The general took hold of both my hands and looked me full in the face.
"Sacrebleu!" he said, "embrace me again!"
"Willingly, General."
And we embraced.
"What the deuce are you doing down there?" asked the duc de Cazes, who saw this welcome, and could not imagine what it was all about.
"Nothing," I replied, "nothing,—a mere trifle that occurred some time ago, between General Lallemand and myself."
Then turning to the general, I said, "General, who could have foretold on the 14th of March, 1815, at eight o'clock in the evening, that we should dine together one day at the table of M. de Cazes, an important official of the Chamber of Peers under Louis-Philippe."
"Oh! my dear fellow," said the general, with a shrug of his shoulders, "we shall see many more odd things yet, you may take my word for it!"