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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.
So you ride that new horse of yours to-morrow? My poor hounds!" "Don't be alarmed," cried Guy; "he never kicks hounds, and I won't let him go over them; it's only human strangers the amiable animal can't endure: that's why I call him the Axeine. He is worth more than the £300 I gave for him." "Well, he nearly spoiled two grooms for Hounscott," Parndon said.
I had seen the latter fall a hundred times without feeling the presentiment that seemed to tighten round my heart as I galloped up to the spot. Many others must have felt the same, for they let the hounds go away without another glance, and some were before me there. The Axeine lay stone dead, with his neck broken, the huge carcass pressing on the legs of his rider.
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!"
As the Axeine tore down the hill at furious speed, pulling double, it was evident that neither he nor his rider had the remotest idea of refusing. It was the last fence that either of them ever charged. As the chestnut rose to the leap, his hind legs slipped; he chested the rail, which would not break, and turned quite over, crushing Guy beneath him.
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.
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."
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. 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.
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 fétiche 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.
He sighed once, drearily; but not a man there could have commanded his voice as he did when he said, "You must carry me home, heavy as I am. My walking days are ended." We made the best litter we could of poles and branches; and I remember, as we bore him past the carcass of the Axeine, he made us stop for an instant, and dropping his hand on the stiff, distorted neck, stroked it softly,
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