ds to my right. I saw now the force of the priest's remark, that
were I to take a straight line through the deep ground the race was
still in my favour. But dare I do so with a horse so dead beat as mine
was? The thought was quick as lightning; it was my only chance to win,
and I resolved to take it. Plunging into the soft and marshy ground
before me, I fixed my eye upon the blue flag which marked the course.
At this moment Burke turned and saw me, and I could perceive that he
immediately slackened his pace. Yes, thought I, he thinks I am pounded;
but it is not come to that yet. In fact, my horse was improving at every
stride, and although the ground was trying, his breeding began to tell,
and I could feel that he had plenty of running still in him. Affecting,
however, to lift him at every stroke, and seeming to labour to help him
through, I induced Burke to hold in, until I gradually crept up to the
fence before he was within several lengths of it. The grey no sooner
caught sight of the wall than he pricked up his ears and rushed towards
it; with a vigorous lift I popped him over, without touching a stone.
Burke followed in splendid style, and in an instant was alongside of me.

Now began the race in right earnest. The cunning of his craft could
avail him little here, except as regarded the superior management of his
own horse; so Burke, abandoning every ruse, rode manfully on. As for
me, my courage rose at every moment; and so far from feeling any fear,
I only wished that the fences were larger; and like a gambler who would
ruin his adversary at one throw, I would have taken a precipice if he
pledged himself to follow. For some fields we rode within a few yards of
each other, side by side, each man lifting his horse at the same moment
to his leap, and alighting with the same shock beyond it. Already our
heads were turned homewards, and I could mark on the distant hill the
far-off crowds whose echoing shouts came floating towards us. But one
fence of any consequence remained; that was the large gripe that formed
the last of the race. We had cleared a low stone wall, and now entered
the field that led to the great leap. It was evident that Burke's horse,
both from being spared the shocks that mine had met with, and from
his better riding, was the fresher of the two; we had neither of us,
however, much to boast of on that score, and perhaps at a calmer moment
would have little fancied facing such a leap as that before us.