s fair grass land mostly.
So I let my horse go, and in a little while had forgotten aught but
the sheer joy of the pace, and the cry of the great hounds, and the
full delight of such a run as one dreams of. Whereby I have little
more to tell thereof.

For a country may seem to be open enough as one looks down on it
from a height, but as one crosses it the difference in what has
seemed easy riding is soon plain. Long swells of rolling ground
rise as it were from nothing, and deep valleys that had been unseen
cross the path, and the clustered trees are found to be deep woods
as they are neared. Then the man who knows the country has the
advantage, and it is as well to follow him. But I was well mounted,
and the pace was good where the gale had thinned the snow, and it
came about that before I had time to think what Howel and Eric and
the Danes who were on horseback were doing I rode down one side of
a little cover, past which the deer had gone with the hounds close
on him, while the rest went on the other. I heard one shout, but it
did not come into my mind that it was to me, for I thought that
they needs must follow, and did not look round. Then I had to turn
off yet more to the right as the best way seemed to take me, and
meanwhile they were off to the left.

So when I was clear of the thicket and could see across the open
again I had lost them. Unless I could hear the hounds I had nothing
to guide me, and I drew rein and listened for them. As I heard
nothing I rode on until I had a stretch of open country before me,
but there I could see no more. Afterwards I learned that the deer
had turned and made for the hill again, but it did not seem likely
that he would do so with the waters of the haven so close at hand
as I could see them. It was more likely that he would head straight
for them, and so I spurred on once more in that direction. It was
certainly the best thing that I could do, and I had not far to go
before a mile of the open water was before me. But there was nought
on its banks but a row of patient herons, fishing or sleeping, and
the sight of them told me that no man had passed this way for many
a long hour.

I waited in that place for a few moments, to see if the deer made
for the refuge of the water from some cover that as yet hid him
from me, but he did not come. It was plain to me then that the hunt
had doubled back and that I was fairly thrown out, and I went no
farther. By this time Eric might be m