He rode by her side, too, as near as the plunges of the chestnut would allow, till we reached the gorse that we were to draw; once there, the stronger pa.s.sion prevailed. Aphrodite hid her face, and the great G.o.ddess Artemis claimed her own. As the first hound whimpered, he drew off toward a corner, where a big fence would give a chance of shaking off the crowd, and I do not think he turned his head till the fox went away.
The last thing I remember there was the anxious look in two beautiful hazel eyes as they gazed after the Axeine, charging his second fence with the rush of an express train.
The _fetiche_ did not fail us; we had a wonderful run, of which only five men saw the end. I confess, the second brook stopped me and many others. Forrester got over with a fall; but they were preparing to break up the fox, when he came up first of the second flight.
Guy came home in great spirits; he had been admirably carried. He and the first whip, a ten-stone man, were head and head at the last fence, while the hounds were rolling over their fox, a hundred yards farther, in the open.
After dinner he amused himself with teasing his cousin. At last he asked her if she would lend him Bella Donna to hack to cover, as his own favorite was rather lame.
Miss Raymond"s indignation was superb; for, be it known, she was prouder of the said animal than of any thing else in the world.
She (the mare, not the lady) was a bright bay, with black points, quite thorough-bred, and as handsome as a picture. Livingstone had bought her out of a training-stable, and had given her to his cousin, after having broken her into a perfect light-weight hunter.
One of the few extravagances in which Mr. Raymond indulged his daughter was allowing her to take Bella Donna wherever she went.
"Don"t excite yourself, you small Amazon!" replied Guy to her indignant refusal. "How you do believe in that mare! I wonder you don"t put her into some of the great Spring Handicaps! You would get her in light, and might win enough to keep you in gloves for half a century."
"Well, I don"t know," Forester"s slow, languid voice suggested; "I think she"s faster, for three miles, than any thing in your stable. I should like to run the best you have for 50, weight for inches."
"I am not surprised at your supporting Bella"s opinion," said Guy, with a shade of sarcasm in his voice, "but I did not expect you would back it. Come, I"ll make this match, if you like; you shall ride catch-weight, which will be about 11 st. 7 lb., and I"ll ride the Axeine at 14 st. 7 lb.: I must take a 7 lb. saddle to do that. They are both in hard condition, so it can come off in ten days; and I"ll give the farmers a cup to run for at the same time. Is it a match?"
"Certainly, if Miss Raymond will trust me with Bella Donna."
Isabel"s eyes sparkled--so brilliantly! as she answered, "I should like it, of all things."
"Now, Puss," Guy went on, "you ought to have something on it. There is a certain set of turquoises and pearls that I meant to give you whenever you had been good for three weeks consecutively; it is no use waiting for such a miracle, so I"ll bet you these against that sapphire and diamond ring you have taken to wearing lately."
His cousin looked distressed and confused. "Any thing else, Guy," she said. "I can not risk that; it was a present from--from Mrs. Molyneux."
"I don"t think," Charley suggested, very quietly, "Mrs.--Molyneux, was it not?--could object to your investing her present on such a certainty.
I really believe we shall bring it off; and if not--" He checked himself with a smile.
"Oh, if you think so," answered Isabel, blushing more than ever, "I will venture my ring. But you _must_ win; I don"t know what I should do if I lost it." So it was settled.
"You seem confident," I remarked to Livingstone, later in the evening. I remember the peculiar expression of his face, though I did not then understand it, as he answered gravely,
"Bella ought to be; for--she has laid long odds."
There was great excitement in the neighborhood when the match, and the farmers" race to follow, became known. Half the county was a.s.sembled on the appointed morning, an off-day with the Pytchley. G.o.dfrey Parndon was judge, and had picked the ground--a figure of 8, with 17 fences, large but fair for the most part; the horses were to traverse it twice, missing the brook (16 feet of clear water) the second time.
