LIONS. 161 



c The Hottentots traced the lion on foot, discovering 

 his spoor or track with surprising dexterity, and found 

 him in a large thicket about a mile distant. The dogs 

 failed to dislodge him ; the mulattoes rode round the 

 jungle, and fired into it, but without effect. At last 

 three Scotchmen determined to march in, provided the 

 mulattoes would support their fire. Regardless of the 

 warnings of more prudent men, they went in, and, as 

 they thought, found the lion crouched among the roots 

 of a large evergreen bush, glaring at them from under 

 the foliage. They fired and struck, not the lion, but a 

 great block of sandstone, which they had mistaken for 

 him, but beyond which he was actually lying. With 

 a furious growl he bolted from the bush; the mulattoes 

 fled helter-skelter, leaving the Scots with empty guns, 

 tumbling over each other in their haste to escape. In 

 a twinkling he was upon them, with one stroke of his 

 paw dashed John Rennie to the ground, and with one 

 foot upon him, looked round upon his assailants in con- 

 scious power and pride, and with the most noble and 

 imposing port that could be conceived. It was the 

 most magnificent thing I ever witnessed; but the danger 

 of our friends was too great to enjoy the picture. We 

 expected every minute to see one or more of them torn 

 to pieces ; and yet in their position, one lying under the 

 lion's paw, and the others scrambling towards us, we 

 dared not fire. Fortunately, however, the lion, after 

 steadily surveying us, turned calmly away, drove off the 

 hounds with his heels as if they had been rats, and 

 bounded over the adjoining thicket like a cat, clearing 

 bushes twelve or fifteen feet high, as if they had been 

 tufts of grass. 



4 Our comrade had sustained no other injury than a 



L 



