CHAPLER X11
How Reynard made his Confession before the King.

Every creature now took compassion on the
fox, and said his request was small, beseeching
the King to grant it, which was done; and
then the fox thus spake: ‘Help me, Heaven,
for I see no man here whom I have not
offended; yet was this evil no natural in-
clination in me, for in my youth I was ac-
counted as virtuous as any breathing. This
know, I have played with the lambs all the
day long, and took delight in their pretty
bleating, yet at last in my play I bit one, and
the taste of their blood was so sweet unto me
that I approved the flesh, and both were so
sweet that since I could never forbear it. This
liquorish humour drew me into the woods
amongst the goats, where hearing the bleating
of the little kids, I slew one of them, and after,
two more, which slaughter made me so hardy,