"That accounts for His magnificent digestion," said Talacryn; "and I know that He eats raw carrots for the sake of His white skin. But fat pork! Semphill, could you digest fat pork when you were His age? I can't even now." "Condescend to consider the wine," Count Piccino added. "His Holiness quite fails to appreciate fine wine----" "All I can say is I can remember seeing Him thoroughly enjoy a teaspoonful of my peach-brandy sometimes after dinner. That was twenty years ago though," said Semphill. "He used to enjoy peach-brandy! Eminency, a thousand thanks. He shall have a bottle. I never thought of it. Until now, He has taken what we give Him: but He has no palate whatever for superior brands. He's quite content with a plain red wine from Citta Lavinia or Cinthyanum; and He drinks about as much of it in a week as another man would drink at a meal. But cream, and goat's milk,--I believe He bathes in those." "No, no," said Semphill; "He drinks them day and night, that's all. He's got the digestion of a baby for milk. Shall I ever forget seeing Him drink a pint of thick cream--a whole pint--at a farm-house once when we were out walking? I thought He'd die there. I begged Him to take some of my pills. I offered to make Him free of my collection. No. He laughed at me; and goes on rejoicing." "But, Eminencies, do you think His Holiness can live on this meagre diet?" "Chi lo sa? I couldn't. He may." "He's a most incomprehensible creature whatever:" Talacryn concluded. * * * * * Armed with the allegiance of an united empire, the Kaiser scoured away across the continent to Rome. He travelled incognito as the Duke of Königsberg and put up at the Palazzo Caffarelli. The world looked on and wondered. No news of his intentions were vouchsafed; and, as a rule, journalists had the decency to refrain themselves from suppositions. The exception to the rule was French, of course. "Religion is the great preoccupation of William II. Beneath the spangled uniform of this Emperor there is the soul of a clergyman, or rather the visionary soul of an initiate of even vaguer mysteries. The Kaiser only waits for an opportunity to achieve in Rome what he has already achieved in the east, that is to say, to oust France," shrieked M. Jean de Bonnefon in the Paris _Éclair_. _La Patrie_ instantly yelled in comment, "Let Germany take the Holy See. It will be the end of Germany and the beginning of revenge for Sedan. The Paparchy is an acid which will dissolve the badly cemented parts of an empire which is still too new."