HUNTING THE LION. 463 



made me aware that the lion had turned to the right, under the shade 

 cf the wood. Getting on my feet, I saw him stationed on the very 

 rock which served as a shelter to my men. A ball from my gun 

 lodged in his shoulder, and, as he rose, a second followed the first. 

 Smarting from his two wounds, he uttered a howl which made the 

 two prisoners in the rock almost die with fright, and then bounded 

 towards a precipice almost fifty feet in height. 



" He fell heavily amidst a mass of stones and brambles among which 

 his last convulsions of agony were spent. At the same moment one 

 of my exploring parties appeared on the heights from which the lion 

 had descended. They had heard my firing. I had the greatest diffi- 

 culty in the world to prevent their going down to the foot of the rock 

 which my prey had overleaped. Fearful lest he should not be yet 

 quite dead, I persisted in going alone. 



" Scarcely had I reloaded my carbine, when the videttes began 

 shouting with all their might. Two lions were visible. There waa 

 no time to looe. Satisfied that I should find my first victim dead, 

 I followed the natives, who, no longer doubting my intrepidity, had 

 taken the advance, leaping from rock to rock like the chamois. The 

 lions, however, had disappeared, and were invisible for the rest of 

 that day. 



" On the 4th, at mid-day, I took up the same position as before, 

 and about three hours afterwards a lioness approached by the same 

 path as the lion I had slain. I planted myself on the top of the 

 rock, and sat down till she came within range of my gun. Hitherto 

 she had not seen me, but as soon as I rose she stopped, looked 

 about her with an air of disquietude, and crouching down in the 

 same way as a cat does, showed me her magnificent teeth. What 

 weapons they were ! She was about thirty feet distant. I levelled 

 my gun. As I fired, she darted up like a serpent, turning her head 

 from the side where she had been struck ; then, collecting all her 

 remaining strength, she bounded forward about ten feet, and fell, 

 receiving a second shot in the back of the neck. The Arabs, attracted 

 by the double discharge, came to me one by one to make me tha 

 1 amende honorable/ and kiss the hand that had given them a lesson 

 they said they should never forget." 



