“Excuse me, your excellency,” he began. (He was well acquainted with the senator, but thought it necessary on this occasion to address him formally.) “Though I don’t agree with the gentleman⁠ ⁠…” (he hesitated: he wished to say, “ Mon très honorable préopinant ”⁠—“My very honorable opponent”) “with the gentleman⁠ ⁠… whom I have not the honor of knowing, I suppose that the nobility have been summoned not merely to express their sympathy and enthusiasm but also to consider the means by which we can assist our Fatherland! I imagine,” he went on, warming to his subject, “that the Emperor himself would not be satisfied to find in us merely owners of serfs whom we are willing to devote to his service, and chair à canon 81 we are ready to make of ourselves⁠—and not to obtain from us any co-co-counsel.”