"There they go--Hurroo! they're off. Faix, there's Playful at her tricks already--by dad she'll be over the ropes! steady, Bob--steady, or she'll back on you--give it her, Gayner, my boy, give it her, never spare her--laws! did you see that? Well if he gets her over the course, he'd ride the very divil. Well done, Bob, now you've got her--Hurroo, Tony, my boy, you're all right now:"--and the mare, after a dozen preliminary plunges, joined the other horses. "Faix, they're all over that--did you see that big brown horse? He's Thunderer--he's a good horse intirely; did you see the lep he took at the wall?"--and now they had come to a big drain; all the horses being well together as far as this, excepting Crom-a-boo, who having been forced through a breach made by some other of the horses in the first wall, had baulked at a bank which came next, and never went any further. Some one told poor Stark on the course that the horse didn't run to-day nearly so well as his owner did last night; and it was true enough. "There goes Conqueror--he's over! Faith then, George is leading.--Brown Hall against the field!" "Never mind," said some knowing fellow, "he's a deal too fond of leading--he's a deal oftener seen leading than winning." "There's little Larry--my! how sweet the mare went over the water. There's Brickbat in it;--no, he's out. He's an awkward beast. That's Thunderer--Holy Virgin, what a leap! He goes at everything as if there were twenty foot to cross, and a six foot wall in the middle." "There's Playful at it again--he'll never get her round. Bad cess to you, you vixen--what made me bet on you? There, she's over--no she's not;--there's Diana--did you see Pat walk her through? Faith, she'd crawl up a steeple, and down the other side. There's Playful over--no, she's not;--right in the middle, by heavens!" "And Bob under her--come away. My God, he'll be drowned!" "Gracious glory! did you see that? He's up again;--d----n it but he dived under her; well, I never saw the like of that; she's out." "And look, look! Bob's in the seat--you'll win your money now. Well, Bob Gayner, afther that you'll never live till you're drowned! Come away to the double ditch; that's where they'll show what they're made of--the mare'll be cooled now, and she'll run as easy as a coach-horse." And the two rode away to the big fence mentioned, which consisted of a broad flat-topped bank between two wide dry ditches; while the horses went the round of the course over four or five intermediate banks. "Here they come! there's Blake leading. What a stride that horse has! but you'll see he'll die away now. Larry's second--no, George is second, but Larry's well up." "Faith, and he's been down too--he and the mare. There's Playful, how she pulls--where's Brickbat? now then!"