multitude to meet, whether in thought, in conscience, or in
another world! We all, no doubt, try to make the thought of massacre
less intolerable to our minds by telling ourselves that the sufferers
suffer one by one, to each his own share, and not another's; that though
the numbers may appeal, they do not make each man's part more terrible.
But this is not much comfort. There is not, it is true, a sum of
multiplication; but there is the sum of addition. And that addition--the
multitude man by man--the War Lord has to reckon with: Frederick the
Great with his men, Napoleon with his, the German Emperor with his--each
one of the innumerable unknown knowing his destroyer.

ALICE MEYNELL.

[Illustration: "Mais quand la voix de Dieu l'appela il se voyait seul
sur la terre au milieu de fantomes tristes et sans nombre."]

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BLUEBEARD'S CHAMBER

The Committee of Enquiry, like another Portia, clothed in the
ermine-trimmed robe of Justice and the Law, has unlocked with the key of
Truth the door of the closed chamber. The key lies behind her inscribed
in Dutch with the name that tells its nature. The Committee then pulls
back the curtain, and reveals the horrors that are behind it. Before the
curtain is fully drawn back, Enquiry sinks almost in collapse at the
terrible sight that is disclosed. There hang to pegs on the wall the
bodies of Bluebeard's victims, a woman, an old man, a priest, two boys,
and a girl still half hidden behind the curtain. The blood that has
trickled from them coagulates in pools on the ground.

Bluebeard himself comes suddenly: he hurries down the steps brandishing
his curved sword, a big, burly figure, with square, thick beard, and
streaming whiskers, wearing a Prussian helmet, his mouth open to utter a
roar of rage and fury. The hatred and scorn with which the artist
inspires his pictures of Prussia are inexhaustible in their variety:
Prussia is barbarism attempting to trample on law and education,
brutality beating down humanity, a grim figure, the incarnation of
"frightfulness." I can imagine the feelings with which all Germans must
regard the picture that the Dutch artist always gives of their country,
if they regard Prussia as their country. "For every cartoon of
Raemaekers," said a German newspaper, "the payment will be exacted in
full, when the reckoning is made up."