overjoyed to see his plan begin to succeed, marched on before, and,
meeting with some countrymen, who were mowing a meadow, he said to
them:--

"Good people, you who are mowing, if you do not tell the King that the
meadow you mow belongs to my Lord Marquis of Carabas, you shall be
chopped as small as herbs for the pot."

The King did not fail to ask the mowers to whom the meadow they were
mowing belonged.

"To my Lord Marquis of Carabas," answered they all together, for the
Cat's threat had made them afraid.

"You have a good property there," said the King to the Marquis of
Carabas.

"You see, sire," said the Marquis, "this is a meadow which never fails
to yield a plentiful harvest every year."

The Master Cat, who went still on before, met with some reapers, and
said to them:--

"Good people, you who are reaping, if you do not say that all this corn
belongs to the Marquis of Carabas, you shall be chopped as small as
herbs for the pot."

The King, who passed by a moment after, wished to know to whom belonged
all that corn, which he then saw.