'Ho! my lad,' I said, 'we can't get rid in two weeks of ideas we've had for centuries.'" "You did wrong, Michu," said the Marquis de Simeuse, smiling with satisfaction.
"What answer did he make ?" asked Monsieur d'Hauteserre.
"He said he would inform the senator of our claims," replied Michu.
"Comte de Gondreville!" repeated the elder Simeuse; "what a masquerade! But after all, they say 'your Majesty' to Bonaparte!" "And to the Grand Duc de Berg, 'your Highness!'" said the abbe.
"Who is he ?" asked the Marquis de Simeuse.
"Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law," replied old d'Hauteserre.
"Delightful!" remarked Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne.

"Do they also say 'your Majesty' to the widow of Beauharnais ?" "Yes, mademoiselle," said the abbe.
"We ought to go to Paris and see it all," cried Laurence.
"Alas, mademoiselle," said Michu, "I was there to put Francois at school, and I swear to you there's no joking with what they call the Imperial Guard.

If the rest of the army are like them, the thing may last longer than we." "They say many of the noble families are taking service," said Monsieur d'Hauteserre.
"According to the present law," added the abbe, "you will be compelled to serve.

The conscription makes no distinction of ranks or names." "That man is doing us more harm with his court than the Revolution did with its axe!" cried Laurence.
"The Church prays for him," said the abbe.
These remarks, made rapidly one after another, were so many commentaries on the wise counsel of the old Marquis de Chargeboeuf; but the young people had too much faith, too much honor, to dream of resorting to a compromise.

They told themselves, as all vanquished parties in all times have declared, that the luck of the conquerors would soon be at an end, that the Emperor had no support but that of the army, that the power _de facto_ must sooner or later give way to the Divine Right, etc.