The Woman and Her Maids

A Widow, who was a notable housekeeper, was wont to wake her Maids and set them at work by cock-crow. And they, taking this very hard, thought it was only necessary to strangle the house cock, for they thought he was the cause of their ills, because he waked the mistress before dawn. When they had done this the lady of the house waked them earlier still, in the very middle of the night, for she could not tell when it was cock-crow.

So it is that their own devices become the very breeders of evil to many men.