Aesop, not yet knowing their deceit and treason, asked them to let him go his way. And they pressed and constrained him more than ever, and kept him in prison more determinedly. Then Aesop, seeing no way to escape and knowing that they had decided to kill him, groaned and complained of his bad fortune. A friend of his, whose name was Demas, coming into the prison and seeing Aesop wailing, said to him: “Why are you moaning in this fashion, Aesop? Be stout-hearted and have hope and console yourself.” But the people of Delphi publicly sentenced him to death as a thief and guilty of sacrilege of the temple. And coming together as one man, they took Aesop out of the prison to throw him over a cliff. Realizing this, Aesop said: “In the days when dumb animals were in agreement, the mouse and the frog made peace and concluded a friendship. The former invited the latter to dinner. And as they were entering a room where there were bread, honey, figs, and other good things to eat, the mouse said to the frog: ‘Choose of this food and eat what suits you best, and you will have a better appetite.’ After they had pleased themselves with those foods, the frog said to the mouse: ‘Since I have had pleasure and joy with you, it is but right that you should see my house and company and should partake of my goods as a friend and brother. But so that you may proceed most surely, tie your foot to mine.’ The mouse believed him and so, with their feet tied, the frog jumped into the river and took the mouse with him, swimming. And the mouse, seeing that he was drowning, said loudly: ‘By your treachery I am killed. Some among the living must avenge me upon you.’ And while they were locked in this struggle, a kite, seeing the mouse in the water, seized both him and the frog and ate them both. And now, without guilt and against justice, I am to die at your hands and am punished. But Babylon and Greece will avenge me upon you who do this evil deed to me.”