“What say you to that, mon ami?” said De Beauvais, turning to me. “Glad enough, I suppose, you 'll be to win your epaulettes as colonel.” “That, too, is on the cards,” said the abbé, sipping his glass quietly. “One can credit anything these times.” “Even the Catholic religion, Abbé,” said De Beauvais, laughing. “Or the Restoration,” replied the abbé, with a half-malicious look at the préfet, which seemed greatly to amuse the Russian. “Or the Restoration!” repeated the préfet, solemnly, after him,--“or the Restoration!” And then filling his glass to the brim, he drained it to the bottom. “It is a hussar corps you are appointed to?” said De Beauvais, hastily turning towards me, as if anxious to engage my attention. “Yes; the huitieme,” said I: “do you know them?” “No; I have few acquaintances in the army.” “His father, sir,” said the préfet, with a voice of considerable emphasis, “was an old garde du corps in those times when the sword was only worn by gentlemen.” “So much the worse for the army,” whispered the abbé, in an undertone, that was sufficiently audible to the rest to cause an outbreak of laughter. “And when,” continued the préfet, undisturbed by the interruption, “birth had its privileges.” “Among the rest, that of being the first beheaded,” murmured the inexorable abbé. “Were truffles dear before the Revolution, préfet?” said De Beauvais, with a half-impertinent air of simplicity. “No, sir; nothing was dear save the King's favor.” “Which could also be had for paying for,” quoth the abbé. “The 'Moniteur' of this evening, gentlemen,” said the waiter, entering with the paper, whose publication had been delayed some two hours beyond the usual period. “Ah, let us see what we have here,” said De Beauvais, opening the journal and reading aloud: “'Greneral Espinasse is appointed to the command of the fourth corps, stationed at Lille; and Major-General Lannes to the fortress of Montreil, vacant by--' No matter,--here it is. 'Does the English government suppose that France is one of her Indian possessions, without the means to declare her wrongs or the power to avenge them? Can they believe that rights are not reciprocal, and that the observance of one contracting party involves nothing on the part of the other?'” “There, there, De Beauvais; don't worry us with that tiresome nonsense.” “'Or,' continued the marquis, still reading aloud, 'do they presume to say that we shall issue no commercial instructions to our agents abroad lest English susceptibility should be wounded by any prospect of increased advantages to our trade?'” “Our trade!” echoed the préfet, with a most contemptuous intonation on the word. “Ah, for those good old times, when there was none!” said the abbé, with such a semblance of honest sincerity as drew an approving smile from the old man.