Sir William's servant had been with him, and he had got his second horse at Claydon's; Maxwell had been equally fortunate; Tom's second horse had not come up, and his beast was in great distress; Grindley had remained behind at Marham Bottom, being contented perhaps with having beaten Calder Jones,--from whom by-the-by I may here declare that he never got his sovereign.

Burgo, Vavasor, and the country gentleman still held on; but it was devoutly desired by all of them that the fox might soon come to the end of his tether.

Ah! that intense longing that the fox may fail, when the failings of the horse begin to make themselves known,--and the consciousness comes on that all that one has done will go for nothing unless the thing can be brought to a close in a field or two! So far you have triumphed, leaving scores of men behind; but of what good is all that, if you also are to be left behind at the last?
It was manifest now to all who knew the country that the fox was making for Thornden Deer Park, but Thornden Deer Park was still two miles ahead of them, and the hounds were so near to their game that the poor beast could hardly hope to live till he got there.

He had tried a well-known drain near Cleshey Farm House; but it had been inhospitably, nay cruelly, closed against him.

Soon after that he threw himself down in a ditch, and the eager hounds overran him, giving him a moment's law,--and giving also a moment's law to horses that wanted it as badly.