saw the light, she found herself free; she now owed no obligations to
any one. There was nothing left to compel her to rush into this
carnage, which she could contemplate calmly from the vantage of her
delightful cities; and she had only to wait till the twelfth hour to
gather its first fruits. There was no longer any compact, any written
bond, signed by the hands of kings or peoples, that could involve her
destiny. But now, at the spectacle, unforeseen and daily more
abominable and disconcerting, of the barbarian invasion, words
half-effaced and secret treaties written by unknown hands on the
souls and consciences of all men revealed themselves and slowly
gathered life and radiance. To some extent I was a witness of these
things; and I was able, so to speak, to follow with my eyes the
awakening and the irresistible promulgation of those great and
mysterious laws of justice, pity and love which are higher and more
imperishable than all those which we have engraved in marble or
bronze. With the increase of the crimes, the power of these laws
increased and extended. We may regard the intervention of Italy in
many ways. Like every human action and, above all, like every
political action, it is due to a thousand causes, many of which are
trifling. Among them we may see the legitimate hatred and the eternal
resentment felt towards an hereditary enemy. We may discover an
interested intention to take part, without too much risk, in a
victory already certain and in its previously allotted spoils. We may
see in it anything that we please: the resolves of men contain factors
of all kinds; but we must pity those who are able to consider none but
the meaner sides of the matter, for these are the only sides which
never count and which are always deceptive. To find the real and
lasting truth, we must learn to view the great masses and the great
feelings of mankind from above. It is in them and in their great and
simple movements that the will of the soul and of destiny is asserted,