“I know it well, Brackely; but I have my reasons for it.”
“Well, maybe you have; what cover will yer honour try first?”
“They talk of the Mill,” said I, “but I’d much rather try ‘Morran-a-Gowl.’”
“Morran-a-Gowl! do you want to break your neck entirely?”
“No, Brackely, not mine.”
“Whose then, alannah?”
“An English Captain’s, the devil fly away with him! he’s come down here to-day, and from all I can see is a most impudent fellow; so, Brackely”
“I understand; well, leave it to me, and, though I don’t like the ould deer-park wall on the hill, we’ll try it this morning with the blessing: I’ll take him down by Woodford, over the ‘Devil’s Mouth’—it’s eighteen feet wide this minute with the late rains—into the four callows, then over the stone walls, down to Dangan; then take a short cast up the hill, blow him a bit, and give him the park wall at the top. You must come in then fresh, and give him the whole ran home over Sleibbmich—the Badger knows it all, and takes the road always in a fly; a mighty distressing thing for the horse that follows, more particularly if he does not understand a stone country, Well, if he lives through this, give him the sunk fence and the stone wall at Mr. Blake’s clover-field, for the hounds will run into the fox about there; and though we never ride that leap since Mr. Malone broke his neck at it, last October, yet, upon an occasion like this, and for the honour of Galway”
“To be sure, Brackely, and here’s a guinea for you; and now trot on towards the house—they must not see us together, or they might suspect something. But, Brackely,” said I, calling out after him, “if he rides at all fair, what’s to be done?”
“Truth, then, myself doesn’t know; there’s nothing so bad west of Athlone. Have ye a great spite agin him?”
“I have,” said I fiercely.
“Could ye coax a fight out of him?”
“That’s true,” said I, “and now ride on as fast as you can,”
Brackely’s last words imparted a lightness to my heart and my step, and I strode along a very different man from what I had left the house half-en-hour previously.
Chapter IV
The Hunt
Although we had not the advantages of a “southerly wind and clouded sky,” the day, towards noon, became strongly overcast, and promised to afford us good scenting weather, and, as we assembled at he meet, mutual congratulations were exchanged upon the improved
appearance of the day. Young Blake had provided Miss Dashwood with a quiet and well-trained horse, and his sisters were all mounted, as usual, upon their own animals, giving to our turn-out quite a gay and lively aspect. I myself came to cover upon a hackney, having
