Then I lost my senses.  Instead of running on past him and leaping into the wood, I swung right round and rushed back, still clinging to the hedgerow.  Indeed as I went down one side of it the hounds and the hunters came up on the other, so that there were only a few sticks between us, though fortunately the wind was blowing from them to me.  Fearing lest they should see me I jumped into the ditch and ran for quite two hundred yards through the mud and water that was gathered there.  Then I had to come out of it again as it ended but here was a fall in the ground, so still I was not seen.

Meanwhile the hunt had reached the three men and I heard them all talking together.  The end of it was that the men explained which way I had gone, and once more the hounds were laid on to me.  In a minute they got to where I had entered the ditch, and there grew confused because my footmarks did not smell in the water.  For quite a long time they looked about till at length, taking a wide cast, the hounds found my smell again at the end of the ditch.

During this check I was making the best of my way back towards my own home; indeed had it not been for it I should have been caught and torn to pieces much sooner than I was.  Thus it happened that I had covered quite three miles before once more I heard those hounds baying behind me.  This was just as I got on to the moorland, at that edge of it which is about another three miles from the great house called the Hall, which stands on the top of a cliff that slopes down to the beach and the sea.

I had thought of making for the other wood, that in which I had saved myself from the greyhounds when the beast Jack broke its neck against the tree, but it was too far off, and the ground was so open that I did not dare to try.

So I went straight on, heading towards the cliff.  Another mile and they viewed me, for I heard Tom yell with delight as he stood up in his stirrups on the black cob he was riding and waved his cap.  Jerry the huntsman also stood up in his stirrups and waved his cap, and the last awful hunt began.

I ran—­oh! how I ran.  Once when they were nearly on me I managed to check them for a minute in a hollow by getting among some sheep.  But they soon found me again, and came after me at full tear not more than a hundred yards behind.  In front of me I saw something that looked like walls and bounded towards them with my last strength.  My heart was bursting, my eyes and mouth seemed to be full of blood, but the terror of being torn to pieces still gave me power to rush on almost as quickly as though I had just been put off my form.  For as I have told you, Mahatma, I am, or rather was, a very strong and swift hare.