helpless. Once they were forced to the surface such craft were easily
destroyed by gun fire or driven to a sullen refuge in protecting
harbours.
The third, and perhaps the most vital, invention was Dufay's
nitrogen-iodide pellets, which when sown by pneumatic guns upon the
slopes of a battlefield, the ground outside intrenchments, or round the
glacis of a fortification made approach by an attacking army impossible
and the position impregnable. These pellets, only the size of No. 4 bird
shot and harmless out of contact with air, became highly explosive two
minutes after they had been scattered broadcast upon the soil, and any
friction would discharge them with sufficient force to fracture or
dislocate the bones of the human foot or to put out of service the leg
of a horse. The victim attempting to drag himself away inevitably
sustained further and more serious injuries, and no aid could be given
to the injured, as it was impossible to reach them. A field well planted
with such pellets was an impassable barrier to either infantry or
cavalry, and thus any attack upon a fortified position was doomed to
failure. By surprise alone could a general expect to achieve a victory.
Offensive warfare had come almost to a standstill.
Germany had seized Holland, Denmark, and Switzerland. Italy had annexed
Dalmatia and the Trentino; and a new Slav republic had arisen out of
what had been Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Servia, Roumania,
Montenegro, Albania, and Bulgaria. Turkey had vanished from the map of
Europe; while the United States of South America, composed of the
Spanish-speaking South American Republics, had been formed. The
mortality continued at an average of two thousand a day, of which 75 per
cent. was due to starvation and the plague. Maritime commerce had ceased
entirely, and in consequence of this the merchant ships of all nations
rotted at the docks.
The Emperor of Germany, and the kings of England and of Italy, had all
voluntarily abdicated in favour of a republican form of government.
Europe and Asia had run amuck, hysterical with fear and blood. As well
try to pacify a pack of mad and fighting dogs as these frenzied myriads
with their half-crazed generals. They lay, these armies, across the fair
bosom of the earth like dying monsters, crimson in their own blood, yet
still able to writhe upward and deal death to any other that might
approach. They were at a deadlock, yet each feared to make the first
over
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