Explore "The Sick Lion and the Fox" by Jean de La Fontaine on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Sick in his den, we understand, / The king of beasts sent out command / That of his vassals every sort / Should send some deputies to court -- / With promise well to treat / Each deputy and suite; / On faith of lion, duly written, / None should be scratch'd, much less be bitten. / The royal will was executed, / And some from every tribe deputed; / The foxes, only, would not come. / One thus explain'd their choice of home: -- / 'Of those who seek the court, we learn, / The tracks upon the sand / Have one direction, and / Not one betokens a return. / This fact begetting some distrust, / His majesty at present must / Excuse us from his great levee. / His plighted word is good, no doubt; / But while how beasts get in we see, / We do not see how they get out. '[1]
[1]: Aesop.