192 THE PLEASANT HISTORY OF CHAP.

need their honest service, well might they
starve ere they could gain that employment;
for like wolves they had rather see their
masters die than lend them the least part of
their liver.

‘This, my Lord, was an accident which fell
in your youth, and you may well forget it;
yet, without boasting, I myself may say |
have done to you both honour and service,
and you haply also forget this which I shall
repeat, which I vow I do not to upbraid
your Majesty, for you are ever worthy of
more than I can tender; and my uttermost
is but the rent of a loyal subject, which I
am ever bound by the laws of God and nature
to perform.

‘So it was, that on a time /segrizm the wolf
and I had gotten a swine under us, and by
reason of his extreme loud crying, we were
compelled to bite him to death. At which
time yourself came out of a grove unto us,
and saluted us friendly, saying, “That you
and the Queen your wife, who came after you,
were both exceeding hungry, and entreated us
to give you part of our getting.”

‘Isegrim then whispered in such manner
that none could understand him; but I spake