as of the Baron, who entered into the spirit of the chase with all the juvenile ardour of twenty.``May the fould fiend, booted and spurred, ride down his bawling throat, with a scythe at his girdle!'' quoth Albert Drawslot; ``here have I been telling him, that all the marks were those of a buck of the first head, and he has halloed the hounds upon a velvet-headed knobbler! By Saint Hubert, if I break not his pate with my cross-bow, may I never cast off hound more! But, to it, my lords and masters! the noble beast is here yet; and, thank the saints, we have enough of hounds.''
The cover being now thoroughly beat by the attendants, the stag was compelled to abandon it, and trust to his speed for his safety.Three greyhounds were slipped upon him, whom he threw out, after running a couple of miles, by entering an extensive furzy brake, which extended along the side of a hill.The horsemen soon came up, and casting off a sufficient number of slow-hounds, sent them with the prickers into the cover, in order to drive the game from his strength.This object being accomplished, afforded another severe chase of several miles, in a direction almost circular, during which the poor animal tried every wile to get rid of his persecutors.He crossed and traversed all such dusty paths as were likely to retain the least scent of his footsteps; he laid himself close to the ground, drawing his feet under his belly, and clapping his nose close to the earth, lest he should be betrayed to the hounds by his breath and hoofs.When all was in vain, and he found the hounds coming fast in upon him, his own strength failing, his mouth embossed with foam, and the tears dropping from his eyes, he turned in despair upon his pursuers, who then stood at gaze, making an hideous clamour, and awaiting their two-footed auxiliaries.Of these, it chanced that the Lady Eleanor, taking more pleasure in the sport than Matilda, and being a less burden to her palfrey than the Lord Boteler, was the first who arrived at spot, and taking a cross-bow from an attendant, discharged a bolt at the stag.When the infuriated animal felt himself wounded, he pushed franticly towards her from whom he had received the shaft, and Lady Eleanor might have had occasion to repent of her enterprise, had not young Fitzallen, who had kept near her during the whole day, at that instant galloped briskly in, and ere the stag could change his object of assault, dispatched him with his short hunting sword.
Albert Drawslot, who had just come up in terror for the young lady's safety, broke out into loud encomiums upon Fitzallen's strength and gallantry.``By'r Lady,'' said he, taking off his cap, and wiping his sunburnt face with his sleeve, ``well struck, and in good time!---But now, boys, doff your bonnets, and sound the mort.''
The sportsmen then sounded a treble mort, and set up a general whoop, which, mingled with the yelping of the dogs, made the welkin ring again.
The huntsman then offered his knife to Lord Boteler, that he might take the say of the deer, but the Baron courteously insisted upon Fitzallen going through that ceremony.The Lady Matilda was now come up, with most of the attendants; and the interest of the chase being ended, it excited some surprise, that neither St.Clere nor his sister made their appearance.The Lord Boteler commanded the horns again to sound the recheat, in hopes to call in the stragglers, and said to Fitzallen, ``Methinks St.Clere, so distinguished for service in war, should have been more forward in the chase.''
``I trow,'' said Peter Lanaret, ``I know the reason of the noble lord's absence; for when that mooncalf, Gregory, hallooed the dogs upon the knobbler, and galloped like a green hilding, as he is, after them, I saw the Lady Emma's palfrey follow apace after that varlet, who should be trashed for over-running, and I think her noble brother has followed her, lest she should come to harm---But here, by the rood, is Gregory, to answer for himself.''
At this moment Gregory entered the circle which had been formed round the deer, out of breath, and his face covered with blood.He kept for some time uttering inarticulate cries of ``Harrow!'' and ``Well-away!''
and other exclamations of distress and terror, pointing all the while to a thicket at some distance from the spot where the deer had been killed.
