A tree or a vine bleeds when tapped or wounded.

Both table and provisions vanish'd quite, With sound of harpies' wings and talons heard.

The first who made the experiment was a merry-andrew, who was put into my hands by a neighbouring justice of peace, in order to reclaim him from that profligate kind of life. Poor Pickle-herring had not taken above one turn in it, when he came out of the cave, like a hermit from his cell, with a penitential look and a most rueful countenance.

an apt metaphor