At last “Madness” has succeeded in coming to grips with the young fox....
They do battle on a grassy field, bounded on one side by yellow straw and on the other by dried-up, rust-coloured clover.
Black crouches on three legs, swaying his doubled-up body, and prepares to give Reynard a sample of his patent attack, when suddenly the earth shakes with the beat of a horse’s hoof.
The beats come nearer ... and become quicker and quicker.
The two madcaps call a truce and listen....
The hoof-beats are coming straight towards them—and now they can see the head of a horse with its rider.
The young fox slips instantly into the nearest ditch—its instinct is sure—but Black, who feels bound to find a wood or tree, tears off along the path. With tail on one side he chases along, easily visible among the withered grass.
The horseman is an artilleryman from an adjacent garrison town, a young sergeant out exercising his colonel’s horse. The poor beast was so seldom allowed to let himself go—here was a splendid chance....
The speed of the cat, as it gallops along the path, infects the man; he digs his spurs deep in Tambourine’s sides, and away they go as hard as the horse can pelt.
Black puts his ears back and makes springs fully three times his own length. He feels like a hare in front of an express train. His eyes are magnetized to the smooth, open path before him; he cannot, if he would, leave it to plunge aside into the corn. A tree he must have—and trees are not found until the hedge is reached; already he can see one; his claws itch to bury themselves in its bark!