The black grinned with the consciousness of the bribe that was thus offered him for his silence on the subject of the deer, while Richard, without, in the least, waiting for the termination of his cousin's speech, at once began his reply—
"Learn to drive, sayest thou, cousin duke? Is there a man in the county who knows more of horse-flesh than myself? Who broke in the filly, that no one else dare mount? though your coachman did pretend that he had tamed her before I took her in hand, but any body could see that he lied—he was a great liar, that John—what's that, a buck?"—Richard abandoned the horses, and ran to the spot where Marmaduke had thrown the deer: "It is a buck indeed! I am amazed! Yes, here are two holes in him; he has fired both barrels, and hit him each time. Ecod! how Marmaduke will brag! he is a prodigious bragger about any small matter like this now; well, well, to think that 'duke has killed a buck before christmas! There will be no such thing as living with him—they are both bad shots though, mere chance—mere chance;-now, I never fired twice at a cloven hoof in my life;—it is hit or miss with me—dead or runaway:—had it been a bear, or a wild-cat, a man might have wanted both barrels. Here! you Aggy! how far off was the Judge when this buck was shot?"
"Eh! Massa Richard, may be a ten rod," cried the black, bending under one of the horses, with the pretence of fastening a buckle, but in reality to conceal the broad grin that opened a mouth from ear to ear.
"Ten rod!" echoed the other; "why, Aggy, the deer I killed last winter was at twenty—yes! if any thing it was nearer thirty than twenty. I wouldn't shoot at a deer at ten rod: besides, you may remember, Aggy, I only fired once."
