it was impossible not to
remember that awful warning given by the groom, "It's only sometimes,
sir." And after what fashion should Phineas ride him at the obstacle?
He did not like to strike a horse that seemed to be going well, and
was unwilling, as are all good riders, to use his heels. So he spoke
to him, and proposed to lift him at the ditch. To the very edge the
horse galloped,--too fast, indeed, if he meant to take the bank as
Chiltern's horse had done,--and then stopping himself so suddenly
that he must have shaken every joint in his body, he planted his
fore feet on the very brink, and there he stood, with his head down,
quivering in every muscle. Phineas Finn, following naturally the
momentum which had been given to him, went over the brute's neck
head-foremost into the ditch. Madame Max was immediately off her
horse. "Oh, Mr. Finn, are you hurt?"

But Phineas, happily, was not hurt. He was shaken and dirty, but not
so shaken, and not so dirty, but that he was on his legs in a minute,
imploring his companion not to mind him but go on. "Going on doesn't
seem to be so easy," said Madame Goesler, looking at the ditch as she
held her horse in her hand. But to go back in such circumstances is a
terrible disaster. It amounts to complete defeat; and is tantamount
to a confession that you must go home, because you are unable to ride
to hounds. A man, when he is compelled to do this, is almost driven
to resolve at the spur of the moment that he will give up hunting for
the rest of his life. And if one thing be more essential than any
other to the horseman in general, it is that he, and not the animal
which he rides, shall be the master. "The best thing is to stick him
at it till he do," the groom had said; and Phineas resolved to be
guided by the groom.

But his first duty was to attend on Madame Goesler. With very little
assistance she was again in her saddle, and she at once declared
herself certain that her horse could take the fence. Phineas again
instantly jumped into his saddle, and turning Dandolo again at the
ditch, rammed the rowels into the horse's sides. But Dandolo would
not jump yet. He stood with his fore feet on the brink, and when
Phineas with his whip struck him severely over the shoulders, he went
down into the ditch on all fours, and then scrambled back again to
his former position. "What an infernal brute!" said Phineas, gnashing
his teeth.

"He is a little obstinate, Mr. Finn; I wonder whether