NAPOLEON. You tricked that blockhead out of them. You disguised
yourself as a man. I want my despatches. They are there in the
bosom of your dress, under your hands.

LADY (quickly removing her hands). Oh, how unkindly you are
speaking to me! (She takes her handkerchief from her fichu.) You
frighten me. (She touches her eyes as if to wipe away a tear.)

NAPOLEON. I see you don't know me madam, or you would save
yourself the trouble of pretending to cry.

LADY (producing an effect of smiling through her tears). Yes, I
do know you. You are the famous General Buonaparte. (She gives
the name a marked Italian pronunciation Bwaw-na-parr-te.)

NAPOLEON (angrily, with the French pronunciation). Bonaparte,
madame, Bonaparte. The papers, if you please.

LADY. But I assure you-- (He snatches the handkerchief rudely
from her.) General! (Indignantly.)

NAPOLEON (taking the other handkerchief from his breast). You
were good enough to lend one of your handkerchiefs to my
lieutenant when you robbed him. (He looks at the two
handkerchiefs.) They match one another. (He smells them.) The
same scent. (He flings them down on the table.) I am waiting for
the despatches. I shall take them, if necessary, with as little
ceremony as the handkerchief. (This historical incident was used
eighty years later, by M. Victorien Sardou, in his drama entitled
"Dora.")