"A birth?"
"A being born again!"
An old judge of the Civil Court was recounting to a deputy the legend of Æson of old, who was boiled in Medea's caldron.
"This is almost the same experiment," said he, "and I am inclined to think that the poets have calumniated the sorceress of Colchis. There could be some fine Latin verses made appropriate to this occasion; but I no longer possess my old skill!
'Fabula Medeam cur crimine carpit iniquo?
Ecce novus surgit redivivus Æson ab undis
Fortior, arma petens, juvenili pectore miles ...,
"Redivivus is taken in the active sense; it's a license, or at least a bold construction. Ah! Monsieur! there was a time when I was, even among those who made the most confident attempts, the man for Latin verses!"
"Corp'ral!" said a conscript of the levy of 1859.
"What is it, Freminot?"
"Is it true that they are boiling an old soldier in a pot, and that they are going to get him up again, Colonel's uniform and all?"
"True or not, subaltern, I'll run the risk of saying it's true."