THE CAT TRIUMPHANT 163 



Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that the 

 feline war record, so far as it is known in history, 

 is not a brilliant one. The unwritten annals of the 

 race are dark, indeed, with strife. For matchless 

 courage, and for an animated joy in battle, the cat 

 can hardly be surpassed. But the combat must 

 be of his own choosing, and with his own kindred. 

 To the perpetual wrangling of humanity he offers 

 a mortifying indifference. That splendid spirit of 

 partisanship which made Prince Rupert's dog fly 

 at a Roundhead's throat is all unknown to the cat. 

 That intelligent understanding of a political situa- 

 tion which induced the wise and wary greyhound, 

 Math, to desert King Richard the Second, who 

 had reared him from puppyhood, and fawn upon 

 the victorious Bolingbroke ; or which inspired the 

 favourite spaniel of Charles of Blois to quit his 

 master's side before the battle of Auray, and seek 

 the safer shelter of John de Montfort's tent, would 

 be impossible — let us hope — for the cat. When 

 Puss has taken an active part in any warfare, — as 

 in the dastardly attack of Cambyses upon the pious 

 Egyptians, — he was but an irresponsible and unwill- 

 ing agent. Therefore he has seldom been the ad- 

 mitted friend of fighting men. Be it remembered 

 with regret that Napoleon detested cats as cordially 

 all his life as Lord Roberts detests them now. 



The irritable race of authors have, on the other 



