of a belligerent. But Luxembourg was made powerless
to resist; she could only protest.

Remember this when you consider the fates which fell on the two
countries. Remember how the proud and independent little duchy must have
felt beforehand, standing without a weapon amid the mighty armed powers
of Europe.

It was in February or early in March, 1914, that the Grand Duchess sent
out an invitation to the Diplomatic Corps to attend a court function. We
all went gladly because of the pleasantness of the land and the good
hospitality of the palace. There were separate audiences with Her Royal
Highness in the morning, a big luncheon given by the Cabinet and the
city authorities at noon, a state dinner in the old Spanish palace at
night, and after that a gala concert. It was then that the incident
occurred. I had heard in the town that thirty military officers from the
German garrison at Trier, a few miles away on the border, were coming,
invited or self-invited, to the concert, and the Luxembourgers did not
like the idea at all. Well, the Germans came in a body, some of them
courteous and affable, the others stiff, wooden, high-chinned, and
staring--distinctly a foreign group. They were tactless enough to
propose staying over the next day. A big crowd of excited Luxembourgers
filled the streets in the morning and gave every sign of extreme
dissatisfaction. "What were these Prussian soldiers doing there? Had
they come to spy out the land and the city in preparation for an
invasion? Was there a stray prince or duke among them who wanted to
marry the Grand Duchess? The music was over. These Kriegs-Herren had
better go home at once--at once, did they understand?" Yes, they
understood, and they went by the next train, which took them to Trier in
an hour.

It was a very trivial affair. But it seemed to throw some light on the
mentality of the German army. It also made me reflect upon the state of
mind of this little unarmed country living next door to the big military
machine and directly on the open way to France. Yet we all laughed and
joked about the incident on the way back to Holland in the train. Only
the French, German, Italian, and Belgian Ministers were not with us, for
these countries have separate missions in Luxembourg.

At The Hague everything pursued its tranquil course as usual. Golf set
in. The tulips bloomed in a sea of splendor. I strove at the footless
task of promoting the third peace conference. It was not