which is recorded in that most delightful book, 'Sandford and Merton.'
It is so captivating a tale, that I must repeat it to you as much for my
own gratification as for yours. I will just observe, however, that it is
a fiction, and not a real story, though I can tell you one or two very
similar ones, which occurred in real life."

"There was a certain slave named Androcles, who was so ill treated by
his master that his life became insupportable. Finding no remedy from
what he suffered, he at length said to himself:--'It is better to die
than to continue to live in such hardships and misery as I am obliged to
suffer. I am determined, therefore, to run away from my master; if I am
taken again, I know that I shall be punished with a cruel death, but it
is better to die at once, than to live in misery. If I escape, I must
betake myself to deserts and woods, inhabited only by wild beasts, but
they cannot use me more cruelly than I have been by my fellow-creatures,
therefore I will rather trust myself to them, than continue to be a
miserable slave.

"Having formed this resolution, he took an opportunity of leaving his
master's house, and hid himself in a thick forest, which was some miles
distant from the city. But here the unhappy man found that he had only
escaped from one kind of misery to experience another. He wandered about
all day through a vast and trackless wood, where his flesh was
continually torn by thorns and brambles. He grew hungry, but he could
find no food in this dreary solitude. At length he was ready to die with
fatigue, and lay down in despair in a large cavern.

"The unfortunate man had not been long quiet in the cavern, before he
heard a dreadful noise, which seemed to be the roar of some wild beast,
and terrified him very much. He started up with a design to escape, and