Dunstan, however, took
one fence too many, and 'staked' his horse. His own ill-favoured
person, which was quite unmarketable, escaped without injury, but poor
Wildfire, unconscious of his price, turned on his flank, and painfully
panted his last. It happened that Dunstan, a short time before, having
had to get down to arrange his stirrup, had muttered a good many
curses at this interruption, which had thrown him in the rear of the
hunt near the moment of glory, and under this exasperation had taken
the fences more blindly. He would soon have been up with the hounds
again, when the fatal accident happened; and hence he was between
eager riders in advance, not troubling themselves about what
happened behind them, and far-off stragglers, who were as likely as
not to pass quite aloof from the line of road in which Wildfire had
fallen. Dunstan, whose nature it was to care more for immediate
annoyances than for remote consequences, no sooner recovered his legs,
and saw that it was all over with Wildfire, than he felt a
satisfaction at the absence of witnesses to a position which no
swaggering could make enviable. Reinforcing himself, after his
shake, with a little brandy and much swearing, he walked as fast as he
could to a coppice on his right hand, through which it occurred to him
that he could make his way to Batherley without danger of encountering
any member of the hunt.
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