“The Lyon,” says Ferne, in his “Blazon of Gentrie, 1586,” “is the most worthiest of all beastes; yea, he standeth as the king, and is feared above all the beastes of the fielde. So that by the Lyon is signified principallitie, dominion, and rule. Fortitude and magnanimity is denoted in the Lyon.” Coats, another heraldic authority of somewhat later date, affirms that “the lion is the most magnanimous, the most generous, the most bold and fierce of all the four-footed race, and therefore he has been chosen to represent the greatest heroes. This noble creature represents also Command and Monarchical Dominion, as likewise the Magnanimity of Majesty, at once exercising Awe and Clemency, subduing those that resist, and sparing those that humble themselves.” In the “Indice Armorial” of Geliot, published in Paris in the year 1635, we read: “Si ca est auec raison que les anciens ont donné a l’aigle la qualité de Roy des oyseaux et au dauphin celuy des poissons, il y a plus de sujet de qualifier du nom de Roy le lyon, non seulement pour estre plus fort et le plus genereux des animaux terrestres, mais principalement à cause des qualitez royales qui sont en luy. Le lyon ne dort iamais, ou bien s’il dort c’est auec si peu de repos qu’il ne laisse pas d’auoir les yeux ouverts. C’est ce que l’on remarque de genereux au lyon que iamais il n’offence ceux qui s’humilient deuant luy, qu’il ne touche point aux petits enfants et porta qu’entre les hommes et les femmes il s’addresse plutost aux hommes, et entre ceux qui les prouoquent il choisira tousiours celuy qui l’aura blessé, comme mespriant les autres.” Guillim, in his “Display of Heraldry,” a most popular book, running through many editions, scarcely gives so exalted an idea of the king of beasts, since he tells us that “the lion, when he mindeth to assail his enemy, stirreth up himself by often beating of his back and sides with his tail, and thereby stirreth up his courage to the end to do nothing faintly or cowardly. The lion, when he is hunted, carefully provideth for his safety, labouring to frustrate the pursuit of the hunters by sweeping out his footsteps with his tail as he goeth, that no appearance of his track may be discovered. When he hunteth after his prey he roareth vehemently, whereat the beasts, being astonished, do make a stand, while he with his tail makes a circuit around them in the sand, which circle they dare not transgress, which done, out of them he maketh choice of prey at his leisure.” Thus the lion’s tail is at once a stimulus to valour, an aid to concealment when the valour has oozed away, and a ring-fence for the enclosure of his prey.