All for a Scrap of Paper Part 22

"It is an order given to his army by the Kaiser. It was sent me by a man who actually saw it. Just read it. It is the sweetest thing I have seen yet."

Bob read what has since become public property, but which was at the time but little known:--

"_It is my Royal and Imperial Command, that you concentrate your energy, for the immediate present, upon me single purpose, and that is that you address all your skill, and all the valour of my soldiers, to exterminate first the treacherous English, and walk over General French's contemptible little Army._

"HEADQUARTERS, "AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, "_August_ 19."

"Pretty, isn't it?"

Bob's heart grew hot. The arrogance, the self-glory, the mountebankism of the order aroused all the fighting spirit of the old Trelawneys.

"But they haven't done it yet, neither will they," went on the young fellow. "Thank Heaven the tables are being turned, and we are driving them back. No, by Jove, French's 'contemptible little Army' has given them something to do already. Even when the Kaiser poured the flower of his army upon them, when they were five to one at Mons, they couldn't break our ranks. Our chaps faced the fire without a squirm, and coolly told as afterwards that their shooting was rotten. For that matter I'm told by the German prisoners that but for the English they'd be in Paris before now."

"Have you talked with them?"

"Yes, I was admitted into one of the prisoners' camps. I know one of the men in authority. According to their account the soldiers themselves scarcely knew why they were fighting; but they were promised a sort of picnic. Instead of which the British gave them h.e.l.l. Oh, they have tremendous respect for us now!"

"I wonder you haven't enlisted."

"Heavens, don't I wish I could! I've tried again and again, but my eyes are bad. I have to wear tremendously powerful gla.s.ses. When are you off?"

Bob did not reply. He would have given anything to say, "To-morrow,"

but he felt as though a weight were on his tongue.

He made his way to his chambers. It was still early--not more than half-past nine. He was excited beyond measure, and it was madness to think of going to bed. What should he do?

Looking around, he saw a parcel, on which was the label of the bookseller at whose shop he had called.

"It's the books I bought," he reflected. "I can't do any law work to-night; I'll read them." Almost feverishly he untied the parcel. A few minutes later he was reading hard.

The book he opened first was _Germany and the Next War_, by General von Bernhardi. He had heard it spoken of, but had no idea of its contents.

At that time it was but little known. The publishers had just brought out a cheap edition, and although it was beginning to be talked about, the world at large was almost ignorant of it.

It has been said that on more than one occasion a speech or a book has altered the history of nations; that some of the utterances of our great statesmen have altered the destinies of an Empire. Doubtless such sayings have much truth behind them, and it would not be difficult to quote instances in proof of them. Sometimes even a song has moved a whole nation, and made what seemed impossible, an accomplished fact.

What influence had the Ma.r.s.eillaise on the French Revolution? Let French historians tell us.

When Bob opened Von Bernhardi's book, he expected to be interested, and perhaps enlightened; but he certainly did not expect it to revolutionise his thoughts.

At first he read with only half his mind. He had been greatly excited by the meeting he had attended, and for the first few minutes constantly found himself thinking rather of the speeches than of the book.

Presently, however, a sentence gripped him, and then he forgot everything else. He realised that he was reading, not simply the opinions and sentiments of a single individual, but of the ruling caste of the German Empire. As he read, he rubbed his eyes. He could not believe that he saw aright. He had expected windy vapourings, instead he found cold, reasoned statements--a kind of Machiavellian philosophy.

Hour after hour he read, regardless of time, his mind absorbing the author's arguments as a sponge sucks up water.

An hour after midnight he rose from his chair and flung the book from him as though it were something unclean.

CHAPTER XII

It is not my purpose to a.n.a.lyse the book which moved Bob so profoundly, and I am only referring to it because of its effect on his thoughts.

It must be remembered that he had been reared to regard war as something born in h.e.l.l, something which meant, in the words of the Prime Minister of England, "h.e.l.l let loose." He had never heard any one speak of it as something to be desired. At best it was only a "ghastly necessity," something which should not be resorted to until "all the resources of civilisation were exhausted."

Here, however, he found war not only gloried in, but set forth as a necessity to the well-being of nations. War was not only a necessity, it was a virtuous thing, it was the will of G.o.d, it was taught by Christ.

A score of sentences burnt like flames of fire before his eyes.

Sentences, not written in the heat of pa.s.sion, but in cold, measured terms. And they were accepted as the Gospel of Germany.

"_Without war,_" said the writer, "_inferior and decaying nations would easily choke the growth of healthy and budding elements, and universal decadence would follow. . . ._

"_It is not the possessor, but the victor who has the right. . . ._

"_Might is at once the supreme right_, AND THE DISPUTE AS TO WHAT IS RIGHT IS SETTLED BY THE ARBITRAMENT OF WAR. . . .

"_Reflection shows that not only is war an unqualified necessity, but that it is justifiable from every point of view. . . ._

"_If we sum up our arguments, we shall see that from the most opposite aspects the efforts directed towards the abolition of war must not only be termed foolish, but_ ABSOLUTELY IMMORAL, _and must be stigmatised as unworthy of the human race. . . ._

"_According to peace treaties, 'the weak nation is to have the same right to live as the powerful and vigorous nation.' . . . this is absolutely immoral. . . ._

"_Efforts for peace would, if they attained their goal, not merely lead to general degeneration, but would have a damaging and unnerving effect. . . ._

"_Every means must be employed to oppose those who work for peace. . . ._"

As Bob came to this last pa.s.sage, he understood why the German soldiers entered the Peace Convention in Berlin and broke it up by force of arms. He felt that the Germans lived in a different world from that in which other nations lived. What to him was a duty, was to them a crime. What to him was the goal of every Christian and humane man, was to the German something to be destroyed root and branch. They lived in different worlds, worshipped a different G.o.d. Christianity was not the same thing to them as to us. We had no common ground on which to meet.

He understood now why the Hague Conference was a failure. Germany had made it a failure. What other nations longed for, they discarded with scorn.

They had an utterly different religion. In spite of whatever militarism there might be in England, the people believed in and worshipped the Prince of Peace. In Germany Christ was crucified, and in his place was set up a WAR G.o.d before which they fell down and which they adored. All the policy of the Empire was directly controlled by this War G.o.d, and they could not understand being governed by any other power.

It was all overwhelming, bewildering. This Gospel of the Germans completely revolutionised his whole intellectual outlook. The idea of living at peace with such a people was impossible. One might as well think of living at peace with a mad dog. They had no common morality to which one could appeal. One could not appeal in the Name of the Prince of Peace, because to them the Gospel of Peace was immoral.

Then the arrogance of their Creed was revolting. This man Bernhardi, and Treitschke, and Nietzsche, and the rest of them lived, and acted on one a.s.sumption. They compressed their thoughts into a syllogism:

The people with the highest civilisation and the highest culture should become dominant throughout the world.

Germany had the highest civilisation, and boasted the highest culture.

Therefore Germany had the right, and not only the right, but the duty to make war in order that Germany might be dominant. Of course she must wait for a favourable opportunity, and when that opportunity came, she must make war regardless of all the misery and bloodshed that it must cause.

"The great Elector," said Bernhardi, "laid the foundations of Prussia's power by deliberately incurred wars."

In the light of all this Bob called to mind the German Emperor's speech to his soldiers when on their way to the front.

"_Remember that the German people are the chosen of G.o.d. On me, on me as the German Emperor, the Spirit of G.o.d has descended. I am His weapon, his sword, and his vizard. Woe to the disobedient! Death to the cowards and unbelievers!_"

It would be laughable if it were not so terrible.