people assembled under the huge tent.

At last they started. Gagtooth got up and walked to the door, following
them with his eye as far as he could see them down the dusty street.
Then he returned and sat down in his chair. Poor fellow! he was
destined never to see either of them alive again.

Notwithstanding her fear lest she might not arrive in time for the
commencement of the performance, Mrs. Fink and her charge reached the
ground at least half an hour before the ticket office was opened; and I
regret to say that that half hour was sufficient to enable her to form
an acquaintance with one of the property men of the establishment, to
whom she contrived to make herself so agreeable that he passed her and
Charlie into the tent free of charge. She was not admitted at the front
entrance, but from the tiring-room at the back whence the performers
enter. She sat down just at the left of this entrance, immediately
adjoining the lion's cage. Ere long the performance commenced. Signor
Martigny, when his turn came, entered the cage as per announcement; but
he was not long in discovering by various signs not to be mistaken that
his charges were in no humour to be played with on that day. Even the
ring master from his place in the centre of the ring, perceived that
old King of the Forest, the largest and most vicious of the lions, was
meditating mischief, and called to the Signor to come out of the cage.
The Signor, keeping his eye steadily fixed on the brute, began a
retrograde movement from the den. He had the door open, and was swiftly
backing through, when, with a roar that seemed to shake the very earth,
old King sprang upon him from the opposite side of the cage, dashing
him to the ground like a ninepin, and rushed through the aperture into
the crowd. Quick as lightning the other two followed, and thus three
savage lions were loose and unshackled in the midst of upwards of two