Now, I was as good a rider as any, and my horse was the best of them all, and so you can imagine that it was not long before he carried me to the front.

And when I saw the dogs streaming over the open, and the red-coated huntsman behind them, and only seven or eight horsemen between us, then it was that the strangest thing of all happened, for I, too, went mad--I, Etienne Gerard! In a moment it came upon me, this spirit of sport, this desire to excel, this hatred of the fox.
Accursed animal, should he then defy us?
Vile robber, his hour was come! Ah, it is a great feeling, this feeling of sport, my friends, this desire to trample the fox under the hoofs of your horse.

I have made the fox-chase with the English.

I have also, as I may tell you some day, fought the box-fight with the Bustler, of Bristol.

And I say to you that this sport is a wonderful thing--full of interest as well as madness.
The farther we went the faster galloped my horse, and soon there were but three men as near the dogs as I was.