el of one
of my Alsatian regiments!

"And do you suppose that the Belgians protested? Not a bit of it! No,
the trick is played. No longer in secret, but openly, Belgium will
play my waiting game, in the Congo and at the gates of France.

"My visit to Belgium is destined to produce such important results in
days to come, that I have neglected not the smallest detail in order to
produce a legendary impression upon Europe. Nothing have I forgotten:
costumes for each part, words, good seed sown broadcast in the public
mind, communications to the Press, advice given to sovereigns of a
nature to please the people, and elsewhere (as in England) popularity
with the military caste!

"An individual of the name of Van der Smissen, having dared to argue in
the ranks, got broken for his pains.

"At the same time, in order to cast into stronger relief the loftiness
and majesty of my countenance, I invested it, amongst these good
Belgians, with certain new features of good nature and cordiality.

"As to France, Russia's only possible ally to-day, her artless
simplicity protects me from all risks that I might otherwise run. I
shall compel her to accept the neutralisation of Alsace-Lorraine,
whenever the provinces shall have become thoroughly Germanised.

"For the present I leave England to deal with her: England who keeps
her busy with childish things, and soothes her vanity with illusory
diplomatic successes, such as the _exequatur_ of the Madagascar Consuls
(which the settled policy of the residents would have achieved in time)
and with useless concessions amidst the fogs of Lake Chad, or on the
Niger, or in regions whose possession none disputed.

"Lord Salisbury evoked much mirth, over these concessions at the Lord
Mayor's banquet, joking somewhat cynically at his own policy in
disposing of territories over which he had no rights. One country,
amongst others, given to France, has provided my good English friends
with an inexhaustible source of merriment.

"Concerning Egypt, Lord Salisbury has clearly intimated to France that
England will _never_ give it up.

"Thus, the Salisbury Ministry has still at its disposal, to keep busy
my fiery but easily duped neighbours, the Egyptian problem, with a
French Minister at Cairo, who is more of a help than a hindrance to
England; the Newfoundland question, with the Anglo-American Waddington,
more yielding for the purposes of the British Foreign Office than one
of its own agent