He is under the knife, in great danger or extremity. Our phrase, he is under the hatchet, is of similar import. The adage was applied when any one who had fallen into an ambush, into the sea, or into any other peril, was left to wade through, or extricate himself by his own strength or ingenuity. The metaphor is taken from a victim standing at the altar, ready to be sacrificed.

––«fugit improbus et me sub cultro liquit».

Instead of assisting, he fled, and left me to struggle through my difficulties unaided. Occasions offer too frequently of applying this apothegm.

Joan is as good as my lady in the dark, and De noche todos los gatos son pardos, in the dark all cats are grey. The following, which is familiar to all my readers, says all that is necessary on this subject:

«Whilst in the dark on thy soft hand I hung,
And heard the tempting syren in thy tongue;
What flames, what darts, what anguish I endured:
But when the candle entered. I was cured».