A terrific battle followed, whose tale alone came to me through the night.
I would have fled, for surely it was but a fight which should have me!--only where was the use?
my first step would be a fall! and my foes of either kind could both see and scent me in the dark! All at once I missed the howling, and the caterwauling grew wilder.

Then came the soft padding, and I knew it meant flight: the cats had defeated the wolves! In a moment the sharpest of sharp teeth were in my legs; a moment more and the cats were all over me in a live cataract, biting wherever they could bite, furiously scratching me anywhere and everywhere.

A multitude clung to my body; I could not flee.

Madly I fell on the hateful swarm, every finger instinct with destruction.

I tore them off me, I throttled at them in vain: when I would have flung them from me, they clung to my hands like limpets.