A Wolf, who had some smattering of law,
Against the prisoner straight took up his brief:
"A mangy, thick-skinned brute as e'er I saw!
From him, my lords, no doubt,
Has all this public misery come about:
Rank felony! To eat another's grass!"
Plainly, the righteous victim was the Ass:
No expiation short of death! And straight
The wretch went to his fate.
As you have power or weakness at your back
The Court whitewashes you, or brands you black.
(La Fontaine, Fables, Vol. VII, No. 1. Translated by the Rev. Wm. Lucas Collins.)
WITH Milk-pail deftly cushioned on her head,
High-kilted petticoat, shoes stout and strong.
The good Perrette
Fast towards the neighbouring town to market sped.
Dreaming no ill, lightly she stepped along,
Counted the price that she would surely get
For that fine Pail of milk, and cast about
How she should lay it out.
First, she would buy a hundred eggs, from which
Three broods at least would hatch; she should get rich,
By care and pains, no doubt.
"So very easy it will be," she thought,
To raise the Chickens by my cottage door;
