XII REYNARD THE FOX 93

‘Well, said the fox, ‘you have spoken
sufficiently, go to your place again’; so away
went the hare. Then said the fox, ‘My
Sovereign Lord the King, what say you now
to my relation—am I worthy your belief or
no?’

The King said, ‘ Yes, Reynard, and I
beseech thee excuse my jealousies, it was
my ignorance which did thee evil; therefore
forthwith make preparation that we may go
to this pit where the treasure lieth.’

The fox answered, ‘Alas, my Lord, do
you imagine that I would not fain go with you?
if it were so that I might go without your
dishonour, which I cannot do; for you shall
understand (though it be my disgrace) that
when Jsegrim the wolf, in the evil one’s name,
would needs grow religious and turn a monk,
that then the permission of meat which was
for six monks, was too little for him alone.
Whereupon he complained so pitifully unto
me, that I, commiserating his case, being my
kinsman, gave him counsel to run away, which
he did. Whereupon I stand accursed, and
excommunicated under the Pope’s sentence,
and am determined to-morrow, as soon as
the sun riseth, to take my way towards Rome