Page:The fables of Aesop, as first printed by William Caxton in 1484, with those of Avian, Alfonso and Poggio. Vol 2.djvu/328



E telleth alo that ther was a carryk of Jene hyred in to fraūce for to make warre ayent englihmen / of the whiche caarrick the patrone bare in his held painted an oxe hede / whiche a noble man of fraūce beheld and awe / & ayd he wold auenge hym on hym that bare tho armes / wherapon aroos an altercacion o moche / that the frenhman prouoked the Janueye to bataylle and fyght therfore / The Januey acceptyd the prouocacion / & came at the day aigned in to the felde withoute ony araye or habyllements of warre / And that other frenhe man came in moche noble apparayll in to the feld that was ordeyned / & thene the patrone of the carrik aid wherfore is it that we two hold this day fyght & make bataill fore I aye aid that other that thyn armes ben myn / & bylonged to me to ore that thow haddet them / Thenne the Januey aid It is no nede to make ony bataylle therfore / For the armes that I bare is not the hede of an oxe but it is the hede of a cowe whiche thynge o poken the noble Frenhe man was abahed and o departed half mocqued