d; of Tybert the cat; of
Tardif the slug; of Espinar the hedgehog; of Bruin the bear; of Roonel
the mastiff; of Couard the hare; of Noble the lion. The arrival of a
procession of hens at Court is an excellent scene of comedy.

"Sir Chanteclair, the cock, and Pinte, who lays the big eggs, and Noire,
and Blanche, and la Roussette, were dragging a cart with drawn curtains.
A hen lay in it prostrate.... Renard had so maltreated her, and so
pulled her about with his teeth, that her thigh was broken, and a wing
torn off her side."[208]

Pinte, moved to tears and ready to faint, like Esther before Ahasuerus,
tells the king her woes. She had five brothers, Renard has devoured
every one; she had five sisters, but "only one has Renard spared; all
the rest have passed through his jaws. And you, who lie there on your
bier, my sweet sister, my dear friend, how plump and tender you were!
What will become of your poor unfortunate sister?"[209] She is very near
adding in Racine's words: "Mes filles, soutenez votre reine eperdue!"
Anyhow, she faints.

"The unfortunate Pinte thereupon fainted and fell on the pavement; and
so did the others, all at once. To assist the four ladies all jumped
from their stools, dog and wolf and other beasts, and threw water on
their brows."[210]

The king is quite upset by so moving a sight: "His head out of anger he
shakes; never was so bold a beast, a bear be it or a boar, who does not
fear when their lord sighs and howls. So much afraid was Couard the hare
that for two days he had the fever; all the Court shakes together, the
boldest for dread tremble. He, in his wrath, raises his tail, and is
moved with such pangs that the roar fills the house; and then this was
his speech: 'Lady Pinte,' the emperor said, 'upon my father's
soul'"[211]....

Hereupon follows a solemn promise, couched in the most impressive words,
that the traitor shall be punished; which will make all the more
noticeable the utter defeat which verbose royalty soon afterward
suffers. Renard worsts the king's messengers; Bruin the bear has his
nose torn off; Tybert the cat loses half his tail; Renard jeers at them,
at the king, and at the Court. And all through the story he triumphs
over Ysengrin, as Panurge over Dindenault, Scapin over Geronte, and
Figaro over Bridoison. Renard is the first of the family; he is such a
natural and spontaneous creation of the French mind that we see him
reappear from century to century, the same charac