hare, "I have known it any time these dozen
years; it runneth in a wood called Hustreloe, upon a vast
and wide wilderness."

"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?"

[Illustration: REYNARD BRINGS FORWARD THE HARE AS
HIS WITNESS.]

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."

But the fox answered that he could not go with his Majesty
without dishonour; for that at present he was under
excommunication, and that it was necessary that he should go
to Rome to be absolved, and that from thence he intended to
travel in the Holy Land. "The course you propose is good,"
said the King; "go on and prosper in your intent."

Then the King mounted on a rock, and addressing his
subjects, told them how that, for divers reasons best known
to himself, he had freely given pardon to Reynard, who had
cast his wickedness behind him, and would no more be guilty
of wrongdoing; and furthermore, he commanded them all to
reverence and honour not only Reynard, but also his wife and
children. At this, Isegrim the Wolf and Bruin the Bear
inveighed against the fox in such an unseemly way, that his
Majesty caused them both to be arrested for high treason.
Now when the fox saw this, he begged of the Queen that he
might have so much of the bear's skin as would make him a
large scrip for his journey; and also the skin of the wolf's
feet for a pair of shoes, because of the stony ways he would
have to pass over. To this the Queen consented, and Reynard
saw his orders executed.

The next morning Reynard caused his new shoes to be well
oiled, and made them fit his feet as tightly as they had
fitted the wolf's. And the King commanded Bellin the Ram to
say mass before the fox; and when he had sung mass and used
many ceremonies over the fox, he hung about Reynard's neck
his rosary of beads, and gave him into his hands a palmer's
staff.

Then the King took leave of him, and commanded all that were
about him, except the bear and the wolf, to attend Reynard
some part of his journey. Oh! he that had seen how gallant
and personable Reynard was, and how well his staff and his
mail became him, as also how fit his shoes