'The lion,' said he, and therewith
in the extremity of his terror tore himself away from me and fled.
By this time the others also had got some distance away from me,
and I was left pretty much alone. So I went forth on a little,
looking about me, and sure enough under one of the pillars
of the cloister beneath the market-house (the great green pillar,
if thou mindest it), lay crouched a huge yellow lion, on the carcase
of a goat, which he had knocked down, but would not fall to eating
of amidst all that cry and hubbub.
"Now belike one thing of me thou wottest not, to wit, that I
have a gift that wild things love and will do my bidding.
The house-mice will run over me as I lie awake looking on them;
the small birds will perch on my shoulders without fear;
the squirrels and hares will gambol about quite close to me
as if I were but a tree; and, withal, the fiercest hound
or mastiff is tame before me. Therefore I feared not
this lion, and, moreover, I looked to it that if I might tame
him thoroughly, he would both help me to live as a jongleur,
and would be a sure ward to me.
"So I walked up towards him quietly, till he saw me and half rose
up growling; but I went on still, and said to him in a peaceable voice:
'How now, yellow mane! what aileth thee? down with thee, and eat thy meat.'
So he sat down to his quarry again, but growled still, and I went up close
to him, and said to him: 'Eat in peace and safety, am I not here?'
And therewith I held out my bare hand unclenched to him, and he smelt to it,
and straightway began to be peaceable, and fell to tearing the goat,
and devouring it, while I stood by speaking to him friendly.
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