The Stag and the Vine

A stag pursued with horn and hound

In a thick vineyard shelter found.

Soon as he thought the danger past,

He on the vine began to feast.

The huntsman hears the rustling noise,

And through half-eaten leaves descries

His branching horns, the pack recalls,

And merited the creature falls

To his ingratitude a prey.

Those their protectors who betray,

Unpitying, all the world will see

Consign’d to death and infamy.