EECOLLECTIONS OF A LION TAMER 167 



party. Hugged in the close embrace of the common 

 enemy, I should soon have ceased to breathe : a few 

 minutes more and it would have been all over with me ; 

 but, summoning all my remaining strength, I hammered 

 with my two strong fists on the brute's nostrils till the 

 blood, flowing in torrents, blinded and bewildered him. 

 Profiting by this state of affairs, I slipped from his grasp, 

 and seizing a stout ash stick that stood handy, I be- 

 laboured him soundly, which speedily had the effect of 

 calming him, and soon he was ambling sanctimoniously 

 along as if nothing had happened. 



All these accidents only increased my passionate 

 love for my career. In answer to all remonstrances I 

 maintained that having triumphed over so many perils 

 I was bound to continue triumphing. But I reckoned 

 without the little proverb of the pitcher that goes often 

 to the well. One ill-fated day the forebodings of my 

 friends (and also rivals) were fulfilled, and I made my 

 last appearance as a lion tamer. 



One hot July afternoon, at Neuilly, I perceived, as 

 soon as I entered the menagerie, a certain excitability 

 among the animals, about which, however, I did not 

 excite or disturb myself, putting it down to some atmo- 

 spheric cause, and feeling confident that, should any 

 commotion take place, I should be able to quell it. 

 The afternoon performance passed without a hitch ; 

 when the evening one began, I entered the cages as 

 usual, and there passed tranquilly before me — each in his 

 turn — the first, second, third, and fourth lions, and next, 

 the two white bears. Finally, I was left alone with Sultan, 

 the same who, a short while before, had devoured the arm 

 of the unhappy cattle drover. He was a fine black 

 African lion, eighteen years of age — the prime of life 

 among his tribe. He could at no time truthfully be 

 accused of good nature, and I perceived at once that 

 evening that he was in one of his worst humours. 

 When I ordered him to leap the bar, as usual, he 



