feels the clutch. He says to Beugnot, whom he has just berated,
scandalously and unjustly, - conscious of having done him injustice
and with a view to produce an effect on the bystanders, -

"Well, you great imbecile, you have got back your brains?"

On this, Beugnot, tall as a drum-major, bows very low, while the
smaller man, raising his hand, seizes him by the ear, "a heady mark of
favor," says Beugnot, a sign of familiarity and of returning good
humor. And better yet, the master deigns to lecture Beugnot on his
personal tastes, on his regrets, on his wish to return to France: What
would he like? To be his minister in Paris? "Judging by what he saw of
me the other day I should not be there very long; I might die of worry
before the end of the month." He has already killed Portalis, Cretet,
and almost Treilhard, even though he had led a hard life: he could no
longer urinate, nor the others either. The same thing would have
happened to Beignot, if not worse. . . .

" Stay here . . . . after which you will be old, or rather we all
shall be old, and I will send you to the Senate to drivel at your
ease."

Evidently,[81 the nearer one is to his person the more disagreeable
life becomes.[82] "Admirably served, promptly obeyed to the minute, he
still delights in keeping everybody around him in terror concerning
the details of all that goes on in his palace." Has any difficult task
been accomplished? He expresses no thanks, never or scarcely ever
praises, and, which happens but once, in the case of M. de Champagny,
Minister of Foreign Affairs, who is praised for having finished the
treaty of Vienna in one night, and with unexpected advantages;[83]