But like an heir who does not long bewail a deceased relative, he tore
off from this beautiful tree the tall broad green leaves which are
its poetic adornment, and used them to mend the mat on which he was to
sleep.

Fatigued by the heat and his work, he fell asleep under the red curtains
of his wet cave.

In the middle of the night his sleep was troubled by an extraordinary
noise; he sat up, and the deep silence around allowed him to distinguish
the alternative accents of a respiration whose savage energy could not
belong to a human creature.

A profound terror, increased still further by the darkness, the silence,
and his waking images, froze his heart within him. He almost felt
his hair stand on end, when by straining his eyes to their utmost
he perceived through the shadow two faint yellow lights. At first he
attributed these lights to the reflections of his own pupils, but soon
the vivid brilliance of the night aided him gradually to distinguish the
objects around him in the cave, and he beheld a huge animal lying but
two steps from him. Was it a lion, a tiger, or a crocodile?

The Provencal was not sufficiently educated to know under what species
his enemy ought to be classed; but his fright was all the greater, as
his ignorance led him to imagine all terrors at once; he endured a cruel
torture, noting every variation of the breathing close to him without
daring to make the slightest movement. An odor, pungent like that of
a fox, but more penetrating, more profound,--so to speak,--filled the
cave, and when the Provencal became sensible of this, his terror reached
its height, for he could no longer doubt the proximity of a terrible
companion, whose royal dwelling served him for a shelter.

Presently the reflection of the moon descending on the horizon lit up
the den, rendering gradually visible and resplendent the spotted skin of
a panther.

This lion of Egypt slept, curled up like a big dog, the peaceful
possessor of a sumptuous niche at the gate of an hotel; its eyes opened
for a moment and closed again; its face was turned towards the man. A
thousand confused thoughts passed through the Frenchman's mind; first he
thought of killing it with a bullet from his gun, but he saw there was
not enough distance between them for him to take proper aim--the shot
would miss the mark. And if it were to wake!--the thought made his limbs
rigid. He listened to his own heart beating in the midst of the silence,
and cur