place, without the help of his hands, by the contraction of his
cheek, and eye-socket, the chief towns of some departments had their
sub-lions, who protested by the smartness of their trouser-straps
against the untidiness of their fellow-townsmen.

Thus, in 1834, Besancon could boast of a _lion_, in the person of
Monsieur Amedee-Sylvain de Soulas, spelt Souleyas at the time of the
Spanish occupation. Amedee de Soulas is perhaps the only man in Besancon
descended from a Spanish family. Spain sent men to manage her business
in the Comte, but very few Spaniards settled there. The Soulas remained
in consequence of their connection with Cardinal Granvelle. Young
Monsieur de Soulas was always talking of leaving Besancon, a dull town,
church-going, and not literary, a military centre and garrison town, of
which the manners and customs and physiognomy are worth describing. This
opinion allowed of his lodging, like a man uncertain of the future, in
three very scantily furnished rooms at the end of the Rue Neuve, just
where it opens into the Rue de la Prefecture.

Young Monsieur de Soulas could not possibly live without a tiger. This
tiger was the son of one of his farmers, a small servant aged fourteen,
thick-set, and named Babylas. The lion dressed his tiger very smartly--a
short tunic-coat of iron-gray cloth, belted with patent leather, bright
blue plush breeches, a red waistcoat, polished leather top-boots, a
shiny hat with black lacing, and brass buttons with the arms of Soulas.
Amedee gave this boy white cotton gloves and his washing, and thirty-six
francs a month to keep himself--a sum that seemed enormous to the
grisettes of Besancon: four hundred and twenty francs a year to a child
of fifteen, without counting extras! The extras consisted in the price
for which he could sell his turned clothes, a present when Soulas
exchanged one of his horses, and the perquisite of the manure. The
two horses, treated with sordid economy, cost, one with another, eight
hundred francs a year. His bills for articles received from Paris, such
as perfumery, cravats, jewelry, patent blacking, and clothes, ran to
another twelve hundred francs. Add to this the groom, or tiger, the
horses, a very superior style of dress, and six hundred francs a year
for rent, and you will see a grand total of three thousand francs.

Now, Monsieur de Soulas' father had left him only four thousand francs a
year, the income from some cottage farms which lent pain