CHAPTER XVI.
COPPERHOUSE CROSS AND BROUGHTON SPINNIES.
After all, the thing had not been so very bad. With a little courageand hardihood we can survive very great catastrophes, and go throughthem even without broken bones. Phineas, when he got up to his room,found that he had spent the evening in company with Madame Goesler,and had not suffered materially, except at the very first moment ofthe meeting. He had not said a word to the lady, except such as werespoken in mixed conversation with her and others; but they had beentogether, and no bones had been broken. It could not be that hisold intimacy should be renewed, but he could now encounter her insociety, as the Fates might direct, without a renewal of that feelingof dismay which had been so heavy on him.
He was about to undress when there came a knock at the door, and hishost entered the room. "What do you mean to do about smoking?" LordChiltern asked.
"Nothing at all."
"There's a fire in the smoking-room, but I'm tired, and I want togo to bed. Baldock doesn't smoke. Gerard Maule is smoking in hisown room, I take it. You'll probably find Spooner at this momentestablished somewhere in the back slums, having a pipe with oldDoggett, and planning retribution. You can join them if you please."
"Not to-night, I think. They wouldn't trust me,--and I should spoiltheir plans."
"They certainly wouldn't trust you,--or any other human being. Youdon't mind a horse that baulks a little, do you?"
"I'm not going to hunt, Chiltern."
"Yes, you are. I've got it all arranged. Don't you be a fool, andmake us all uncomfortable. Everybody rides here;--every man, woman,and child about the place. You shall have one of the best horses I'vegot;--only you must be particular about your spurs."
"Indeed, I'd rather not. The truth is, I can't afford to ride my ownhorses, and therefore I'd rather not ride my friends'."
"That's all gammon. When Violet wrote she told you you'd be expectedto come out. Your old flame, Madame Max, will be there, and I tellyou she has a very pretty idea of keeping to hounds. Only Dandolo hasthat little defect."
"Is Dandolo the horse?"
"Yes;--Dandolo is the horse. He's up to a stone over your weight, andcan do any mortal thing within a horse's compass. Cox won't ride himbecause he baulks, and so he has come into my stable. If you'll onlylet him know that you're on his back, and have got a pair of spurs onyour heels with rowels in them, he'll take you anywhere. Good-night,old fellow. You can smoke if you choose, you know."
Phineas had resolved that he would not hunt; but, nevertheless, hehad brought boots with him, and breeches, fancying that if he did nothe would be forced out without those comfortable appurtenances. Butthere came across his heart a feeling that he had reached a time oflife in which it was no longer comfortable for him to live as a poorman with men who were rich. It had been his lot to do so when he wasyounger, and there had been some pleasure in it; but now he wouldrather live alone and dwell upon the memories of the past. He, too,might have been rich, and have had horses at command, had he chosento sacrifice himself for money.
On the next morning they started in a huge waggonette for CopperhouseCross,--a meet that was suspiciously near to the Duke's fatal wood.Spooner had explained to Phineas over night that they never did drawTrumpeton Wood on Copperhouse Cross days, and that under no possiblecircumstances would Chiltern now draw Trumpeton Wood. But there isno saying where a fox may run. At this time of the year, just thebeginning of February, dog-foxes from the big woods were very aptto be away from home, and when found would go straight for theirown earths. It was very possible that they might find themselves inTrumpeton Wood, and then certainly there would be a row. Spoonershrugged his shoulders, and shook his head, and seemed to insinuatethat Lord Chiltern would certainly do something very dreadful to theDuke or to the Duke's heir if any law of venery should again be foundto have been broken on this occasion.
The distance to Copperhouse Cross was twelve miles, and Phineas foundhimself placed in the carriage next to Madame Goesler. It had notbeen done of fixed design; but when a party of six are seated in acarriage, the chances are that one given person will be next to oropposite to any other given person. Madame Max had remembered this,and had prepared herself, but Phineas was taken aback when he foundhow close was his neighbourhood to the lady. "Get in, Phineas," saidhis lordship. Gerard Maule had already seated himself next to MissPalliser, and Phineas had no alternative but to take the place nextto Madame Max.
"I didn't know that you rode to hounds?" said Phineas.
"Oh, yes; I have done so for years. When we met it was always inLondon, Mr. Finn; and people there never know what other people do.Have you heard of this terrible affair about the Duke?"
"Oh, dear, yes."
"Poor Duke! He and I have seen a great deal of each othersince,--since the days when you and I used to meet. He knows nothingabout all this, and the worst of it is, he is not in a condition tobe told."
"Lady Glencora could put it all right."
