And very soon it did try the pace of them, for
they had not gone above a mile before there was very considerable tailing
with both. To be sure, they had never been very well together, but still
the line lengthened instead of contracting. Horses that could hardly be
held downhill, and that applied themselves to the turf, on landing, as if
they could never have enough of it, now began to bear upon the rein and
hang back to those behind; while the hounds came straggling along like a
flock of wild geese, with full half a mile between the leader and the last.
However, they all threw their tongues, and each man flattered himself that
the hound he was with was the first. In vain the galloping Watchorn looked
back and tootled his horn; in vain he worked with his cap; in vain the
whips rode at the tail hounds, cursing and swearing, and vowing they would
cut them in two.
There was no getting them together. Every now and then the fox might be
seen, looking about the size of a marble, as he rounded some distant hill,
each succeeding view making him less, till, at last, he seemed no bigger
than a pea.
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