Garnett D. Lady into fox

may think him a fool, almost a madman, we must, when we look closer, find
much to respect in his extraordinary devotion. How different indeed was he
from those who, if their wives go mad, shut them in madhouses and give
themselves up to concubinage, and nay, what is more, there are many who
extenuate such conduct too. But Mr. Tebrick was of a very different temper,
and though his wife was now nothing but a hunted beast, cared for no one in
the world but her.
But this devouring love ate into him like a consumption, so that by
sleepless nights, and not caring for his person, in a few months he was worn
to the shadow of himself. His cheeks were sunk in, his eyes hollow but
excessively brilliant, and his whole body had lost flesh, so that looking at
him the wonder was that he was still alive.
Now that the hunting season was over he had less anxiety for her, yet
even so he was not positive that the bounds had not got hen For between the
time of his setting her free, and the end of the hunting season (just after
Easter), there were but three vixens killed near. Of those three one was a
half-blind or wall-eyed, and one was a very grey dull-coloured beast The
third answered more to the description of his wife, but that it had not much
black on the legs, whereas in her the blackness of the legs was very plain
to be noticed. But yet his fear made him think that perhaps she had got
mired in running and the legs being muddy were not remarked on as black.
One morning the first week in May, about four o'clock, when he was out
wailing in the little copse, he sat down for a while on a tree stump, and
when he looked up saw a fox coming towards him over the ploughed field. It
was carrying a hare over its shoulder so that it was nearly all hidden from
him. At last, when it was not twenty yards from him, it crossed over, going
into the copse, when Mr. Tebrick stood up and cried out, "Silvia, Silvia, is
it you?"
The fox dropped the hare out of his mouth and stood looking at him, and
then our gentleman saw at the first glance that this was not his wife. For
whereas Mrs. Tebrick had been of a very bright red, this was a swarthier
duller beast altogether, moreover it was a good deal larger and higher at
the shoulder and had a great white tag to his brush. But the fox after the
first instant did not stand for his portrait you may be sure, but picked up
his hare and made off like an arrow.
Then Mr. Tebrick cried out to himself: "Indeed I am crazy now! My
affliction has made me lose what little reason I ever had. Here am I taking
every fox I see to be my wife! My neighbours call me a madman and now I see
that they are right.
Look at me now, oh God I How foul a creature I am. I hate my fellows. I
am thin and wasted by this consuming passion, my reason is gone and I feed
myself on dreams. Recall me to my duty, bring me back to decency, let me not
become a beast likewise, but restore me and forgive me. Oh my Lord."
With that he burst into scalding tears and knelt down and prayed, a
thing he had not done for many weeks.
When he rose up he walked back feeling giddy and exceedingly weak, but
with a contrite heart, and then washed himself thoroughly and changed bis
clothes, but his weakness increasing he lay down for the rest of the day,
but read in the Book of Job and was much comforted.
For several days after this he lived very soberly, for his weakness
continued, but every day he read in the Bible, and prayed earnestly, so that
his resolution was so much strengthened that he determined to overcome his
folly, or his passion, if he could, and at any rate to live the rest of his
life very religiously. So strong was this desire in him to amend his ways
that he considered if he should not go to spread the Gospel abroad, for the
Bible Society, and so spend the rest of his days.
Indeed he began a letter to his wife's uncle, the canon, and he was
writing this when he was startled by hearing a fox bark.
Yet so great was this new turn he had taken that he did not rush out at
once, as he would have done before, but stayed where he was and finished his
letter.
Afterwards he said to himself that it was only a wild fox and sent by
the devil to mock him, and that madness lay that way if he should listen.
But on the other hand he could not deny to himself that it might have been
his wife, and that he ought to welcome the prodigal. Thus he was torn
between these two thoughts, neither of which did he completely believe. He
stayed thus tormented with doubts and fears all night
The next morning he woke suddenly with a start and on the instant heard
a fox bark once more. At that he pulled on his clothes and ran out as fast
as he could to the garden gate. The sun was not yet high, the dew thick
everywhere, and for a minute or two everything was very silent He looked
about him eagerly but could see no fox, yet there was already joy in his
heart.
