[St. Martin having given up the profession of a soldier, and having been made Bishop of Tours, when prelates neither kept carriages nor servants, had occasion to go to Rome, in order to consult the Pope upon ecclesiastical matters. As he was walking along the road he met the devil, who politely accosted him, and ventured to observe how fatiguing and indecorous it was for him to perform so long a journey on foot, like the commonest pilgrim. The Saint understood the drift of Old Nick’s address, and commanded him immediately to become a beast of burden, or _jumentum_; which the devil did in a twinkling by assuming the shape of a mule. The Saint jumped upon the fiend’s back, who at first trotted cheerfully along, but soon slackened his pace. The bishop of course had neither whip nor spurs, but was possessed of a much more powerful stimulus, for, says the legend, he made the sign of the cross, and the smarting devil instantly galloped away. Soon however, and naturally enough, the father of sin returned to sloth and obstinacy, and Martin hurried him again with repeated signs of the cross, till, twitched and stung to the quick by those crossings so hateful to him, the vexed and tired reprobate uttered the foregoing distich in a rage, meaning, _Cross, cross yourself; you annoy and vex me without necessity; for owing to my exertions, Rome, the object of your wishes, will soon be near_.] The Palindrome changes the sense in the backward reading; the _Versus Cancrinus_ retains the sense in both instances unchanged, as in this instance:— Bei Leid lieh stets Heil die Lieb. (In trouble comfort is lent by love.) Similarly recurrent is the lawyer’s motto,— Si nummi immunis, translated by Camden, “Give me my fee, I warrant you free.” The Greek inscription on the mosque of St. Sophia, in Constantinople, Νίφον ἀνομήματα μὴ μόναν ὄφιν,[5] Footnote 5: Meaning in substance, _Purify the mind as well as the body_. presents the same words, whether read from left to right, or from right to left. So also the expressions in English,— Madam, I’m Adam. (_Adam to Eve._) Name no one man. Able was I ere I saw Elba. (_Napoleon loq._) Snug & raw was I ere I saw war & guns. Red rum did emit revel ere Lever time did murder. Red root put up to order. Trash? even interpret Nineveh’s art. Lewd did I live, evil I did dwel. Draw pupil’s lip upward. This enigmatical line surrounds a figure of the sun in the mosaic pavement of Sa. Maria del Fiori, at Florence:— En giro torte sol ciclos et rotor igne. These lines are supposed to be addressed to a young man detained at Rome by a love affair:—