is a verse of slang. Antan⁠—ante annum ⁠—is a word of Thunes slang, which signified the past year, and by extension, formerly . Thirty-five years ago, at the epoch of the departure of the great chain-gang, there could be read in one of the cells at Bicêtre, this maxim engraved with a nail on the wall by a king of Thunes condemned to the galleys: Les dabs d’antan trimaient siempre pour la pierre du Coësre . This means “Kings in days gone by always went and had themselves anointed.” In the opinion of that king, anointment meant the galleys.

The word décarade , which expresses the departure of heavy vehicles at a gallop, is attributed to Villon, and it is worthy of him. This word, which strikes fire with all four of its feet, sums up in a masterly onomatopoeia the whole of La Fontaine’s admirable verse:⁠—