our excellencies

— The Starosta has informed us several times and with as many profound bows, that his house no longer belongs to him, but that it, its contents, himself, his children and grandchildren, are ours, and at the absolute disposal of our excellencies. Excellencies! By the long-winded, multi-syllabic, but mellifluous epithets he has bestowed on Alexis he must have called him his majesty, his coruscation, his scintillation, his milky-way, by this time.