"I am a man; and so are you, Corsican, and you, Stephen, and you,--almost so,--youngster.
But my emperor--the Emperor Napoleon! was he a man?
Away with you! It was the English who invented that story; they did not know what he was capable of, those English! The emperor a man?
Bah!" "What was he, then?
A woman ?" queried the Corsican.
"Ah, stupid one! where are your wits ?" cried old Nonesuch, shaking pipe and cane excitedly.

"Are you, then, as dull as those English?
Why, the emperor was--the emperor! It is we, his soldiers, who were men." The Corsican veteran shook his head musingly.
"It may be so; it may be so, good Nonesuch.

I do not say no to you," he said.

"Ah, my dear emperor! I have seen him often.

I knew him when he was small; I knew him when he was grown.