Accept my heartiest thanks for your most encouraging letter, which was sent to me here from Rome.
The trifling service that I have done for the ideal of peace is only a shadow compared to what in greatness and brilliancy other and better men have done for the progress of mankind. In my opinion this perpetual struggling forward toward a better and more righteous life must be the end and aim of all our actions.
I am happy to be able to come into direct alliance with you, and I hope very much to make your personal acquaintance soon.
In the meantime, my dear Baroness, I remain respectfully,
Your most devoted
Scipione Borghese
Our literary labors do not rest. My husband is putting the last touches to Sie wollen nicht, and I am beginning the novel Marthas Kinder (“Martha’s Children”), the second part of Die Waffen nieder, having just finished the translation of an English book, “Marmaduke, Emperor of Europe.” Die Waffen nieder is appearing in a French translation in the Indépendance belge.
This same translation two years later was issued in book form by Zola’s publisher, Tasquelles (Charpentier). From the French public came now many newspaper notices and private letters which showed me that the theme treated in that book was waking a loud echo among contemporaries in other countries.
In May, 1897, I received from London, from the ecclesiastical Arbitration Alliance, a letter asking if I would be willing to present to the Emperor of Austria a copy of an address which a hundred and seventy dignitaries of the Church were sending to all rulers. I assented, and thereupon received the document, a beautifully engrossed copy of the text in a tasteful roll, with the autograph signatures of the petitioners. A special copy was provided for every potentate. At the head of the hundred and seventy names, which comprised only high ecclesiastical dignitaries, were the Archbishop of Dublin, the bishops of Ripon, Durham, and Killaloe, Queen Victoria’s chaplain, and others.
I applied at the office of the cabinet for an audience, and it was granted for the third of June at ten o’clock in the morning. I was obliged to state the object of my desire in my request for an audience.