14 REYNARD THE FOX CHAP. III

sheds for their guard six stout mastiff dogs,
which had torn the skins of many wild beasts,
so that my children feared not any evil which
might happen unto them. But Reynard, that
false and dissembling traitor, envying their
happy fortune because of their safety, many
times assailed the walls, and gave such dan-
gerous assaults, that the dogs divers times
were let forth unto him and hunted him away.
Yea, once they lighted upon him, and bit him,
and made him pay the price for his theft, and
his torn skin witnessed; yet nevertheless he
escaped, the more was the pity; albeit, we
were quit of his troubling a great while after.
At last he came in the likeness of a hermit, and
brought me a letter to read, sealed with your
Majesty’s seal, in which I found written, that
your highness had made peace throughout
all your realm, and that no manner of beast or
fowl should do injury one to another. He
affirmed unto me that for his own part he was
become a monk or cloistered recluse, vowing to
perform a daily penance for his sins; and
showed unto me his beads, his books, and the
hair shirt next to his skin, saying in humble
wise unto me, “Sir Chanticleer, never hence-
forth be afraid of me, for I have vowed never-