4* LLOYDS NATURAL HISTORY. 



glaring at them under the foliage. Charging the Bastaards to 

 stand firm, and level fair, should they miss, the Scottish cham- 

 pions let fly together, and struck — not the Lion, as it after- 

 wards proved, but a great block of red stone, beyond which he 

 was actually lying. Whether any of the shot grazed him is 

 uncertain ; but, with no other warning than a furious growl, 

 forth he bolted from the bush. The rascally Bastaards, in 

 place of pouring in their volley upon him, instantly turned and 

 ran, helter-skelter, leaving him to do his pleasure upon the de- 

 fenceless Scots, who, with empty guns, were tumbling over each 

 other, in their hurry to escape the clutch of the' rampant savage. 

 In a twinkling he was upon them, and, with one stroke of his 

 paw, dashed the nearest to the ground. The thing was terri- 

 fic ! There stood the Lion, with his foot upon his prostrate 

 foe, looking round in conscious pride upon the bands of his 

 assailants, and with a port the most noble and imposing that 

 can be conceived. It was the most magnificent thing I ever 

 witnessed. The danger of our friends, however, rendered it at 

 the moment too terrible to enjoy either the grand or the ludi- 

 crous part of the picture. We expected every instant to see 

 one or more of them torn in pieces ; nor, though the rest of the 

 party were standing within fifty paces, with their guns cocked 

 and levelled, durst we fire for their assistance. One was lying 

 under the Lion's feet, and the other scrambling towards us, in 

 such a way as to intercept our aim upon him. All this passed 

 far more rapidly than I have described it; but, luckily, the 

 Lion, after steadily surveying us for a few seconds, seemed 

 willing to be quit on fair terms, and, with a fortunate forbear- 

 ance,, turned calmly away, and driving the snarling dogs like 

 rats from among his heels, bounded over the adjoining thicket, 

 like a Cat over a footstool, clearing brakes and bushes, twelve 

 or fifteen feet high, as readily as if they had been tufts of grass, 

 and, abandoning the jungle, retreated towards the mountains. 



