After making one violent effort to get his head and bolt,—an effort which it tasked Harry’s strength and skill to the utmost to counteract,—the Don gradually settled into his stride, crossed a grass-field, and flew across an easy fence at the end of it, with a bound which would have cleared one of three times its magnitude, in a style which convinced Harry of the superior powers of the animal he bestrode. Besides Black Eagle and Don Pasquale, six other horses started. Of these, one, a fiery chestnut colt, rushed at his first fence, fell, threw his jockey, then got away, and was not caught for the next two hours; a ploughed field pumped the wind out of two more so effectually, that for all chance of winning the race they might as well never have started; the jump into the lane settled a fourth, which was led off with two broken knees; while a furze common used up a fifth; so that as they approached the brook, the sporting cornet (who rode his own horse, Grey Robin), Tirrett, and Harry, were the only remaining competitors. About five hundred yards from the brook (which was a very picturesque but singularly uncomfortable looking stream to ride over, having steep rugged banks, being too deep to ford, and quite as wide as a horse could conveniently leap), Tirrett, who was leading, held in Black Eagle with a view, as Coverdale imagined, to save his wind, and get him well together for the leap. His own horse, which was going beautifully, was so fresh, that Harry considered him able to clear the brook without any such precautions, and believing, if he kept on at the same pace he should either gain ground which Tirrett would be unable to recover, or force him to press Black Eagle to a degree which might break him down at his leap, he did not draw rein until he came to within about fifty yards of the bank. Having mentally selected the spot at which he meant to charge the brook, he was about to put his horse at it, when a rushing sound caused him to turn his head. As he did so, Tirrett dashed by him like a flash of lightning, so closely that their elbows brushed, while as he passed he turned in his saddle, and brought his riding whip down with his full force between Don Pasquale’s ears. The effect of his villainous scheme fully answered his expectations; the horse, which had been going at an easy stretching gallop, and was just gathering itself up for the leap, stopped so abruptly, that it was with the greatest difficulty Harry was able to prevent himself from going over its head; the next moment the animal reared, and stood pawing the air wildly with its fore legs, so that Coverdale was forced to throw himself forward and cling to the creature’s neck to prevent it from falling over upon him. Then commenced a furious struggle for mastery between man and horse. Tirrett’s cowardly stroke had aroused the vicious temper of the brute, and failing in its first desperate attempts to unseat its rider, it laid back its ears, planted its feet firmly on the ground, and obstinately refused to move. Irritated beyond control at the rascally trick which had been played him, and at its complete success, Coverdale, with whip, spurs, and bit, gave Don Pasquale a thorough specimen of his quiet manner, but with no other result than one or two futile attempts to bite or kick its rider: at length he was compelled to desist from pure exhaustion, and, laying the bridle on the animal’s neck, he shifted the whip to his left hand, while he extended the cramped fingers of his right, preparatory to recommencing hostilities. Whether through mere caprice, or whether, as is more probable, the Don caught sight of the other horses, which had safely accomplished the transit of the brook, and were resuming their course on the other side, it is not easy to decide; certain it is, however, that the moment it found its head at liberty, it dashed off at full speed; and before Harry could gather up the reins, the creature had reached the bank, plunged madly forward, and in another moment Coverdale found himself up to the breast in water, with no part of his horse visible except the head. Although taken completely by surprise, his presence of mind did not forsake him; thanks to his experience in the hunting-field, the situation was not new to him, and scarcely had he glanced round ere his quick eye selected the point at which he should effect a landing; guiding his horse to a spot where the bank was least steep and abrupt, he waited until the animal obtained a precarious footing; then, encouraging it by hand and voice, he lifted it by the rein, and urged it forward; there was a scramble and a slip, then a more violent struggle than before, and the Don and his rider were once again high, though by no means dry, on terra firma. As soon as he could find time to look after his competitors in the race, he became aware that both had cleared the brook in safety, and were half across the field beyond, Tirrett some twenty yards ahead,—a distance which he kept so completely without effort, that Harry at once perceived Grey Robin was beaten. That Tirrett thought the same of both his antagonists was evident, from the easy pace at which he was going. In order to accomplish his rascally manoeuvre before crossing the brook, he had pressed Black Eagle injudiciously; and, confident that both the other horses must be in an equally exhausted condition, he was saving him for the final struggle. He was, however, wrong in regard to Don Pasquale; true, its contention with its rider had taken for the time a good deal out of it, but the last act of that affair having consisted of a display of passive obstinacy, had in some degree refreshed it; and its plunge into the brook had also exercised a beneficial influence; so that Harry perceived, to his great delight, so soon as they resumed their course on the farther bank, that his horse had plenty of good running still left in it, and when it got again into its stride, that it was improving every minute. Thus, if Coverdale could manage to creep up to his opponent so gradually as not to alarm him until he had regained a portion of the ground he had lost, and Dick’s suggestion of the desperate leap over the wall should prove at all practicable, he did not despair of the race yet. In accordance with this view, Harry rather restrained than urged the Don, until Tirrett had cleared the next fence, and entered the field beyond; but the moment the overhanging branches of the hedge closed behind him, Coverdale gave his horse the rein, came up with Grey Robin, who disputed precedence with him for a few yards, and then fell back beaten; flew over the fence like a bird, took up the running on the other side in first-rate style; and before Tirrett had got Black Eagle fairly into his stride again, the Don was alongside of him. And now the race, properly so called, began in earnest: for nearly a mile the course lay along a slight descent of smooth springy turf, terminated by a ditch, and a low brick wall heightened by a rail, beyond which the ground rose more steeply for a short distance, up to the winning-post. Thus, as Dick had foreseen, the man and horse that first cleared the wall in safety must of necessity win. At one spot the fence was broken, and the wall partially knocked down; but this gap, although within the marked line, was somewhat out of the direct course. Thus, by taking the ditch, wall, and fence, at the nearest point (always supposing any jockey bold enough to attempt such a leap, and fortunate enough to accomplish it in safety), an amount of distance would be saved which would ensure success to the enterprising rider. Harry’s quick eye took in the situation at a glance, and he resolved to attempt it, unless he should gain such an advantage over his adversary, before reaching the boundary wall, as should render his success no longer a doubtful matter. That Tirrett equally perceived the critical nature of the situation might be gathered from the fact that, although aware of the task before him (for even across the gap the leap was one which a good horseman, on a fresh steed, might congratulate himself on having accomplished safely, and which, on a tired one, he would think twice ere he ventured to attempt), he pressed the pace to the utmost extent of his horse’s power, with the evident intention of rendering Don Pasquale so blown that it must break down at the leap. Unwilling to risk the desperate chance which Dick’s billet had suggested, Coverdale exerted all his skill to maintain the position he had gained, which at one moment was in advance of, and for some distance neck and neck with, his opponent; but, although Don Pasquale was the stronger animal of the two, and gifted with greater powers of endurance, on soft level turf Black Eagle had decidedly the advantage in point of swiftness; moreover, in a mere trial of speed, Tirrett’s acquaintance with all the resources of professional jockeyship stood him in good stead, so that before they had approached the wall Black Eagle had not only passed, but was several lengths ahead of his opponent. Thus, Coverdale perceived that, unless he chose to adopt Dick’s dangerous suggestion, he must relinquish all chance of winning the race. Had it been simply a trial of speed and skill, good sense and right principle would probably have prevented Harry from risking his life for so inadequate an object; but Tirrett’s dishonourable behaviour towards Lord Alfred, and his rascally attempt to excite the vicious temper of Don Pasquale (an attempt which all but gained its object), had irritated and excited Coverdale to such a degree that, reckless of consequences, he was eager to dare any peril rather than allow such infamous conduct to be triumphant. Accordingly, keeping the direct line, he shouted to Tirrett, who had turned off to the left and was making for the gap, “Why don’t you follow me, sir, like a man, instead of sneaking over gaps like a coward?” he got his horse well in hand, and rode boldly on.

