588 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
did not feel in the least degree nervous, having fortunately 
great confidence in my own shooting; but I must confess, 
when the whole affair was over, I felt that it was a very 
awful situation, and attended with extreme peril, as I had no 
friend with me on whom I could rely. 
When the lioness sprang on Colesburg, I stood out from 
the horses, ready with my second barrel for the first chance 
she should give me of a clear shot. This she quickly did; 
for, seemingly satisfied with the revenge she had now taken, 
she quitted Colesburg, and, slewing her tail to one side, 
trotted sulkily past within a few paces of me, taking one 
step to the left. I pitched my rifle to my shoulder, and in 
another second the lioness was stretched on the plain a 
lifeless corpse. In the struggles of death she half turned 
on her back, and stretched her neck and fore arms con- 
vulsively, when she fell back to her former position; her 
mighty arms hung powerless by her side, her lower jaw fell, 
blood streamed from her mouth, and she expired. At the 
moment I fired my second shot, Stofolus, who hardly knew 
whether he was alive or dead, allowed the three horses to 
escape. These galloped frantically across the plain, on 
which he and Kleinboy instantly started after them, leaving 
me standing alone and unarmed within a few paces of the 
lioness, which they, from their anxiety to be out of the way, 
evidently considered quite capable of doing further mischief. 
Such is ever the case with these worthies, and with nearly 
all the natives of South Africa. No reliance can be placed 
on them. They will to a certainty forsake their master in 
the most dastardly manner in the hour of peril, and leave 
him in the lurch. A stranger, however, hearing these 
fellows recounting their own gallant adventures, when sitting 
in the evening along with their comrades round a blazing 
fire, or under the influence of their adored “Cape smoke” 
or native brandy, might fancy them to be the bravest of the 
brave. Having skinned the lioness and cut off her head, we 
