"Nay," replied Ursus, with sadness, "I only said that in a thousand years ice had time to melt, and that a thousand ages were difficult to count."
The examination went on; questions and answers clashed like swords.
"You have denied that plants can talk."
"Not at all. But to do so they must grow under a gibbet."
"Do you own that the mandragora cries?"
"No; but it sings."
"You have denied that the fourth finger of the left hand has a cordial virtue."
"I only said that to sneeze to the left was a bad sign."
"You have spoken rashly and disrespectfully of the phoenix."
"Learned judge, I merely said that when he wrote that the brain of the phoenix was a delicate morsel, but that it produced headache, Plutarch was a little out of his reckoning, inasmuch as the phoenix never existed."