When Tirrett became aware of his intention he half drew in his rein, irresolute what course to take; if he refused to follow, and Coverdale should by any chance succeed in getting safely over, he knew that the race, and all he had depending on it, would be lost, and he eagerly scanned the leap with his practised eye; but it was too formidable, and, as Dick had foreseen, his courage failed him; so, turning first red, then pale, he muttered an uncharitable wish concerning Harry’s neck, and rode on towards the gap, hoping for its fulfilment. As Coverdale approached the wall, the conviction that he was about to attempt a most hazardous, if not an impossible feat, forced itself upon him; still his resolution never wavered, and he was preparing himself for the leap, when a figure, which he recognised as that of the groom, suddenly rose from the ditch, and, pointing to a particular spot, shouted, “Come over here! give him his head, and let him take it his own way; he’s got his steam up, and wouldn’t refuse a haystack.”

Relying on the man’s acquaintance with the animal, Harry resolved to follow his advice implicitly, and, slackening his rein, pressed his hat firmly over his brows, clasped his saddle tightly with his knees, and awaited the result.

Dick was not mistaken in his estimate of the Don’s courage; for, as soon as the horse perceived the obstacle before it, it pricked up its ears, gathered its legs well under it, and dashed forward. Nor had he formed a wrong conception in regard to the animal’s general powers of endurance; but the episode occasioned by Tirrett’s foul blow, with the subsequent immersion in and struggle out of the brook, were incidents on which he had not calculated. Thus, although Don Pasquale rose to the leap gallantly, and by a prodigious bound cleared ditch, wall, and fence, the exertion so completely exhausted its remaining strength, that, on its descent on the further side, all Harry’s efforts were unable to keep it on its legs, and it pitched heavily forward, falling with and partially on its rider.