Then while he looked up and down the road, he saw his vixen step out of
the copse about thirty yards away. He called to her at once.
"My dearest wife! Oh, Silvia! You are come back!" and at the sound of
his voice he saw her wag her tail, which set his last doubts at rest.
But then though he called her again, she stepped into the copse once
more though she looked back at him over her shoulder as she went At this he
ran after her, but softly and not too fast lest he should frighten her away,
and then looked about for her again and called to her when he saw her among
the trees still keeping her distance from him. He followed her then, and as
he approached so she retreated from him, yet always looking back at him
several times.
He followed after her through the underwood up the side of the hill,
when suddenly she disappeared from his sight, behind some bracken.
When he got there he could sec her nowhere, but looking about him found
a fox's earth, but so well hidden that he might have passed it by a thousand
limes and would never have found it unless he had made particular search at
that spot
But now, though he went on his hands and knees, he could see nothing of
his vixen, so that he wailed a little while wondering.
Presently he heard a noise of something moving in the earth, and so
waited silently, then saw something which pushed itself into sight It was a
small sooty black beast, like a puppy. There came another behind it, then
another and so on till there were five of them. Lastly there came his vixen
pushing her litter before her, and while he looked at her silently, a prey
to his confused and unhappy emotions, he saw that her eyes were shining with
pride and happiness.
She picked up one of her youngsters then, in her mouth, and brought it
to him and laid it in front of him, and then looked up at him very excited,
or so it seemed.
Mr. Tebrick took the cub in his hands, stroked it and put it against
his cheek. It was a little fellow with a smutty face and paws, with staring
vacant eyes of a brilliant electric blue and a little tail like a carrot
When he was put down he took a step towards his mother and then sat down
very comically.
Mr. Tebrick looked at his wife again and spoke to her, calling her a
good creature. Already he was resigned and now, indeed, for the first time
he thoroughly understood what bad happened to her, and how far apart they
were now. But looking first at one cub, then at another, and having them
sprawling over his lap, he forgot himself, only watching the pretty scene,
and taking pleasure in it Now and then he would stroke his vixen and kiss
her, liberties which she freely, allowed him. He marvelled more than ever
now at her beauty; for her gentleness with the cubs and the extreme delight
she took in them seemed to him then to make her more lovely than before.
Thus lying amongst them at the mouth of the earth he idled away the whole of
the morning.
First he would play with one, then with another, rolling them over and
tickling them, but they were too young yet to lend themselves to any other
more active sport than this. Every now and then he would stroke his vixen,
or look at her, and thus the time slipped away quite fast and he was
surprised when she gathered her cubs together and pushed them before her
into the earth, then coming back to him once or twice very humanly bid him
"Good-bye and that she hoped she would see him soon again, now he had found
out the way."
So admirably did she express her meaning that it would have been
superfluous for her to have spoken had she been able, and Mr. Tebrick, who
was used to her, got up at once and went home.
But now that he was alone, all the feelings which he had not troubled
himself with when he, was with her, but had, as it were, put aside till
after his innocent pleasures were over, all these came swarming back to
assail him in a hundred tormenting ways.
Firstly he asked himself: Was not bis wife unfaithful to him. had she
not prostituted herself to a beast? Could he still love her after that? But
this did not trouble him so much as it might have done. For now he was
convinced inwardly that she could no longer in fairness be judged as a
woman, but as a fox only. And as a fox she had done no more than other
foxes, indeed in having cubs and tending them with love, she had done well.
Whether in this conclusion Mr. Tebrick was in the right or not, is not
for us here to consider. But I would only say to those who would censure him
for a too lenient view of the religious side of the matter, that we have not
seen the thing as he did, and perhaps if it were displayed before our eyes
we might be led to the same conclusions.
This was, however, not a tenth part of the trouble in which Mr. Tebrick
found himself. For he asked himself also: "Was he not jealous?" And looking
into his heart he found that he was indeed jealous, yes, and angry too, that
now he must share his vixen with wild foxes. Then he questioned himself if
it were not dishonourable to do so, and whether he should not utterly forget
her and follow his original intention of retiring from the world, and see
her no more.
