The very idea of Lord Rockville waiting dinner was too dreadful ever to have entered their heads till this minute; but Harry and Laura immediately explained how exceedingly sorry they were for what had occurred, and to show that it was their misfortune rather than their fault, they told the whole frightful story of the mad bull, to which Lady Rockville listened, as if her very hair were standing upon end, to hear of such doings. She even turned up her eyes with astonishment to think what a wonderful escape they had made; but his Lordship frowned through his spectacles, and leaned his chin upon his stick, looking, as Harry thought, very like a bear upon a pole.

“Pshaw!—nonsense!” exclaimed Lord Rockville impatiently. “The bull would have done you no harm! He is a most respectable, quiet, well-disposed animal, and [113] ]brought an excellent character from his last place! I never heard a complaint of him before!”

“It is curious,” observed Laura, “that all bulls are reckoned peaceable and tame, till they have tossed two or three people, and killed them!”

“I thought,” added Lord Rockville, looking very grand and contemptuous, “that Harry was grown more a man than to be so easily put to flight. When a bull, another time, threatens to toss you, seize hold of his tail,—or toss him!—or, in short, do anything rather than run away the first time an animal looks at you. This is a mere cock-and-a-bull story, to excuse your keeping me waiting almost a quarter of an hour for my dinner!—you should be made guard of a mail-coach for a month, to teach you punctuality, Master Graham.”

Lord Rockville gravely looked at his watch, while Harry luckily considered how often his grandmama had recommended him to make no answer when he was scolded, so he nearly bit off the tip of his tongue to keep it quiet, while he could not but wish, in his own mind, that my Lord himself saw how very fierce the bull had looked.

Laura felt more vexed on Harry’s account than her own, and the dinner went on as uncomfortably as possible; for even when a French cook has dressed it, if ill-humour be the sauce, any dish becomes unpalatable. Nothing was to be seen reflected on the surface of many fine silver covers, but very cross, or very melancholy faces; while Lady Rockville tried to make her own countenance look both cheerful and good-natured. She told Harry and Laura, to divert them, that old Mrs. Bouverie had once been pursued by a furious milch cow, along a lane, flanked on both sides by such very high walls, that escape seemed impossible, so the good lady, who was fat and breathless, became so desperate, that without a hope of getting off, she seized the enraged animal by the horns, and screamed in its face, till the cow herself became [114] ]frightened. The creature stared, stepping backwards and backwards, with increasing alarm, till at last, to the old lady’s great relief and surprise, she fairly turned her tail and ran off.

In the evening, Lord Rockville had not yet recovered his equanimity, and went out, rather in bad humour, to take his usual walk before supper. Without once remembering about Harry and the bull, he strolled a great way into the woods, marking several trees to be cut down, and admiring a fine forest which he had planted himself long ago, but without particularly considering what way he turned. It was beginning, at last, to grow very dark and gloomy, so Lord Rockville had some thoughts of returning home, when he became suddenly startled by hearing a loud roar not far off, and a moment afterwards the furious bull dashed out of a neighbouring thicket, raging and foaming, and tearing the ground with his horns, exactly as Harry had described in the morning, while poor Lord Rockville, who seldom moved faster than a very dignified walk, instantly quickened his pace, in an opposite direction, striding away faster and faster, till at last,—it must be confessed,—his Lordship ended by running!!!

In spite of all Lord Rockville’s exertions, the bull continued rapidly to gain upon him, for his Lordship, being rather corpulent and easily fatigued, stopped every now and then to gasp for breath; till at last, feeling it impossible to get on faster, though the stables were now within sight, he seized the branch of a large oak tree, which swept nearly to the ground, and contrived, with great difficulty, to scramble out of reach.

The enraged bull gazed up into the tree and bellowed with fury, when he saw Lord Rockville so judiciously perched overhead, and he remained for half-an-hour, watching to see if his Lordship would venture down again. At last the tormenting animal began leisurely eating grass under the tree, [115] ]but gradually he moved away, turning his back while he fed, till Lord Rockville vainly deluded himself with the hope of stealing off unobserved. Being somewhat rested and refreshed, while the enemy was looking in another direction, he descended cautiously, as if he had been going to tread upon needles and pins; but, unaccustomed to such movements, he jumped so heavily upon the ground, that the bull hearing a noise, turned round, and set up a loud furious roar, when he saw his intended victim again within reach.

Now the race began once more with redoubled agility! The odds seemed greatly in favour of the bull, and Lord Rockville thought he already felt the animal’s horns in his side, when a groom, who saw the party approaching, instantly seized a pitchfork and flew to the rescue of his master. Lord Rockville never stopped his career till he reached the stable, and ran up into a loft, from the window of which he gave the alarm and called for more assistance, when several ploughmen and stable-boys assembled, who drove the animal with great difficulty, into a stall, where he continued so ungovernable, that iron chains were put round his neck, and some days afterwards, seeing no one could manage him, Lord Rockville ordered the bull to be shot, and his carcase turned into beef for the poor of the parish, who all, consequently, rejoiced at his demise; though the meat turned out so tough, that it required their best teeth to eat it with.