XXII REYNARD THE FOX 211

and goods are both at your service, and what
I can do for you, night or day, shall ever be
at your command and your children’s.”

‘Yet I most heartily wished myself far
from them at that instant, for I] was almost
poisoned with their smell. And I pitied
Isegrim who was sore griped with hunger all
this while; and offering to take my leave, and
feigning that my wife would think it long till
my return, she said, “ Dear cousin, you shall
not depart till you have eaten something. I
shall take it unkindly if you offer it”; then
rose she up, and carried me into an inner
room, where was great store of all kind of
venison, both of the red deer, fallow deer, and
roe; and great store of partridges, pheasants,
and other fowls, that I was amazed much from
whence such store of meat should come.

‘Now when I had eaten sufficiently, she
gave me a side and half a haunch of a hind,
to carry home to my wife, which I was ashamed
to take, but that she compelled me; and so
taking my leave, and being entreated often to
visit her, I did depart thence, much rejoiced
that I had sped so well.

‘Now being come out of the causey, I spied
where Jsegrim lay groaning pitifully, and |