e beheld, in the distance, steaming westward, the
smoke of several fleets. As we drew nearer a marvelous spectacle
unfolded itself to our eyes. From the northeast, their great guns
flashing in the sunlight and their huge funnels belching black volumes
that rested like thunder clouds upon the sea, came the mighty warships
of England, with her meteor flag streaming red in the breeze, while the
royal insignia, indicating the presence of the ruler of the British
Empire, was conspicuously displayed upon the flagship of the squadron.

Following a course more directly westward there appeared, under another
black cloud of smoke, the hulls and guns and burgeons of another great
fleet, carrying the tri-color of France, and bearing in its midst the
head of the magnificent republic of western Europe.

Further south, beating up against the northerly winds came a third fleet
with the gold and red of Spain fluttering from its masthead. This, too,
was carrying its King westward, where now, indeed, the star of empire
had taken its way.

Rising a little higher, so as to extend our horizon, we saw coming down
the English channel, behind the British fleet, the black ships of
Russia. Side by side, or following one another's lead, these war fleets
were on a peaceful voyage that belied their threatening appearance.
There had been no thought of danger to or from the forts and ports of
rival nations which they had passed. There was no enmity, and no fear
between them when the throats of their ponderous guns yawned at one
another across the waves. They were now, in spirit, all one fleet,
having one object, bearing against one enemy, ready to defend but one
country, and that country was the entire earth.

It was some time before we caught sight of the emperor William's fleet.
It seems that the Kaiser, although at first consenting to the
arrangement by which Washington had been selected as the assembling
place for the nations, afterwards objected to it.

"I ought to do this thing myself," he had said. "My glorious ancestors
would never have consented to allow these upstart Republicans to lead in
a warlike enterprise of this kind. What would my grandfather have said
to it? I suspect that it is some scheme aimed at the divine right of
kings."

But the good sense of the German people would not suffer their ruler to
place them in a position so false and so untenable. And swept along by
their enthusiasm the Kaiser had at last consented to embark