CoLENSO. — Memorabilia of certain Animal Prodigies. 93 



afterwards taught two ycung bulldogs to run when he cried 

 out and throw themselves under the belly of that terrible crea- 

 ture, ^Yhilst he himself, mounted on horseback, clad in armour,, 

 with his lance in his hand, pretended at the same time to strike 

 at it in several places. The knight spent several months using 

 this exercise every day, and as soon as he found his dogs per- 

 fect in this way of fighting he returned to Ehodes. He was 

 scarce arrived in the island when, without communicating his 

 design to anybody whatsoever, he made his arms be carried 

 privately near a church situated on the top of the mountain 

 of St. Stephen, where he came attended by only two servants, 

 whom he had brought from France. He went into the church, 

 and, after recommending himself to God, took his arms, 

 mounted on horseback, and ordered his servants, if he perished 

 in the combat, to return to France, but to come up to him 

 if they perceived he had either killed the serpent or was 

 wounded himself. He then went down the mountain with 

 his two dogs, advanced straight to the marsh and the haunt 

 of the serpent, who, at the noise that he made, ran with open 

 mouth and eyes darting fire to devour him. Gozon gave it a 

 stroke with his lance, which the thickness and hardness of its 

 scales made of no effect. He was preparing to redouble his 

 stroke, but his horse, frightened with the hissing and smell of 

 the serpent, refuses to advance, retires back, and leaps aside, 

 and would have been the occasion of his master's destruction 

 if he, with great presence of mind, had not thrown himself off; 

 and then, taking his sword in hand, and attended by his 

 two faithful dogs, he immediately comes up to the horrible 

 beast, and gives him several strokes in different places, 

 but the hardness of the scales hindered them from enter- 

 ing. The furious animal, with a stroke of his tail, threw 

 him on the ground, and would infallibly have devoured 

 him if his two dogs, according as they had been taught, had 

 not seized the serpent by the belly, which they tore and 

 mangled with their teeth, without his being able, though he 

 struggled with all his strength, to force them to quit their 

 hold. The knight, by the help of this succour, gets up, and, 

 joining his two dogs, thrust his sword up to the hilt in a 

 place that was not defended by scales ; he there made a large 

 wound, from whence a deluge of blood flowed out. The 

 monster, wounded to death, falls upon the knight and beats 

 him down a second time, and would have stifled him by the 

 prodigious weight and bulk of its body if the tW'O servants, 

 who had been spectators of the combat, had not, seeing the 

 serpent dead, run in to the rehef of their master. They found 

 him in a swoon and thought him dead, but when they had 

 with great difficulty drawn him from under the serpent to 

 give him room to breathe, in case he was alive, they took off 