Thus he tormented himself for the rest of that day, and by evening he
had resolved never to see her again.
But in the middle of the night he woke up with his head very clear, and
said to himself in wonder, "Am I not a madman? I torment myself foolishly
with fantastic notions. Can a man have his honour sullied by a beast? I am a
man, I am immeasurably superior to the animals. Can my dignity allow of my
being jealous of a beast? A thousand times no. Were I to lust after a vixen,
I were a criminal indeed. I can be happy in seeing my vixen, for I love her,
but she does light to be happy according to the laws of her being."
Lastly, he said to himself what was, he felt, the truth of this whole
matter!
"When I am with her I am happy. But now I distort what is simple and
drive myself crazy with false reasoning upon it."
Yet before he slept again he prayed, but though he had thought first to
pray for guidance, in reality he prayed only that on the morrow he would see
his vixen again and that God would preserve her, and her cubs too, from all
dangers, and would allow him to see them often, so that he might come to
love them for her sake as if he were their father, and that if this were a
sin he might be forgiven, for he sinned in ignorance.
The next day or two he saw vixen and cubs again, though his visits were
cut shorter, and these visits gave him such an innocent pleasure that very
soon his notions of honour, duty and so on, were entirely forgotten, and his
jealousy lulled asleep.
One day he tried taking with him the stereoscope and a pack of cards.
But though his Silvia was affectionate and amiable enough to let him
put the stereoscope over her muzzle, yet she would not look through it, but
kept turning her head to lick his hand, and it was plain to him that now she
had quite forgotten the use of the instrument. It was the same too with the
cards. For with them she was pleased enough, but only delighting to bite at
them, and flip them about with her paws, and never considering for a moment
whether they were diamonds or clubs, or hearts, or spades or whether the
card was an ace or not So it was evident that she had forgotten the nature
of cards too.
Thereafter he only brought them things which she could better enjoy,
that is sugar, grapes, raisins, and butcher's meat.
By-and-by, as the summer wore on, the cubs came to know him, and he
them, so that he was able to tell them easily apart, and then he christened
them. For this purpose he brought a little bowl of water, sprinkled them as
if in baptism and told them he was their godfather and gave each of them a
name, calling them Sorel, Kasper, Selwyn, Esther, and Angelica.
Sorel was a clumsy little beast of a cheery and indeed puppyish
disposition; Kasper was fierce, the largest of the five, even in his play he
would always bite, and gave his godfather many a sharp nip as time went on.
Esther was of a dark complexion, a true brunette and very sturdy; Angelica
the brightest red and the most exactly like her mother, while Selwyn was the
smallest cub, of a very prying, inquisitive and cunning temper, but delicate
and undersized.
Thus Mr. Tebrick had a whole family now to occupy him, and, indeed,
came to love them with very much of a father's love and partiality.
His favourite was Angelica (who reminded him so much of her mother in
her pretty ways) because of a gentleness which was lacking in the others,
even in their play. After her in his affections came Selwyn, whom he soon
saw was the most intelligent of the whole litter. Indeed he was so much more
quick-wilted than the rest that Mr. Tebrick was led into speculating as to
whether he had not inherited something of the human from his dam. Thus very
early he learnt to know his name, and would come when he was called, and
what was stranger still, he learnt the names of his brothers and sisters
before they came to do so themselves.
Besides all this he was something of a young philosopher, for though
his brother Kasper tyrannised over him he put up with it all with an
unruffled temper. He was not, however, above playing tricks on the others,
and one day when Mr. Tebrick was by, he made believe that there was a mouse
in a hole some little way off. Very soon he was joined by Sorel, and
presently by Kasper and Esther. When he had got them all digging, it was
easy for him to slip away, and then he came to his godfather with a sly
look, sat down before him, and smiled and then jerked his head over towards
the others and smiled again and wrinkled his brows so that Mr. Tebrick knew
as well as if he had spoken that the youngster was saying, "Have I not made
fools of them all?"
He was the only one that was curious about Mr. Tebricks he made him
take out his watch, put his ear to it, considered it and wrinkled up his
brows in perplexity. On the next visit it was the same thing.
