44 LLOYD’S NMPURAL 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, 
