lint came into his eyes.

"I can say nothing personally, your Majesty, except to ask you to
remember my reply to Cronje."

The Kaiser remembered that reply of three words, "Surrender, or fight,"
and he knew that he could not fight, save under a penalty of utter
destruction. He went back into his room, brought back the joint note
which he had just received, and gave it to Lord Kitchener, just as it
was, without even putting it into an envelope, saying:

"That is our answer. We are beaten, and those who lose must pay."

Lord Kitchener looked over the note and said, in a somewhat dry tone:

"This, your Majesty, I read as absolute surrender."

"It is," said William the Second, his hand instinctively going to the
hilt of his sword. Lord Kitchener shook his head, and said very quietly
and pleasantly:

"No, your Majesty, not that. But," he said, looking up at the four flags
which were still flying above the headquarters, "I should be obliged if
you would give orders to haul those down and hoist the Jack instead."

There was no help for it, and no one knew better than the Kaiser the
strength there was behind those quietly-spoken words. The awful lesson
of the night before had taught him that this beautiful cruiser of the
air which lay within a few yards of him could in a few moments rise into
the air and scatter indiscriminate death and destruction around her, and
so the flags came down, the old Jack once more went up, and Aldershot
was English ground again.

Wherefore, not to enter into unnecessary details, the _Auriole_, instead
of making the place a wilderness as Lord Kitchener had quite determined
to do, became an aerial pleasure yacht. Orderlies were sent to the
Russian, Austrian and French headquarters, and an hour later the chiefs
of the Allies were sitting in the deck saloon of the airship, flying at
about sixty miles an hour towards London.

The lunch at Buckingham Palace was an entirely friendly affair. King
Edward had intended it to be a sort of international shake-hands all
round. The King of Italy was present, as the _Columbia_ had been
despatched early in the morning to bring him from Rome, and had picked
up the French President on the way back at Paris. The King gave the
first and only toast, and that was:

"Your Majesties and Monsieur le President, in the name of Humanity, I
ask you to drink to Peace."

They drank, and so ended the last war that was ever fought on British
soil.

EPILOGUE