He must see the watch again, and again think over it But clever as he
was, little Selwyn could never understand it, and if his mother remembered
anything about watches it was a subject which she never attempted to explain
to her children.
One day Mr. Tebrick left the earth as usual and ran down the slope to
the road, when he was surprised to find a carriage waiting before his house
and a coachman walking about near his gate. Mr. Tebrick went in and found
that his visitor was waiting for him. It was his wife's uncle.
They shook hands, though the Rev. Canon Fox did not recognise him
immediately, and Mr. Tebrick led him into the house.
The clergyman looked about him a good deal, at the dirty and disorderly
rooms, and when Mr. Tebrick took him into the drawing-room it was evident
that it had been unused for several months, the dust lay so thickly on all
the furniture. After some conversation on indifferent topics Canon Fox said
to him:
"I have called really to ask about my niece."
Mr. Tebrick was silent for some time and then said:
"She is quite happy now."
"Ah—indeed. I have heard she is not living with you any longer."
"No. She is not living with me. She is not far away. I see her every
day now."
"Indeed. Where docs the live?"
"In the woods with her children. I ought to tell you that she has
changed her shape. She is ft fox."
The Rev. Canon Vox got up, he was alarmed, and everything Mr. Tebrick
said confirmed what he had been led to expect he would find at Rylands. When
he was outside, however, he asked Mr. Tebricks
"You don't have many visitors now, eh?"
"No — I never see anyone if I can avoid it. You are the first
person I have spoken to for months."
"Quite right, too, my dear fellow. I quite understand — in the
circumstances." Then the cleric shook him by the hand, got into his carriage
and drove away.
"At any rate," he said to himself, "there will be no scandal." He was
relieved also because Mr. Tebrick had said nothing about going abroad to
disseminate the Gospel. Canon Fox had been alarmed by the letter, had not
answered it, and thought that it was always better to let things be, and
never to refer to anything unpleasant. He did not at all want to recommend
Mr. Tebrick to the Bible Society if he were mad. His eccentricities would
never be noticed at Stokoe. Besides that, Mr. Tebrick had said he was happy.
He was sorry for Mr. Tebrick too, and he said to himself that the queer
girl, his niece, must have married him because he was the first man she had
met. He reflected also that he was never likely to see her again and said
aloud, when he had driven some little way:
"Not an affectionate disposition," then to his coachman: "No, that's
all right. Drive on, Hopkins."
When Mr. Tebrick was alone he rejoiced exceedingly in his solitary
life. He understood, or so he fancied, what it was to be happy, and that he
had found complete happiness now, living from day to day, careless of the
future, surrounded every morning by playful and affectionate little
creatures whom he loved tenderly, and sitting beside their mother, whose
simple happiness was the source of his own.
"True happiness," he said to himself, "is to be found in bestowing
love; there is no such happiness as that of the mother for her babe, unless
I have attained it in mine for my vixen and her children."
With these feelings he waited impatiently for the hour on the morrow
when he might hasten to them once more.
When, however, he had toiled up the hillside, to the earth, taking
infinite precaution not to tread down the bracken, or make a beaten path
which might lead others to that secret spot, he found to his surprise that
Silvia was not there and that there were no cubs to be seen either. He
called to them, but it was in vain. and at last he laid himself on the mossy
bank beside the earth and wailed.
For a long while, as it seemed to him, he lay very still, with closed
eyes, straining his ears to hear every rustic among the leaves, or any sound
that might be the cubs stirring in the earth.
At last he must have dropped asleep, for he woke suddenly with all his
senses alert, and opening his eyes found a full-grown fox within six feel of
him sitting on its haunches like a dog and watching his face with curiosity.
Mr. Tebrick saw instantly that it was not Silvia. When he moved the fox got
up and shifted his eyes, but still stood his ground, and Mr. Tebrick
recognised him then for the dog. fox he had seen once before carrying a
hare. It was the same dark beast with a large white tag to his brush. Now
the secret was out and Mr. Tebrick could see his rival before him. Here was
the real father of his godchildren, who could be certain of their taking
after him, and leading over again his wild and rakish life. Mr. Tebrick
stared for a long time at the handsome rogue, who glanced back at him with
distrust and watchfulness patent in his face, but not without defiance too,
and it teemed to Mr. Tebrick as if there was also a touch of cynical humour
in his look, as if he said:
"By Gad! we two have been strangely brought together!"
