"To give your ladyship cause to conduct yourself towards me like Diana, eh?"
Dame Marion pouted, and turned her head aside; the man was such a blockhead that he absolutely could not understand any attempt to aggravate him.
And now the company trotted merrily on again.
The course had been chosen outside a village, and in front of it a pleasure-house had been erected. Here the prizes were to be distributed. Here those of the gentlemen and ladies who were not on horseback alighted, and ascended to a terrace, in shape like a lofty tower, which rose from the midst of the pleasure-house, and from whence the whole plain was visible. Only here and there was a dot of forest to be seen; everywhere else stretched a waste expanse covered with broom, coarse grass, and sedges,—a true realm of foxes. Thus from the tower of the pleasure-house the best possible view of the whole competition was
obtainable, and there were field-glasses provided for those who wanted them.
A whole army of foxhounds had followed the hunters. It was a fine sight to see how, at a single familiar whistle, the various packs of hounds were separated from each other; how the dogs crowded round their respective masters, for the favourites were now let down from the carts and the rest were unleashed; and how, barking and yelping, they leaped in the air, to reach and lick their masters' uplifted hands.
It is curious how human passions prove contagious to the very beasts.
Squire John selected from among the rest two pure snow-white hounds, and, whistling to them between his two fingers, led them to his wife.
"They are the finest and the boldest foxhounds in the whole pack."
"I know them: one is Cziczke, and the other Rajkó."