Appreciating his peril, he doubled and ran sixty yards down the ditch,
and the impetuous hounds rushed forward and overran the scent. They
raved about to and fro, till at last one of the gentlemen descried the
fox running down a double furrow in the middle of the field. He had got
into this, and so made his way more smoothly than his four-footed
pursuers could. The dogs were laid on, and away they went
helter-skelter.
At the end of this stiff ground a stiffish leap awaited them; an old
quickset had been cut down, and all the elm-trees that grew in it, and
a new quickset hedge set on a high bank with double ditches.
The huntsman had an Irish horse that laughed at this fence; he jumped
on to the bank, and then jumped off it into the next field.
Richard Bassett's cocktail came up slowly, rose high, and landed his
forefeet in the field, and so scrambled on.
Sir Charles went at it rather rashly; his horse, tried hard by the
fallow, caught his heels against the edge of the bank, and went
headlong into the other ditch, throwing Sir Charles over his head into
the field. Unluckily some of the trees were lying about, and Sir
Charles's head struck one of these in falling; the horse blundered out
again, and galloped after the hounds, but the rider lay there
motionless.
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