"I'll tell Lady Glencora, of course," said Madame Max. "It seems soodd in this country that the owner of a property does not seem at allto have any exclusive right to it. I suppose the Duke could shut upthe wood if he liked."
"But they poisoned the hounds."
"Nobody supposes the Duke did that,--or even the Duke's servants, Ishould think. But Lord Chiltern will hear us if we don't take care."
"I've heard every word you've been saying," exclaimed Lord Chiltern.
"Has it been traced to any one?"
"No,--not traced, I suppose."
"What then, Lord Chiltern? You may speak out to me. When I'm wrong Ilike to be told so."
"Then you're wrong now," said Lord Chiltern, "if you take the part ofthe Duke or of any of his people. He is bound to find foxes for theBrake hunt. It is almost a part of his title deeds. Instead of doingso he has had them destroyed."
"It's as bad as voting against the Church establishment," said MadameGoesler.
There was a very large meet at Copperhouse Cross, and both MadameGoesler and Phineas Finn found many old acquaintances there. AsPhineas had formerly sat in the House for five years, and had beenin office, and had never made himself objectionable either to hisfriends or adversaries, he had been widely known. He now found halfa dozen men who were always members of Parliament,--men who seem,though commoners, to have been born legislators,--who all spoke tohim as though his being member for Tankerville and hunting with theBrake hounds were equally matters of course. They knew him, but theyknew nothing of the break in his life. Or if they remembered that hehad not been seen about the House for the last two or three yearsthey remembered also that accidents do happen to some men. It willoccur now and again that a regular denizen of Westminster will geta fall in the political hunting-field, and have to remain about theworld for a year or two without a seat. That Phineas had latelytriumphed over Browborough at Tankerville was known, the eventhaving been so recent; and men congratulated him, talking of poorBrowborough,--whose heavy figure had been familiar to them for manya year,--but by no means recognising that the event of which theyspoke had been, as it were, life and death to their friend. Roby wasthere, who was at this moment Mr. Daubeny's head whip and patronagesecretary. If any one should have felt acutely the exclusion of Mr.Browborough from the House,--any one beyond the sufferer himself,--itshould have been Mr. Roby; but he made himself quite pleasant, andeven condescended to be jocose upon the occasion. "So you've beatpoor Browborough in his own borough," said Mr. Roby.
"I've beat him," said Phineas; "but not, I hope, in a borough of hisown."
"He's been there for the last fifteen years. Poor old fellow! He'sawfully cut up about this Church Question. I shouldn't have thoughthe'd have taken anything so much to heart. There are worse fellowsthan Browborough, let me tell you. What's all this I hear about theDuke poisoning the foxes?" But the crowd had begun to move, andPhineas was not called upon to answer the question.
Copperhouse Cross in the Brake Hunt was a very popular meet. Itwas easily reac
hed by a train from London, was in the centre of anessentially hunting country, was near to two or three good coverts,and was in itself a pretty spot. Two roads intersected each other onthe middle of Copperhouse Common, which, as all the world knows, liesjust on the outskirts of Copperhouse Forest. A steep winding hillleads down from the Wood to the Cross, and there is no such thingwithin sight as an enclosure. At the foot of the hill, running underthe wooden bridge, straggles the Copperhouse Brook,--so called by thehunting men of the present day, though men who know the country ofold, or rather the county, will tell you that it is properly calledthe river Cobber, and that the spacious old farm buildings abovewere once known as the Cobber Manor House. He would be a vain manwho would now try to change the name, as Copperhouse Cross has beenprinted in all the lists of hunting meets for at least the lastthirty years; and the Ordnance map has utterly rejected the two b's.Along one of the cross-roads there was a broad extent of common, someseven or eight hundred yards in length, on which have been erectedthe butts used by those well-known defenders of their country, theCopperhouse Volunteer Rifles; and just below the bridge the sluggishwater becomes a little lake, having probably at some time beenartificially widened, and there is a little island and a decoy forducks. On the present occasion carriages were drawn up on all theroads, and horses were clustered on each side of the brook, and thehounds sat stately on their haunches where riflemen usually kneel tofire, and there was a hum of merry voices, and the bright colouringof pink coats, and the sheen of ladies' hunting toilettes, and thatmingled look of business and amusement which is so peculiar to ournational sports. Two hundred men and women had come there for thechance of a run after a fox,--for a chance against which the odds aremore than two to one at every hunting day,--for a chance as to whichthe odds are twenty to one against the success of the individualscollected; and yet, for every horseman and every horsewoman there,not less than L5 a head will have been spent for this one day'samusement. When we give a guinea for a stall at the opera we thinkthat we pay a large sum; but we are fairly sure of having our music.When you go to Copperhouse Cross you are by no means sure of youropera.
