204 ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



an old oven-grate, that converted the imperilled board 

 into a heavy-barred window with a wooden shutter. 



But the Grison found a road to freedom in spite of 

 iron bars. He retreated to the rear of his cage, with 

 his face toward the darkest corner, and thus remained 

 motionless, day after day, though the disappearance of 

 his provisions seemed to prove that he must spend his 

 nights in a less pessimistic way. His serenades, at least, 

 had never been resumed, and the landlord flattered him- 

 self with the hope that he was going to accept the situa- 

 tion, when the hostler discovered that his last two weeks' 

 provisions had been hidden under the straw, and that the 

 prisoner was in articulo mortis ', to judge from the glassy 

 appearance of his eyes, and from the feeble groans which 

 the cover of his straw couch made almost inaudible. 

 " I'm up to that game," laughed the landlord. " I had a 

 fox that tried that same trick on me. We'll soon make 

 him eat : all we have to do is to chuck out his straw ; if 

 he sees the meat, he won't resist the temptation." 



But before the cage was opened the groans became 

 lower and lower and finally ceased, and when we re- 

 moved the straw we found that the Grison was already 

 beyond worldly temptations : he had solved the problem 

 of Gautama in a way of his own. 



Miracles usually end where the Age of Reason begins, 

 and it has been pointed out as a suspicious circumstance 

 that snake-charmers are the almost exclusive product of 

 semi-barbarous countries. But Dr. Grotius reminds us 



