Act I - Page 2

country is like another (fold): one battle is like another. (At
the last fold, he slaps the cloth on the table and deftly rolls
it up, adding, by way of peroration) Conquer one: conquer all.
(He takes the cloth to the sideboard, and puts it in a drawer.)

NAPOLEON. And govern for all; fight for all; be everybody's
servant under cover of being everybody's master: Giuseppe.

GIUSEPPE (at the sideboard). Excellency.

NAPOLEON. I forbid you to talk to me about myself.

GIUSEPPE (coming to the foot of the couch). Pardon. Your
excellency is so unlike other great men. It is the subject they
like best.

NAPOLEON. Well, talk to me about the subject they like next best,
whatever that may be.

GIUSEPPE (unabashed). Willingly, your excellency. Has your
excellency by any chance caught a glimpse of the lady upstairs?

(Napoleon promptly sits up and looks at him with an interest
which entirely justifies the implied epigram.)

NAPOLEON. How old is she?

GIUSEPPE. The right age, excellency.

NAPOLEON. Do you mean seventeen or thirty?

GIUSEPPE. Thirty, excellency.

NAPOLEON. Goodlooking?

GIUSEPPE. I cannot see with your excellency's eyes: every man
must judge that for himself. In my opinion, excellency, a fine
figure of a lady. (Slyly.) Shall I lay the table for her
collation here?

NAPOLEON (brusquely, rising). No: lay nothing here until the
officer for whom I am waiting comes back. (He looks at his watch,
and takes to walking to and fro between the fireplace and the
vineyard.)

GIUSEPPE (with conviction). Excellency: believe me, he has been
captured by the accursed Austrians. He dare not keep you waiting
if he were at liberty.

NAPOLEON (turning at the edge of the shadow of the veranda).
Giuseppe: if that turns out to be true, it will put me into such
a temper that nothing short of hanging you and your whole
household, including the lady upstairs, will satisfy me.

GIUSEPPE. We are all cheerfully at your excellency's disposal,
except the lady. I cannot answer for her; but no lady could
resist you, General.

NAPOLEON (sourly, resuming his march). Hm! You will never be
hanged. There is no satisfaction in hanging a man who does not
object to it.

GIUSEPPE (sympathetically). Not the least in the world,
excellency: is there? (Napoleon again looks at his watch,
evidently growing anxious.) Ah, one can see that you are a great
man, General: you know how to wait. If it were a corporal now, or
a sub-lieutenant, at the end of three minutes he would be
swearing, fuming, threatening, pulling the house about our ears.

NAPOLEON. Giuseppe: your flatteries are insufferable. Go and talk
outside. (He