With that, the fox began to cast in his head how he should get rid of his rival, and at length he resolved on a very notable project; he desired the cat to set out first, and wait for him at a turn in the road a little way off. “For,” said he, “if we go together we shall certainly be insulted by the dog; and he will know that in the presence of a lady, the custom of a beast of my fashion will not suffer me to avenge the affront. But when I am alone, the creature is such a coward that he will not dare say his soul’s his own; leave the door open and I’ll follow immediately.” The cat’s mind was so completely poisoned against her cousin that she implicitly believed this account of his character; and accordingly, with many recommendations to her lover not to sully his dignity by getting into any sort of quarrel with the dog, she set off first. The dog went up to her very humbly, and begged her to allow him to say a few words to her; but she received him so haughtily, that his spirit was up; and he walked back to the tree more than ever enraged against his rival. But what was his joy when he saw that the cat had left the door open! “Now, wretch,” thought he, “you cannot escape me!” So he walked briskly in at the back door. He was greatly surprised to find Reynard lying down in the straw, panting as if his heart would break, and rolling his eyes in the pangs of death. “Ah, friend,” said the fox, with a faltering voice, “you are avenged, my hour is come; I am just going to give up the ghost: put your paw upon mine, and say you forgive me.” Despite his anger, the generous dog could not set tooth on a dying foe. “You have served me a shabby trick,” said he; “you have left me to starve in a hole, and you have evidently maligned me with my cousin: certainly I meant to be avenged on you; but if you are really dying, that alters the affair.” “Oh, oh!” groaned the fox, very bitterly; “I am past help; the poor cat is gone for Doctor Ape, but he’ll never come in time. What a thing it is to have a bad conscience on one’s death-bed! But wait till the cat returns, and I’ll do you full justice with her before I die.” The good-natured dog was much moved at seeing his mortal enemy in such a state, and endeavoured as well as he could to console him. “Oh, oh!” said the fox; “I am so parched in the throat, I am burning;” and he hung his tongue out of his mouth, and rolled his eyes more fearfully than ever. “Is there no water here?” said the dog, looking round. “Alas, no!--yet stay! yes, now I think of it, there is some in that little hole in the wall; but how to get at it! It is so high that I can’t, in my poor weak state, climb up to it; and I dare not ask such a favour of one I have injured so much.” “Don’t talk of it,” said the dog: “but the hole’s very small, I could not put my nose through it.”