egic
railways to the Belgian frontier she betrayed the line of direction
which the potential energy was intended to take, when the burst came.
Unofficially Germany has long since proclaimed her intention to invade
Belgium; it was an "open secret."

The _denouement_ of August 4th, 1914, when Belgian neutrality was
declared a "scrap of paper,"[140] was not the inspiration of a moment,
nor a decision arrived at under the pressure of necessity, but the
result of years of military preparation and planning. It had been
carefully arranged that the boiler should pour forth its energy through
the Belgian valve.

[Footnote 140: This famous phrase was employed as far back as 1855 by a
Belgian Minister in the House of Deputies, Brussels. M. Lebeau in
pleading for greater military preparation used these words: "History has
shown what becomes of neutralities which were guaranteed, by what may be
termed a 'scrap of paper.'"]

Or to draw another comparison, it is a modern variety of the wolf and
the lamb fable, with this difference: the wolf has first of all
swallowed the lamb, and now excuses himself by asserting that the
traitorous wretch had muddied the stream.

Belgians were painfully aware of the danger threatening them, and would
have made greater efforts to protect themselves, had not their own
Social Democrats resisted every military proposal. As the matter stands
to-day, however, all the efforts which Belgium did make, are classed by
Germany as intrigues of the Triple Entente, threatening her (Germany's)
existence, and all the horrors which have fallen upon this gallant
"neutral" country the German Pecksniff designates "Belgium's
Atonement."[141] It is to be feared that sooner or later, unless
Germany's military pride and unbounded greed of her neighbour's goods
can be checked, German professors will be engaged in the scientific task
of proving that the waters of the upper Rhine are unpalatable because
the lamb residing in Holland has stirred up mud in the lower reaches of
the same river!

[Footnote 141: _Belgien's Suebne_, the title of a chapter describing the
desolation and havoc of war, in a book entitled "Mit dem Hauptquartier
nach Westen," by Heinrich Binder. Berlin, 1915.]

Belgium knew that England and France had no other interest than the
maintenance of her neutrality. Belgium saw and felt, where the storm
clouds lowered, and probably sought or accepted advice from those Powers
who wished to perpetuate both the