On one occasion I expressed my surprise to our Blessed Father that his
Serene Highness Charles Emanuel, Duke of Savoy, who was one of the most
excellent Princes and foremost politicians of his age, should never have
employed him in his affairs, especially in those which regarded France,
where they did not prosper.
As may be supposed, I explained the reason of my surprise, insisting that
his gentleness, patience, skill, and probity were certain to bring about
the desired result.
He listened in silence, and then answered with a seriousness and
earnestness which put me to shame, "You say too much, you exaggerate: you
imagine that others esteem me as you do, you who are always looking at me
through a magnifying glass. However, let us put that aside. As regards our
Prince, my feeling is very different from yours, for in this very matter I
consider that he shows the excellence of his judgment.
"I will tell you why I speak and think this. In the first place, I have
not all that skill and prudence in the management of affairs with which
you credit me. Is it likely I should have? The mere words, human prudence,
business, politics, terrify me. That is not all. To speak frankly, I know
nothing of the art of lying, dissimulating, or pretence, which latter is
the chief instrument and the mainspring of political manoeuvring; the art
of arts in all matters of human prudence and of civil administration.
"Not for all the provinces of Savoy, of France, nay, not for the whole
empire, would I connive at deceit. I deal with others frankly, in good
faith, and very simply; the words of my lips are the outcome of the
thoughts of my heart. I cannot carry two faces under one hood; I hate
duplicity with a mortal hatred, knowing that God holds the deceitful man in
abomination. There are very few who, knowing me, do not at least discern
this much of my character. They therefore judge very wisely that I am by no
means fit for an office in which you have to speak peace to your neighbour
whilst you are plotting mischief against him in your heart. Moreover, I
have always followed, as a heavenly, supreme, and divine maxim, those great
words of the Apostle: _No man being a soldier to God entangleth himself
with secular business that he may please Him to whom he hath engaged
himself._"[1]
[Footnote 1: Tim. ii, 4.]