Guy Mannering.

274 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
dogs, impatient of their restraint, and maddened with the
baying beneath, sprung here and there, and strained at
the slips which prevented them from joining their companions. Looking down, the view was equally striking.
The thin mists were not totally dispersed in the glen, so
that it was often through their gauzy medium that the
eye strove to discover the motions of the hunters below.
Sometimes a breath of wind made the scene visible, the
blue rill glittering as it twined itself through its rude and
solitary dell. They then could see the shepherds springing with fearless activity from one dangerous point to
another, and cheering the dogs on the scent-the whole
so diminished by depth and distance, that they looked
like pigmies. Again the mists close over them, and the
only signs of their continued exertions are the halloos of
the men, and the clamours of the hounds, ascending as it
were out of the bowels of the earth. Wthen the fox,
thus persecuted from one stronghold to another, was at
length obliged to abandon his valley, and to break away
for a more distant retreat, those who watched his motions
from the top slipped their greyhounds, which, excelling
the fox in swiftness, and equalling him in ferocity and
spirit, soon brought the plunderer to his life's end.
In this way, without any attention to the ordinary rules
and decorums of sport, but apparently as much to the
gratification both of bipeds and quadrupeds as if all dlue
ritual had been followed, four foxes were killed on this
active morning; and even Brown himself, though he had
seen the princely sports of India, and ridden a-tiger-hunting upon an elephant with the Nabob of Arcot, professed
to have received an excellent morning's amusement.'When the sport was given up for the day, most of the
sportsmen, according to the established hospitality of the
eountry, went to dine at Charlies-hope.