Then they sent me here.

And since that I do not know what has happened.

They tell me--you tell me--much.

But to believe such foolish stories! Bah! I am not a baby.
They tell me that the emperor--my emperor--was exiled to Elba; that he returned again to France; that he reigned a hundred days; that a battle was fought at--where was it ?" "Waterloo," suggested the scholar.
"Eh, yes, you say, at Waterloo; and you say we lost it?
As if we could lose a battle, and Napoleon there! Then you will say that the empire was no longer an empire, but a kingdom; and that he who governed was called Louis the Eighteenth, and others after him, but not my emperor.

Bah! foolish stories all!" "But they are true, old Nonesuch," said the youngster sadly.
"Yes; they are true," echoed the other veterans.