he replied:

"Pan-America, perhaps, and China, with the blacks of Abyssinia," he
said. "Those who did not fight were the only ones to reap any of the
rewards that are supposed to belong to victory. The combatants reaped
naught but annihilation. You have seen--better than any man you must
realize that there was no victory for any nation embroiled in that
frightful war."

"When did it end?" I asked him.

Again he shook his head. "It has not ended yet. There has never been
a formal peace declared in Europe. After a while there were none left
to make peace, and the rude tribes which sprang from the survivors
continued to fight among themselves because they knew no better
condition of society. War razed the works of man--war and pestilence
razed man. God give that there shall never be such another war!"

You all know how Porfirio Johnson returned to Pan-America with John
Alvarez in chains; how Alvarez's trial raised a popular demonstration
that the government could not ignore. His eloquent appeal--not for
himself, but for me--is historic, as are its results. You know how a
fleet was sent across the Atlantic to search for me, how the
restrictions against crossing thirty to one hundred seventy-five were
removed forever, and how the officers were brought to Peking, arriving
upon the very day that Victory and I were married at the imperial court.

My return to Pan-America was very different from anything I could
possibly have imagined a year before. Instead of being received as a
traitor to my country, I was acclaimed a hero. It was good to get back
again, good to witness the kindly treatment that was accorded my dear
Victory, and when I learned that Delcarte and Taylor had been found at
the mouth of the Rhine and were already back in Pan-America my joy was
unalloyed.

And now we are going back, Victory and I, with the men and the
munitions and power to reclaim England for her queen. Again I shall
cross thirty, but under what altered conditions!

A new epoch for Europe is inaugurated, with enlightened China on the
east and enlightened Pan-America on the west--the two great peace
powers whom God has preserved to regenerate chastened and forgiven
Europe. I have been through much--I have suffered much, but I have won
two great laurel wreaths beyond thirty. One is the opportunity to
rescue Europe from barbarism, the other is a little barbarian, and the
greater of these is--Victory.

End of