"
"So be it! And may Heaven hear you!"
"The business is half done, Monsignore, when you have heard
me. We are not far from the Vatican, where sits the real
Minister of Arms."
"He will urge another objection."
"What will it be?"
"That if he send our regiments to serve their apprenticeship
in Africa, they will bring back French ideas."
"That is an accident, impossible to prevent. But console
yourself with the reflection that it is perfectly immaterial
whether the French ideas are brought into your country by
your soldiers or by ours. Besides, this is an article which
so easily eludes the vigilance of the custom-house, that the
railways are already bringing it in daily, and you will soon
have a large stock on hand. And after all, where's the great
evil? All men who have studied us without prejudice, know
that French ideas are ideas of order and liberty, of
conservatism and progress, of labour and honesty, of culture
and industry. The country in which French ideas abound the
most is France, and France, Monsignore, is in good health."
CHAPTER XIX.
MATERIAL INTERESTS.
"For my part," said a great fat Neapolitan,
"I don't care the value of a bit of orange-peel for
politics. I am willing to believe we've got a bad
government, because all the world says we have, and because
our King never dare show himself in public.
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