Why is it that when men and women congregate, though the men may beatthe women in numbers by ten to one, and though they certainly speakthe louder, the concrete sound that meets the ears of any outsidelistener is always a sound of women's voices? At Copperhouse Crossalmost every one was talking, but the feeling left upon the senseswas that of an amalgam of feminine laughter, feminine affectation,and feminine eagerness. Perhaps at Copperhouse Cross the determinedperseverance with which Lady Gertrude Fitzaskerley addressed herselfto Lord Chiltern, to Cox the huntsman, to the two whips, and atlast to Mr. Spooner, may have specially led to the remark on thisoccasion. Lord Chiltern was very short with her, not loving LadyGertrude. Cox bestowed upon her two "my lady's," and then turned fromher to some peccant hound. But Spooner was partly gratified, andpartly incapable, and underwent a long course of questions aboutthe Duke and the poisoning. Lady Gertrude, whose father seemed tohave owned half the coverts in Ireland, had never before heard ofsuch enormity. She suggested a round robin and would not be at allashamed to put her own name to it. "Oh, for the matter of that," saidSpooner, "Chiltern can be round enough himself without any robin.""He can't be too round," said Lady Gertrude, with a very seriousaspect.
At last they moved away, and Phineas found himself riding by the sideof Madame Goesler. It was natural that he should do so, as he hadcome with her. Maule had, of course, remained with Miss Palliser,and Chiltern and Spooner had taken themselves to their respectiveduties. Phineas might have avoided her, but in doing so he would haveseemed to avoid her. She accepted his presence apparently as a matterof course, and betrayed by her words and manner no memory of pastscenes. It was not customary with them to draw the forest, whichindeed, as it now stood, was a forest only in name, and they trottedoff to a gorse a mile and a half distant. This they drew blank,--thenanother gorse also blank,--and two or three little fringes of wood,such as there are in every country, and through which huntsmen runtheir hounds, conscious that no fox will lie there. At one o'clockthey had not found, and the hilarity of the really hunting men asthey ate their sandwiches and lit their cigars was on the decrease.The ladies talked more than ever, Lady Gertrude's voice was heardabove them all, and Lord Chiltern trotted on close behind his houndsin obdurate silence. When things were going bad with him no one inthe field dared to speak to him.
Phineas had never seen his horse till he reached the meet, and therefound a fine-looking, very strong, bay animal, with shoulders likethe top of a hay-stack, short-backed, short-legged, with enormousquarters, and a wicked-looking eye. "He ought to be strong," saidPhineas to the groom. "Oh, sir; strong ain't no word for him," saidthe groom; "'e can carry a 'ouse." "I don't know whether he's fast?"inquired Phineas. "He's fast enough for any 'ounds, sir," said theman with that tone of assurance which always carries conviction. "Andhe can jump?" "He can jump!" continued the groom; "no 'orse in mylord's stables can't beat him." "But he won't?" said Phineas. "It'sonly sometimes, sir, and then the best thing is to stick him at ittill he do. He'll go, he will, like a shot at last; and then he'sright for the day." Hunting men will know that all this was not quitecomfortable. When you ride your own horse, and know his specialdefects, you know also how far that defect extends, and what realprospect you have of overcoming it. If he be slow through the mud,you keep a good deal on the road in heavy weather, and resolve thatthe present is not an occasion for distinguishing yourself. If he bebad at timber, you creep through a hedge. If he pulls, you get as farfrom the crowd as may be. You gauge your misfortune, and make yourlittle calculation as to the best mode of remedying the evil. Butwhen you are told that your friend's horse is perfect,--only that hedoes this or that,--there comes a weight on your mind from which youare unable to release it. You cannot discount your trouble at anypercentage. It may amount to absolute ruin, as far as that day isconcerned; and in such a circumstance you always look forward tothe worst. When the groom had done his description, Phineas Finnwould almost have preferred a day's canvass at Tankerville under Mr.Ruddles's authority to his present position.
When the hounds entered Broughton Spinnies, Phineas and MadameGoesler were still together. He had not been riding actually at herside all the morning. Many men and two or three ladies had beentalking to her. But he had never been far from her in the ruck, andnow he was again close by her horse's head. Broughton Spinnies werein truth a series of small woods, running one into another almostwithout intermission, never thick, and of no breadth. There wasalways a litter or two of cubs at the place, and in no part of theBrake country was greater care taken in the way of preservation andencouragement to interesting vixens; but the lying was bad; there waslittle or no real covert; and foxes were very apt to travel and getaway into those big woods belonging to the Duke,--where, as the Brakesportsmen now believed, they would almost surely come to an untimelyend. "If we draw this blank I don't know what we are to do," said Mr.Spooner, addressing himself to Madame Goesler with lachrymoseanxiety.
