying in her wild career. The horse on
which I was mounted was a young thorough-bred, standing nearly sixteen
hands high, and I felt certain that in the pursuit in which I was
engaged, the length of his stride would tell, and that eventually we
must come up with the fugitives; but so fleet was the little Arab, and
so light the weight she had to carry, that I was sorry to perceive I
gained upon them but slowly. It was clear that I should not overtake
them before they reached the outskirts of the common, and then who could