I wish they were not getting so rare, those purely country meetings, where three wagons with an awning make the grant stand; where there are no ring-men to force the betting and deafen you with their blatant proffers--"to lay agin any thing in the race;" where the bold yeomen, in full confidence that their favorite will not be "roped," back their opinions manfully for crowns.
Livingstone"s great local renown, and the reputation of the Axeine for strength and speed (though no one knew how fast he _could_ go), made the betting 5 to 4 on him; but takers were not wanting, calculating on the horse"s truly Satanic temper. Miss Bellasys, who, with her mother, had arrived at Kerton the night before, laid half a point more--_not_ in gloves--on the heavy-weight.
The bell for saddling rang, and the horses came out. The mare stripped beautifully, as fine as a star--no wonder her mistress was proud of her; and I think she had, to the full, as many admirers as the Axeine.
The latter was a dark chestnut with a white fetlock, standing full 16 hands (while the mare scarcely topped 15), well ribbed up, with a good sloping shoulder, immense flat hocks, and sinewy thighs; his crest and forehand were like a stallion"s; and, when you looked at his quarters, it was easy to believe what the Revesby stablemen said, "They could shoot a man into the next county."
He was "orkarder than usual that morning," the groom remarked; perhaps he did not fancy the crowd without the hounds, for he kept lashing out perpetually, with vicious backward glances from his red eyes.
Then the riders showed: Livingstone in his own colors, purple and scarlet cap, workmanlike and weather-stained; Forrester in the fresh glories of light blue with white sleeves, his cap quartered with the same.
Charley lingered a minute by Miss Raymond"s side, taking her last instructions, I suppose. She looked very nervous and pale, her jockey pleasantly languid as ever.
The instant the chestnut was mounted he reared, and indulged in two or three "buck-jumps" that would have made a weaker man tremble for his back-bone, and then kicked furiously; but Guy seemed to take it all as a matter of course, sitting square and erect; all he did was to drive the sharp rowels in repeatedly, bringing a dark blood-spot out with each stroke. It was not by love certainly that he ruled the Axeine. Then came the preliminary gallops, the mare going easily on her bit, gliding over the ground smoothly and springily; the horse shaking his head, and every now and then tearing madly at the reins, without being able to gain a hair"s breadth on the iron hands that never moved from his withers.
"They"re off!" Guy taking the lead; well over the first two fences, fair hunting ones; the third is a teaser--an ugly black bulfinch, with a ditch on the landing side, and a drop into a plowed field. The chestnut"s devil is thoroughly roused by this time. When within sixty yards of the fence, he puts on a rush that even his rider"s mighty muscles can not check: his impetus would send him through a castle wall; but he hardly rises at the leap, taking it, too, where there is a network of growers--a crash that might be heard in the grand stand--and horse and man are rolling in the field beyond.
Flora Bellasys strikes her foot angrily with her riding-whip, and turns very pale.
Ten lengths behind, the mare comes up, well in hand, and slips through the bulfinch without a mistake--hardly with an effort--just at the only place where you can see daylight through the blackthorn.
What is Guy doing? Even in that thundering fall he has never let the reins go. Horse and rider struggle up together. A dozen arms are ready to lift him into the saddle, and a cheery voice says in his ear, "Hold up, squire; keep him a going, and you"ll catch the captain yet!" He hardly hears the words though, for his head is whirling, and he feels strangely sick and faint; but before he has gone a hundred yards his face has settled into its habitual resolute calmness, only there is a thin thread of blood creeping from under his cap, and his brow is bent and lowering.
A fall, which would have taken the fight out of most horses, has only steadied the Axeine; and, as we watch him striding through the deep ground, casting the dirt behind him like a catapult we think and say, "The race is not over yet."
They are over the brook without a scramble. Forrester still leads, riding patiently and well. He knows better than to force the running, even with the difference in weight, for the going is too heavy quite to suit his mare.
As Livingstone pa.s.sed the spot where Miss Raymond was stationed, he turned half round in his saddle, and looked curiously in her face. She did not even know he was near. All her soul was in her eyes, that were gazing after Forrester with an anxiety so disproportioned to the occasion that her cousin fairly started.
