“No; but if you just climb up on that stone, and thrust your paw into the hole, you can dip it into the water, and so cool my poor parched mouth. Oh, what a thing it is to have a bad conscience!” The dog sprang upon the stone, and, getting on his hind legs, thrust his front paw into the hole; when suddenly Reynard pulled a string that he had concealed under the straw, and the dog found his paw caught tight to the wall in a running noose. “Ah, rascal!” said he, turning round; but the fox leaped up gayly from the straw, and fastening the string with his teeth to a nail in the other end of the wall, walked out, crying, “Good-by, my dear friend; have a care how you believe hereafter in sudden conversions!” So he left the dog on his hind legs to take care of the house. Reynard found the cat waiting for him where he had appointed, and they walked lovingly together till they came to the cave. It was now dark, and they saw the basket waiting below; the fox assisted the poor cat into it. “There is only room for one,” said he, “you must go first!” Up rose the basket; the fox heard a piteous mew, and no more. “So much for the griffin’s soup!” thought he. He waited patiently for some time, when the griffiness, waving her claw from the window, said cheerfully, “All’s right, my dear Reynard; my papa has finished his soup, and sleeps as sound as a rock! All the noise in the world would not wake him now, till he has slept off the boiled cat, which won’t be these twelve hours. Come and assist me in packing up the treasure; I should be sorry to leave a single diamond behind.” “So should I,” quoth the fox. “Stay, I’ll come round by the lower hole: why, the door’s shut! pray, beautiful griffiness, open it to thy impatient adorer.” “Alas, my father has hid the key! I never know where he places it. You must come up by the basket; see, I will lower it for you.” The fox was a little loth to trust himself in the same conveyance that had taken his mistress to be boiled; but the most cautious grow rash when money’s to be gained, and avarice can trap even a fox. So he put himself as comfortably as he could into the basket, and up he went in an instant. It rested, however, just before it reached the window, and the fox felt, with a slight shudder, the claw of the griffiness stroking his back. “Oh, what a beautiful coat!” quoth she, caressingly. “You are too kind,” said the fox; “but you can feel it more at your leisure when I am once up. Make haste, I beseech you.” “Oh, what a beautiful bushy tail! Never did I feel such a tail.” “It is entirely at your service, sweet griffiness,” said the fox; “but pray let me in. Why lose an instant?” “No, never did I feel such a tail! No wonder you are so successful with the ladies.” “Ah, beloved griffiness, my tail is yours to eternity, but you pinch it a little too hard.”