LIEUTENANT. Yes, drop it. You're my prisoner, you know. Of course I don't believe in any such rubbish; but still it's not a proper subject for joking. LADY. But this is very serious. My sister has bewitched the General. (Giuseppe and the Lieutenant recoil from Napoleon.) General: open your coat: you will find the despatches in the breast of it. (She puts her hand quickly on his breast.) Yes: there they are: I can feel them. Eh? (She looks up into his face half coaxingly, half mockingly.) Will you allow me, General? (She takes a button as if to unbutton his coat, and pauses for permission.) NAPOLEON (inscrutably). If you dare. LADY. Thank you. (She opens his coat and takes out the despatches.) There! (To Giuseppe, showing him the despatches.) See! GIUSEPPE (flying to the outer door). No, in heaven's name! They're bewitched. LADY (turning to the Lieutenant). Here, Lieutenant: YOU'RE not afraid of them. LIEUTENANT (retreating). Keep off. (Seizing the hilt of the sabre.) Keep off, I tell you. LADY (to Napoleon). They belong to you, General. Take them. GIUSEPPE. Don't touch them, excellency. Have nothing to do with them. LIEUTENANT. Be careful, General: be careful. GIUSEPPE. Burn them. And burn the witch, too. LADY (to Napoleon). Shall I burn them? NAPOLEON (thoughtfully). Yes, burn them. Giuseppe: go and fetch a light. GIUSEPPE (trembling and stammering). Do you mean go alone--in the dark--with a witch in the house? NAPOLEON. Psha! You're a poltroon. (To the Lieutenant.) Oblige me by going, Lieutenant. LIEUTENANT (remonstrating). Oh, I say, General! No, look here, you know: nobody can say I'm a coward after Lodi. But to ask me to go into the dark by myself without a candle after such an awful conversation is a little too much. How would you like to do it yourself? NAPOLEON (irritably). You refuse to obey my order? LIEUTENANT (resolutely). Yes, I do. It's not reasonable. But I'll tell you what I'll do. If Giuseppe goes, I'll go with him and protect him. NAPOLEON (to Giuseppe). There! will that satisfy you? Be off, both of you. GIUSEPPE (humbly, his lips trembling). W--willingly, your excellency. (He goes reluctantly towards the inner door.) Heaven protect me! (To the lieutenant.) After you, Lieutenant. LIEUTENANT. You'd better go first: I don't know the way. GIUSEPPE. You can't miss it. Besides (imploringly, laying his hand on his sleeve), I am only a poor innkeeper; and you are a man of family. LIEUTENANT. There's something in that. Here: you needn't be in such a fright. Take my arm. (Giuseppe does so.) That's the way.(They go out, arm in arm. It is now starry night. The lady throws the packet on the table and seats herself at her ease on the couch enjoying the sensation of freedom from petticoats.) LADY. Well, General: I've beaten you. NAPOLEON (walking about). You have been guilty of indelicacy--of unwomanliness. Do you consider that costume a proper one to wear? LADY. It seems to me much the same as yours.