ANDROCLES AND THE LION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2716, 22 January 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

ANDROCLES AND THE LION.

Androeles was a poor Roman slave who was carried away to Northern Africa many hundreds of years ago. His life was very hard and painful, and liis master was a very cruel man. At last he resolved that he would try to escape to the sea-coast, and get" back to Rome. He knew that if he were caught he would be put to death; so he waited till the nights were, dark and moonless, and he then crept out of his master’s house and stole through the town, and got into the open country. On and on he hastened through the darkness as fast as his legs would carry him. But when the day broke he found that, instead of making towards the sea-coast, he had struck into the great lonely desert. He was tired out, hungry, and thirsty, and seeing a cave in the side of some cliffs, lie crept into it, laid down, and very soon fell into a gentle sleep. (Suddenly he was awakened by a terrible roaring, and, starting to his feet, he behold a huge tawny lion standing at the entrance to the cave. Androeles had been sleeping in its den. He could not escape; the, great lion barred the way. Utterly terror-stricken, he waited for the great beast to spring upon him and kill him. But the lion did .not move. It moaned and licked one of its paws, from which blood was flowing. Seeing that the annual was in great pain. Aiidrocles forgot his terror, and came forward, and the lion held m> its paw, as if it were asking Androeles for help. Androeles then perceived that a great- thorn had got into the paw, and cut it, and made it swell. -He drew the thorn out with a quick movement, and then pressed the swelling and stopped the flow of blood. Relieved of the pain, the grateful lion limped out of the cave, and in a few, minutes it returned with a dead rabbit, which it laid beside Androeles. When the poor slave had cooked and ate the rabbit, the lion led him to a

place in the cliffs where there -was a spring of fresh water gushing from the ea Jv»r three years the man and the lion lived in the cave, they hunted together and slept together, and the gifevt, shaggy, affectionate creature used to lie down at night at An drool os feet and slowly wag his huge bushy tail’from side to side, as a cat does when it lies before the fire and feels haonv and comfortable. But at last Androcles began to weary for the society of ins fellow-men. S< he left the cave, but he was soon caught by some soldiers and sent as a fugitive slave to Rome. The ancient Romans were very cruel to runaway slaves and they sentenced Androcles. to he killed by wild beasts m the arena on the first public holiday. a vast multitude of spectators came to" r ee the /painful eight, and among them was the Emperor of Lome, who sat on a high seat above the arena, surrounded by his senators. Androcles was pushed into the great open space, and a lance was thrust mto his hand. With this, he was told, ho would have t (> defend himself against a powerful lion which had been kept for days without food to make it savage and fierce. The poor man was given a chance of‘surviving; but, as be knew, it was a very, very poor chance. He trembled when the hungry lion sprang out of its cage with a terrible roar, and the lance shook in his -feeble grasp as the huge beast came hounding up to him. But instead of rushing fiercely at him, and hearing him down, it wagged its tail and began to hew his hands. Androcles then saw that it was his own lion with whom he had lived in the cave, and he /patted it and leaned on its head and cried. AH the spectators marvelled at tne strange scene, and the emperor sent for \ndrocks and asked him for an explanation of it. And he was so delighted with the wonderful storv that he made Androcles a free man, and gave him a large sum of money t hereafter Androcles used to walk about the streets of Rome, and the taithrm lion followed him like a dog wherever he went.