45(5 HUNTING ADVENTURES. 



Whatever the design, it missed its aim ; for the heart of Gerard, 

 proof equally against intimidation and flattery, took note of nothing 

 but the hospitality of his hosts. Having lighted a fresh pipe, and 

 made his acknowledgements to his entertainers, he took his way to- 

 ward the wood-clothed ravines, which seemed at this hour of the dusk 

 to encincture the country of Archioua with a girdle of mourning. 



During the entire night he explored the district, but his search 

 was vain j not a trace of the foe he sought met his eye. On the fol- 

 lowing day at the same hour he was at his post, scanning with eager 

 look every ravine and hollow. 



In vain the hyaena and the jackal bounded howling beneath his feet. 

 The panther himself had been deemed unworthy of his arms, or rather 

 of the solitary shot it was in his power to discharge ; for by accident 

 cie of the locks of his musket had become broken. An old Eoman, 

 interpreting the mischance as an augury, would have retraced his 

 steps ; but Gerard was only rendered by it the more daring, as placing 

 himself more on an equality with the noble beast. It will now, he 

 said, be lion matched against lion. 



At length, about eight o'clock in the evening of the 8th of July, 

 a terrific howling, repeated again and again by many-voiced echo, 

 was heard to issue from a neighboring ravine. At the dread sound 

 of its notes all nature seemed abashed into silence, and the cattle 

 crept away, and him themselves. 



Gerard was impatient for the fray ; his heart beat high, and his 

 breast expanded. He essayed to tear away the branches that sepa- 

 rated him from the enemy, who he feared might yet retreat, and de- 

 cline * e combat. Eagerly his eye penetrated the gloom. He removed 

 in a ' ' minutes the last screen. His watchful dog followed hia 

 mas* . a eye, and suddenly crouched at his feet, without uttering so 

 muf a as a cry of terror ; for fear had paralyzed his voice. 



It was a sublime and imposing sight, that forest king, in all hia 

 colossal proportions, his shaggy mane floating in the wind, his eyes 

 on fire, and his mouth reeking with blood. He had planted himself 

 within twenty paces of Gerard, whose pulse throbbed, not with fear, 

 but, as he has related with admirable simplicity, with joy at having 



