will give him a thousand ducats"--quite a large sum in those days, a
ducat being about equal to the American dollar.

At this time the Bey had several young lions that ran freely about in
the court-yard or garden of his palace, and in a great pit, entirely
surrounded by a high terrace, on a level with the ground-floor of the
palace, a superb Atlas lion was kept in royal captivity. It was this
lion that the Bey wished the Sicilian to combat. The proposition was
sent to the Sicilian, who accepted it without hesitation, and without
boasting what he would do.

The combat was to take place a week from that time, and the
announcement that the handsome Sicilian was to fight a duel with the
grand lion was spread far and wide, even to the borders of the desert,
producing a profound sensation. Everybody, old and young, great and
small, desired to be present; moreover, the people would be freely
admitted to the garden of the Bey, where they could witness the combat
from the top of the terrace. The duel was to be early in the morning,
before the heat of the day.

During the week that intervened, the Sicilian performed every day in
the show, instead of two days a week, as had been his custom. Never was
he more calm, graceful and fascinating in his performances. The evening
before the eventful day, he repeated in pantomime his victory over the
lion near Damascus, with so much elegance, precision and suppleness as
to elicit round after round of enthusiastic cheers. Of course everybody
who had seen him _play_ killing a lion was wild with curiosity to see
him actually fight with a _real_ lion.

So, on the following morning, in the early dawn, the terrace around the