and the death-total had reached such a ghastly figure,
that Austria, Russia and France flatly refused to continue the Alliance.
After all the tremendous sacrifice that had been made in men, money and
material they had not even reached London. From their outposts on the
Surrey hills they could see the vast city, silent and apparently
sleeping under its canopy of hazy clouds, but that was all. It was still
as distant from them as the poles; and so the Allies looked upon it and
then upon their dead, and admitted, by their silence if not by their
words, that Britain the Unconquered was unconquerable still.

The German Emperor's fit had passed. Even he was appalled when upon that
memorable morning he received the joint note of his three Allies and
learnt the awful cost of that one night's fighting.

Just as he was countersigning the Note of Capitulation in the
headquarters at Aldershot, the _Auriole_ swung round from the northward
and descended on to the turf flying the flag of truce. He saw it
through the window, got up, put his right hand on the butt of the
revolver in his hip-pocket, thought hard for one fateful moment, then
took it away and went out.

At the gate he met Lord Kitchener; they exchanged salutes and shook
hands, and the Kaiser said:

"Well, my lord, what are the terms?"

K. of K. laughed, simply because he couldn't help it. The absolute hard
business of the question went straight to the heart of the best business
man in the British Army.

"I am not here to make or accept terms, your Majesty," he said. "I am
only the bearer of a message, and here it is."

Then he handed the Kaiser an envelope bearing the Royal Arms.

"I am instructed to take your reply back as soon as possible," he
continued. Then he saluted again and walked away towards the _Auriole_.

The Kaiser opened the envelope and read--an invitation to lunch from his
uncle, Edward of England, and a request to bring his august colleagues
with him to talk matters over. There was no hint of battle, victory or
defeat. It was a quite commonplace letter, but all the same it was one
of those triumphs of diplomacy which only the first diplomatist in
Europe knew how to achieve. Then he too laughed as he folded up the
letter and went to Lord Kitchener and said:

"This is only an invitation to lunch, and you have told me you are not
here to propose or take terms. That, of course, was official, but
personally--"

K. of K. stiffened up, and a harder g