came to pass. Pertelote is unmoved.

Chanticleer is content for a time, but one night he feels a shadow of sadness pass over him. As he goes to bed sad,

A brant-fox, full of sly iniquity,
That in the grove had lived two years, or three,
Now by a fine premeditated plot
That same night, breaking through the hedge, had got
Into the yard where Chanticleer the fair
Was wont, and all his wives too, to repair;
And in a bed of greenery still he lay
Till it was past the quarter of the day,
Waiting his chance on Chanticleer to fall,
As gladly do these killers one and all
Who lie in ambush for to murder men.

The next day, Chanticleer sees the fox lying in wait, but the fox manages to persuade Chanticleer that he means no harm and flatters the rooster until he agrees to sing for him. When the vain rooster does so, the fox strikes, capturing the rooster by the neck and running off into the woods. No one sees this happen, but when Pertelote realizes what has happened, she is

...so full of torment was, and rage,

She voluntarily to the fire did start

And burned herself there with a steadfast heart.

She burns herself in the fire. The other hens also begin wailing mournfully over the loss of their beloved Chanticleer. (These passages expressing their grief is full of references to grand examples of mourning, but of course they are just simple hens crying over a rooster.) Their caterwauling has alerted the humans on the farm that something is wrong. 

This simple widow and her daughters two

Heard these hens cry and make so great ado,

And out of doors they started on the run

And saw the fox into the grove just gone,

Bearing upon his back the cock away.

The women then also begin to cry and wail before running after the fox; men from neighboring farms appear with pitchforks and run after the fox, as well. Then all the animals on the farm also begin to make noise: the dogs, the cow, her calf, the hogs. The humans were all making such a racket that the animals

...all ran so they thought their hearts would break.

They yelled as very fiends do down in Hell;

The ducks they cried as at the butcher fell;

The frightened geese flew up above the trees;

Out of the hive there came the swarm of bees;

So terrible was the noise, ah ben'cite!

...It seemed as if the heaven itself should fall!

A chain reaction of wailing grief happens on the farm once the hens and then the humans realize that Chanticleer has been taken. After that, the animals simply react to their wailing cries of grief and follow the noise. This living train of crying, yapping, and flapping humans and animals must have been quite a sight.

That moral continues to the end of the story when Chanticleer goads the fox into taunting the farmers about his catch. In opening his mouth to speak, the fox then loses Chanticleer. Just another example of keeping your pride down as a moral used by the nun's priest.

This is a question from the Nun's Priest Tale (it's always helpful to be as specific as possible when asking a question).

The fox is able to capture Chanticleer by flattering him. While at first Chanticleer is wary of the fox, the fox continues to lavish praise on him, until Chanticleer's pride leads him to believe that the fox won't hurt him. The moral, then, is pretty clear: vanity is dangerous. However, this is not the only moral in the story and is probably an inconsequential one. Think about why Chanticleer went into the yard. He went to please Partlet, whom he loves very dearly. It is, therefore, for love of Partlet that Chanticleer becomes the fox's victim.

The obvious moral lesson of the foolishness of succumbing to empty flattery diverts attention from a more subtle warning to beware the advice of women. This was a popular medieval theme. Woman, the original seductress, was the source of much of Man's sinfulness. As the weaker and less intellectually endowed of the two sexes, Woman was not a reliable counselor. Although in today's world a moral like this would not be acceptable, back then, it was perfectly normal.

When Chanticleer the rooster first sees Russell the fox, his first inclination is to flee, and he nearly does so. However, Russell cleverly flatters Chanticleer and praises his singing ability at length. Chanticleer, who is eager to please his new admirer, begins to crow proudly. This act in turn gives the fox the chance to seize Chanticleer about the neck and run away with him. 

This series of events provides us an important insight in both characters' personalities: Russell is crafty and clever, while Chanticleer is vain and pompous. By extension, both characters also fit into expected animal stereotypes (foxes are commonly seen as crafty tricksters, while roosters are often considered to be vain blowhards). Luckily, Chanticleer is able to learn from his mistakes and amend his self-obsessed ways, as he resists Russell's second attempt to capture him later in the poem and is able to escape the fox's clutches for good.