Are ye withinforth, as ye seem outward?

Capitulo xxviij. How Reynard the Fox excused himself before the King.

God
from whom nothing may be hid
and above all things is mighty
save my Lord the King
and my Lady the Queen
and give him grace to know
who has right and who has wrong
for there live many in the world
that seem otherwise outward
than they be within
I would God showed openly
every man's misdeeds
and all their trespasses
written on their foreheads
and it cost me more
than I now say
and that ye
my Lord the King
know as much as I do
how I dispose me
both early and late in your service
and therefore I am complained of
by the evil shrews
and by lies am put out of your grace and conceit
and would charge me with great offences
without deserving 
against all right
wherefore I cry out
harrow on them!
that so falsely have belayed me
and brought me in such trouble
howbeit 
I hope and know you both
my Lord and my Lady
so wise and discrete 
that ye be not led nor believe
such lying nor false tales
out of the right way
for it is not your wont to do
therefore
dear Lord
I beseech you to consider
by your wisdom
all things by right and law
is it in deed or in speech
do every man right
I desire no better
he that is guilty
and found faulty
let him be punished
men shall well know
ere I depart this court
who I am
I cannot flatter
I will always show openly my head

How the King answered Reynard's excuse.

All they that were in the palace
were all still
and wondered 
that the Fox spake so stoutly

the King said

ha!
Reynard
how well can ye 
your false salutation do
but your fair words may not help you
I think well ye shall this day
for your works
be hanged by your neck
I will not much chide you
but I shall shorten your pain

that ye love us well
have ye well showed
with the Cony
and Corbant the Rook
your falseness 
and your false inventions
shall without long tarrying
make you today
a pot may go so long to water
that at the last it comes broken home
I think your pot
that so oft has deceived us
shall now hastily be broken

Reynard was in great fear at these words
he would well he had been at Coleyn
when he came thither
then
thought he
I must here consider 
how I do

my Lord the King
it were well reason
that ye heard my words all out
though I were damned to death
yet ought ye to hear my words out
I have yet here beforetime 
given to you many a good counsel
and profitable
and in need always have bidden by you
where other beasts have wicked gone their way
if now the evil beasts with false matters
have before you with wrong belied me
and I might not come to my excuse
ought I not then to plaint?
I have before this seen
that I should be heard before another
yet might these things well change
and come in their old state
old good deeds ought to be remembered
I see here many of my lineage 
and friends standing
that seem they set now little by me
which nevertheless should sore dear in their hearts
that ye
my Lord the King
should destroy me wrongfully
if ye so did
ye should destroy the truest servant
that ye have in all your lands

what think ye
Sir King?
had I known myself
guilty in any feat or dealing
would I come hither to the law
among all my enemies?
nay
Sire
nay
not for all the world of red gold
for I was free and at large
what need had I to do that?
but God be thanked!
I know myself clear of all my deeds
that  I dare well come openly in the light
to answer all the complaints
any man can say about me

but when Grymbert brought me first these tidings
though was I not well pleased
but half from myself
that I leaped here and there
as an unwise man
and had I not been in the censures of the church
I had without tarrying come
but I went dolefully on the heath
and wist not what to do for sorrow
and then it happed that Mertyne
my uncle the Ape
met with me
which is wiser in clergy than some priest
he was advocate for the Bishop of Eameryk ix. year
he saw me in this great sorrow and heaviness
and said to me

dear cousin
methinks ye are not well with yourself
what ails you?
who has displeased you?
things that touch charge
ought be given in knowledge to friends
a true friend is a great help
he finds oft better counsel
than he that the charge rests on
for whosoever is charged with matters
is so heavy and encumbered with them
that oft he cannot begin to find the remedy
for such be so woeful
as they lost their wits

I said
dear uncle
ye say truth
for in likewise is fallen me
I am brought into a great heaviness undeserved
and not guilty
by one to whom I have always been 
a hearty and great friend
that is 
the Cony
which came to me yesterday
in the morning
where I sat before my house
and said Matins
he told me 
he would go to the court
and saluted me friendly
and I him again

then said he to me
good Reynard
I am a-hungered and weary
have ye any meat?

I said
ye know
come near
then gave I him a couple of manchets
with sweet butter
it was upon a Wednesday
on which day
I am not wont to eat any flesh
and also I fasted 
by cause of this feast of Whitsuntide
which approached
for who will taste of the greatest wisdom
and live spiritually
in keeping the commandments of our Lord
he must fast
and make him ready for the high feasts
et vos estote parati

dear uncle
I gave him fair white bread
with sweet butter
wherewith a man might well be eased
that were much hungry
and when he had eaten his belly full
then came Russell
my youngest son
before his mouth his teeth bled
and fell down half a swoon
when Reynardine
my eldest son
saw that
he sprang to the Cony
and caught him by the head
and should have slain him
had I not rescued him
I help him
that he went from him
and beat my child sore therefore
Lapreel the Cony ran to my Lord the King
and said I would have murdered him
see uncle
thus come I in the words
and I am laid in the blame
and yet he complains
and I plaint not

after this came Corbant the Rook
flying with a sorrowful noise
I asked what him ailed
and he said
alas
my wife is dead
yonder lies a dead hare
full of maggots and worms
and there she ate so much thereof
that the worms have bitten her throat in two
I asked him how come that by
he would not speak a word more
but flew his way
and let me stand
now says he 
that I have bitten and slain her
how should I come so nigh her?
for she flees
and I go a-foot
hehold
dear uncle
thus am I hounded
I may say well I am unhappy
but peradventure it is for my old sins
it were good for me
if I could patiently suffer it

the ape said to me
nephew
ye shall go to the court
before the lords and excuse you

