"I'll tell you what it is, gentlemen," said one of the Frenchmen, "republics are not a whit better than monarchies, in so far as the liberty of the people is concerned. Here am I obliged to leave France, because I was a friend of that gallant fellow, Ledru Rollin, whom I hope one day to see at the head of a real Socialist government. Ah, won't we set the guillotine once more in motion then!" "Property is theft," remarked the Neapolitan, sententiously. "I calculate, my fine chap, that you han't many dollars of your own, if you're of that way of thinking!" said the Yankee, considerably scandalised at this indifference to the rule of _meum_ and _tuum_. "O Roma!" sighed the gentleman from the eternal city, who was rather intoxicated. "_Peste!_ What is the matter with it?" asked one of the Frenchmen. "I presume it stands where it always did. _Garçon--un petit verre de rhom!_" "How can Rome be what it was, when it is profaned by the foot of the stranger?" replied he of the Papal States. "_Ah, bah!_ You never were better off than under the rule of Oudinot." "You are a German," said the Hungarian to the Austrian; "what think you of our brave Kossuth?" "I consider him a pragmatical ass," replied the Austrian curtly. "Perhaps in that case," interposed the Lombard, with a sneer that might have done credit to Mephistopheles, "the gentleman may feel inclined to palliate the conduct of that satrap of tyranny, Radetski?" "What!--old father Radetski! the victor in a hundred fights!" cried the Austrian. "That will I; and spit in the face of any cowardly Italian who dares to breathe a word against his honour!" The Italian clutched his knife. "Hold there!" cried the Piedmontese, who seemed really a decent sort of fellow. "None of your stiletto work here! Had you Lombards trusted more to the bayonet and less to the knife, we might have given another account of the Austrian in that campaign, which cost Piedmont its king!" "_Carlo Alberto!_" hissed the Lombard, "_sceleratissimo traditore!_" The reply of the Piedmontese was a pie-dish, which prostrated the Lombard on the floor. "Gentlemen! gentlemen! for Heaven's sake be calm!" screamed Pettigrew; "remember we are all brothers!" "Brothers!" roared the Dane, "do ye think I would fraternise with a Prussian? Remember Schleswig Holstein!" "I am perfectly calm," said the Prussian, with the stiff formality of his nation; "I never quarrel over the generous vintage of my fatherland. Come--let me give you a song-- 'Sie sollen ihm nicht haben Den Deutschen freien Rhein.'" "You never were more mistaken in your life, _mon cher_," said one of the Frenchmen, brusquely. "Before twelve months are over we shall see who has right to the Rhine!" "Ay, that is true!" remarked the Dutchman; "confound these Germans--they wanted to annex Luxembourg." "What says the frog?" asked the Prussian contemptuously. The frog said nothing, but he hit the Prussian on the teeth.