hat I find incredible even
now. But American and other neutral observers who have seen these
things in France and especially in Belgium now convince me that the
Germans have perpetrated some of the most barbarous deeds in
history. Apparently credible persons relate such things without
end.

Those who have violated the Belgian treaty, those who have sown
torpedoes in the open sea, those who have dropped bombs on Antwerp
and Paris indiscriminately with the idea of killing whom they may
strike, have taken to heart Bernhardi's doctrine that war is a
glorious occupation. Can any one longer disbelieve the completely
barbarous behaviour of the Prussians?

PAGE.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 61: At this time American military attache.]

[Footnote 62: The American Government, on the outbreak of war, sent the
U.S.S. _Tennessee_ to Europe, with large supplies of gold for the relief
of stranded Americans.]

[Footnote 63: The late Augustus P. Gardner, of Massachusetts.]

[Footnote 64: The materials on which this account is based are a
memorandum of the interview made by Sir Edward Grey, now in the archives
of the British Foreign Office, a similar memorandum made by Page, and a
detailed description given verbally by Page to the writer.]

[Footnote 65: Colonel House, of course, is again referring to his
experience in Berlin and London, described in the preceding chapter.]

[Footnote 66: Richard Olney, Secretary of State in the Cabinet of
President Cleveland, who was a neighbour of Colonel House at his summer
home, and with whom the latter apparently consulted.]

[Footnote 67: This is the bill passed soon after the outbreak of war
admitting foreign built ships to American registry. Subsequent events
showed that it was "full of lurking dangers."]

CHAPTER XI

ENGLAND UNDER THE STRESS OF WAR

The months following the outbreak of the war were busy ones for the
American Embassy in London. The Embassies of all the great Powers with
which Great Britain was contending were handed over to Page, and the
citizens of these countries--Germany, Austria, Turkey--who found
themselves stranded in England, were practically made his wards. It is a
constant astonishment to his biographer that, during all the labour and
distractions of this period, Page should have found time to write long
letters describing the disturbing scene. There are scores of them, all
penned in the beaut