“MY worthy and dear Lord the King,”said the Fox,“I am well agreed and paid therewith. But when I came first into your Court there were many that were fell and envious to me, which never had hurt nor cause of scathe by me. But they thought that they might best over me, and all they crieden with my enemies against me and would fain have destroyed me, because they thought that the Wolf was better withholden and greater with you than I was, which am your humble subject. They knew none other thing, why nor wherefore. They thought not as the wise be wont to do, that is what the end may happen.
“My lord these are like a great heap of hounds which I once saw stand at a lord's place upon a dunghill, whereas they awaited that men should bring them meat. Then saw they an hound come out of the kitchen and had taken there a fair rib of beef ere it was given him. And he ran fast away withal; but the cook had espied or he went away, and took a great bowl full of scalding water and cast it on his hips behind; whereof he thanked nothing the cook, for the hair behind was scalded off and his skin seemed as it had be through sodden. Nevertheless he escaped away and kept that he had won.
“And when his fellows the other hounds saw him come with this fair rib, they called him all and said to him,‘Oh how good a friend is the cook to thee, which has given to thee so good a bone, whereon is so much flesh.’
“The hound said,‘You know nothing thereof. You praise me like as you see me before with the bone. But you have not seen me behind. Take heed, and behold me afterward on my buttocks, and then you shall know how I deserved it.’
“And when they had seen him behind on his hips how that his skin and his flesh was all raw and through sodden, tho growled they all and were afraid of that syedyng water; and would not of his fellowship, but fled and ran away from him, and let him there alone.
“See, my Lord, this right have these false beasts. When they be made lords, and may get their desire, and when they be mighty and doubted, then have been they extortioners and scatte and pylle the people and eaten them like as they were forhungred hounds. These are they that bear the bone in their mouth. No man dare have to do with them, but preyse all that they bedrive. No man dare say otherwise but such as shall please them, because they would not be shorn. And some help them forth in their unrighteous deeds because they would not have part, and lick their fingers, and strengthe them in their evil life and works. O, dear Lord, how little seen they that do thus after behind them, what the end shall be at last. They fall from high to low in great shame and sorrow, and then their works come to knowledge and be open in such wise that no man has pity nor compassion on them in their mischief and trouble, and every man curse them and say evil by them to their shame and villainy. Many of such have been blamed and shorn full nigh, that they had no worship nor profit but lose their hair as the hound did, that is their friends which have help them to cover their misdeeds and extortions like as the hair covers the skin. And when they have sorrow and shame for their old trespasses, then each body plucks his hand from him, and flee, like as the hounds did from him that was scalded with the syedyng water, and let him these extortions in their sorrow and need.
“My dear Lord King, I beseech you to remember this example of me; it shall not be against your worship nor wisdom. What ween you how many are there such false extortioners now in these days, —yea much worse than an hound that bears such a bone in his mouth—in towns, in great lords' courts, which with great facing and bracing oppress the poor people with great wrong, and sell their freedom and privileges, and bear them on hand of things that they never knew nor thought, and all for to get good for their singular profit. God give them all shame, and soon destroy them, whosomever they be that so do!
“But God be thanked,”said the Fox,“there may no man indite me, nor lineage, nor kin, of such works, but that we shall acquit us, and come in the light. I am not afraid of any that can say on me any thing that I have done otherwise than a true man ought to do. Alway the Fox shall abide the Fox, though all his enemies had sworn the contrary. My dear Lord the King, I love you with my heart above all lords, and never for no man would I turn from you, but abide by you to the utterest. How well it has been otherwise informed your highness, I have nevertheless alway do the best, and forth so will do, all my life that I can or may.”
狐道:“我高貴親愛的主,我十分滿意。但當(dāng)初我到你宮中來時,有許多惡人嫉妒我,我卻永不曾害過他們。他們都幫了我的仇人反對我,都要除去了我以為快,因為他們想依賽格林在你那里比我的地位高得多。他們不知別的了。
“我的主,這正如我有一次在一個爵士地方所看見的一大群獵犬。他們聚在那里,等人來帶東西給他們吃。后來,他們見一只獵犬由廚房中跑出來,銜著一塊肥牛排,那是偷來的,他跑得極快,但廚子在他未逃遠(yuǎn)之前,把一大碗滾熱的水,潑倒在他背上,使他的毛都落了。但他終于逃出,銜著偷到的東西。
“當(dāng)他的朋友們及別的獵犬見了他銜了這塊肥牛排出來,他們都對他說道:‘呵,廚子與你的交情真好,他給你這么好的一塊牛排,上面有那么多的肉!’
“那只獵犬說道:‘你們不知道什么事。你們贊美我的前面,因為銜了肉。但你們沒有見到我的背后。請留心,請看我的背上,然后你們就可以知道我是怎么取得這塊肉的了。’
“當(dāng)他們見了他背上被滾水燙脫的毛與爛肉,他們?nèi)冀辛似饋?,害怕那開水,他們不同他做朋友了。飛逃了開去,留他一個在那里。
“我的主,你看,這正是這一班惡賊的情形。當(dāng)他們?yōu)榫糁鲿r,為所欲為,有力有威,搶奪百姓們的,吃食百姓們的,正如一群饑餓的獵犬一樣,這正是他們銜了肥肉在口之時。沒有人不贊頌他們,不恭敬他們。有的還助他們?yōu)楸?,從中染指。唉,我的主!他們簡直沒有看見他們的背后,沒有看見他們最后的結(jié)局。他們受了大羞大辱,由高跌到低,然后他們的暴行才為大家所知,沒有人可憐他們,沒有人理會他們。至于他們的朋友呢,就如那一班獵犬們,一見他受害了,便一個個地離開了,留下他一個在憂苦中。
“我的主,我求你記住我這個比喻。這些日子,這種惡人真多——他們所做的壞事,比之獵犬偷骨還甚些——他們壓迫可憐的人民賣去他們的自由與特權(quán),只為了一己的利益。愿上帝給他們以羞辱,且立刻把他們都除去了,不管他們是誰!
“謝謝上帝,我及我的親屬卻都還光明,不做惡事。我親愛的主,我全心全意愛你比一切爵主都甚,誰都不能離間我,我永遠(yuǎn)地聽你的命令?!?/p>
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