alas uncle
that may not be
for the Archdeacon has put me 
under the Pope's curse
because I counselled Ysegrym the Wolf
for to leave his vocation at Elmare
and forsake his habit
he complained to me
that he lived so straitly
as in long fasting
and many things reading and singing
that he could not endure it
if he should long abide there
he should die
I had pity for his complaining
and I helped him as a true friend
to come out
which now me sore repents
for he labours all he can
against me to the King
for me to be hanged
thus does he evil for good
so uncle
thus am I at the end of my wits
and of counsel
for I must go to Rome for an absolution
and then shall my wife and children suffer
much harm and blame
for these evil beasts that hate me
shall do to them all the hurt they may
and drive them forth where they can
and I would well defend them
if I were free from the curse
for then would I go to the court
and excuse me where now I dare not
I should do great sin
if I came among the good people
I am afraid God should plague me

nay cousin
be not afraid
ere I should suffer you this sorrow
I know the way to Rome well
I understand me this work
I am called there Mertyn the Bishop's Clerk
and am well known there
I shall cite the Archdeacon
and place a plea against him
and shall bring for you with me 
an absolution against his will
for I know all there
to be done or left undone
there dwells Symon my uncle
who is great and mighty there
who'd get ought done
he helps him anon
there is Prentout
Waytescathe
and other of my friends and allies
I shall take some money with me
[ the preyer is wyth yestes hardy
wyth money alle way the right goth forth ]
a true friend shall for his friend
venture life and goods
and so shall I for you
in your right
cousin
make good cheer
I shall not rest after tomorrow
til I come to Rome
and I shall solicit your matter
and go ye to the court
as soon as ye may
all your misdeeds
and the sins that have brought you
under the great sentence and curse
I make you free of them
and take them to myself
when ye come to court
ye shall find there Rukenawe
my wife
her two sisters and my three children
and many more of our lineage
dear cousin
speak to them hardily
my wife is particularly wise
and will gladly do somewhat for her friends
who has need of help
shall depend on her great friendship
one shall always look to one's friends
though one has angered them
for blood must creep where it cannot go
and if so be
that ye be so over charged
that ye may have no right
then send for me
by night and day
to the court of Rome
and let me have knowledge thereof
and although they be king or queen
wife or man
I shall bring them all under the Pope's curse
and send there an interdict
that no man shall read nor sing
nor christian children
nor bury the dead
nor receive the sacrament
til ye shall have good right

cousin
this shall I well get
for the Pope is so sore old
that he is but little set by
and the Cardinal of Puregold
has all the might of the court
he is young and great in friends
he has a concubine
whom he much loves
and what she desires
gets she anon
see cousin
she is my neice
and I am great and may do much with her
in suchwise what I desire
I fail not of it
but am always furthered therein
wherefore cousin
bid my Lord the King
that he do you right
I wote well he will not warn you
for the right is heavy enough to every man

my Lord the King
when I heard this 
I laughed
and with great gladness came hither
and have told you all truth
if there be any in this court
that can lay on me any other matter
with good witness and prove it
as ought to be to a nobleman
let me then make amends 
according to the law
and if he will not thus
then set me day and field
and I shall make good on him
as far as he be of as good birth as I
and to me like
and who can with fighting
gain the worship of the field
let him have it
this right has stood yet hitherto
and I will not it should be broken by me
the law and right do no man wrong

all the beasts
both rich and poor
were all still
when the Fox spake so stoutly
the Cony Lapreel
and the Rook
were so sore afraid
they dared not speak
but each picked his way 
out of the court
and met outside
and said

God grant this fell murderer
may fare evil
he can wrap up his falsehood
cover it up
so his words seem true as gospel
but none knows hereof than we
how can we bear witness?
it's better we go home
than take the field and fight him
he is so shrewd
were we five
we could not defend ourselves
but he slay us all

Isegrym the Wolf
and Bruyn the Bear
were woebegone
when they saw this pair leave the court

the King said

if any man will complain
let him come forth
and we shall hear him
yesterday came here so many
where be they now?
Reynard is here

the Fox said

my Lord
there be many complain
that and if they saw their adversary
they would be still and make no plaint
witness now Lapreel the Cony
and Corbant the Rook
who have complained of me to you
in my absence
but now I am come in your presence
they away flee
and dare not abide by their words
if men believe false shrews
it do much harm and hurt to good men
as for me
it matters not
nevertheless my Lord
if they'd by your commandment 
asked my forgiveness
howbeit they have greatly trespassed
yet I'd for your sake pardoned and forgave them
for I'll not be out of charity
nor hate nor complain of my enemies
but I set all things in God's hand
he shall work and avenge as it pleases him

the King said

Reynard
methinks ye be grieved
as ye say
are ye withinforth
as ye seem outward?
nay 
it is not so clear
nor so open nowhere nigh
as ye here have showed
I must say what my grief is
which touches your worship and life
that is to wit
ye have done a foul and shameful trespass
when I pardoned all yout offences and trespasses
and ye promised to go over the sea on pilgrimage
and gve to you puch and staff
and after this ye sent me by Bellyn the Ram
the pouch again
and therein Cywart's head
how might ye do a more reprovable trespass?
now were ye so hardy to dare to do such shame
is it not evil to send a lord
his servant's head?
ye cannot say nay here against
for Bellyn the Ram
who was our chaplain
told us all the matter
how it happed
such reward as he had
when he brought us the message
the same shall ye have
of right shall fail

Reynard was so sore afraid
he wist not what to say
he was at his wit's end
and looked about him piteously
and saw many of his kin and allies
that heard all this
but nought they said
he was all pale in his visage
but no man proffered him 
hand nor foot to help him

the King said

thou subtle fellow and false shrew
why speak thou not
now dumb?

the Fox stood in great dread
and sighed sore
that all heard him
but the Wolf and the Bear 
were glad thereof