"Have you nothing else to draw?" asked Phineas.
"In the common course of things we should take Muggery Gorse, and soon to Trumpeton Wood. But Muggery is on the Duke's land, and Chilternis in such a fix! He won't go there unless he can't help it. MuggeryGorse is only a mile this side of the big wood."
"And foxes of course go to the big wood?" asked Madame Max.
"Not always. They often come here,--and as they can't hang here, wehave the whole country before us. We get as good runs from Muggery asfrom any covert in the country. But Chiltern won't go there to-dayunless the hounds show a line. By George, that's a fox! That's Dido.That's a find!" And Spooner galloped away, as though Dido could donothing with the fox she had found unless he was there to help her.
Spooner was quite right, as he generally was on such occasions. Heknew the hounds even by voice, and knew what hound he could believe.Most hounds will lie occasionally, but Dido never lied. And therewere many besides Spooner
who believed in Dido. The whole pack rushedto her music, though the body of them would have remained utterlyunmoved at the voice of any less reverenced and less trustworthycolleague. The whole wood was at once in commotion,--men and womenriding hither and thither, not in accordance with any judgment; butas they saw or thought they saw others riding who were supposed tohave judgment. To get away well is so very much! And to get away wellis often so very difficult! There are so many things of which thehorseman is bound to think in that moment. Which way does the windblow? And then, though a fox will not long run up wind, he will breakcovert up wind, as often as not. From which of the various ridescan you find a fair exit into the open country, without a chance ofbreaking your neck before the run begins? When you hear some wildhalloa, informing you that one fox has gone in the direction exactlyopposite to that in which the hounds are hunting, are you sure thatthe noise is not made about a second fox? On all these matters youare bound to make up your mind without losing a moment; and if youmake up your mind wrongly the five pounds you have invested in thatday's amusement will have been spent for nothing. Phineas and MadameGoesler were in the very centre of the wood when Spooner rushed awayfrom them down one of the rides on hearing Dido's voice; and atthat time they were in a crowd. Almost immediately the fox was seento cross another ride, and a body of horsemen rushed away in thatdirection, knowing that the covert was small, and there the animalmust soon leave the wood. Then there was a shout of "Away!" repeatedover and over again, and Lord Chiltern, running up like a flash oflightning, and passing our two friends, galloped down a third rideto the right of the others. Phineas at once followed the master ofthe pack, and Madame Goesler followed Phineas. Men were still ridinghither and thither; and a farmer, meeting them, with his horse turnedback towards the centre of the wood which they were leaving, halloaedout as they passed that there was no way out at the bottom. They metanother man in pink, who screamed out something as to "the devil of abank down there." Chiltern, however, was still going on, and our herohad not the heart to stop his horse in its gallop and turn back fromthe direction in which the hounds were running. At that moment hehardly remembered the presence of Madame Goesler, but he did rememberevery word that had been said to him about Dandolo. He did not in theleast doubt but that Chiltern had chosen his direction rightly, andthat if he were once out of the wood he would find himself with thehounds; but what if this brute should refuse to take him out of thewood? That Dandolo was very fast he soon became aware, for he gainedupon his friend before him as they neared the fence. And then he sawwhat there was before him. A new broad ditch had been cut, with theexpress object of preventing egress or ingress at that point; and agreat bank had been constructed with the clay. In all probabilitythere might be another ditch on the other side. Chiltern, however,had clearly made up his mind about it. The horse he was riding wentat it gallantly, cleared the first ditch, balanced himself for half amoment on the bank, and then, with a fresh spring, got into the fieldbeyond. The tail hounds were running past outside the covert, and themaster had placed himself exactly right for the work in hand. Howexcellent would be the condition of Finn if only Dandolo would dojust as Chiltern's horse had done before him!
And Phineas almost began to hope that it might be so. The horse wasgoing very well, and very willingly. His head was stretched out, hewas pulling, not more, however, than pleasantly, and he seemed tobe as anxious as his rider. But there was a little twitch about hisears which his rider did not like, and then it was impossible not toremember that awful warning given by the groom, "It's only sometimes,sir." And after what fashion should Phineas ride him at the obstacle?He did not like to strike a horse that seemed to be going well, andwas unwilling, as are all good riders, to use his heels. So he spoketo him, and proposed to lift him at the ditch. To the very edge thehorse galloped,--too fast, indeed, if he meant to take the bank asChiltern's horse had done,--and then stopping himself so suddenlythat he must have shaken every joint in his body, he planted hisfore feet on the very brink, and there he stood, with his head down,quivering in every muscle. Phineas Finn, following naturally themomentum which had been given to him, went over the brute's neckhead-foremost into the ditch. Madame Max was immediately off herhorse. "Oh, Mr. Finn, are you hurt?"
