uoh. 29i 
four days afterwards refused to take any nou- 
rishment whatever. 
About the year 1650 3 when the plague raged at 
Naples,, sir George Davis, the English consul 
there, retired to Florence. He happened one 
day, from curiosity, to visit the grand duke’s dens. 
At the farther end of the place, in one of the dens, 
lay a lion, which the keepers, during three whole 
years, had not been able to tame, though all the 
art and gentleness imaginable had been used. Sir 
George no sooner appeared at the gates of the 
den, than the lion ran to him with all the marks 
of joy and transport he was capable of express-* 
ing. He reared himself up and licked his hand, 
which this gentleman put in through the iron 
grate. The keeper, affrighted, pulled him away 
by the arm, intreating him not to hazard his life 
by venturing* so near the fiercest creature of his 
kind that had ever entered those dens. Nothing, 
however, would satisfy sir George, but in spite 
of all the keeper said to him, he would go into 
the den. The instant he entered, the lion threw 
his paws upon his shoulders, licked his face, and 
rap about his den, fawning, and as full of joy 
as a dog at the sight of his master. After several 
salutations had been exchanged, they parted very 
good friends. 
The rumour of this interview between the lion 
and the stranger, ran immediately through the 
city, and sir George almost passed for a saint 
among the people. The grand duke, as soon as 
he had heard of it, sent for sir George ; who 
going with his highness to the den, gave him the 
following account of what had seemed so strange. 
“ A captain of a ship from Barbary gave me 
this lion, when quite a whelp. I brought him 
up tame ; but when I thought him too large to be 
suffered to run about the house, I built a den for 
