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Tale Summary

Once upon a time there was a young woman named Lady Mary, who went with her two brothers to one of their country houses. A young man named Mr. Fox often visited with them, whom Lady Mary was quite taken with; he frequently invited her over to his house as well. One day when she had nothing better to do, Lady Mary went off to his home alone, and found that no one answered the door, over which there was an inscription that read:

“Be bold, be bold, but not too bold.”

Lady Mary kept going through the house, and the same inscription was over the stairway and above the entrance to the gallery. Over the door of some chamber, it read:

“Be bold, be bold, but not too bold,
Lest that your heart’s blood should run cold!”

The room was full of skeletons, and when Lady Mary retreated hurriedly downstairs, she saw Mr. Fox came towards the house dragging a young lady by the hair with his sword drawn. Lady Mary hid under the stairs just in time, and when Mr. Fox and his victim climbed them above her, the girl’s bracelet got caught on the banister and he cut off her hand. The hand and bracelet both fell in Lady Mary’s lap, who carried them away back to her brother’s house unobserved. Shortly after, Mr. Fox came to dine with them as usual, and Lady Mary told everyone that she would tell about a strange dream she had. She relayed the events at Mr. Fox’s house exactly as they happened, ending each sentence with:

“It is not so, nor it was not so.”
And Mr. Fox’s reply always was:
“It is not so, nor it was not so,
And God forbid it should be so!”

Until Lady Mary told of the cut-off hand, which she showed everyone, saying:

“But it is so, and it was so,
And here the hand I have to show!”

And Mr. Fox was instantly cut into pieces by the guests.

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