"I said," murmured Ursus "that there was something in the fact that Cæsar was the better captain."
The man of history passed, without transition, to mythology.
"You have excused the infamous acts of Actæon."
"I think," said Ursus, insinuatingly, "that a man is not dishonoured by having seen a naked woman."
"Then you are wrong," said the judge severely. Rhadamanthus returned to history.
"Apropos of the accidents which happened to the cavalry of Mithridates, you have contested the virtues of herbs and plants. You have denied that a herb like the securiduca, could make the shoes of horses fall off."
"Pardon me," replied Ursus. "I said that the power existed only in the herb sferra cavallo. I never denied the virtue of any herb," and he added, in a low voice, "nor of any woman."
By this extraneous addition to his answer Ursus proved to himself that, anxious as he was, he was not disheartened. Ursus was a compound of terror and presence of mind.
"To continue," resumed Rhadamanthus; "you have declared that it was folly in Scipio, when he wished to open the gates of Carthage, to use as a key the herb æthiopis, because the herb æthiopis has not the property of breaking locks."
"I merely said that he would have done better to have used the herb lunaria."