and no more.

"So much for the griffin's soup!" thought he.

He waited patiently for some time, when the griffiness, waving her claw
from the window, said cheerfully, "All's right, my dear Reynard; my papa
has finished his soup, and sleeps as sound as a rock! All the noise in
the world would not wake him now, till he has slept off the boiled cat,
which won't be these twelve hours. Come and assist me in packing up the
treasure; I should be sorry to leave a single diamond behind."

"So should I," quoth the fox. "Stay, I'll come round by the lower
hole: why, the door's shut! pray, beautiful griffiness, open it to thy
impatient adorer."

"Alas, my father has hid the key! I never know where he places it. You
must come up by the basket; see, I will lower it for you."

The fox was a little loth to trust himself in the same conveyance that
had taken his mistress to be boiled; but the most cautious grow rash
when money's to be gained, and avarice can trap even a fox. So he put
himself as comfortably as he could into the basket, and up he went in an
instant. It rested, however, just before it reached the window, and the
fox felt, with a slight shudder, the claw of the griffiness stroking his
back.

"Oh, what a beautiful coat!" quoth she, caressingly.

"You are too kind," said the fox; "but you can feel it more at your
leisure when I am once up. Make haste, I beseech you."

"Oh, what a beautiful bushy tail! Never did I feel such a tail."

"It is entirely at your service, sweet griffiness," said the fox; "but
pray let me in. Why lose an instant?"

"No, never did I feel such a tail! No wonder you are so successful with
the ladies."

"Ah, beloved griffiness, my tail is yours to eternity, but you pinch it
a little too hard."

Scarcely had he said this, when down dropped the basket, but not with
the fox in it; he found himself caught by the tail, and dangling half
way down the rock, by the help of the very same sort of pulley wherewith
he had snared the dog. I leave you to guess his consternation; he yelped
out as loud as he could,--for it hurts a fox exceedingly to be hanged by
his tail with his head downwards,--when the door of the rock opened, and
out stalked the griffin himself, smoking his pipe, with a vast crowd of
all the fashionable beasts in the neighbourhood.

"Oho, brother," said the bear, laughing fit to kill himself; "who ever
saw a fox hanged by the tail before?"

"You'll have need of a physician," quoth