"Why, your majesty, what can be more wonderful than for Fish to escape in lots, each exceeding the other by one?"
"I am bound by my word," said the Lion, "else I would see your carcass stretched on the ground."
The Fox replied in a whisper: "If tyrants that desire things impossible are not at least bound by their own word, their subjects can find nothing to bind them."
The Fox in the Well
A Fox fell into a well, and was holding hard to some roots at the side of it, just above the water. A Wolf who was passing by saw him, and said, "Hollo, Reynard; after all you have fallen into a well!"
"But not without a purpose, and not without the means of getting out of it," said the Fox.
"What do you mean?" said the Wolf.
"Why," said the Fox, "there is a drought all over the country now, and the water in this well is the only means of appeasing the thirst of the thousands that live in this neighbourhood. They held a meeting, and requested me to keep the water from going down lower; so I am holding it up for the public good."
"What will be your reward?" asked the Wolf.
"They will give me a pension, and save me the trouble of going about every day in quest of food, not to speak of innumerable other privileges that will be granted me. Further, I am not to stay here all day. I have asked a kinsman of mine, to whom I have communicated the secret of holding up the water, to relieve me from time to time. Of course he will also get a pension, and have other privileges. I expect him here shortly."