"Heavens! What do you want me to do?"
"Want you to do? Oh! that is plain enough.... I want you to get up and come with me to the military bakehouse to have the bread loaded in carriages; I want you to give the order for them to start on their journey at once."
"But, monsieur, you speak in such a tone...."
"I speak as I ought."
"Do you know who I am?"
"What does it matter to me who you are?"
"Monsieur, I am M. Aubernon, Prefect of Seine-et-Oise."
"And I, monsieur, am M. Charras, first aide-de-camp to General Pajol, commander-in-chief of the Expeditionary Army of the West, and I have orders to shoot you if you do not instantly send off the bread."
"To shoot me?" cried the prefect, leaping up in his bed.