THE BEAR, THE LIONj AND THE WOOD-CUTTER. 18l 
sate parabolas^ buries ber hot tushes in the sides of the tree on 
which the murderer has taken refuge, and tears off the bark with 
her sharp claws. Vain demonstrations of an impotent fury ! The 
heartless assassin laughs from the height of his fourth story ; but 
he laughs best who laughs last. 
The father lion withdraws, and he will not delay his return, for 
he is seized with a luminous idea, which he imparts to his wife. 
He has decided to resort for vengeance to the assistance of 
man. He knows where a poor wood-cutter is in the habit of work- 
ing — a very lean fellow, whom he had long been keeping in reserve 
against a scarcity of fresh meat. He goes to seek him, and ac- 
costs him with an air which he seeks to render as amiable as pos- 
sible. The Man, whose narrow ideas hardly permit him to attrib- 
ute to the visit of the king of animals any other motive than a vio- 
lent appetite for human flesh, feels himself slightly troubled at the 
sight of the hairy sire, and lets his axe fall from his hands. Hot at 
all, my dear sir ; the Lion seems to say, politely picking up the axe, 
and restoring it to the hand of the woodman ; then he draws him 
gently by the skirt of his coat, and lets him see that he would be 
pleased to have him go somewhere with him. The man, who at 
last perceives by these unaccustomed manners that the beast needs 
his services, allows himself to be persuaded, and follows him. They 
walk, they walk, they walk ; by dint of walking, they get over 
much ground. At last they arrive at the place which was the thea- 
tre of the crime, and which before long will be that of the punishment. 
The Lioness continues tearing about with wild leaps and roar- 
ings. The Lion, by gestures, explains all to his companion the 
wood-cutter ; he shows him the slain lion cubs, the assassin perch- 
ed in the high branches of a colossal fir-tree, the inconsolable 
mother awaiting her revenge. The wood-cutter, pitying their mis- 
fortune, and reassured of his own safety, goes to work to fell the 
tree. Explosion of unanimous bravos on the part of the leonine 
couple. 
The Lioness pauses in the expression of her despair to congrat- 
ulate her spouse on his happy idea of addressing himself to a third 
party. Oh, what a different impression every stroke of the axe on 
the tree makes on the minds of the principal actors of the drama ! 
16 
