The Sick Lion

: Aesop's Fables

A Lion had come to the end of his days and lay sick unto death

at the mouth of his cave, gasping for breath. The animals, his

subjects, came round him and drew nearer as he grew more and more

helpless. When they saw him on the point of death they thought to

themselves: "Now is the time to pay off old grudges." So the Boar

came up and drove at him with his tusks; then a Bull gored him

with his horns; still the Lion lay helpless before them: so the

Ass, feeling quite safe from danger, came up, and turning his tail

to the Lion kicked up his heels into his face. "This is a double

death," growled the Lion.



Only cowards insult dying majesty.



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