There for the first time the squire came to their aid. He solved the mystery of the wall in vain, for the track held no scent, and he was face to face with defeat.
Hearing a shout, he looked up and saw a man on a bank waving his hat.
“Did you see her, my man?” said he, riding up to him.
“I did, sir, and flinged this pollack at her, and turned her.”
“Not a bit, for when I heaved the fish, she took down along over they rocks there, like a ball of fire. But if you’re going down to the point, you’d better leave hoss and hounds behind. ’Tes no place for they.”
Taking the hint, Sir Tudor left his mare and the hounds in charge of the whipper-in, and casting his eyes right and left as he went in the hope of seeing the hare, made his way to the extremity of the headland.
“Why, bless thee, I thought every grown man knowed that!”
“Ah!” ejaculated Sir Tudor reflectively. He was moved at learning that he stood at the uttermost verge of the land; for a moment he forgot all about the hare, but only for a moment.
“I hope she’s not gone over,” said he, as he looked down at the seething waters. Then after a pause, he added with much feeling—“She was as stout a hare as ever stood before hounds.”
He quite believed that the jack had leaped over rather than be taken; but he was wrong. The distressed creature had found a sanctuary amongst the rocks, where the hounds would never have found him even had they been allowed to search.
There we will leave him, for though his after years were marked by hairbreadth escapes, his adventures do not exceed in interest those that have been chronicled.
One incident, however, must be mentioned.
Within four days of the chase he returned to Hannibal’s Carn, where he found a mate worthy of his fine qualities, and for a time his happiness was complete.
All his days he remained true to his native hill; in the end he crept beneath the ruins of the chantry, and there the toad guarded the portal of his death-chamber.
[9] A spot marked by a granite post, where the parishes of Gulval, Madron, Morvah, and Zennor meet.
[10] The food taken at the meal between breakfast and dinner.
[11] A toothsome cake peculiar to Cornwall.
Andrew, 136, 144, 190 Angler, 52, 158 Antiquary, 189
Badger, 17, 42, 90, 181 Bartinney, 13 Beacon wood, 97 Bees, 44 Boscawen-Un, 88, 101, 134 Boswarthen, 89 Brea farmyard, 137 Buzzard, 6