Reynard then told the king how diligently he and his wife, Ermelyn, labored
to remove the gold and conceal it elsewhere, and how the conspiracy came to
naught when no gold was found to pay the troops. He mournfully added that
his loyalty further deprived him of a loving father, for the latter had
hung himself in despair when he found his treasure gone and all his plans
frustrated. With hypocritical tears he then bewailed his own fate, saying
that, although ready to risk all for another, there was no one near him to
speak a good word for him in his time of bitterest need.

[Sidenote: Reynard Pardoned.] The queen's soft heart was so touched by
this display of feeling that she soon pleaded for and obtained Reynard's
pardon from Nobel, who freely granted it when the fox promised to give him
his treasure. Most accurately now he described its place of concealment,
but said that he could not remain at court, as his presence there was an
insult to royalty, seeing that he was under the Pope's ban and must make a
pilgrimage ere it could be removed.

The king, after imprisoning Isegrim, Brown, and Hintze (the chief
conspirators according to Reynard's tale), and ascertaining that the place
the fox so accurately described really existed, bade Reynard depart, and at
his request procured for him a fragment of Brown's hide to make a wallet,
and a pair of socks from Isegrim and his wife, who were very loath to part
with their foot covering. The king, queen, and court then accompanied
Reynard a short way on the first stage of his journey, and turned back,
leaving Bellyn the ram and Lampe the hare to escort him a little farther.
These innocent companions accompanied Reynard to Malepartus, and while
Bellyn waited patiently without, Lampe entered the house with Reynard. Lady
Ermelyn and her two young sons greeted Reynard with joy, listened
breathlessly to the account of his adventures, and then helped him to slay
and eat Lampe, who, he declared, had brought all these evils upon him.