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tened to join our commandant, and this is wliat I learned from 
the Arab — his statement being received with the utmost incre- 
dulity by those who stood around : — 
At the moment when the head of the column had reached 
the summit of the hill, the vanguard perceived a bull approach 
across the corn-fields, and behind it, only a few paces dis- 
tant, was an enormous lion which followed its footsteps. The 
soldiers at once set up a great cry, the drums were beat, and 
the clarions sounded. This noise arrested the animals for 
a moment, and then they proceeded onwards, in the direction 
of the troops. As they were not above a hundred paces dis- 
tant the men prepared for a volley, when the commander and 
officers gave orders not to fire, but to halt. 
The bull and lion crossed the path on which the troops were 
about to march, within pistol-shot ; the lion then lay down to 
survey this spectacle which was so new to him, and the bull 
commenced grazing close by his side. 
It was at this juncture that the spahi was despatched to 
fetch me ; and it is hardly necessary to say that, notwithstand- 
ing the distance and the difficulty of the road, I was not long 
in reaching the scene of the strange apparition. The lion was, 
however, no longer there, and I had to follow his track. On 
arriving at a little hillock I saw him on the slope of a mountain 
opposite, still preceded by his victim. Having heard the gallop 
of my horse and that of the spahi who accompanied me, the 
lion had stopped, and was watching’ our approach. 
The bull had followed his example. When I had arrived at 
about a hundred paces from him I dismounted and walked 
towards him, preparing my rifle. The lion pohtely advanced to 
meet me, and when we were distant from one another about 
twenty-five or thirty paces I stopped, and fired my first ball, 
which turned him on his back. He, however, rose instantane- 
ously, and with furious roars bounded towards me. More 
fortunately or skilfully aimed, my second shot stopped his 
infuriated career in time, and brought him to the ground. 
As for the bull, he was led to the bivouac the next day, and 
I ascertained from the Arabs of the district in which we were, 
that he belonged to an encampment situated at least twelve 
miles distant from the locality in which we had encountered 
him; and that each night of the previous month had been 
marked by an abduction of the kind, the victims serving as 
food for a lioness and her cubs which inhabited a neighbouring 
lair. 
I confess that when I heard this news, I regretted the mis- 
chief which I had unconsciously occasioned. My readers will 
doubtless consider the care and affection manifested by the 
lion towards his mate and young ones as laudable as I do ; and 
