CHAPTER IV.
The situation of the prince, his friend, and attendant, was becoming every moment more critical. The lion seemed determined to remain stationary at the entrance of the cave, and to admit it was certain death. Mujahid, however, resolved to remove the stone from the cavern’s mouth and take the chance of a conflict with the ferocious beast. He and Mahmood had their swords; one of them therefore might escape, though, from the darkness and lowness of their place of refuge, the chances were doubtful.
Musaood had at first secured his safety in the tree, from which he descended while the foe was eagerly engaged with those who had so unwittingly intruded into its den, and succeeded in making his escape. Having reached the bottom of the hill, he mounted his horse and galloped off in search of the prince’s followers, hoping that the slayer of his father would now meet with deserved retribution.
As Mujahid was about to remove the fragment of rock from the cave’s mouth, Mahmood proposed that they should try tostrangle the lion with a strong silken cord with which he had come provided; a sort of lasso, which he was very skilful in throwing, and with which he was in the habit of securing smaller game.
“No,” said the prince, “that were an ignoble and cowardly mode of destroying the regal beast; I have a kindred feeling which repels me from such a dog-like method of killing a lion. Besides, the thing is impracticable, you will never be able to get it over the creature’s head.”
“I will try, however,” said Mahmood, “since I have no kindred feeling about the matter, and would as soon strangle a lion as a cat.”
Mujahid, in spite of his prejudices against casting a stigma upon regality by attempting to inflict a degrading death upon the “monarch of the woods,” yielded at length to the expostulations of his armour-bearer, who attempted to cast the noose of the lasso over the lion’s head. The aperture above the stone was so small that he had not room to fix it; and while he was making the attempt, with a fearful growl the enraged animal seized the rope between its teeth, sprang from the opening, drew it from Mahmood’s grasp, and left him without a resource in his peril.
“Well,” said the prince, “there is now no alternative between trying which will be the longest starving, ourselves or our brindled guard, or allowing it to enter and boldly trying our strength against it. We are three to one, and that is fearful odds.”
“But the darkness and disadvantage of this low cave reduces our chances and increases those of the enemy.”
“We must then bring him to battle on the outside of his den.”
“Alas! before we can squeeze ourselves through this narrow entrance, the savage will have made good its spring, and the first stroke of its paw is certain death.”
The attendant now proposed as a last resource that they should strangle the cubs and throw them out to the lion. This was indeed a desperate experiment, but Mujahid consented that it should be tried. The attendant accordingly unwound the turban from his forehead and twisted it tightly in the form of a rope. The cubs were found asleep in a corner of the cave; but though so young, their strength was such as to render the process of strangulationa thing of some difficulty. A noose was made in the centre of the twisted turban, and being passed over the cub’s head, was pulled at either end by Mahmood Afghan and the attendant, the prince meanwhile applying his vast strength to keep the lion from displacing the stone from the entrance.
Both the cubs being at length strangled, were forced through the aperture, and flung before the enraged parent. The moment it saw its offspring, the lion quitted the stone, stood over the cubs, and begun to purr, licking their heads for a few moments with the greatest tenderness. After a while, seeing they did not move, it turned them over gently with its paw, erected its ears, and looked at them intently for an instant; and then, as of a sudden becoming conscious that they were dead, erected its head, raised its nose in the air, and howled with a piteous expression of agony. The wounded tongue hung over its jaws, still suffused with gore, and tears filled the eyes of the noble beast as it again bent down its head to gaze upon the work of destruction.
Its emotion soon subsided, and was succeeded by the most frightful rage. It dashed against the barrier with increasing fury, and its roarings were continued without intermission. It now required the whole strength of the prince and his two companions to keep the stone from giving way under the furious assaults of the lion. After a while, as if exhausted with its energies, it retreated a few feet from the aperture, lay down upon its belly beside the dead cubs, raised its head towards the skies, as if invoking a silent curse upon the destroyers of its offspring, and sent its voice among the surrounding echoes, which multiplied it into one fearful and prolonged evocation of blended fury and distress. In a short time it started to its feet, waved its tail, and looking forward, ceased its horrible roar. Upon turning his eyes toward the spot, the prince perceived another lion advancing at a rapid trot in the direction of the cavern.
“This,” cried Mahmood, “is no doubt the mother of the cubs, and we have, if possible, more to dread from her fury than from that of the male savage. We have now no chance of our lives but by continuing where we are until the lions shall retire. Theywill probably drag the cubs away after the first burst of grief for the loss of their young shall have subsided.”
“I like not this imprisonment,” said the prince, “and shall only forbear forcing a retreat a short time longer. I am determined to try my chance of escape while my strength remains unabated.”
