warm it is!" said Fulvia, "yet there is no sun. Would
that those stupid sailors could have fastened up that gap in
the awning!"

"Oh, it is warm indeed. I turn sick--I faint!" said the wife of Pansa;
even her experienced stoicism giving way at the struggle about to
take place.

The lion had been kept without food for twenty-four hours, and the
animal had, during the whole morning, testified a singular and restless
uneasiness, which the keeper had attributed to the pangs of hunger. Yet
its bearing seemed rather that of fear than of rage; its roar was
painful and distressed; it hung its head--snuffed the air through the
bars--then lay down--started again--and again uttered its wild and
far-resounding cries. And now in its den it lay utterly dumb and mute,
with distended nostrils forced hard against the grating, and disturbing,
with a heaving breath, the sand below on the arena.

The editor's lip quivered, and his cheek grew pale; he looked anxiously
around--hesitated--delayed; the crowd became impatient. Slowly he gave
the sign; the keeper, who was behind the den, cautiously removed the
grating, and the lion leaped forth with a mighty and glad roar of
release. The keeper hastily retreated through the grated passage leading
from the arena, and left the lord of the forest--and his prey.

Glaucus had bent his limbs so as to give himself the firmest posture at
the expected rush of the lion, with his small and shining weapon raised
on high, in the faint hope that _one_ well-directed thrust (for he knew
that he should have time but for _one_) might penetrate through the eye
to the brain of his grim foe.

But to the unutterable astonishment of all, the beast seemed not even
aware of the presence of the criminal.

At the first moment of its release it halted abruptly in the arena,
raised itself half on end, snuffing the upward air with impatient signs,
then suddenly it sprang forward, but not on the Athenian. At half-speed
it circled round and round the space, turning its vast head from side to
side with an anxious and perturbed gaze, as if seeking only some avenue
of escape; once or twice it endeavored to leap up the parapet that
divided it from the audience, and on falling, uttered rather a baffled
howl than its deep-toned and kingly roar. It evinced no sign either of
wrath or hunger; its tail drooped along the sand, instead of lashing its
gaunt sides; and its eye, though it wandered at times to Glaucus, rolled
again lis