ck of the war, they
suffer when they come home and see their women reduced to shadows, or go
to the cemeteries to visit the graves of their little brothers and
sisters; but the teaching of a lifetime: the omnipotence of their
sovereigns, whom they innocently believe to rule by divine right, sends
them back submissive, patient, sad. I know what you had in mind when you
brought us here to convince us that our country was not only responsible
for the war, but beaten. You hoped we would somehow bring about the
assassination of the Kaiser and the Crown Prince Ruprecht of
Bavaria--all the great generals. Is it not so? That would, assuredly,
break down the morale of the army, give it a more smashing blow than any
it has received even on the Western front. Well, it cannot be done. Even
I could not obtain a pass into Great Headquarters. You might as well
expect a British soldier to be permitted to saunter over from his lines
and make sketches of the German trenches. Those men guard
themselves--day and night, at every point--as if haunted with the fear
of assassination. Perhaps they are. And remember that the downfall of
Caesarism means the downfall not only of junkerism but of all the other
kings and Grand Dukes--who are powerful and wealthy in their own
domains. They have no doubt cursed Prussia daily since September, 1914,
but now they all sink or swim together. They will force Germany to die a
thousand deaths in the hope of a miracle that will save a class to which
the rest of poor Germany is a breeding-ground for their mighty armies. I
belong to that class. One of my brothers is on the staff of the Crown
Prince of Prussia. Take my word for it: the solution of Germany's
deliverance is not to be found in the simple antidote of political
assassination, for only men bound up in the success of the German arms,
or their terrorized creatures of our own sex, are near enough to throw
the bomb."

"It was rather a commonplace idea," said Kate, gracefully, "but what can
you do?"

"Quite aside from the women of the industrial and lower classes
generally, who have given the municipalities serious trouble with their
food riots--far more than you know about--the German women altogether
are restless and dissatisfied. They were promised a short and triumphant
war. They are daily more skeptical of promises. They have suffered death
in life. All that early exaltation--exhilaration--has gone long since.
They shut their teeth and endure because