XII REYNARD THE FOX 89

Grimbard, his dearest nephew and kinsman;
had he dissembled, he might have laid his
imputations on other beasts, and not on those
he loveth most entirely.’

‘Well, Madam,’ said the King, ‘you shall
at this time rule me, and all the offences of
the fox I will clearly pardon; yet with this
protestation, that if ever again he offend in
the smallest crime whatsoever, that not only
himself, but his whole generation I will utterly
root out of my dominions.’

The fox looked sadly when the King spake
thus, but was inwardly most infinitely glad at
his heart, and said, ‘My dread Lord, it were
a huge shame in me, should I speak any
untruths in this great presence.’

Then the King taking a straw fot the
ground, pardoned the fox of all his trespasses
which either he or his father had ever
committed. If the fox now began to smile,
it was no wonder, the sweetness of life
required it; yet he fell down before the
King and Queen, and humbly thanked them
for mercy, protesting that for that favour he
would make them the richest princes in the
world. And at these words the fox took up
a straw, and proffered it unto the King, and