For a moment I hesitated. A king’s life was in the balance, though I did not know it.
I made the clever man’s common mistake—I underrated the strength of the fool.
‘Take my advice,’ I said to Bresci, ‘leave this work to men like me. You are not suited for it: you would betray yourself directly.’
His face became overcast, and he relapsed into a sullen silence which lasted till I parted from him at my own door.
An hour before stepping on board the steamer that was to convey me to Havre I sent off a final wire: ‘Am leaving to-day for Europe, pledged to kill King Humbert.’
This bitter shaft of contempt roused even the Italian police into activity. On landing at the French port I was met by a detective sent from Rome.
I took him with me to a hotel, where we discussed the situation in a private room.
‘It seems to me that we are all right for the present,’ he urged. ‘As long as they think you are going to carry out the work they are not likely to send any one else.’
‘Do not be too sure,’ I answered. ‘There is a lame watchmaker over there who does not quite trust me.’
‘What do you propose to do?’ asked the detective.