Mahmood, however, prevailed upon his impatient and daring master to await the issue of the second beast’s approach, before he rashly determined upon an encounter, which it was now apprehended must infallibly terminate in the death of each of them.
The lioness advanced eagerly, with her ears erected; and having reached her cubs, she turned them over for a moment with her paw, and, instantly perceiving they were dead, rushed towards a tree that grew near, sprang upon the trunk, and, stripping off the bark, began to tear it in pieces with the greatest violence. She now united her roars with those of her consort; then fixing her eyes upon the den in which she had deposited her young, bounded with foaming jaws towards the opening. Infuriated by opposition, she darted to and fro before the cave, springing at the trees, fixing her claws in the bark, and stripping their trunks bare to the root. Again she assaulted the stone which prevented entrance into her lair.
While she was exhibiting these paroxysms of exasperation, the male, probably exhausted by its previous exertions, lay down beside the cubs, placed its two fore-paws upon their bodies, and resting its head upon the ground between them, kept up a low and continuous moan. The lioness, at length fatigued with her unavailing efforts to retaliate upon the destroyers of her young, walked deliberately up to the lion, and after again turning over the bodies of her cubs, she seized one of them in her mouth, and plunged with it into the thicket. The lion took up the body of the other in the same way, and immediately followed her. After a while the party in the cavern heard their roarings in the distance, and began now to think seriously of making good their retreat.
“Our danger,” said the attendant, “is by no means at an end. Those animals are never-failing in their instincts; they know thatthe destroyers of their offspring are in this cave, and they will not quit the neighbourhood until they have had their revenge. Their vigilance is not to be evaded.”
“But,” said Mahmood, “did you not hear their roarings in the distance?”
“Nevertheless they will return immediately upon their steps. I have seen much of the habits of these ferocious creatures. They have disposed of the bodies of their dead cubs under some shrub or tuft of grass, and covered them with dried leaves; they are now on the watch for us; it is utterly impossible we should escape.”
“They shall feel the sharpness of this sword’s point, however, if they do come upon us,” said the prince, rising, and stretching his cramped limbs. “Our chance will be greater beneath the fair light of the sky, with plenty of fighting room, than cooped up in this dismal den, where we can’t distinguish a lion from a shadow.”
“It is clear,” said Mahmood, “there is no safety for us here; we have, consequently, only a choice of evils, and it will therefore be the greater prudence to choose the least. The lions are now out of sight, and in spite of their cunning, we may be fortunate enough to baffle it.”
“Then we had better descend the mountain,” said the attendant, “in the opposite direction to that taken by our watchful enemies, else we must give up every chance of evading them.”
“But there is no practicable path,” said the prince; “and ever if there were, our chances are much the same, whatever road we take, provided what thou sayest of the vigilance of these creatures be true.”
The stone was now rolled from the cave’s mouth, and the prince pushed his body through the narrow opening, followed by his armour-bearer and the attendant. No enemies were visible, and their roarings had by this time ceased to echo among the hills. Approaching the tree into which Musaood had climbed upon the first apprehension of danger, Mujahid looked up, and called upon his friend to descend; but perceiving that he was not among the branches, the prince said with a smile.
“Musaood has tried the speed of his heels. If the lions should have crossed his path and wreaked their vengeance upon him, they will probably be satisfied; but if he has escaped, there is at least an equal chance for us. Grasp your swords and follow me.”
“I have no doubt,” said Mahmood, “he has made good his retreat; I saw him descend the tree while the first lion was engaged in assaulting the rocky fragment which we had laid across the entrance of the cavern. He’s a wary youth that Musaood: I know of no one who likes so little to get into danger, or who knows so well how to extricate himself out of it.”
“That is not the lion’s instinct,” said the prince, smiling.
“Nay, but it is part of the wise man’s discretion.”
“Then, Mahmood, thy master is a fool; for he never was yet remarkable for his prudence in getting out of a scrape.”
“But valour,” replied Mahmood, with a respectful salaam, “is not an attribute of wisdom; that, therefore, would be prudent in the brave man, which would be folly in the wise.”
“Then we bold fools, Mahmood, may be justified in cutting the throats of lions for the preservation of our own lives; while your sages, in conformity with their characters of wise men, would, as a matter of course, bow their heads under the lion’s paw, and die like philosophers.”
Mahmood smiled, made another salaam, and remained silent, as if assenting to the truth of his master’s observation.
