market-place, and fighting with so much fury and bloodshed, that to have beheld them the most iron nature must have been shocked; so that, dreading lest some plot or conspiracy might be hatching against himself, the chieftain made his escape as rapidly as possible, taking the traveller along with him.
From this den they proceeded towards the city of Teijent, and on the way began to imagine that, according to the vulgar proverb, they had fallen out of the fryingpan into the fire; for night coming upon them in a solitary place, where neither village nor caravansary was nigh, Leo and his companion, who happened to be separated from the chieftain's army, were compelled to take refuge in a small wooden house which had fallen to decay on the road-*side. It being extremely hot weather, they fastened their horses to a post in the lower room, stopping up the gaps in the enclosure with thorns and bushes, and then retreated to the house-top, to enjoy as far as possible the freshness of the air. The night was already far advanced, when two enormous lions, attracted by the scent of the horses, approached the ruin, and threw them into the greatest consternation; for the least violence would have shaken down their frail tenement, and thrown them out into the lions' mouths, and their horses, maddened by fear, and shuddering at the terrible voice of the lions, began to neigh and snort in the most furious manner. To increase their fears, they heard the ferocious animals striving to tear away the briery fence with which they had closed up the doors and openings in the wall, and which they every moment dreaded might at length give way. In this situation they passed the night; but when the dawn appeared, and light began to infuse life into the cool landscape, the lions, feeling that their hour was gone by, retreated to their dens in the forests, and left the travellers to pursue their journey.
