Above and beneath the figure of a couchant dog, gnawing the thigh bone of a man, is graven the weird inscription, cut deeply in the stone, as if for all future generations to read and ponder over its meaning,—
Je suis un chien qui ronge l’os,
En le rongeant je prends mon repos;
Un temps viendra, qui n’est pas venu,
Que je mordrai qui m’aura mordu.
1736.
Or in English,—
I am a dog that gnaws a bone,
I couch and gnaw it all alone;
A time will come, which is not yet,