ns than you ever supposed
me to be. The gnat does not know half that took place at the council,
for he only had it second-hand from that villain, the fox, who is, I
believe, secretly bent on your destruction. But I can tell you not only
all that went on--I can also relate to you the designs of Kauc, the
crow, who conferred with Cloctaw in private, after the meeting was over.
And I can also give you good reasons for suspecting Ki Ki, the hawk,
whom you have just nominated to the command of your forces, of the
intention of making a bargain with Choo Hoo, and of handing you over to
him a prisoner."

Now this last was a pure invention of the weasel's out of envy, since Ki
Ki had obtained such distinction. Kapchack, much alarmed at these words,
ordered him to relate everything in order, and the weasel told him all
that had been said at the council, all that Kauc, the crow, had said to
Cloctaw, and a hundred other matters which he made up himself. When
Kapchack heard these things he was quite confounded, and exclaimed that
he was surrounded with traitors, and that he did not see which way to
turn. He hopped a little way off, in order the better to consider by
himself, and leant his head upon one side.

First he thought to himself: "I must take the command from Ki Ki, but I
cannot do that suddenly, lest he should go over to Choo Hoo. I will
therefore do it gradually. I will countermand the order for an immediate
attack; that will give me time to arrange. Who is to take Ki Ki's place?
Clearly the weasel, for though he is an archtraitor, yet he is in the
same boat with me; for I know it to be perfectly true that all of them
are bitter against him."

So he went back to the weasel, and told him that he should give him the
chief command of the forces, on the third day following, and meantime
told him to come early in the evening to the drain which passed under
the orchard, where his palace was, so that he could concert the details
of this great state business in secret with him.

The weasel, beyond measure delighted at the turn things had taken, and
rejoicing extremely at the impending fall of Ki Ki, whom he hated,
thanked Kapchack with all his might, till Kapchack, enjoining on him the
necessity of secrecy, said "Good-afternoon"; and flew away towards the
firs, where his guard was waiting for him. Then the weasel, puffed up
and treading the ground proudly, went back to his cave in the elm, and
Bevis, seeing that there was noth