It was to her finding herself in the vicinity of a group of three or
four of these animals, that Lucy thought proper to impute those signs of
fear which had arisen in her countenance for a different reason. For she
had been familiarised with the appearance of the wil cattle during her
walks in the chase; and it was not then, as it may be now, a necessary
part of a young lady's demeanour to indulge in causeless tremors of the
nerves. On the present occasion, however, she speedily found cause for
real terror.
Lucy had scarcely replied to her father in the words we have mentioned,
and he was just about to rebuke her supposed timidity, when a bull,
stimulated either by the scarlet colour of Miss Ashton's mantle, or by
one of those fits of capricious ferocity to which their dispositions are
liable, detached himself suddenly from the group which was feeding at
the upper extremity of a grassy glade, that seemed to lose itself among
the crossing and entangled boughs. The animal approached the intruders
on his pasture ground, at first slowly, pawing the ground with his hoof,
bellowing from time to time, and tearing up the sand with his horns, as
if to lash himself up to rage and violence.
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