"No, I'm not. Of course I have no means of arriving at certainty. That could only be obtained from the Pope Himself; and only from Him if He were willing to give it."
"Has Your Majesty asked Him?"
"Certainly not. We continue to misunderstand one another. Your Imperial Majesty knows that there is no means of communication between my government and the Vatican. All we get is hearsay; and all they get is gossip."
"Why do you not request Hadrian to receive you—you yourself? I imagine that He would not refuse."
"Perhaps not. I believe that He has been preparing for me some such trap as that. But I distrust the Greeks even when they bear gifts. They say He says His prayers in Greek, by the bye."
"I am about to request His Holiness to receive me."
"Your Imperial Majesty's case is different. You are not likely to have fresh insults and fresh humiliations offered to you."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that I cherish the memory of all ecclesiastical pin-pricks which formerly were administered to my father and grandfather."
"Pin-pricks? What do you call pin-pricks?"