‘But suppose I were to ask you to undertake the office of mediator, to promote a reconciliation between the Papacy and the Italian nation?’ ‘Then, sire, you would be offering me the task which I covet above all others, and which I should feel to be the crown of my career.’ The young King made a gesture of delight. ‘That is fortunate indeed! Listen, monsieur! From a boy my heart has bled at the thought of this miserable estrangement, so fraught with danger to the cause of religion as well as to the national freedom. In addition I must tell you that I feel very deeply my own position. I have a conviction that our House cannot prosper while it remains under the curse of the Church. ‘As far as I am concerned,’ Victor Emmanuel went on, ‘there is no sacrifice I am not prepared to make, even to the laying down of my crown, in order to win the forgiveness of the Holy See, and to establish good relations between the Church and the nation. But I need not say that I can do nothing by myself. Unless I can succeed in carrying the Parliament and the people with me, I should simply make things worse than they are at present.’ His Majesty paused for a minute, and then resumed, watching my face anxiously. ‘I have been seeking for years for some means of appeasing the Holy Father that would not be rejected by the secular politicians. And the plan which has developed itself in my mind is this:-- ‘In the Middle Ages, perhaps I need not remind you, the Popes enjoyed but a scanty authority in the Roman States. Their authority was defied by the usurping barons, and even in the City of Rome they frequently saw authority exercised by the senate and people. Yet at the very same epoch they were wielding tremendous powers over Europe; they were able to dethrone emperors; a King of England laid down his crown at the feet of a Papal Legate; and the Kings of Naples acknowledged the suzerainty of the Popes by an annual tribute.’ I began to see what was coming, and testified my admiration by a glance. ‘I propose,’ King Victor said impressively, ‘to acknowledge the Holy Father as the suzerain of the Italian kingdom. I am prepared to lay my crown at his feet, and to receive it again as his gift. I propose to hold myself as the vassal of his Holiness, to pay a tribute, instead of the pension which has been refused, and to exercise my power of veto over legislation in obedience to the Pope’s directions. In short, I am willing to efface myself, and to govern Italy as the deputy of the Holy See.’