XVI

The letter bore the Berlin postmark.

"MY DEAR WIFE,--I left Paris rather unexpectedly three days ago
and arrived here on Tuesday. The reason of this sudden flight was
the announcement in the Paris papers of the festivities intended
in Rome in honour of the King's accession. Such a shameless
outrage on the people's sufferings in the hour of their greatest
need seemed to call for immediate and effectual protest, and it
was thought wise to push on the work of organisation with every
possible despatch...."

"There is a train north at 9.30," thought Roma. "I must leave to-night,
not in the morning."

"Oh, Roma, Roma, my dear Roma, I understand your father now, and
can sympathise with him at last. He held that even regicide might
become a necessary weapon in the warfare of humanity, and though I
knew that some of the greatest spirits had recourse to it, I
always thought this belief the defect of your father's quality as
a prophet and the limit of his vision. But now I see that the only
difference between us was that his heart was bigger than mine, and
that in those cruel crises where the people are helpless and can
do nothing by constitutional means, revolution, not evolution,
may _seem_ to be their only hope...."

Roma felt hysterical. There could no longer be any doubt of Rossi's
intention.

"I don't tell you anything definite about our plans, dearest,
partly because of the danger of this letter going astray, and
partly because I don't think it right to saddle my wife with the
responsibility of knowing a programme that is weighted with issues
of such immense importance to so many. I know there is not a drop
of blood in her veins that isn't ready to flow for me, but that is
no reason for exposing her to the danger of even the prick of her
little finger.

"Briefly our cry is 'Unite! Unite! Unite!' As soon as our scheme
is complete, and associates all over Europe receive the word to
commence concerted movement, the tyrants at the heads of the
States will find the old edifices riddled and honeycombed, and
ready to fall."

Roma imagined she could see everything as it was intended to be--the
signal, the rising, the regicide. "There is a train at 2.30; I must
catch that one," she thought.

"Dearest, don't attempt to reply to this letter, for I may leave
Berlin at any moment, bu