Androcles and the Lion (play) run from his Roman persecutors. While hiding in the forest he comes upon a wild lion who approaches him with a wounded paw. His wife runs off. Androcles sees that the cause of the animal's distress is a large thorn embedded in its paw, which he draws out while soothing the lion in baby language. Androcles is captured and is sent to the Colosseum to be executed with other Christians in gladiatorial combat. They are joined by a new Christian convert called Ferrovius, who struggles to reconcile his Christian principles with his violent inclinations. The Roman captain guarding them is
The Wounded Lion had promised the princess that she had found her a bridegroom. They went back to the princess, and her parents, the king and queen, knew him for their own son. So he married the girl who had saved him. The lion with a thorn in its paw and who, after being freed from his pain, becomes friend with the character who saved him is similar to "The Lion and the Mouse". The Wounded Lion The Wounded Lion is a Spanish fairy tale collected by D. Francisco de S. Maspons y Labros, in "Cuentos Populars Catalans". Andrew Lang included it in