"Chi lo sa? I couldn't. He may."
"He's a most incomprehensible creature whatever:" Talacryn concluded.
Armed with the allegiance of an united empire, the Kaiser scoured away across the continent to Rome. He travelled incognito as the Duke of Königsberg and put up at the Palazzo Caffarelli. The world looked on and wondered. No news of his intentions were vouchsafed; and, as a rule, journalists had the decency to refrain themselves from suppositions. The exception to the rule was French, of course. "Religion is the great preoccupation of William II. Beneath the spangled uniform of this Emperor there is the soul of a clergyman, or rather the visionary soul of an initiate of even vaguer mysteries. The Kaiser only waits for an opportunity to achieve in Rome what he has already achieved in the east, that is to say, to oust France," shrieked M. Jean de Bonnefon in the Paris Éclair. La Patrie instantly yelled in comment, "Let Germany take the Holy See. It will be the end of Germany and the beginning of revenge for Sedan. The Paparchy is an acid which will dissolve the badly cemented parts of an empire which is still too new."
But it was not precisely religion which dictated the Kaiser's movement. He had the sense to know that religion is personal; and, though he never lost an opportunity of asserting his personal religious opinions, the idea of making them the rule for all men never entered his eminently practical mind. No: he had other plans; and he was seeking material wherewith to build. He conferred long and secretly with the King of Italy, a man after his own heart, a born ruler, a natural autocrat, who himself had been a slave. They discussed needs. William II. wanted room for a population which had increased by twenty millions in thirty years. Victor Emanuel III. wanted money and time—money to make easier the life of his people—time to mature improvements—give him those and he could laugh at Italy's enemies, the secret societies, and the clergy——
"Clergy?" the Kaiser demurred. "Now are you really sure that the clergy are your enemies?"
"Yes, in their heart of hearts. Don't you understand that we robbed them? Don't you know that this very palace of the Quirinale, in which I am receiving Your Imperial Majesty, is stolen property?"
"Yes, yes. But this Englishman? Surely He makes a difference?"
"To some extent. But He cannot extirpate in a moment the hatred and envy with which my House and I are regarded by the clergy whom we dispossessed. For nearly forty years, to hate us has been part of the clerical education. A weed of that kind cannot be rooted up at once. It is ingrained. Perhaps in another generation—Basta!"
"Meanwhile?"