en."

"And is he so terrible?"

"He is certainly as ferocious as the wild boars or the bulls which he
hunts. I will tell you about him. It is now about a year since I was
going to his ranch in the Great Tari, in the northern part of
Martinique, to purchase of him some skins of wild cattle. He was alone
with his pack of twenty hounds who looked as wicked and savage as
himself. When I arrived he was anointing his face with palm oil, for
there was not a portion of it that was not blue, yellow, violet or
purple."

"I have had these irridescent shades from a blow on the eye, but----"

"Exactly, sir. I asked him what had caused this, and this is what he
told me: 'My hounds, led by my assistant, had flung themselves upon a
two-year-old bull; he had passed me, and I had sent a ball into his
shoulder; he bounded into a thicket; the dogs followed. While I was
reloading, my assistant came up, fired, and missed the bull. My boy,
seeing himself disarmed, sought to cut at the bull's legs, but it gored
him and stamped him underfoot. Placed as I was, I could not fire at the
animal for fear of finishing my man. I took my large buccaneer's knife
and threw myself between them. I received a blow of its horn which
ripped up my thigh, a second broke this arm (showing me his left arm,
which was suspended in a sling); the bull continued to attack me; as
there remained but the right hand that was of any use, I watched my
opportunity, and at the instant when the animal lowered his head to rip
me up, I seized him by the horns and drew him within reach, and seized
his lip with my teeth, and would no more let go than an English bulldog,
while my dogs worried his sides.'"

"But this man is a blockhead," said Croustillac, contemptuously. "If he
has no other means of pleasing--faith, I pity his mistress."

"I have told you that he was a species of savage animal," replied the
narrator, "but to continue my story. 'Once wounded on the lips,' said
the buccaneer, 'a bull falls. At the end of five minutes, blinded by the
loss of blood (for my bullets had done their work), the bull fell on his
knees and rolled over; my dogs sprang upon him, seized him by the
throat, and finished him. The struggle had weakened me; I had lost a
great deal of blood; for the first time in my life I fainted just like a
girl. And what do you suppose my dogs had been at during my swoon? They
had amused themselves by devouring my servant! They were so sharp and
well-trained.'