e women had no intention of killing
these kindly Wittelsbachs if it could be avoided. All they asked of them
was to keep quiet, and keep quiet they did. After all, they had reigned
a thousand years. Perhaps they were tired. Certainly they always looked
bored to the verge of dissolution.

The Munich Socialists had taken possession of the Residenz in which to
proclaim their victory and the new Republic, and by this time were
crowding the Hofgarten and adjoining streets. They were unarmed and many
of the women moved constantly among them, ready at a second's notice to
dispose summarily of any man who even scowled his antagonism to the
downfall of monarchy.

Six hundred women, according to the prearranged program, and under
Gisela's direct supervision, were turning such outlying buildings as
commanded the highways leading toward the frontiers into fortifications.
They had little apprehension that their sons and fathers, their husbands
and lovers, would fire on the women to whom they had brought home food
from their rations these two years past, or that the General Staff would
risk the demolition of the cities of Germany. But they took no chances,
knowing that an attempt might be made to rush them. In that case they
were determined to remember only that their husbands and sons, fathers
and lovers, were bent upon their final subjection. Moreover, the term
"brain storm" had long since found its way from the United States to
Germany, and the women thought it singularly applicable to their former
masters when in a state of baffled rage.

VII

1

Mariette's communications by wireless were very brief, and on the second
day of the revolution Gisela went by special train to Berlin. It was
the King's own train, and always ready to start. The engineer and
fireman avowed themselves "friends of the revolution," but they
performed their duties with two armed women in the cab and fifty more in
the car behind the engine.

The cities through which Gisela passed, as well as the small towns and
wayside villages, presented a uniform appearance: smoking ruins in the
outlying sections which had been devoted to the war factories, and
streets deserted save for women sentries. One or two of the smaller
towns had burned, owing to lack of fire brigades. The food trains
destined for the front, which had been moved out of danger before the
general destruction, were being systematically unloaded, and a portion
of the contents doled out t