"Poor child," he said to himself, all his angry feelings changing, "she seems to have set her heart so upon winning, it would be sad if she were disappointed. No one has much on it; shall I try "Captain Armstrong" for once? It would make her very happy. Bar accidents, I must win. They do not know that the chestnut has not extended himself yet."
We lose sight of the horses for a little. When we see them a gain, the mare has decidedly gained ground; and, to our astonishment, the Axeine swerves, and refuses at rather an easy fence.
Miss Bellasys" cheek flushes this time. She goes off at a sharp canter through a gate that takes her into a field where the horses must pa.s.s her close; several of her attendants follow. Charley comes up, looking rather more excited and happy than usual. He has made the pace better for the last half mile, and still seems going at his ease. More than a distance behind is the chestnut, evidently on bad terms with his jockey; he is in a white lather of foam, and changes his leg twice as he approaches. Guy has his face turned slightly aside as he nears the spot where Miss Bellasys waits for him, in the midst of her body-guard. For the first time since the race began, her voice was heard, cutting the air with its clear mocking tones, like the edge of a Damascus sabre, "The chestnut wins--hard held!"
Guy"s kindly impulses vanished instantly before the sarcasm latent in those last two words. He could sacrifice his own victory and the hopes of his backers, but he would not give a chance to Flora"s merciless tongue. We saw him change his hold on the reins, and, with a shake and a fierce thrust of the spurs, he set the Axeine fairly going.
Every man on the ground, including his late owner [who hated himself bitterly at that moment for parting with him], was taken by surprise by the extraordinary speed the horse displayed. He raced up to Bella Donna just before the last fence, at which she hangs ever so little, while he takes it in his swing, covering good nine yards from hoof to hoof.
Nothing but hurdles now between them and home. The down-hill run-in favors his vast stride. A thousand voices echo Flora"s words, "The chestnut wins!" Charley made his effort exactly at the right time, and the brave little mare answered gallantly; but it was not to be. He shook his head, and never touched her with whip or spur again.
The race was over. No one disputed the judge"s fiat: "The Axeine by six lengths."
Up to the skies went the hats and the shouts of the st.u.r.dy yeomen, who "know"d he couldn"t be beat," exulting in the success of their favorite. Round winner and loser crowded their friends, congratulating the one, condoling with the other, praising both for their riding. At that moment I do not think any one except myself remarked Isabel Raymond, who sat somewhat apart, her tears falling fast under her veil as she looked upon her lost ring.
Just then Forrester rode up. "Woe to the vanquished!" he said. "All is lost but honor. Will you say something kind to me after my defeat, Miss Raymond? You will find your pet not punished in the least, and without a scratch on her."
Without answering, she held out her hand. As he bent over it, and whispered, what I could not hear, I saw her eyes sparkle, and a happy consciousness flush her cheeks, till they glowed like a sky at sunset when a storm is pa.s.sing away in the west. Then I knew that he had won a richer prize than ever was set on a race since the first Great Metropolitan was run for at Olympia.
Livingstone had washed away the traces of his fall (his wound was only a cut under the hair, above the temple), and was going to get the horses in line to start them for the farmers" cup. As he pa.s.sed Miss Bellasys he checked his horse for an instant, and said, very coldly,
"You are satisfied, I trust?"
"All"s well that ends well," answered Flora; "but I began to tremble for my bets. I thought you were waiting too long."
Guy did not wish to pursue the subject apparently, for he rode on without reply. Flora made no attempt to detain him. She had studied the signs of the times in his countenance long enough to be weather-wise, and to know that the better part of valor was advisable when the quicksilver had sunk to Stormy.
The cup was a great success. Eleven started, and three made a most artistic finish--scarcely a length between first and third. The farmers of the present day ride very differently from their ancestors of fifty years ago, whose highest ambition was to pound along after the slow, sure "currant-jelly dogs."