iron resolution--how would you answer then if
you were asked whether you were a coward?

LADY (rising). Ah, you are a hero, a real hero.

NAPOLEON. Pooh! there's no such thing as a real hero. (He strolls down
the room, making light of her enthusiasm, but by no means displeased
with himself for having evoked it.)

LADY. Ah, yes, there is. There is a difference between what you call my
bravery and yours. You wanted to win the battle of Lodi for yourself
and not for anyone else, didn't you?

NAPOLEON. Of course. (Suddenly recollecting himself.) Stop: no. (He
pulls himself piously together, and says, like a man conducting a
religious service) I am only the servant of the French republic,
following humbly in the footsteps of the heroes of classical antiquity.
I win battles for humanity--for my country, not for myself.

LADY (disappointed). Oh, then you are only a womanish hero, after all.
(She sits down again, all her enthusiasm gone, her elbow on the end of
the couch, and her cheek propped on her hand.)

NAPOLEON (greatly astonished). Womanish!

LADY (listlessly). Yes, like me. (With deep melancholy.) Do you think
that if I only wanted those despatches for myself, I dare venture into
a battle for them? No: if that were all, I should not have the courage
to ask to see you at your hotel, even. My courage is mere slavishness:
it is of no use to me for my own purposes. It is only through love,
through pity, through the instinct to save and protect someone else,
that I can do the things that terrify me.

NAPOLEON (contemptuously). Pshaw! (He turns slightingly away from her.)

LADY. Aha! now you see that I'm not really brave. (Relapsing into
petulant listlessness.) But what right have you to despise me if you
only win your battles for others? for your country! through patriotism!
That is what I call womanish: it is so like a Frenchman!

NAPOLEON (furiously). I am no Frenchman.

LADY (innocently). I thought you said you won the battle of Lodi for
your country, General Bu-- shall I pronounce it in Italian or French?

NAPOLEON. You are presuming on my patience, madam. I was born a French
subject, but not in France.

LADY (folding her arms on the end of the couch, and leaning on them
with a marked access of interest in him). You were not born a subject
at all, I think.

NAPOLEON (greatly pleased, starting on a fresh march). Eh? Eh? You
think not.

LADY. I am sure of it.

NAPOLEON. Well, well, perhaps not. (The sel