'But what was your principle of action in '39?' inquired Tancred,
evidently interested.
'The only principle of action in this world,' said Baroni; 'we had
plenty of money; we might have had three millions.'
'And if you had had six, or sixteen, your efforts would have been
equally fruitless. I do not believe in national regeneration in the
shape of a foreign loan. Look at Greece! And yet a man might climb
Mount Carmel, and utter three words which would bring the Arabs again to
Grenada, and perhaps further.'
'They have no artillery,' said Baroni.
'And the Turks have artillery and cannot use it,' said Lord Montacute.
'Why, the most favoured part of the globe at this moment is entirely
defenceless; there is not a soldier worth firing at in Asia except the
Sepoys. The Persian, Assyrian, and Babylonian monarchies might be gained
in a morning with faith and the flourish of a sabre.'
'You would have the Great Powers interfering,' said Baroni.
'What should I care for the Great Powers, if the Lord of Hosts were on
my side!'
'Why, to be sure they could not do much at Bagdad or Ispahan.'
'Work out a great religious truth on the Persian and Mesopotamian
plains, the most exuberant soils in the world with the scantiest
population,--it would revivify Asia.
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