(Le supplice qui attend Cincinnatus C. est la décapitation. Le prisonnier reçoit la visite de sa famille. Son beau-frère n’est pas la moitié d’un homme d’esprit : )
"Take the word ‘anxiety’," Cincinnatus’s brother-in-law, the wit, was saying to him. “Now take away the word ‘tiny’, Eh ? Comes out funny, doesn’t it ? Yes, friend, you’ve really got yourself into a mess. In truth, what made you do such a thing ?"
(Nabokov, Invitation to a beheading).