REGULUS
(1917)
Regulus, a Roman general, defeated the Carthaginians 256 B.C., but was next year defeated and taken prisoner by the Carthaginians, who sent him to Rome with an embassy to ask for peace or an exchange of prisoners. Regulus strongly advised the Roman Senate to make no terms with the enemy. He then returned to Carthage and was put to death.
The Fifth Form had been dragged several times in its collective life, from one end of the school Horace to the other. Those were the years when Army examiners gave thousands of marks for Latin, and it was Mr. King's hated business to defeat them.
Hear him, then, on a raw November morning at second lesson.
'Aha!' he began, rubbing his hands. 'Cras ingens iterabimus aequor. Our portion to-day is the Fifth Ode of the Third Book, I believe--concerning one Regulus, a gentleman. And how often have we been through it?'
'Twice, sir,' said Malpass, head of the Form.
Mr. King shuddered. 'Yes, twice, quite literally,' he said. 'To-day, with an eye to your Army viva-voce examinations--ugh!--I shall exact somewhat freer and more florid renditions. With feeling and comprehension if that be possible. I except'--here his eye swept the back benches--'our friend and companion Beetle, from whom, now as always, I demand an absolutely literal translation.' The form laughed subserviently.
'Spare his blushes! Beetle charms us first.'
Beetle stood up, confident in the possession of a guaranteed construe, left behind by M'Turk, who had that day gone into the sick-house with a cold. Yet he was too wary a hand to show confidence.