ou are one of us? That you are a friend to humanity, I know, but a
friend to Italy--yes?"

I was still hot from my talk with Miss Rossano, and I assured the count
that I was very much a friend to Italy indeed.

"Then, sir," he cried, "we have need of you! We have need of every
counsel--of every hand."

He was on his feet again, and had intrenched himself behind the
arm-chair. He declaimed from that position as if it had been a rostrum,
employing a wealth and variety of gesture which no English mimic could
succeed in copying in a year.

News, it appeared, had arrived that morning from Paris which led to the
belief that an uprising against Louis Philippe might shortly be looked
for. The messenger who brought that news had within twenty-four hours
encountered a messenger from Turin, who prophesied insurrection there;
this messenger in turn had news from Vienna from another comrade, who
was assured that Metternich was trembling in his shoes at the thought of
Charles Albert's threatened advance on Piedmont.

"The wine," cried my Italian Quixote, "is in ferment! We drink of it,
and our hearts are turned to madness! We need more of your English
sang-froid"--he called it "sanga-froida," and puzzled me for a passing
instant. "The hour is here," he declared, "and the men are here! But,
until now, we have ruined everything by too much precipitation, and
against that we must now be on our guard!"

Of the volubility and energy with which he delivered himself of all
this, and much more, I cannot convey even the slightest idea. I can give
no notion of his fertility in unnecessary vowels, and I should be afraid
to say how many syllables he made of the word precipitation, or how he
would have spelled it in English if he had tried.

"It is for you, sir," he thundered, stopping in his headlong walk to
shake a long forefinger in my face--"it is for you to teach us to be
calm!"

I asked him to take his first lesson there and then, and to begin it by
being seated.

"Ah," said he, "that is to be practical--that is to be English. To
be practical and to be English is to be successful. You shall advise
us--you shall lead us to victory!"

In his discovery of the excellence of my practical method he had
forgotten all about it, and was pounding up and down the room at as
great a rate as ever, when I took him by the shoulders and forced him
into a chair.

"Let us talk business," I said, severely; "if this means anything at
all, it mea