NAPOLEON. I AM waiting, sir--for your explanation.

LIEUTENANT (confidently). You'll change your tone, General, when
you hear what has happened to me.

NAPOLEON. Nothing has happened to you, sir: you are alive and not
disabled. Where are the papers entrusted to you?

LIEUTENANT. Nothing! Nothing!! Oho! Well, we'll see. (Posing
himself to overwhelm Napoleon with his news.) He swore eternal
brotherhood with me. Was that nothing? He said my eyes reminded
him of his sister's eyes. Was that nothing? He cried--actually
cried--over the story of my separation from Angelica. Was that
nothing? He paid for both bottles of wine, though he only ate
bread and grapes himself. Perhaps you call that nothing! He gave
me his pistols and his horse and his despatches--most important
despatches--and let me go away with them. (Triumphantly, seeing
that he has reduced Napoleon to blank stupefaction.) Was THAT
nothing?

NAPOLEON (enfeebled by astonishment). What did he do that for?

LIEUTENANT (as if the reason were obvious). To show his
confidence in me. (Napoleon's jaw does not exactly drop; but its
hinges become nerveless. The Lieutenant proceeds with honest
indignation.) And I was worthy of his confidence: I brought them
all back honorably. But would you believe it?--when I trusted him
with MY pistols, and MY horse, and MY despatches--