onging to hostile nations.

He did not say anything, neither did the others; it was a time for
thinking rather than talking; but he looked, and as Lennard watched his
almost expressionless face and the angrily-glittering blue eyes, he felt
that it would go ill with an enemy whom K. of K. should have at his
mercy that day.

But all the bitterness of feeling was by no means on one side. It so
happened that the three Imperial leaders of the invaders and General
Henriot, the French Commander-in-Chief, were holding a Council of War at
the time when the _Auriole_ made her appearance. Of course, her arrival
was instantly reported, and as a matter of fact the drilling came to a
sudden momentary stop at the sight of this amazing apparition. The three
monarchs and the great commander immediately went outside, and within a
few moments they were four of the angriest men in England. A single
glance, even at that distance, was enough to convince them that, at
anyrate in the air, the _Flying Fishes_ would be no match for an equal
or even an inferior number of such magnificent craft as this.

"God's thunder!" exclaimed the Kaiser, using his usual expletive. "She's
flying the White Ensign and an admiral's pennant, and, yes, a flag of
truce."

"Yes," said the Tsar, lowering his glasses, "that is so. What has
happened? I certainly don't like the look of her; she's an altogether
too magnificent craft from our point of view. In fact it would be
decidedly awkward if the English happened to have a fleet of them. They
would be terribly effective acting in co-operation with that submarine
ram. Let us hope that she has come on a message of peace."

"I understood, your Majesty," said the Kaiser, shortly, "that we had
agreed to make peace at Windsor, and nowhere else."

"Of course, I hope we shall do so," said the Tsar, "but considering our
numbers, and the help we have had from Mr Castellan's fleet, I'm afraid
we are rather a long time getting there, and we shall be longer still if
the British have any considerable number of ships like this one."

"Airships or no airships," replied William the Second, "whatever message
this ship is bringing, I will listen to nothing but surrender while I
have an Army Corps on English soil. They must be almost beaten by this
time; they can't have any more men to put in the field, while we have
millions. To go back now that we have got so far would be worse than
defeat--it would be disaster. Of course, your