ree just men. I
know you will realize that my duty was to my country and to my country
alone. No one else has any claims upon me. What I have seen I have
written of. What I believe I have spoken."

"Prince," Mr. Haviland said, "there is no one here who will gainsay your
honesty. You came to judge us as a nation and you have found us wanting.
At least we can ask you why?"

The Prince sighed.

"It is hard," he said. "It is very hard. When I tell you of the things
which I have seen, remember, if you please, that I have seen them with
other eyes than yours. The conditions which you have grown up amongst
and lived amongst all your days pass almost outside the possibility of
your impartial judgment. You have lived with them too long. They have
become a part of you. Then, too, your national weakness bids your eyes
see what you would have them see."

"Go on," Mr. Haviland said, drumming idly with his fingers upon the
table.

"I have had to ask myself," the Prince continued,--"it has been my
business to ask myself what is your position as a great military power,
and the answer I have found is that as a great military power it does
not exist. I have had to ask myself what would happen to your country
in the case of a European war, where your fleet was distributed to guard
your vast possessions in every quarter of the world, and the answer to
that is that you are, to all practical purposes, defenceless. In almost
any combination which could arrange itself, your country is at the mercy
of the invader."

Bransome leaned forward in his chair.

"I can disprove it," he declared firmly. "Come with me to Aldershot next
week, and I will show you that those who say that we have no army are
ignorant alarmists. The Secretary for War shall show you our new
scheme for defensive forces. You have gone to the wrong authorities for
information on these matters, Prince. You have been entirely and totally
misled."

The Prince drew a little breath.

"Sir Edward," he said, "I do not speak to you rashly. I have not looked
into these affairs as an amateur. You forget that I have spent a week at
Aldershot, that your Secretary for War gave me two days of his valuable
time. Every figure with which you could furnish me I am already
possessed of. I will be frank with you. What I saw at Aldershot counted
for nothing with me in my decision. Your standing army is good, beyond a
doubt,--a well-trained machine, an excellent plaything for a General
to