m London and Paris came proposals for conference, for
arbitration, with welcome for any suggestion from the other side which
might lead to a peaceful solution of the disputed demands, already
recognised by Europe as a firebrand wantonly flung into the midst
of dangerous and inflammable material. Over that burning firebrand,
preventing and warding off all the eager hands that were stretched to
put it out, stood the figure of the nation at whose bidding it had been
flung there.

Gradually, out of the thunder-clouds and gathering darkness, vaguely at
first and then in definite and menacing outline, emerged the inexorable,
flint-like face of Germany, whose figure was clad in the shining armour
so well known in the flamboyant utterances of her War Lord, which had
been treated hitherto as mere irresponsible utterances to be greeted
with a laugh and a shrugged shoulder. Deep and patient she had always
been, and now she believed that the time had come for her patience to
do its perfect work. She had bided long for the time when she could
best fling that lighted brand into the midst of civilisation, and she
believed she had calculated well. She cared nothing for Servia nor for
her ally. On both her frontiers she was ready, and now on the East
she heeded not the remonstrance of Russia, nor her sincere and cordial
invitation to friendly discussion. She but waited for the step that she
had made inevitable, and on the first sign of Russian mobilisation she,
with her mobilisation ready to be completed in a few days, peremptorily
demanded that it should cease. On the Western frontier behind the
Rhine she was ready also; her armies were prepared, cannon fodder in
uncountable store of shells and cartridges was prepared, and in endless
battalions of men, waiting to be discharged in one bull-like rush, to
overrun France, and holding the French armies, shattered and dispersed,
with a mere handful of her troops, to hurl the rest at Russia.

The whole campaign was mathematically thought out. In a few months at
the outside France would be lying trampled down and bleeding; Russia
would be overrun; already she would be mistress of Europe, and prepared
to attack the only country that stood between her and world-wide
dominion, whose allies she would already have reduced to impotence.
Here she staked on an uncertainty: she could not absolutely tell what
England's attitude would be, but she had the strongest reason for hoping
that, distracted by t