XXII REYNARD THE FOX 207

beseech your Majesty mark how this dissembler
can blow with all winds, and paint his mischief
with false colours: a world of times hath he
brought me into these hazards. Once he
betrayed me to his aunt the she ape, where
ere I escaped I was fain to leave one of mine
ears: behind me. -If the fox “dare tell the
truth of the story, for I know his memory
to be much better, besides he is apt to
catch advantage from the weakness of my
language, I desire no better evidence against
him.’

Then said the fox, ‘Willingly I will do it,
and without flattery or falsehood; and there-
fore I beseech your Majesty lend me your
royal patience. Upon a certain time the wolf
here came to me into the wood, and complained
unto me that he was exceeding hungry, yet |
never saw him fuller in my life; but he would
ever dissemble. At which presently I took
pity on him, and said I was also as hungry as
he: so away we went and travelled half a day
together without finding anything.

‘Then began he to whine and cry, and said
he was able to go no farther. Then hard by
the foot of a hawthorn tree we espied a hole all
covered over with brambles, and heard a great