s followed me from Strasburg, where he fell in with me," said
Morok, with visible dejection. "He travelled with his own horses, by
short stages, as I did; stopping where I stopped, so as never to miss one
of my exhibitions. But two days before I arrived at Paris, he left me--I
thought I was rid of him," said Morok, with a sigh.

"Rid of him!--how you talk!" replied Jacques, surprised; "such a good
customer, such an admirer!"

"Aye!" said Morok, becoming more and more agitated; "this wretch has
wagered an enormous sum, that I will be devoured in his presence, during
one of my performances: he hopes to win his wager--that is why he follows
me about."

Sleepinbuff found the John Bull's idea so amusingly eccentric, that, for
the first time since a very long period, he burst into a peal of hearty
laughter. Morok, pale with rage, rushed towards him with so menacing an
air, that Goliath was obliged to interpose.

"Come, come," said Jacques, "don't be angry; if it is serious, I will not
laugh any more."

Morok was appeased, and said to Sleepinbuff in a hoarse voice: "Do you
think me a coward?"

"No, by heaven!"

"Well! And yet this Englishman, with his grotesque face, frightens me
more than any tiger or my panther!"

"You say so, and I believe it," replied Jacques; "but I cannot understand
why the presence of this man should alarm you."

"But consider, you dull knave!" cried Morok, "that, obliged to watch
incessantly the least movement of the ferocious beast, whom I keep in
subjection by my action and my looks, there is something terrible in
knowing that two eyes are there--always there--fixed--waiting till the
least absence of mind shall expose me to be torn in pieces by the
animals."

"Now, I understand," said Jacques, shuddering in his turn. "It is
terrible."

"Yes; for once there, though I may not see this cursed Englishman, I
fancy I have his two round eyes, fixed and wide open, always before me.
My tiger Cain once nearly mutilated my arm, when my attention was drawn
away by this Englishman, whom the devil take! Blood and thunder!" cried
Morok: "this man will be fatal to me." And Morok paced the room in great
agitation.

"Besides, Death lays her ears close to her skull," said Goliath,
brutally. "If you persist--mind, I tell you--the Englishman will win his
wager this evening."

"Go away, you brute!--don't vex my head with your confounded
predictions," cried Morok: "go and prepare Death's collar."

"Well