And to the man, at any rate, it seemed strange that they were thus
linked, and he wondered if the love his rival there bare to his vixen and
his cubs were the same thing in kind as his own.
"We would both of us give our lives for theirs," he said to himself as
he reasoned upon it, "we both of us are happy chiefly in their company. What
pride this fellow must feel to have such a wife, and such children taking
after him. And has he not reason for his pride? He lives in a world where he
is beset with a thousand dangers. For half the year he is hunted, everywhere
dogs pursue him, men lay traps for him or menace him. He owes nothing to
another."
But he did not speak, knowing that his words would only alarm the fox;
then in a few minutes he saw the dog-fox look over his shoulder, and then he
trotted off as lightly as a gossamer veil blown in the wind, and, in a
minute or two more, back he comes with his vixen and the cubs all around
him. Seeing the dog-fox thus surrounded by vixen and cubs was too much for
Mr. Tebrick; in spite of all his philosophy a pang of jealousy shot through
him. He could see that Silvia had been hunting with her cubs, and also that
she had forgotten that he would come that morning, for she started when she
law him, and though she carelessly licked his hand, he could see that her
thoughts were not with him.
Very soon she led her cubs into the earth, the dog-fox had vanished and
Mr. Tebrick was again alone. He did not wait longer but went home.
Now was his peace of mind all gone, the happiness which he had nattered
himself the night before he knew so well how to enjoy, seemed now but a
fool's paradise in which he had been living. A hundred times this poor
gentleman bit his lip, drew down his torvous brows, and stamped his foot,
and cursed himself bitterly, or called his lady bitch. He could not forgive
himself neither, that he had not thought of the damned dog-fox before, but
all the while had let the cubs frisk round him, each one a proof that a
dog-fox had been at work with his vixen. Yes, jealousy was now in the wind,
and every circumstance which had been a reason for his felicity the night
before was now turned into A monstrous feature of his nightmare. With alt
this Mr. Tebrick so worked upon himself that for the time being he had lost
his reason. Black was white and white black, and he was resolved that on the
morrow he would dig the vile brood of foxes out and shoot them, and so free
himself at last from this hellish plague.
All that night he was in this mood, and in agony, as if he had broken
in the crown of a tooth and bitten on the nerve. But as all things will have
an ending so at last Mr. Tebrick, worn out and wearied by this loathed
passion of jealousy, fell into an uneasy and tormented sleep.
After an hour or two the procession of confused and jumbled images
which first assailed him passed away and subsided into one clear and
powerful dream. His wife was with him in her own proper shape, walking as
they had been on that fatal day before her transformation. Yet she was
changed too, for in her face there were visible tokens of unhappiness, her
face swollen with crying, pale and downcast, her hair hanging in disorder,
her damp hands wringing a small handkerchief into a ball, her whole body
shaken with sobs, and an air of long neglect about her person. Between her
sobs she was confessing to him some crime which she had committed, but he
did not catch the broken words, nor did he wish to hear them, for he was
dulled by his sorrow. So they continued walking together in sadness as it
were for ever, he with his arm about her waist, she turning her head to him
and often casting her eyes down in distress.
At last they sat down, and he spoke, laying:
"I know they are not my children, but I shall not use them barbarously
because of that. You are still my wife. I swear to you they shall never be
neglected. I will pay for their education."
Then he began turning over the names of schools in his mind. Eton would
not do, nor Harrow, nor Winchester, nor Rugby. ... But he could not tell why
these schools would not do for these children of hers, he only knew that
every school he thought of was impossible, but surely one could be found. So
turning over the names of schools he sat for a long while holding his dear
wife's hand, till at length, still weeping, she got up and went away and
then slowly he awoke.
