“This is great news. It puts an end to Germany’s dreams of promenades to Rome. Andrea must have known about it when he boasted so much.”
“He must have known more,” said the magistrate.
“What? What?”
“Wait, and you’ll see.”
And they saw.
***
One day strangers came and carefully examined the mountain through their field-glasses. It looked as if they were gazing at the place where Barbarossa’s ring had hung, for that was the spot at which they directed their glasses. And then they consulted the compass, as if they did not know which was the North and which was the South.
There was a big dinner at “The Golden Horse,” at which the magistrate was present. At dessert they talked of millions and millions of money.
A short time after “The Golden Horse” was pulled down; next came the church, which was taken down piece by piece and built up again on another spot; half the village was razed to the ground; barracks were built, the course of the stream deflected, the mill-wheel taken away, the factory closed, the cattle sold.
And then three thousand Italian-speaking labourers with dark hair and olive skins arrived on the scene.