Once the needful parks and foundries were organised, air-ships and
Drachenflieger could be poured into the sky. Indeed, when the time
came, they did pour into the sky like, as a bitter French writer put it,
flies roused from filth.

The attack upon America was to be the first move in this tremendous
game. But no sooner had it started than instantly the aeronautic parks
were to proceed to put together and inflate the second fleet which was
to dominate Europe and manoeuvre significantly over London, Paris, Rome,
St. Petersburg, or wherever else its moral effect was required. A World
Surprise it was to be--no less a World Conquest; and it is wonderful how
near the calmly adventurous minds that planned it came to succeeding in
their colossal design.

Von Sternberg was the Moltke of this War in the Air, but it was the
curious hard romanticism of Prince Karl Albert that won over the
hesitating Emperor to the scheme. Prince Karl Albert was indeed the
central figure of the world drama. He was the darling of the Imperialist
spirit in German, and the ideal of the new aristocratic feeling--the
new Chivalry, as it was called--that followed the overthrow of
Socialism through its internal divisions and lack of discipline, and
the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few great families. He was
compared by obsequious flatterers to the Black Prince, to Alcibiades, to
the young Caesar. To many he seemed Nietzsche's Overman revealed. He was
big and blond and virile, and splendidly non-moral. The first great feat
that startled Europe, and almost brought about a new Trojan war, was
his abduction of the Princess Helena of Norway and his blank refusal to
marry her. Then followed his marriage with Gretchen Krass, a Swiss girl
of peerless beauty. Then came the gallant rescue, which almost cost him
his life, of three drowning sailors whose boat had upset in the sea near
Heligoland. For that and his victory over the American yacht Defender,
C.C.I., the Emperor forgave him and placed him in control of the new
aeronautic arm of the German forces. This he developed with marvellous
energy and ability, being resolved, as he said, to give to Germany land
and sea and sky. The national passion for aggression found in him its
supreme exponent, and achieved through him its realisation in this
astounding war. But his fascination was more than national; all over the
world his ruthless strength dominated minds as the Napoleonic legend had
dominated min