But even when he had opened his eyes and looked about him he was
thinking of schools, saying to himself that he must send them to a private
academy, or even at the worst engage a tutor. "Why, yes," he said to
himself, putting one foot out of bed, "that is what it must be, a tutor,
though even then there will be a difficulty at first,"
At those words he wondered what difficulty there would be and
recollected that they were not ordinary children. No, they were foxes —
mere foxes. When poor Mr. Tebrick had remembered this he was, as it were,
dazed or stunned by the fact, and for a long time he could understand
nothing, but at last burst into a flood of tears compassionating them and
himself loo. The awfulness of the fact itself, that his dear wife should
have foxes instead of children, filled him with an agony of pity, and, at
length, when he recollected the cause of their being foxes, that is that his
wife was a fox also, his tears broke out anew, and he could bear it no
longer but began calling out in his anguish, and beat his head once or twice
against the wall, and then cast himself down on his bed again and wept and
wept, sometimes tearing the sheets asunder with his teeth.
The whole of that day, for he was not to go to the earth till evening,
he went about sorrowfully, torn by true pity for his poor vixen and her
children.
At last when the time came he went again up to the earth, which he
found deserted, but hearing his voice, out came Esther. But though he called
the others by their names there was no answer, and something in the way the
cub greeted him made him fancy she was indeed alone. She was truly rejoiced
to see him, and scrambled up into his arms, and thence to his shoulder,
kissing him, which was unusual in her (though natural enough in her sister
Angelica). He sal down a little way from the earth fondling her, and fed her
with some fish he had brought for her mother, which she ate so ravenously
that he concluded she must have been short of food that day and probably
alone for some time.
At last while he was sitting there Esther pricked up her ears, started
up, and presently Mr. Tebrick saw his vixen come towards them. She greeted
him very affectionately but it was plain had not much time to spare, for she
soon started back whence she had come with Esther at her side. When they had
gone about a rod the cub hung back and kept stopping and looking back to the
earth, and at last turned and ran back home. But her mother was not to be
fobbed off so, for she quickly overtook her child and gripping her by the
scruff began to drag her along with her.
Mr. Tebrick, seeing then how matters stood, spoke to her, telling her
he would carry Esther if she would lead, so after a little while Silvia gave
her over, and then they set out on their strange journey.
Silvia went running on a little before while Mr. Tebrick followed after
with Esther in his arms whimpering and struggling now to be free, and
indeed, once she gave him a nip with her teeth. This was not so strange a
thing to him now, and he knew the remedy for it, which is much the same as
with others whose tempers run loo high, that is a taste of it themselves.
Mr. Tebrick shook her and gave her a smart little cuff, after which, though
she sulked, she stopped her biting.
They went thus above a mile, circling his house and crossing the
highway until they gained a small covert that lay with some waste fields
adjacent to it. And by this time it was so dark that it was all Mr. Tebrick
could do to pick his way, for it was not always easy for him to follow where
his vixen found a big enough road for herself.
But at length they came to another earth, and by the starlight Mr.
Tebrick could just make out the other cubs skylarking in the shadows.
Now he was tired, but he was happy and laughed softly for joy, and
presently his vixen, coming to him, put her feet upon his shoulders as he
sal on the ground, and licked him, and he kissed her back on the muzzle and
gathered her in his arms and rolled her in his jacket and then laughed and
wept by turns in the excess of his joy.
All his jealousies of the night before were forgotten now. All his
desperate sorrow of the morning and the horror of his dream were gone. What
if they were foxes? Mr. Tebrick found that he could be happy with them. As
the weather was hot he lay out there all the night, first playing hide and
seek with them in the dark till, missing his vixen and the cubs proving
obstreperous, he lay down and was soon asleep.
He was woken up soon after dawn by one of the cubs tugging at his
shoelaces in play. When he sat up he saw two of the cubs standing near him
on their hind legs, wrestling with each other, the other two were playing
hide and seek round a tree trunk, and now Angelica let go his laces and came
romping into his arms to kiss him and say "Good morning" to him, then
worrying the points of his waistcoat a little shyly after the warmth of his
embrace.
