Then there came tidings of a terrible calamity.

A dying fox, with a trap to its pad, was found in the outskirts of the Wood; and Lord Chiltern wrote to the Duke.

He drew the Wood in regular course before any answer could be received,--and three of his hounds picked up poison, and died beneath his eyes.

He wrote to the Duke again,--a cutting letter; and then came from the Duke's man of business, Mr.Fothergill, a very short reply, which Lord Chiltern regarded as an insult.

Hitherto the affair had not got into the sporting papers, and was simply a matter of angry discussion at every meet in the neighbouring counties.