These people know everything.
They will send immediately to Besso; they know he is your banker, and
that if you want to build the Temple, he must pay for it, and unless
a most immoderate ransom is given, they will carry us all into the
interior of the desert.'
'And what do you counsel?'
'In this, as in all things, to gain time; and principally because I
am without resource, but with time expedients develop themselves.
Naturally, what is wanted will come; expediency is a law of nature.
The camel is a wonderful animal, but the desert made the camel. I have
already impressed upon the great Sheikh that you are not a prince of
the blood; that your father is ruined, that there has been a murrain for
three years among his herds and flocks; and that, though you appear to
be travelling for amusement, you are, in fact, a political exile. All
these are grounds for a reduced ransom. At present he believes nothing
that I say, because his mind has been previously impressed with contrary
and more cogent representations, but what I say will begin to work when
he has experienced some disappointment, and the period of re-action
arrives. Re-action is the law of society; it is inevitable. All success
depends upon seizing it.'
'It appears to me that you are a great philosopher, Baroni,' said
Tancred.
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