anquil silence. He
throws the letter down and breaks out into a torrent of scolding.) What
do you mean? Eh? Are you at your tricks again? Do you think I don't
know what these papers contain? I'll tell you. First, my information as
to Beaulieu's retreat. There are only two things he can
do--leatherbrained idiot that he is!--shut himself up in Mantua or
violate the neutrality of Venice by taking Peschiera. You are one of
old Leatherbrain's spies: he has discovered that he has been betrayed,
and has sent you to intercept the information at all hazards--as if
that could save him from ME, the old fool! The other papers are only my
usual correspondence from Paris, of which you know nothing.

LADY (prompt and businesslike). General: let us make a fair division.
Take the information your spies have sent you about the Austrian army;
and give me the Paris correspondence. That will content me.

NAPOLEON (his breath taken away by the coolness of the proposal). A
fair di-- (He gasps.) It seems to me, madame, that you have come to
regard my letters as your own property, of which I am trying to rob you.

LADY (earnestly). No: on my honor I ask for no letter of yours--not a
word that has been written by you or to you. That packet contains a
stolen letter: a letter written by a woman to a man--a man not her
husband--a letter that means disgrace, infamy--

NAPOLEON. A love letter?

LADY (bitter-sweetly). What else but a love letter could stir up so
much hate?

NAPOLEON. Why is it sent to me? To put the husband in my power, eh?

LADY. No, no: it can be of no use to you: I swear that it will cost you
nothing to give it to me. It has been sent to you out of sheer
malice--solely to injure the woman who wrote it.

NAPOLEON. Then why not send it to her husband instead of to me?

LADY (completely taken aback). Oh! (Sinking back into the chair.) I--I
don't know. (She breaks down.)

NAPOLEON. Aha! I thought so: a little romance to get the papers back.
(He throws the packet on the table and confronts her with cynical
goodhumor.) Per Bacco, little woman, I can't help admiring you. If I
could lie like that, it would save me a great deal of trouble.

LADY (wringing her hands). Oh, how I wish I really had told you some
lie! You would have believed me then. The truth is the one thing that
nobody will believe.

NAPOLEON (with coarse familiarity, treating her as if she were a
vivandiere). Capital! Capital! (He puts his hands behind him on t