128 THE LIFE OF A FOX.

This order was obeyed with the utmost silence ;
- but fortunately, having had the previous notice,
I was off and away as fast as my legs could
carry me, and was not seen, owing to the height
of the turnips, until I reached the next field.
The hounds soon got on my scent, and pursued
me closely, for about twenty-five minutes, so
extremely fast, that I began to think I had
changed my country for the worse. Indepen-
dently of their great speed, I could not hear
them, as I did those by which I had been
hunted on the other side of Tweed. I reached
in safety a small covert, in passing through
which it appeared that the hounds got on the
scent of another fox, which turned out to be
a cub, and so I escaped; for although an old
sportsman saw me after I left the covert,
going apparently much distressed, and evidently
the hunted fox'; yet the hounds were not
allowed. to be taken from that which they

were running, which it appeared they some

1 See “ Extracts from the Diary of a Huntsman,” p. 155.