THE CAT. 65 



The following is a remarkable instance of maternal 

 affection : "A cat, one day in the spring, was frisking 

 before a stable-door with her kittens, when a hawk, darting 

 suddenly upon one of them, would have borne it off, had 

 not the affectionate mother attacked the invader. A 

 dreadful battle now commenced, in which the cat lost an 

 eye, and the wing of the hawk was broken. The fight 

 continued for some time after this, till puss, by a sudden 

 effort, laid her enemy dead at her feet, and exultingly tore 

 off the head of her foe." 



"A physician of Lyons, in July, 1800, entered the 

 chamber of a woman that had been murdered in that city: 

 on the corner of a distant cupboard, in the same room, was 

 mounted a large white cat, who sat with its eyes fixed on 

 the corpse, and remained in the same position on the 

 following morning, without being moved at the noise and 

 clatter made by the officers of justice ; but no sooner were 

 the suspected persons brought in, than the creature's eyes 

 glared, his hair bristled, he dashed into the middle of the 

 room, gazed at them for a moment, and then retreated 

 under the bed. The assassins were thus discovered." 



" A pastry-cook in London had a cat which he found 

 very mischievous among his pastry, and being tired with 

 the repeated depredations of her tender foot breaking 

 through the tops of his more tender patties, his interest 

 got the better of his affection to puss, and he ordered his 

 apprentice to tie her in a bag, and carry her half a mile 

 from home, and then turn her loose in the street. The 

 expedient did not succeed ; the cat was at home as soon as 

 the boy, though the experiment was often repeated, and 

 the distance of her removal greatly extended ! One day, 

 upon seeing the cat unexpectedly return home, the poor 

 pastry-cook (who had a cause of twenty years standing in 

 the Court of Chancery) exclaimed, " Oh ! that this cat 

 were in the Court of Chancery ; I am sure she would 

 never get out of that place." The apprentice hearing his 

 master's wish, and being a little provoked that his former 

 attempts had failed, but quite ignorant of the wit of his 

 master, instantly set off with the cat into Lincoln' s-Inn 

 Hall and turned her adrift. The cat, who found the court 

 us full of lawyers as her master's shop was of tarts, ran 

 like a mad thing from side to side of the court, and at 

 length over the chancellor's lap ; threw down his ink, 

 disordered his notes, and created so much confusion in the 

 court, that for a time it put a stop to ail pleadings ; till at 



