56 THE PLEASANT HISTORY OF CHAP.

Chanticleer and his children, and have devoured
many of them; nay, the King hath not been
quiet of my malice, for I have slandered him
and his Queen. I have betrayed /segrim the
wolf, and called him uncle, though no part of
his blood ran in my veins; I made him a
monk of Almane, where I became also one of
the order only to do him open mischief. I
made him bind his feet to a bell-rope to teach
him to ring, but the peal had like to have cost
him his life, the men of the parish beat and
wounded him so sore. After this I taught him
to catch fish, but he was soundly beaten there-
fore, and feeleth the stripes at this instant. [|
led him to steal bacon at a rich priest’s house,
where he fed so extremely, that not being able
to get out where he got in, I| raised all the
town upon him, and then went where the priest
was set at meat, with a fat hen before him;
which hen I snatched away, so that the priest
cried out, ‘‘ Kill the fox, for never man saw
thing so strange, so that the fox should come
into my house, and take my meat from before
me. This is a boldness beyond knowledge.”
And with these words he threw his knife at me,
but he missed me, and I ran away, whilst he
pursued me crying, ‘ Kill the fox, kill the fox,”