A fox, pursued by hounds, was driven in his plight to desperate ingenuity.
He neared a gallows where such plunderers as badgers, owls, and foxes had been hanged to edify the passersby. He placed himself among the corpses, feigning death.
And though the pack, when they arrived, convulsed the air with cries, their master called them off, unable to suspect a trick so sly.
He mused, “The fellow’s found some burrow where he hides. My dogs, alas, won’t go beyond this hecatomb. Ah, well: that rascal fox will end there yet!”
The hunter wasn’t wrong. The fox, again pursued, returned, and hoist himself again upon the gibbet. This time, though, he feigned too well—and truly hanged himself.
It’s dangerous to overuse (however well it worked before) a ruse.