15i 



BEC0LLECT10NS OF A LION TAMER 



Among my very earliest recollections is that of running and 

 playing, along with other little urchins, in front of a 

 heavy caravan, at whose horses' heads walked my father. 

 We were about to halt for the night, at Laval, which we 

 could see perched on the hill-side in front of us. 



The weather was fine, the sun shone brightly, and we 

 ran gaily to and fro, like so many puppy-dogs let out 

 to play, shouting and laughing about nothing at all, as 

 delighted to arrive at a strange place for to-night as we 

 should be to set off to-morrow morning for a fresh one. 



Suddenly there arose a cry — a cry of anguish — that still 

 echoes in my ears, mingled with a horrible sound as of 

 crunching bones. Swiftly I turned round ; in the place 

 where my father had been stood a group of men, some 

 stopping the horses, some kneeling round a formless mass 

 under the wheels. Terrified and weeping, I ran back as 

 fast as my little legs would carry me, to find that this dead 

 weight was all that remained of my father. In a jolt of the 

 waggon the shafts had struck and knocked him down : 

 one wheel had gone over his feet, the other had crushed 

 in his head ; life was extinct. We were fatherless, and 

 my mother was left in sole charge, not only of her little 

 children, but also of the menagerie. 



My father had been, first, a travelling pedlar ; then, 

 after his marriage, he had started a panorama of scenes 

 from Napoleon's wars, and when the public grew tired of 

 that he obtained some curious animals, and by degrees 



