THE CHEETAH, OR HUNTING LEOPAED. 99 



.being tyed in a chain; and if a Hare had been let loose in his 

 presence, and he turned down to her, within a few jumps or leaps 

 he would attain and take her. When the keeper was to take up 

 the Leopard again he did come to him backward, lest if he 

 should see his face he should leap upon him and wound him (for, 

 as we have said, they are angry being chafed, and are ready to fly 

 into the Hunter's face) ; therefore he turneth his face away from 

 him, and betwixt his legs reacheth him a piece of bread or flesh, and 

 so he gently taketh him into his chain and collar again, leading 

 him away to his house, and as soon as the man was mounted the 

 Beast also knew his seat, and leaped up after him." This per- 

 formance must have been rather startling for the horse, and he no 

 doubt required some training to make him quiet under it. It must 

 also have been far from comfortable for the rider to have such an 

 uncertain beast behind him all the time. That this was so is 

 evident by a glance at the illustration, for the hunter's feeling is 

 cleverly shown by the wistful way in which he is trying to keep 

 his eye on the animal. This writer also speaks of two leopards, 

 probably the same ones, being reported to have escaped into the 

 woods, two years before the death of Francis I., " eyther by negli- 

 gence or the malice of their keepers, that is a male and a female, 

 and about Orleanes tore in pieces many men and women; at 

 last they came and killed a bride, which was that day to have been 

 marryed, and afterwards there were found many carkases of 

 women destroyed by them, of which they had eaten nothing but 

 only their breasts." 



These kings of France kept the leopards which formed part of 

 their royal hunting establishments in an inclosure of the Castle 

 of Amboise, which is still existing, and called the gate des Lions, 

 no doubt in consequence of these animals being mistaken for lions 

 by the common people. 



Cheetahs continued to be used by the French kings until the 

 reign of Henry IV,, when Marie de Medicis brought from Florence 

 in 1601 the last trained leopard seen in France ; Germany being 

 the only country in Europe where one was seen at a later date, 

 and there the sport was revived for a short time by Leopold I., 



who died in 1705. 



H 2 



