’Take his head,’ said Mrs. Veale, ’lay him on the turf, among the dark gorse, where he mayn’t be seen all at once, and that will give you more time to get off.’ ’I cannot take his head,’ said Charles, trembling. ’Then take his heels. Do as I bid,’ ordered the housekeeper. She bent and raised Larry. ’Sure enough,’ she said, ’his neck is broken. He’ll never speak another word.’ Charles let go his hold of the feet. ’I will not touch him,’ he said. ’I will not stay. I wish I’d never come to Langford. It was all Honor’s fault forcing me. I must go.’ ’Yes, go,’ said Mrs. Veale, ’and go along Broadbury, where you will meet no man, and no footmarks will be left by which you may be traced.’ Mrs. Veale, unassisted, dragged the senseless body out of the rough road over the turf. ’Is he dead? is he really dead?’ asked Charles. ’Go!’ said Mrs. Veale, ’or I shall have the chance of your hand to make into a better Hand of Glory than that of Wellon.’ *CHAPTER XXVI.* *BITTER MEDICINE.* The hare and hounds ran some distance before they perceived that they were not pursued by the huntsman and that the horn had ceased to cheer them on. Then little Piper, the cattle-jobber, clothed in the black ox-hide, stopped panting, turned, and said, ’Where be the hunter to? I don’t hear his horse nor his horn.’ The dogs halted. They were boys and young men with blackened faces. Piper’s face was also covered with soot. His appearance was diabolical, with the long ears on his head, his white eyes peering about from under them, a bladder under his chin, and the black hide enveloping him. According to the traditional usage on such occasions, the hunt ends with the stag or hare, one or the other, being fagged out, and thrown at the door of the house whose inmates’ conduct has occasioned the stag or hare hunt. Then the hunter stands astride over the animal, if a stag, and with a knife slits the bladder that is distended with bullock’s blood, and which is thus poured out before the offender’s door. If, however, the hunt be that of a hare the pretence is—or was—made of knocking it on the head. It may seem incredible to our readers that such savage proceedings should still survive in our midst, yet it is so, and they will not be readily abolished.[1] [1] The author once tore down with his own hands the following bill affixed to a wall at four cross roads:— ’NOTICE!—ON THURSDAY NIGHT THE RED HUNTER’S PACK OF STAG HOUNDS WILL MEET AT ... INN, AND WILL RUN TO GROUND A FAMOUS STAG. GENTLEMEN ARE REQUESTED TO ATTEND.’ The police were communicated with, but were unable to interfere as no breach of the peace was committed.