268 THE LION KILLER. 



being able to keep my word, as the old fellow seemed to be 

 in possessing so great a treasure. 



Upon our arrival in Guelma, the lion was exposed as a 

 curiosity to the inhabitants of the city, and finally skinned, 

 divided and eaten by my comrades. 



This lion was so large as to produce a curious impression 

 on the mind of the spectator, which my friend Valle, an offi- 

 cer in the regiment at Guelma at that time, who is speaking 

 to me as I write these lines, just recalls to me. 



All those who called to see the body in the place where it 

 was deposited, when they returned to it again, found it larger 

 and more beautiful and majestic than before, and I, who had 

 not lost it from sight for a moment since it marched out of the 

 woods in front of me, whenever the crowd shut it from my 

 sight for a few moments, was equally astonished to find how 

 it had grown. 



There was another remarkable fact connected with this 

 lion, which was one of the red species. 



The body had been placed in the barrack where the spahis 

 lodged, and it was here that it was skinned and cut in pieces, 

 but although the doors were kept carefully closed, yet for 

 several days the horses and mules that were accustomed to 

 be led past this building to water, absolutely refused to come 

 near it, and exhibited the utmost signs of terror, and the very 

 horsemen who were coming into the city from the plain, 

 were stopped short by this invisible M lion in the path." 



A few days afterwards, I was summoned to Bone, to receive 

 from the hands of General Randon, a rifle that was sent me 

 as a gift by his royal highness the Duke d'Aumale, and my 

 captain, to whom I had given the skin of the lion while he 

 was still alive, gave me a double-barrel rifle to use in my 

 future hunts. 



On my return to Guelma, I saw that I had already become 

 an object of interest to the eyes of the Arabs, who came all 



