Thanks on the part of the countryman led them soon into conversation. A few minutes sufficed to arrive at the palace; and as here their routes lay in opposite directions, they bade each other reciprocally adieu.
“Parbleu!” cried the provincial, “I should be glad to know the names of persons so amiable and complaisant as you are.”
“My name?” said the first—“Oh, certainly; you have, perhaps, heard of me; I am the emperor Alexander.”
“A capital joke,” exclaimed the Gascon—“An emperor! And you?” addressing the second individual,—“Who may you be?”
“I?” replied he; “why, probably, I am not wholly unknown to you, at least by name; I am the king of Prussia!”
“Better and better,” said the man. “And you, what are you, then?” looking at the third person.
“I am the emperor of Austria!”
“Perfect, perfect!” exclaimed the provincial, laughing with all his might.
“But you, monsieur,” said the emperor Alexander, “surely you will also let us know whom we have the honor to speak to?”
“To be sure,” replied the man, quitting them with an important strut, “I am the Great Mogul.”