The Vengeance of Rome by Michael Moorcock

more important than our differences. Unity must be desired by the common will. Unity cannot be imposed from above. Only a very great man can express the public will in a broad, far-ranging programme of dramatic, even revolutionary ideas. Mussolini offers our antidote to the lure of Bolshevism. But believe me, Mussolini is modern Italy as Hindenburg can never be modern Germany. Old Hindenburg lacks the common touch. Rhetoric is simply not enough. We need action. Even the best-intentioned professional politicians and soldiers are divorced from those they represent. Today’s leaders have to be men of the people who can reach across divisions and shake hands with an experienced ruling class, headed by a modern, socially concerned monarch, and arrive at a compromise which satisfies and benefits all. Italy unites her people in a common purpose to establish the rule of law and appeal to the selfless sense of community which lies within us. And the Church must help.’
    Pujol’s passionate idealism might seem strange to the contemporary listener, but in those days we were desperately looking for certainties in a dangerously uncertain world. Fascism offered those certainties. The pure form was a response to the soul’s yearning and to honest, human needs.
    â€˜To fight Stalin,’ I suggested, ‘we need a champion of the same metal. And with one exception we have only pygmies. The planet is crying out for a paladin, for some new Charlemagne, to drag Christendom from the Dark Ages. Or are we too far degenerated into chaos to be rescued?’
    Lieutenant Pujol passionately hoped that this was not the case. It was the duty of men of conscience to discover such leaders and give them the power they needed to restore a new world order.
    We talked often of such matters. Many of the Italians in Majorca seemed reluctant to discuss the ideas and ideals of Fascism, except in a very general way. These were the individuals burdened with the task of making the national dream a continuing reality. They were sober about the practicalities of their task. They admitted, however, that Mussolini was a singular force, the driving inspiration behind their movement. Most of the men we met were regional
ras
, or governors, without much direct contact with Rome and unrepresentative of the intellectual wing of their party. They were on vacation from their considerable responsibilities, so we did not press them. For a while they were here to enjoy the simple beauties of the island and escape their cares.
    During that season, we made the social rounds of the various yachts. Gradually I became part of a set whose relish for politics was as considerable as its pursuit of pleasure. The nightmares of my life in the Middle East and North Africa were put behind me. My scars might never disappear, but at least my wounds were healing. The atrocities and humiliations I had suffered had tempered me in the fires of experience, given me a subtler understanding of the world and those who suffered in it. Perhaps this is how God chooses to educate those He favours?
    My trials had invested me with a kind of clear-sighted innocence which some of my new friends chose to take as simple-mindedness. They did not always treat my contributions to the conversation very seriously, but I was content to be their Simplicissimus while it suited me. The ease of Majorcan life was hugely rejuvenating for one subjected to such horrors and hardships in the past couple of years. I had been forced to live an almost feral existence. Now I had rediscovered the European way of life I had lost and almost forgotten. It was a joy to experience again, although I still felt the occasional pang, missing my Esmé who, in the old days, had shared so much of my social round. To have had a sophisticated woman like Rosie von Bek at my side would have done much to make those occasions perfect.
    Of course, we knew who had made money out of the War and who was still making money. We knew