44, THE LIFE OF A FOX.

was an awful silence; then Dick Buxton’s
screech, and the “ Whoop!” soon followed. Fora
minute or two only I heard a noise, as if hounds
were quarrelling, and that no sooner ended
than Sebright saying, “Now, Mr. Smith, this
is the first real good scenting day we have had.”
I could stop no longer, but stole away, hoping
not to be seen; but, my friends, fancy my
horror, when, on stealing from the gorse on the
open down, and thinking that the rising ground
would screen me, I saw this famed pack, and
first-rate huntsman, within two hundred yards
of me. I stopped for an instant, but scorned to
return into the gorse, so took away across the
hilly downs near Hog’s Lodge, and crossed
the Petersfield road to Portsmouth, over the
open down for two miles, with the pack viewing
me the whole time, except a moment or two,
when I was rounding the tops of the_ hills,
then again they saw, and swung after me down
the steep sides of the hills. I cleared the first
fence adjoining the down, and had scarcely

got fifty yards, when I saw the whole pack