A Shower of Bullets 89 



lion tries to break the line to the right. Im- 

 mediately gun-shots come from that side ; then it is 

 reported that the lion comes from the left, and the 

 men on the left fire. Soon the uproar becomes 

 indescribable. The cloud of smoke which has collected 

 prevents one seeing ; cries and reports prevent one 

 hearing ; and the roaring of the lion increases the 

 general disorder. The melee is complete : one might 

 think oneself on a battlefield. 



At this moment my sense of humour gets the 

 better of me, and I am seized with a fit of laughter 

 to think of all those idiots who hear nothing and do 

 not know even what they are doing. But I soon 

 finish laughing. Bullets come whistling above 

 my head, by my side, everywhere ; and a piece of 

 iron passing with a dry noise near my ear strikes the 

 trunk of a tree, behind which I take shelter imme- 

 diately with Tambarika. During the space of ten 

 minutes the seventy-two muzzle-loaders are fired, 

 loaded, and again discharged. Two more bullets strike 

 my shelter ; others pass by with a prolonged bzz. . . . 

 At last the cries cease, the smoke clears away, and 

 I understand that the hunt is abandoned. My men 

 come to tell me what happened. The lion tried to 

 find an opening at several points of the line time 

 after time, and the shots drove him back. But he 

 took advantage of a breach in the human barrier 

 and escaped by the place we entered, without, 

 apparently, having been wounded. Not so the 

 natives, eleven of whom are wounded, two of them 

 seriously. This is an extraordinarily moderate num- 



