Thus he pretended, at least, as he with Grimbart the badger,
    Boldly enough and with elegant mien now walked up the high street. 
    Jauntily swung he along at his ease, as if he were truly
    Son of the king, and free and quit of ev’ry transgression. 
    Thus he came before Nobel the king, and stood in the palace
    In the midst of the lords; he knew how to pose as unruffled.”

[Sidenote:  Reynard at court.] With consummate skill and unparalleled eloquence and impudence, Reynard addressed the king, lauding himself as a faithful servant, and commiserating the fact that so many envious and backbiting people were ready to accuse him.  Nobel the king, in whose mind the recollection of the treatment inflicted upon Brown the bear and Hintze the cat was still very vivid, answered him sternly, and told him that it would be difficult for him to acquit himself of those two charges, to say nothing of the many others brought against him.  Reynard, still undismayed, demanded with well-feigned indignation whether he was to be held responsible for the sins of those messengers whose misfortunes were attributable to their gluttonous and thievish propensities only.

[Sidenote:  Reynard condemned to death.] But in spite of this specious pleading, all the other animals came crowding around with so many grievous charges that matters began to look very dark indeed for the fox.  In spite of all Reynard’s eloquence, and of the fluent excuses ever on his tongue, the council pronounced him guilty, and condemned him to die an ignominious death.  Reynard’s enemies rejoiced at this sentence, and dragged him off with cheerful alacrity to the gallows, where all the animals assembled to witness his execution.

On the way to the place of punishment Reynard tried to think of some plan by means of which he could save himself even at the eleventh hour; and knowing that some scheme would occur to him if he could only gain a little time, he humbly implored permission to make a public confession of his manifold sins ere he paid the penalty of his crimes.  Anxious to hear all he might have to say, the king granted him permission to speak; and the fox began to relate at length the story of his early and innocent childhood, his meeting and alliance with Isegrim the wolf, and his gradual induction by him into crooked paths and evil ways.  He told, too, how the cruel wolf, presuming on his strength, had ever made use of it to deprive him, the fox, of his rightful share of plunder; and concluded by saying that he would often have suffered from hunger had it not been for the possession of a great treasure of gold, which had sufficed for all his wants.

    “Thanks be to God, however, I never suffered from hunger;
    Secretly have I fed well by means of that excellent treasure,
    All of silver and gold in a secret place that securely
    Hidden I keep; with this I’ve enough.  And, I say it in earnest,
    Not a wagon could carry it off, though sevenfold loaded.”