A city rat, one night, Did, with a civil stoop, A country rat invite To end a turtle soup. Upon a Turkey carpet They found the table spread, And sure I need not harp it How well the fellows fed. The entertainment was A truly noble one; But some unlucky cause Disturb'd it when begun. It was a slight rat-tat, That put their joys to rout; Out ran the city rat; His guest, too, scamper'd out. Our rats but fairly quit, The fearful knocking ceased. 'Return we,' cried the cit, To finish there our feast. 'No,' said the rustic rat; 'To-morrow dine with me. I'm not offended at Your feast so grand and free,-- 'For I've no fare resembling; But then I eat at leisure, And would not swap, for pleasure So mix'd with fear and trembling.' [10] Horace, _Satires_, II. 6: also in Aesop. X.--THE WOLF AND THE LAMB.[11] That innocence is not a shield, A story teaches, not the longest. The strongest reasons always yield To reasons of the strongest. A lamb her thirst was slaking, Once, at a mountain rill. A hungry wolf was taking His hunt for sheep to kill, When, spying on the streamlet's brink This sheep of tender age, He howl'd in tones of rage, 'How dare you roil my drink? Your impudence I shall chastise!' 'Let not your majesty,' the lamb replies, 'Decide in haste or passion! For sure 'tis difficult to think In what respect or fashion My drinking here could roil your drink, Since on the stream your majesty now faces I'm lower down, full twenty paces.' 'You roil it,' said the wolf; 'and, more, I know You cursed and slander'd me a year ago.' 'O no! how could I such a thing have done! A lamb that has not seen a year, A suckling of its mother dear?' 'Your brother then.' 'But brother I have none.' 'Well, well, what's all the same, 'Twas some one of your name. Sheep, men, and dogs of every nation, Are wont to stab my reputation, As I have truly heard.' Without another word, He made his vengeance good-- Bore off the lambkin to the wood, And there, without a jury, Judged, slew, and ate her in his fury. [11] Phaedrus, I. 1: also in Aesop. XI.--THE MAN AND HIS IMAGE.[12] To M. The Duke De La Rochefoucauld.