they tore their throats with barking, seemed frantic with rage.

No doubt the panther, when he cleared the wall, hoped exultant to
find himself in the savage forest, instead of which he came down on
the top of a pump, fell on the stones, and the same instant was
caught in a hurricane of canine hate. A little hurt and a good deal
frightened, for he had not endured such long captivity without
debasement, he glared around him with sneaking enquiry. But the
walls were lofty and he saw no gate, and feeling unequal at the
moment to the necessary spring, he crept almost like a snake under
what covert seemed readiest, and disappeared--just as the groom
entering by a door in one of the walls began to look about for him
in a style wherein caution predominated. Seeing no trace of him, and
concluding that, as he had expected, the clamour of the dogs had
driven him further, he went on, crossing the yard to find the men,
whose voices he heard on the green at the back of the rick-yard,
when suddenly he found that his arm was both broken and torn. The
sight of the blood completed the mischief, and he fell down in a
swoon.

Meantime Dorothy had reached the same door in the wall of the
stableyard, and peeping in saw nothing but the dogs raging and
RUGGING at their chains as if they would drag the earth itself after
them to reach the enemy. She was one of those on whose wits, usually
sedate in their motions, all sorts of excitement, danger amongst the
rest, operate favourably. When she specially noticed the fury of
Marquis, the same moment she perceived the danger in which he, that
was, all the dogs, would be, if the panther should attack them one
by one on the chain; not one of them had a chance. With the thought,
she sped across the space between her and Marquis, who--I really