That moment of awakening was very sweet to him. The freshness of the
morning, the scent of everything at the day's rebirth, the first beams of
the sun upon a tree-top near, and a pigeon rising into the air suddenly, all
delighted him. Even the rough scent of the body of the cub in his anus
seemed to him delicious.
At that moment all human customs and institutions seemed to him nothing
but folly; for said he, "I would exchange all my life as a man for my
happiness now, and even now I retain almost all of the ridiculous
conceptions of a man. The beasts are happier and I will deserve that
happiness as best I can."
After he had looked at the cubs playing merrily, how, with soft
stealth, one would creep behind another to bounce out and startle him, A
thought came into Mr. Tebrick's head, and that was that these cubs were
innocent, they were as stainless snow, they could not sin, for God had
created them to be thus and they could break none of His commandments.
And he fancied also that men sin because they cannot be as the animals.
Presently he got up full of happiness, and began making his way home
when suddenly he came to a full slop and asked himself: "What is going to
happen to them?"
This question rooted him stockishly in a cold and deadly fear as if he
had seen a snake before him. At last he shook his head and hurried on his
path. Aye, indeed, what would become of his vixen and her children?
This thought put him into such a fever of apprehension that he did his
best not to think of it any more, but yet it stayed with him all that day
and for weeks after, at the back of his mind, so that he was not careless in
his happiness as before, but as it were trying continually to escape his own
thoughts.
This made him also anxious to pass all the lime he could with his dear
Silvia, and, therefore, he began going out to them for more of the day time,
and then he would sleep the night in the woods
also as he had done that night; and so he passed several weeks, only
returning to his house occasionally to get himself a fresh provision of
food. But after a week or ten days at the new earth both his vixen and the
cubs, too, got a new habit of roaming. For a long while back, as he knew,
his vixen had been lying out alone most of the day, and now the cubs were
all for doing the same thing. The earth, in short, had served its purpose
and was now distasteful to them, and they would not enter it unless pressed
with fear.
This new manner of their lives was an added grief to Mr. Tebrick, for
sometimes he missed them for hours together, or for the whole day even, and
not knowing where they might be was lonely and anxious. Yet his Silvia was
thoughtful for him too and would often send Angelica or another of the cubs
to fetch him to their new lair, or come herself if she could spare the time.
For now they were all perfectly accustomed to his presence, and had come to
look on him as their natural companion, and although he was in many ways
irksome to them by scaring rabbits, yet they always rejoiced to see him when
they had been parted from him. This friendliness of theirs was, you may be
sure, the source of most of Mr. Tebrick's happiness at this time. Indeed he
lived now for nothing but his foxes, his love for his vixen had extended
itself insensibly to include her cubs, and these were now his daily
playmates so that he knew them as well as if they had been his own children.
With Selwyn and Angelica indeed he was always happy; and they never so much
as when they were with him. He was not stiff in his behaviour either, but
had learnt by this lime as much from his foxes as they had from him. Indeed
never was there a more curious alliance than this or one with stranger
effects upon both of the parties.
Mr. Tebrick now could follow after them anywhere and keep up with them
too, and could go through a wood as silently as a deer. He learnt to conceal
himself if ever a labourer passed by so that he was rarely seen, and never
but once in their company. But what was most strange of all, he had got a
way of going doubled up, often almost on all fours with his hands touching
the ground every now and then, particularly when he went uphill.
He hunted with them too sometimes, chiefly by coming up and scaring
rabbits towards where the cubs lay ambushed, so that the bunnies ran
straight into their jaws.
He was useful to them in other ways, climbing up and robbing pigeon's
nests for the eggs which they relished exceedingly, or by occasionally
dispatching a hedgehog for them so they did not get the prickles in their
mouths. But while on his part he thus altered his conduct, they on their
side were not behindhand, but learnt a dozen human tricks from him that are
ordinarily wanting in Reynard's education.
One evening he went to a cottager who had a row of skeps, and bought
one of them, just as it was after the man had smothered the bees. This he
carried to the foxes that they might taste the honey, for he had seen them
dig out wild bees' nests often enough. The skep full was indeed a wonderful
feast for them, they bit greedily into the heavy scented comb, their jaws
were drowned in the sticky flood of sweetness, and they gorged themselves on
it without restraint. When they had crunched up the last morsel they tore
the skep in pieces, and for hours afterwards they were happily employed in
licking themselves clean.
