d neck; and, by
St. Hubert, it must be a scent of twenty thousand, for here these heavy
Southrons are scarcely two rods behind them.

But fidget not, good Peacock! fret not, most excellent Pythagoras! one
moment more, and I am not the boy to baulk you. And here comes Harry on
the gray; by George! he makes the brushwood crackle! Now for a nasty
leap out of the tangled swamp! a high six-barred fence of rough trees,
leaning toward him, and up hill! surely he will not try it!

Will he not though?

See!--his rein is tight yet easy! his seat, how beautiful, how firm, yet
how relaxed and graceful! Well done, indeed! He slacks his rein one
instant as the gray rises! the rugged rails are cleared, and the firm
pull supports him! but Harry moves not in the saddle--no! not one hair's
breadth! A five foot fence to him is nothing! You shall not see the
slightest variation between his attitude in that strong effort, and in
the easy gallop. If Tom Draw saw him now, he could have some excuse for
calling him "half horse"--and he does see him! hark to that most
unearthly knell! like unto nothing, either heavenly or human! He waves
his hat and hurries back as fast as he is able to the horses, well
knowing that for pedestrians at least, the morning's sport is ended.

Harry and I were now almost abreast, riding in parallel lines, down the
rich valley, very nearly at the top speed of our horses; taking fence
after fence in our stroke, and keeping well up with the hounds, which
were running almost mute, such was the furious speed to which the
blazing scent excited them.

We had already passed above two-thirds of the whole distance that
divides the range of woods, wherein we found him, and the pretty village
which we had constituted our head quarters, a distance of at least three
miles; and now a very difficult and awkward obstacle presented itself to
our farther progress, in the shape of a wide yawning brook between sheer
banks of several feet in height, broken, with rough and pointed stones,
the whole being at least five yards across. The gallant hounds dashed
over it; and, when we reached it, were half way across the grass field
next beyond it.

"Hold him hard, Frank," Harry shouted; "hold him hard, man, and cram him
at it!"

And so I did, though I had little hope of clearing it. I lifted him a
little on the snaffle, gave him the spur just as he reached the brink,
and with a long and swinging leap, so easy that its motion was in trut