  The Leu Leu Leu went the soft horn's laughter, The hounds (they had checked) came romping after, The clop of the hooves on the road was plain, Then the crackle of reeds, then cries again. A whimpering first, then Robin's cheer, Then the Ai Ai Ai; they were all too near; His swerve had brought but a minute's rest, Now he ran again, and he ran his best. With a crackle of dead dry stalks of reed The hounds came romping at topmost speed, The redcoats ducked as the great hooves skittered The Blood Brook's shallows to sheets that glittered; Forrard," Tom galloped. Bob shouted "Yoick." Like a running fire the dead reeds crackled The hounds' heads lifted, their necks were hackled. Tom cried to Bob as they thundered through, "He is running short, we shall kill at Tew." Bob cried to Tom as they rode in team, "I was sure, that time, that he turned up-stream. As the hounds went over the brook in stride, I saw old Daffodil fling to side, So I guessed at once, when they checked beyond." The ducks flew up from the Morton Pond. The fox looked up at their tailing strings, He wished (perhaps) that a fox had wings. Wings with his friends in a great V straining The autumn sky when the moon is gaining; Than to be two miles from the Mourne End Wood With the hounds behind, clean-trained to run, And your strength half spent and your breath half done. Better the reeds and the sky and water Than that hopeless pad from a certain slaughter. At the Morton Pond the fields began, Long Tew's green meadows; he ran; he ran. With a cracking whip and a "Hoik, Hoik, Hoik, Forrard," Tom galloped. Bob shouted "Yoick." First the six green fields that make a mile, With the lip-full Clench at the side the while, With the rooks above, slow-circling, shewing The world of men where a fox was going; The fields all empty, dead grass, bare hedges, To all things else he was dumb and blind, He ran, with the hounds a field behind. |
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