122 CENTRAL AMERICA. 



which scarcely bear being transcribed : but 

 it seemed that at last the panther's patience 

 was fairly exhausted, for seeing only one man 

 before him, he gave a sharp roar, and went 

 right at the Don in a loose disjointed sort of 

 a canter, something like a calf's gallop : when 

 he was about thirty yards from him, whether 

 the Spaniard found out that a tigre was quite 

 another aifair from the cat in the cage at 

 Cadiz, or whether a sudden panic seized him, 

 which may happen to anybody, the sword 

 dropped from his paralyzed hand, and at the 

 same time he gave such a dreadful piercing 

 shriek, that the panther, either from the effect 

 of the fearful cry, or from seeing the whole 

 party galloping as hard as possible to save 

 the poor man, turned tail and was soon out 

 of sight in the covert. 



Luckily, in the Don's saddlebags, there 

 was the remainder of the bottle he had re- 

 galed himself with the night before ; but it 

 was a long time before he could speak, or in 

 fact do anything but take short pulls at the 

 bottle. The parties separated about two 

 miles further on, but not one word was men- 

 tioned about the tiger ; there was a hearty 

 laugh after parting, but not before, though it 

 was very difficult to restrain. 



