Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/431

Rh

Here was a Fox (as the Story has it) of a very Lewd Life and Converation, that happen'd at lat to be Catch'd in his Roguery, and call'd to Account for the Innocent Blood he had pilt of Lambs, Pullets and Geee without Number, and without any Sene either of Shame or of Concience. While he was in the hands of Jutice, and on his way to the Gibbet, a Freak took him in the Head to go off with a Conceit. You Gentlemen, the King’s Officers, ays he, I have no Mind in the World to go to the Gallows by the Common Road; but if you'll carry me through the Little Wood there on the Right Hand, I hould take it very kindly. The People fancy'd a Trick in't at Firt, and that there might be ome Thought of a Recue, or an Ecape in the Cae; till Reynard Aur'd them upon his Honour, that he had no uch Deign: Only he was a great Lover of Muick, and he had rather have one Chirping Madrigal in the Woods, then Forty from Turks and Popes upon the Ladder.