very nearly bit the
magpie for her uncivil mode of communicating such bad news. However, he
curbed his temper, and, without answering her, went at once to the cat's
residence.

The cat was sitting at the window, and no sooner did the dog see her
than he fairly lost his heart; never had he seen so charming a cat
before. He advanced, wagging his tail, and with his most insinuating
air, when the cat, getting up, clapped the window in his face, and lo!
Reynard the fox appeared in her stead.

"Come out, thou rascal!" said the dog, showing his teeth; "come out,
I challenge thee to single combat; I have not forgiven thy malice, and
thou seest that I am no longer shut up in the cave, and unable to punish
thee for thy wickedness."

"Go home, silly one!" answered the fox, sneering; "thou hast no business
here, and as for fighting thee--bah!" Then the fox left the window and
disappeared. But the dog, thoroughly enraged, scratched lustily at the
door, and made such a noise, that presently the cat herself came to the
window.

"How now!" said she, angrily; "what means all this rudeness? Who are
you, and what do you want at my house?"

"Oh, my dear cousin," said the dog, "do not speak so severely. Know that
I have come here on purpose to pay you a visit; and, whatever you do,
let me beseech you not to listen to that villain Reynard,--you have no
conception what a rogue he is!"

"What!" said the cat, blushing; "do you dare to abuse your betters in
this fashion? I see you have a design on me. Go, this instant, or--"

"Enough, madam," said the dog, proudly; "you need not speak twice to
me,--farewell."

And he turned away very slowly, and went under a tree, where he took up
his lodgings for the night. But the next morning there was an amazing
commotion in the neighbourhood; a stranger, of a very different style of
travelling from that of the dog, had arrived at the dead of the night,
and fixed his abode in a large cavern hollowed out of a steep rock. The
noise he had made in flying through the air was so great that it had
awakened every bird and beast in the parish; and Reynard, whose bad
conscience never suffered him to sleep very soundly, putting his head
out of the window, perceived, to his great alarm, that the stranger was
nothing less than a monstrous griffin.

Now the griffins are the richest beasts in the world; and that's the
reason they keep so close under ground. Whenever it does happen that
they pay a visit above,