MY. OLD FRIEND THE LION OF KRENCHELA. 379 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



MY OLD FRIEND THE LION OF KRENCHELA. 



After the return of the expedition to Kabylie in 1851, I 

 asked General St. Arnaud, the commander of the province, 

 for a leave of absence to go back to Krenchela, in pursuit of 

 the lion I had left behind me, the death of whose wives has 

 just been described. 



Instead of a leave of absence I was ordered to go there on 

 duty, and was consequently obliged to stay in the neighbor- 

 hood of the widowed animal, and yet close my ear to the 

 appeals of the natives against his daily transgressions. But, 

 finally, my duties were finished. I hurried off my report in 

 high glee, pitched my tent in the neighborhood of the 

 douars that had most suffered from his depredations, and 

 opened the campaign. 



For a number of days and nights my searches were fruit- 

 less, when one morning after a heavy rain, a native came to 

 my tent to tell me that the trackers had turned the lion, and 

 had marked him down at a half a league from my tent. I 

 immediately started, taking with me three men, the one to 

 hold my horse, one to take care of my arms, and the other 

 to carry a kid that nibbled the hand that held it, all uncon- 

 scious of the important role it was destined to play in the 

 coming scene, 



Having dismounted on the edge of the woods, I followed 



