Scarcely ever in my life was I so happy.

I was happy, not only for Italy, but for the world--because I thought that this great deed would beat under its feet all enmities, and lift up England itself (at last) above its selfish and base policy.

Then, on a sudden, came the peace.

It was as if a thunderbolt fell.

For one day, every picture and bust of the Emperor vanished, and the men who would have died for him, before that sun, half articulated a curse on his head.