ears' experience has taught me that. I didn't believe it once--I
do now.'

CHAPTER VIII.

A QUESTION OF THE GUARD.

The really great strategist is not the man who loves an intricate plot.
His method is simple, he eliminates.

On a certain cold morning, when the sun shone pinkly through a sea-haze
over the glittering roofs of Revonde, a review of the Guard, and of a
few regiments that happened to be stationed within a short distance of
the capital, was to be held, in honour of the Duke's birthday, on the
spacious parade ground of the Guard, which occupied the whole of a small
plateau lying high between the beetling hills behind the barracks.

Baron von Elmur paid an early visit to the Chancellor on his way to the
review, and found M. Selpdorf, though brisk and urbane as ever, a little
difficult.

'We do not progress, Monsieur,' Elmur was saying.

'What would you, my dear Baron? we have so many obstacles in our path,'
answered the other, shrugging his shoulders good-humoredly.

Elmur leaned his elbow on the table.

'I know that delay can conduce to no good end,' he said. 'You have
agreed that a certain course is desirable no less for your country than
mine.'

'Have I agreed to that proposition? Not altogether! Remember, I cannot
be expected to see with German eyes.'

'Even to the most patriotic Maasaun it must be evident that sooner or
later the State must fall to us; it is merely a question of time.'

'The time has already been long,' said the Chancellor softly.

'For an excellent reason: because we have not always been as now, a huge
bulk. The bulk of the new Empire must by force of gravitation attract
all the smaller bodies round to itself. It is by a miracle only that
Maasau has stood alone so long.'

'And by another miracle she might go on standing alone a little longer.'

'This is not the age of miracles, my friend!'

'I remember also something which your Excellency forgets,' said
Selpdorf, with a touch of sadness in his voice, 'that there have been
Selpdorfs helping in this miracle of the independence of Maasau for
generations.'

Elmur altered his attitude with an open impatience.

'You are a far-sighted patriot, Monsieur. It is needless to repeat that
if Maasau joins the confederation of the Empire by her own act she will
do so on very different terms to any which could possibly be conceded to
a state that had forced upon us the unpleasant necessity of coercion.
Remember Frankfurt! S