216 THE LION KILLER. 



rently compelling all the world when he went out to walk, 

 to get up from their beds and make music and illuminations 

 on his road precisely as would be done for the most powerful 

 monarch. I heard his regular roaring all night, until near 

 daylight, when he entered into his seigniory of Archioua, that 

 lay at three leagues from my post of observation. 



As soon as it was sufficiently light the next morning to 

 distinguish a foot-print in tfte forest, I took up the trail of the 

 wild hogs I have before spoken of, to see what had been the 

 fate of the one who so lustily squealed at twilight on the 

 previous evening. 



On reaching the edge of a clearing situated about a 

 thousand yards from my blind, I saw a dark stain on the half- 

 burned grass that grew in the opening. It was the 

 head of a wild boar armed with teeth remarkably large 

 and white. This with the tail, the four feet and some of the 

 entrails, was all that remained of the feast. 



One might think that the earth would have been torn and 

 marked by the struggle between the two animals, the boar 

 and the lion. I was astonished to see only the marks of the 

 hind feet of the lion ; they were much longer, but less broad 

 than the front feet, and seemed to have been used to strike 

 down the prey in its flight. Noticing a large mastic thicket 

 a little distance in advance of the woods, I looked to see if 

 the lion had not made this, his place of ambuscade to watch 

 the herd of hogs, and I found I was correct, for in the dust 

 where the red partridges had been used to come and shuffle 

 during the middle of the day when the sun was hot, were the 

 marks of the lion's body, where he had lain himself down to 



