ntly endured, and never complained, nor
even mentioned the subject to Sir Charles but once, and then he
pooh-poohed her fancies.

The hunt had a burst of about forty minutes that left Richard Bassett's
cocktail in the rear; and the fox got into a large beech wood with
plenty of briars, and kept dodging about it for two hours, and puzzled
the scent repeatedly.

Richard Bassett elected not to go winding in and out among trees, risk
his horse's legs in rabbit-holes, and tire him for nothing. He had kept
for years a little note book he called "Statistics of Foxes," and that
told him an old dog-fox of uncommon strength, if dislodged from that
particular wood, would slip into Bellman's Coppice, and if driven out
of that would face the music again, would take the open country for
Higham Gorse, and probably be killed before he got there; but once
there a regiment of scythes might cut him out, but bleeding, sneezing
fox-hounds would never work him out at the tail of a long run.

So Richard Bassett kept out of the wood, and went gently on to
Bellman's Coppice and waited outside.

His book proved an oracle. After two hours' dodging and maneuvering the
fox came out at the very end of Bellman's Coppice, with nothing near
him but Richard Bassett. Pug gave him the white of his eye in an ugly
leer, and headed straight as a crow for Higham Gorse.

Richard Bassett blew his horn, collected the hunt, and laid the dogs
on. Away they went, close together, thunder-mouthed on the hot scent.

After a three miles' gallop they sighted the fox for a moment just
going over the crest of a rising ground two furlongs off. Then the
hullabbaloo and excitement grew furious, and one electric fury animated
dogs, men, and horses. Another mile, and the fox ran in sight scarcely
a furlong off; but many of the horses were distressed: the Bassetts,
however, kept up, one by his horse being fresh, the other by his
animal's native courage and speed.

Then came some meadows, bounded by a thick hedge, and succeeded by a
plowed field of unusual size--eighty acres.

When the fox darted into this hedge the hounds were yelling at his
heels; the hunt burst through the thin fence, expecting to see them
kill close to it.

But the wily fox had other resources at his command than speed.
Appreciating his peril, he doubled and ran sixty yards down the ditch,
and the impetuous hounds rushed forward and overran the scent. They
raved about to and fro, till at last one