I ate quickly, then hurried on, for I dared not waste
time. I turned out of the narrow cart-tracks into what seemed to
be a highroad.
I dipped down a hollow, past a pond where geese were feeding,
then turned to a stiff steep hill, which never seemed to end for
miles. The country grew lonelier at every step; there were no
houses there; only a few rabbits tamely playing in the outskirts
of the coverts. A jay screamed in the clump of trees at the
hill-top; it seemed the proper kind of voice for a waste like
that. Still further on, I sat down to rest at the brink of the
great descent, which led, as I guessed, as I could almost see, to
the plain where Taunton lay, waiting for the Duke's army to
garrison her. There were thick woods to my right at this point,
making cover so dense that no hounds would have tried to break
through it, no matter how strong a scent might lead them. It was
here, as I sat for a few minutes to rest, that a strange thing
happened.
I was sitting at the moment with my back to the wood, looking
over the desolate country towards a tiny cottage far off on the
side of the combe. A big dog-fox came out of the cover from
behind me, so quietly that I did not hear him. He trotted past me
in the road; I do not think that he saw me till he was just
opposite. Then he stopped to examine me, as though he had never
seen such a thing before. He was puzzled by me, but he soon
decided that I was not worth bothering about, for he made no
stay.
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