seless.

How long this state lasted I cannot tell; but when half consciousness
returned to me, I found myself standing in the field, my head reeling
with the shock, my clothes torn and ragged. My horse was standing beside
me, with some one at his head; while another, whose voice I thought I
could recognise, called out--

'Get up, man, get up! you 'll do the thing well yet. There, don't lose
time.'

'No, no,' said another voice, 'it's a shame; the poor fellow is half
killed already--and there, don't you see Burke's at the second fence?'

Thus much I heard, amid the confusion around me; but more I know not.
The next moment I was in the saddle, with only sense enough left to
feel reckless to desperation. I cried out to leave the way, and turned
towards the fence.

A tremendous cut of a whip fell upon the horse's quarter from some one
behind, and, like a shell from a mortar, he leaped wildly out. With one
fly he cleared the fence, dashed across the field, and, before I was
firm in my seat, was over the second ditch. Burke had barely time to
look round him ere I had passed. He knew that the horse was away with
me, but he also knew his bottom, and that, if I could but keep my
saddle, the chances were now in my favour.

Then commenced a terrible struggle. In advance of him, about four
lengths, I took everything before me, my horse flying straight as an
arrow. I dared not turn my head, but I could mark that Burke was making
every effort to get before me. We were now approaching a tall hedge,
beyond which lay the deep ground of which the priest had already spoken.
So long as the fences presented nothing of height, the tremendous pace
I was going was all in my favour; but now there was fully five feet of a
hedge standing before me. Unable to collect himself, my horse came
with his full force against it, and chesting the tangled branches, fell
head-foremost into the field. Springing to my legs unhurt, I lifted him
at once; but ere I could remount, Burke came bounding over the hedge,
and lit safely beside me. With a grin of malice he turned one look
towards me, and dashed on.

For some seconds my horse was so stunned he could scarcely move, and as
I pressed him forward the heavy action of his shoulder and his drooping
head almost filled me with despair. By degrees, however, he warmed
up and got into his stride. Before me, and nearly a hundred yards
in advance, rode Burke, still keeping up his pace, but skirting the
headlan