The party proceeded slowly onward, on account of the narrowness and ruggedness of the path, which would not admit of two going abreast. In a short time, however, they had overcome the most difficult part of the descent without interruption from their dreaded foes. They were already congratulating themselves with having escaped, when a cry from the attendant, who was a few yards behind his master and Mahmood, caused the two latter to stop and turn. The cause of that cry of alarm was soon explained. The two lions were seen making their way down the side of the mountain at a very rapid rate, their ears depressed, the hair on their tails erected, and exhibiting other signs of fury not to bemistaken. It was impossible to avoid them as the path was still narrow and rugged.
The prince, drawing his cimeter, placed himself in front of his two companions, and undauntedly awaited the threatened onset. The male lion was several paces in advance of the lioness, and, bounding forward, stopped suddenly within about thirty feet of its intended victim, and crouching a moment crawled a few yards upon its belly, then rising with a quick motion sprang with the rapidity of lightning towards Mujahid. He had been prepared for this; and when he saw the body of the angry beast propelled towards him, as if urged by that Almighty force which wings the thunderbolt, he leaped actively on one side, raised his weapon, and urging it with all his force as the foe descended, struck it in the mouth with the full impulse of an arm that, by a similar stroke, had frequently severed the head of a buffalo. The sword crashed through the jaws, forced its way into the throat, opening so hideous a wound that the lion fell forward, writhed a few moments, and died.
The lioness, which had crouched several paces behind while her consort was making its spring, seeing the issue of the contest, leaped forward with a roar, and coming up to the prince before he had recovered his guard, placed its paws upon his breast, and attempted to gripe him by the throat. Mujahid grasped the savage by the windpipe, and keeping it at arm’s length, prevented it from effecting its purpose; but it still kept its claws fixed in his breast, which it lacerated in a frightful manner, and at length seizing one of his hands crushed it dreadfully. Still he managed to keep its head from his body.
Mahmood, seeing the peril of his master, struck the ferocious beast with all his might upon the back with his sword, which was very keen and heavy. This assault induced the lioness to relinquish her hold and turn upon Mahmood; but her spine had been so injured from the stroke of the cimeter, that she was unable to spring. A second blow from Mahmood’s ponderous weapon upon the skull, instantly seconded by another from that of the attendant, soon brought her to the ground, when she was easily dispatched,though not before she had left terrible marks of her fury upon the prince’s body, who, reeking with his blood, stood gazing at his vanquished foes. The effusion was great, and the lacerations so extensive as to exhibit a fearful aspect of fatality.
Mahmood, being well skilled in the virtues of herbs, gathered some from the hill-side, and bruising them formed a styptic which he applied to the wound, and arrested the hæmorrhage. The prince declared himself able to proceed, the application of the herbs having somewhat subdued the irritation of his wounds. He was obliged to bare his body to the waist; and in order to prevent the sun from incommoding him, Mahmood and the attendant skinned one of the lions, and fixing the hide upon four bamboos, formed a sort of canopy under which Mujahid managed to creep down the remainder of the descent.
When they reached the bottom of the hill, they found their horses securely tied to the trees, as they had left them. Mujahid felt himself unable to proceed: the attendant, therefore, rode off in pursuit of some of the followers, whom he happily found at no great distance pursuing the pleasures of the chase. Among these was Musaood, who had refrained from mentioning the state of peril in which he had left his companions on the hill. Upon hearing that the prince had been wounded in the breast by his tawny foe, he concluded that the consummation of his revenge was nigh. A calm smile passed over his features; but he warily suppressed the feelings which rose with the warmth of a kindly emotion in his bosom, and elated his heart. Affecting to commiserate the condition of Mujahid, he proceeded, accompanied by several of his followers, to the spot where the prince lay in a state of great suffering stretched upon the lion’s skin; but, smiling as Musaood approached, he said—
“You had a better instinct than I, Musaood. Had I taken to the tree I might have escaped these scratches, which will keep me from the chase for some weeks, and, what is worse, from thy sister; but the cause of so long an absence will furnish my excuse.”
“There’s no pleasure, prince, without its pain, and in your sufferings all your friends participate.”
“Then they are great fools. It is enough that one should suffer in a matter of this kind, and you ought all to rejoice that you have had the good luck to escape. These are the little contingencies of lion-hunting, but I shall not be the worse for it when my scratches are healed.”
A litter was now made, in which the prince was laid, and carried slowly towards his fathers capital. The faithful Mahmood walked by his side, anticipating all his wants, and attending upon him with affectionate earnestness. In spite of the styptic, his wounds bled so copiously that when he reached the end of his journey he was in a state of extreme exhaustion. For some weeks he was in considerable danger, which spread a general gloom through the city, but, after a severe struggle, his constitution triumphed, and he at length completely recovered.