But Phineas, happily, was not hurt. He was shaken and dirty, but notso shaken, and not so dirty, but that he was on his legs in a minute,imploring his companion not to mind him but go on. "Going on doesn'tseem to be so easy," said Madame Goesler, looking at the ditch as sheheld her horse in her hand. But to go back in such circumstances is aterrible disaster. It amounts to complete defeat; and is tantamountto a confession that you must go home, because you are unable to rideto hounds. A man, when he is compelled to do this, is almost drivento resolve at the spur of the moment that he will give up hunting forthe rest of his life. And if one thing be more essential than anyother to the horseman in general, it is that he, and not the animalwhich he rides, shall be the master. "The best thing is to stick himat it till he do," the groom had said; and Phineas resolved to beguided by the groom.
But his first duty was to attend on Madame Goesler. With very littleassistance she was again in her saddle, and she at once declaredherself certain that her horse could take the fence. Phineas againinstantly jumped into his saddle, and turning Dandolo again at theditch, rammed the rowels into the horse's sides. But Dandolo wouldnot jump yet. He stood with his fore feet on the brink, and whenPhineas with his whip struck him severely over the shoulders, he wentdown into the ditch on all fours, and then scrambled back again tohis former position. "What an infernal brute!" said Phineas, gnashinghis teeth.
"He is a little obstinate, Mr. Finn; I wonder whether he'd jump ifI gave him a lead." But Phineas was again making the attempt, urgingthe horse with spurs, whip, and voice. He had brought himself nowto that condition in which a man is utterly reckless as to fallinghimself,--or even to the kind of fall he may get,--if he can onlyforce his animal to make the attempt. But Dandolo would not makethe attempt. With ears down and head outstretched, he either stuckobstinately on the brink, or allowed himself to be forced again andagain into the ditch. "Let me try it once, Mr. Finn," said MadameGoesler in her quiet way.
She was riding a small horse, very nearly thoroughbred, and knownas a perfect hunter by those who habitually saw Madame Goesler ride.No doubt he would have taken the fence readily enough had his riderfollowed immediately after Lord Chiltern; but Dandolo had baulked atthe fence nearly a dozen times, and evil communications will corruptgood manners. Without any show of violence, but still with persistentdetermination, Madame Goesler's horse also declined to jump. She puthim at it again and again, and he would make no slightest attempt todo his business. Phineas raging, fuming, out of breath, miserablyunhappy, shaking his reins, plying his whip, rattling himself aboutin the saddle, and banging his legs against the horse's sides, againand again plunged away at the obstacle. But it was all to no purpose.Dandolo was constantly in the ditch, sometimes lying with his sideagainst the bank, and had now been so hustled and driven that, had hebeen on the other side, he would have had no breath left to carry hisrider, even in the ruck of the hunt. In the meantime the hounds andthe leading horsemen were far away,--never more to be seen on thatday by either Phineas Finn or Madame Max Goesler. For a while, duringthe frantic efforts that were made, an occasional tardy horseman wasviewed galloping along outside the covert, following the tracks ofthose who had gone before. But before the frantic efforts had beenabandoned as utterly useless every vestige of the morning's workhad left the neighbourhood of Broughton Spinnies, except these twounfortunate ones. At last it was necessary that the defeat should beacknowledged. "We're beaten, Madame Goesler," said Phineas, almost intears.
"Altogether beaten, Mr. Finn."
"I've a good mind to swear that I'll never come out hunting again."
"Swear what you like, if it will relieve you, only don't think ofkeeping such an oath. I've known you before this to be depressed bycircumstances quite as distressing as these, and to be certain t
hatall hope was over;--but yet you have recovered." This was the onlyallusion she had yet made to their former acquaintance. "And now wemust think of getting out of the wood."
"I haven't the slightest idea of the direction of anything."
"Nor have I; but as we clearly can't get out this way we might aswell try the other. Come along. We shall find somebody to put us inthe right road. For my part I'm glad it is no worse. I thought at onetime that you were going to break your neck." They rode on for a fewminutes in silence, and then she spoke again. "Is it not odd, Mr.Finn, that after all that has come and gone you and I should findourselves riding about Broughton Spinnies together?"