sources under his hand to deal the decisive blow
in the war when the psychological moment should come, months ahead. He
was not, in 1915, looking to 1916; he was looking to 1917, having
made up his mind from the outset that this was to be a prolonged war
of attrition. He, no more than all others, could foresee that the
Russian revolution was to occur and was to delay the final triumph of
the Entente for full twelve months.

The last time that I saw the greatest of our War Ministers was a day
or two before he started on his fatal expedition to Russia. I had
recently come back from that country, and had been able to give him
and Fitzgerald some useful hints as to minor points--kit, having all
available decorations handy to put on for special occasions, taking
large-sized photographs to dole out as presents, and so forth. He was
very anxious to get back speedily, and had been somewhat disturbed to
hear that things moved slowly in the Tsar's dominions, and that the
trip would inevitably take considerably longer than he had counted on.
I had urged him not to be in too great haste--to visit several groups
of armies, and to show himself in Moscow and Kieff, feeling absolutely
convinced that if the most was made of his progress through Russian
territory it would do an immense amount of good. But he was in just as
great a hurry to get journeys over in 1916 as he had been in South
African days, when he used to risk a smash by requiring the trains in
which he roamed the theatre of war to travel at a speed beyond that
which was safe on such tortuous tracks; and it is easy to understand
how hard-set, with so impetuous a passenger, the Admiralissimo of the
Grand Fleet would have been to delay the departure of the _Hampshire_
merely on the grounds of rough weather on the day on which she put to
sea.

On that last occasion when I saw him the Field-Marshal was in rare
spirits, looking forward eagerly to his time in Russia, merry as a
schoolboy starting for his holidays, only anxious to be off. With that
incomparable gift of his for interpreting the essentials of a
situation, he fully realized how far-reaching might be the
consequences of the undertaking to which he stood committed. The
public of this country perhaps hardly realize that the most
unfortunate feature of his death at that time, from the national point
of view, was that it prevented his Russian trip. Had it not been for
the disaster of the 5th of June 1916 off the Orkneys,