"No, not Italian, although I understand it a little."
"Does the Señor Ambasciatore speak English?"
"No, not English, I do not speak that," replied Groizard.
"Does the Señor Ambasciatore speak German?"
"No German, no Dutch; not at all."
"No doubt then the Señor Ambasciatore speaks French?"
"French? No. I am able to translate it a little, but I do not speak it."
"Then what does the Señor Ambasciatore speak?" asked Leo XIII, smiling that Voltairian smile of his at his secretary.
"Then Señor Ambasciatore speaks a heavy back-country dialect called
Extramaduran," replied Rampolla del Tindaro, bending over to His
Holiness's ear.
The Spanish press has made a resolution, now of long standing, to speak nothing but a back-country dialect called Extramaduran.