preceded us in the
glorious search. Sire, when a man is astride of that abyss, when he
commands bold divers like my disciples, all other human interests are
as nothing. Therefore we are not dangerous. Religious disputes and
political struggles are far away from us; we have passed beyond and
above them. No man takes others by the throat when his whole strength
is given to a struggle with Nature. Besides, in our science results are
perceivable; we can measure effects and predict them; whereas all things
are uncertain and vacillating in the struggles of men and their selfish
interests. We decompose the diamond in our crucibles, and we shall make
diamonds, we shall make gold! We shall impel vessels (as they have at
Barcelona) with fire and a little water! We test the wind, and we shall
make wind; we shall make light; we shall renew the face of empires with
new industries! But we shall never debase ourselves to mount a throne to
be crucified by the peoples!"

In spite of his strong determination not to be taken in by Italian
wiles, the king, together with his gentle mistress, was already caught
and snared by the ambiguous phrases and doublings of this pompous and
humbugging loquacity. The eyes of the two lovers showed how their minds
were dazzled by the mysterious riches of power thus displayed; they saw,
as it were, a series of subterranean caverns filled with gnomes at their
toil. The impatience of their curiosity put to flight all suspicion.

"But," cried the king, "if this be so, you are great statesmen who can
enlighten us."

"No, sire," said Lorenzo, naively.

"Why not?" asked the king.

"Sire, it is not given to any man to foresee what will happen when
thousands of men are gathered together. We can tell what one man will
do, how long he will live, whether he will be happy or unhappy; but
we cannot tell what a collection of wills may do; and to calculate the
oscillations of their selfish interests is more difficult still, for
interests are men _plus_ things. We can, in solitude, see the future as
a whole, and that is all. The Protestantism that now torments you will
be destroyed in turn by its material consequences, which will turn to
theories in due time. Europe is at the present moment getting the better
of religion; to-morrow it will attack royalty."

"Then the Saint-Bartholomew was a great conception?"

"Yes, sire; for if the people triumph it will have a Saint-Bartholomew
of its own. When religion and roya