"Monsieur," cried the porter, "what do you want?"
"The Emperor!"
"Have you an audience letter?"
"Colonel Fougas does not need one. Go and ask references of him who towers over the Place Vendôme. He'll tell you that the name of Fougas has always been a synonym for bravery and fidelity."
"You knew the first Emperor?"
"Yes, my little joker; and I have talked with him just as I am talking with you."
"Indeed! But how old are you then?"
"Seventy years on the dial-plate of time; twenty-four years on the tablets of History!"
The porter raised his eyes to Heaven, and murmured:
"Still another! This makes the fourth for this week!"