decision may be mine.

"In Italy I have my _âme damnée_, the only one who understands me, an
ambitious tyrant, mad like Bismarck with the lust of power, who serves
my purposes at Rome as effectively as Bismarck hampered them in Berlin.

"I have stifled and destroyed the spirit of brotherhood in the cradle
of the Latin race. I have made history a liar, bringing a false
morality to the interpretation of the most brilliant days and deeds. I
have reduced to servility a Royal House that once was proud. I have
cheated and deceived the cleverest and most suspicious race on earth.

"At Rome, I have insulted the traditional and sacred majesty of the
Head of the Christian religion!

"In England, I have done even more. I have compelled proud Albion to
serve the ends of my personal policy. I have forced the most jealous
of nations to yield the leading place to me, to work, in her own
colonies and against her own interests, for the benefit of my growing
rivalry, sacrificing to me her dreams of supremacy in the four quarters
of the globe.

"As to America, I will deal with her later. I have my plans.

"Despite Lord Salisbury's make-believe of caution and reserve (about
which, I may say, we quite understand each other) England is so
completely delivered into my power that, after the Conservatives the
Liberals, in the person of the young leader John Morley, now proffer me
their services, and no matter what changes may take place in the
English parties my influence will soon prevail.