"Greater excitement I cannot imagine, than that wild, independent
chase!--sometimes on foot, cheering the hounds through swamp and dingle,
over rough cliffs and ledges where foot of horse could avail nothing.
Sometimes on horseback, galloping merrily through the more open
woodlands. Sometimes careering in the flying sleigh, to the gay music of
its bells, along the wild wood-paths! Well did we fare, too--ay,
sumptuously!--for our outskirters, though they reserved their rifles for
the appropriate game, were not so sparing with the shot-gun; so that,
night after night, our chaldron reeked with the mingled steam of rabbit,
quail, and partridge, seethed up a la Meg Merrilies, with fat pork,
onions, and potatoes--by the Lord Harry! Frank, a glorious and unmatched
consummee.
"To make, however, a long tale short--for every day's work, although
varied to the actors by thousands of minute but unnarratable
particulars, would appear but as a repetition of the last, to the mere
listener--to make a long tale short, on the third day he doubled back,
took us directly over the same ground--and in the middle of the day, on
Saturday, was roused in view by the leading hounds, from the same little
swamp in which the five had harbored during the early winter.
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