“Of wood?” said I.
“He was the son of a carpenter, you know,” said the man in black; “the figure will be of wood for no other reason, I assure you; he! he!”
“You should place another statue on the right.”
“Perhaps we shall,” said the man in black; “but we know of no one amongst the philologists of Italy, nor, indeed, of the other countries, inhabited by the faithful worthy, to sit parallel in effigy with our illustrissimo; when, indeed, we have conquered those regions of the perfidious by bringing the inhabitants thereof to the true faith, I have no doubt that we shall be able to select one worthy to bear him company, one whose statue shall be placed on the right hand of the library, in testimony of our joy at his conversion; for, as you know, ‘There is more joy,’ etc.”
“Wood?” said I.
“I hope not,” said the man in black; “no, if I be consulted as to the material for the statue, I should strongly recommend bronze.”
And when the man in black had said this, he emptied his second tumbler of its contents, and prepared himself another.
CHAPTER XIII.—THE MAN IN BLACK DISCUSSES THE FOIBLES OF THE ENGLISH—HIS SCHEMES FOR WINNING OVER THE ARISTOCRACY, THE MIDDLE CLASS, AND THE RABBLE—HORSEFLESH AND BITTER ALE.
“So you hope to bring these regions again beneath the banner of the Roman see?” said I; after the man in black had prepared the beverage, and tasted it.
“Hope,” said the man in black; “how can we fail?