That night he slept near their lair, but they left him and went
hunting. In the morning when he woke he was quite numb with cold, and faint
with hunger. A white mist hung over everything and the wood smelt of autumn.
He got up and stretched his cramped limbs, and then walked homewards.
The summer was over and Mr Tebrick noticed this now for the first time and
was astonished. He reflected that the cubs were fast growing up, they were
foxes at all points, and yet when he thought of the time when they had been
sooty and had blue eyes it seemed to him only yesterday. >From that he
passed to thinking of the future, asking himself as he had done once before
what would become of Ins vixen and her children. Before the winter he must
tempt them into the security of his garden, and fortify it against all the
dangers that threatened them.
But though he tried to allay his fear with such resolutions he remained
uneasy all that day. When he went out to them that afternoon he found only
his wife Silvia there and it was plain to him that she too was alarmed, but
alas, poor creature, she could tell him nothing, only lick his hands and
face, and turn about pricking her ears at every sound.
"Where are your children, Silvia?" he asked her several times, but she
was impatient of his questions, but at last sprang into his arms, flattened
herself upon his breast and kissed him gently, so that when he departed his
heart was lighter because he knew that she still loved him.
That night he slept indoors, but in the morning early he was awoken by
the sound of trotting horses, and running to the window saw a farmer riding
by very sprucely dressed. Could they be hunting so soon, he wondered, but
presently reassured himself that it could not be a hunt already.
He heard no other sound till eleven o'clock in the morning when
suddenly there was the clamour of hounds giving tongue and not so far off
neither. At this Mr. Tebrick ran out of his house distracted and set open
the gates of his garden, but with iron bars and wire at the top so the
huntsmen could not follow. There was silence again; it seems the fox must
have turned away, for there was no oilier sound of the hunt. Mr. Tebrick was
now like one helpless with fear, he dared not go out, yet could not stay
still at home. There was nothing that he could do, yet he would not admit
this, so he busied himself in making holes in the hedges, so that Silvia (or
her cubs) could enter from whatever side she came.
At last he forced himself to go indoors and sit down and drink some
tea. While he was there he fancied he heard the hounds again; it was but a
faint ghostly echo of their music, yet when he ran out of the house it was
already close at hand in the copse above.
Now it was that poor Mr. Tebrick made his great mistake, for hearing
the hounds almost outside the gate he ran to meet them, whereas rightly he
should have run back to the house. As soon as he reached the gate he saw his
wife Silvia coming towards him but very tired with running and just upon her
the hounds. The horror of that sight pierced him, for ever afterwards he was
haunted by those hounds—their eagerness, their desperate efforts to
gain on her, and their blind lust for her came at odd moments to frighten
him all his life. Now he should have run back, though it was already late,
but instead he cried out to her, and she ran straight through the open gate
to him. What followed was all over in a flash, but it was seen by many
witnesses.
The side of Mr. Tebrick's garden there is bounded by a wall, about six
feet high and curving round, so that the huntsmen could see over this wall
inside. One of them indeed put his horse at it very boldly, which was
risking his neck, and although he got over safe was too late to be of much
assistance.
His vixen had once sprung into Mr. Tebrick's aims, and before he could
turn back the hounds were upon them and had pulled them down. Then at that
moment there was a scream of despair heard by all the field that had come
up, which they declared afterwards was more like a woman's voice than a
man's. But yet there was no clear proof whether it was Mr. Tebrick or his
wife who had suddenly regained her voice. When the huntsman who had leapt
the wall got to them and had whipped off the hounds Mr. Tebrick had been
terribly mauled and was bleeding from twenty wounds. As for his vixen she
was dead, though he was still clasping her dead body in his arms.
Mr. Tebrick was carried into the house at once and assistance sent for,
but there was no doubt now about his neighbours being in the right when they
called him mad.
For a long while his life was despaired of, but at last he rallied, and
in the end he recovered his reason and lived to be a great age, for that
matter he is still alive. Finis