ing round to see that no one was near; "for there is going to be a
secret council of the courtiers this afternoon, while Kapchack takes his
nap; and in order that none of the little birds may play the spy and
carry information to the police, Kauc, the crow, has been flying round
and driving them away, so that there is not so much as a robin left in
the copse. This is an employment that suits him very well, for he loves
to play the tyrant. Perhaps you saw him coming in. And this council is
about Kapchack's love affair, and to decide what is to be done, and
whether it can be put up with, or whether they must refuse to receive
her."

"And who is she?" said Bevis; "you keep on talking, but you do not tell
me." The squirrel pricked up his ears and looked cross, but he heard
the people coming to the council, and knew there was no time to be lost
in quarrelling, so he did not go off in a pet this time. "The lady is
the youngest jay, dear, in the wood; La Schach is her name; she is
sweetly pretty, and dresses charmingly in blue and brown. She is sweetly
pretty, though they say rather a flirt, and flighty in her ways. She has
captivated a great many with her bright colour, and now this toothless
old Kapchack--but hush! It is a terrible scandal. I hear them coming;
slip this way, Bevis dear."

Bevis went after him under the brambles and the ferns till he found a
place in a hollow ash-stole, where it was hung all round with
honeysuckle, and then, doing as the squirrel told him, he sat down, and
was quite concealed from sight; while the squirrel stopped on a bough
just over his head, where he could whisper and explain things. Though
Bevis was himself hidden, he could see very well; and he had not been
there a minute before he heard a rustling, and saw the fox come
stealthily out from the fern, and sit under an ancient hollow pollard
close by.

The stoat came close behind him; he was something like the weasel, and
they say a near relation; he is much bolder than the weasel, but not one
quarter so cunning. He is very jealous, too, of the power the weasel has
got on account of his cunning, and if he could he would strangle his
kinsman. The rat could not attend, having very important business at the
brook that day, but he had sent the mouse to listen and tell him all
that was said. The fox looked at the mouse askance from the corner of
his eye; and the stoat could not refrain from licking his lips, though
it was well understood that