FOX AND HOUND 



* Beneath yon firs, some hundred yards away, 

 standeth, or rather lieth, for it is on dead flat 

 ground, the famous castle of Malepartus, which beheld 

 the base murder of Lampe, the hare, and many 

 a seely soul beside. I know it well : a patch of 

 sand heaps, mingled with great holes, amid the 

 twining fir roots ; ancient home of the last of 

 the wild beasts. 



•And thither, unto Malepartus safe and strong, 

 trots Reinecke, where he hopes to be snug among 

 the labyrinthine windings, and innumerable starting- 

 holes, as the old apologue has it, of his ballium, 

 covert-way and donjon keep. 



* Full blown in self-satisfaction he trots, lifting 

 his toes delicately, and carrying his brush aloft, as 

 full of cunning and conceit as that world-famous 

 ancestor of his, whose deeds of unchivalry were 

 the delight, if not the model, of knight and kaiser, 

 lady and burgher, in the Middle Age. 



* Suddenly he halts at the great gate of Male- 

 partus ; examines it with his nose, goes on to a 

 postern ; examines that also, and then another 

 and another; while I perceive afar, projecting from 

 every cave's mouth, the red and green end of a 

 new fir-faggot. Ah ! Reinecke ! fallen is thy conceit, 

 and fallen thy tail therewith. Thou hast worse 

 foes to deal with than Bruin the bear, and Isegrim 

 the wolf, or any foolish brute whom thy great 

 ancestor outwitted. Man, the many-counselled, has 



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