Boy Scout. "'Xcuse me, mum. 'Av yer seen any Germans about 'ere?"
Sir.—This comes to you from France. Hospitably received and nobly treated by the great and chivalrous French nation I must yet remember that I am an exile on a foreign soil, that my country has been laid waste and that my people, so laborious, so frugal and so harmless, have seen their homes destroyed and have themselves been driven ruthlessly forth to cold and hunger and despair.
Yes, your designs on Belgium have been accomplished—for the time. A people of sixty-five millions has prevailed against a people of seven millions; a great army has overwhelmed a little army; careful schemes long since prepared have outmatched a trustfulness which you and your Ministers fostered in order that in the dark you might be able to strike a felon's blow with safety to yourself. No considerations of honour hindered you. Indeed, I do not know how I can bring myself to mention that word to one who has acted as you have acted. IF I do so it is in order that I may tell you that for an Emperor (or any other man) to be honourable it is not enough that he should have great possessions, glittering silver armour, and armies obedient to their War Lords's commands. It is not enough that he should make resounding speeches and call God to witness that he is His friend. It is not even enough that he should succeed in carrying through his plans, and earn the applause of those flatterers who, agreeing with you, believe that an Emperor crowned with success and capable of bestowing favours can do no wrong. No, there must be something more than this. What that something is I will not discuss with you. To do so would be useless, for, since you will never possess it, you can never satisfy yourself that I am right.
And even in regard to this "Success" with which you comfort yourself are you so perfectly sure of it? How do you feel when you call von Moltke to you and question him about the progress of the war?
"How goes it," you say to him, "in the East?"
"We hope," he replies. "to hold the Russians in check, but they are very numerous and very brave."
"Presumptuous villains! And in the West?"
"In the West the French and English," he says, "still bear up against us. They have thrust us back day after day."
"May they perish! But, at any rate, there is Belgium. Yes, we have crushed Belgium and taught the Belgians what it means to defy our Majesty." And von Moltke, no doubt, will murmur something that may pass for approval and will withdraw from the conference.
I believe you admire Shakspeare. Do you remember what Macbeth says?
"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly: if th' assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
Will his sercease, success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here."
But that it cannot be. Blows have their consequences, immediate and remote. You first, and then your memory, will be stained to all generations by this deed of treachery and blood. How have your excused it? "With necessity, the tyrant's plea." You had to hack your way through, you said, and it was on mypeople that your battle-axe fell. So when Louvain was burnt and its inhabitants were shot down you assured the President of the United States that your heart bled for what "necessity" had ofrced you to do. President Wilson is a man of high principles and deep feelings. I wonder how he looked and how he felt when he read your whimpering appeal.
You have destroyed Belgium, but Belgium will rise again; and, even if fate should ordain that Belgium is to be for ever wiped away, so long as one Belgian is left alive there will be a heart to execrate you and a voice to denounce your deeds.
