“Prince, you by virtue of your rank can obtain the ear of those on whose will the programme and the results of the conference depend.”
“And you believe that I could influence that?”
“You can explain. They will listen to you. You can show what golden bridges this conference offers. You can bring it about that a peace league of rulers shall be formed.”
“Rulers are the prisoners of their armies....”
“If they do not break these chains, which also at the same time bind the peoples,—then the peoples will do it; and that would be terrible, like every deed of despair.”
“And do you believe that the armies would consent to disband?”
“Who speaks about ‘disbanding’? If the States make an alliance for one common international law, then their armies—the greatly reduced armies—will unite for the protection of the laws that affect them all in common, for defense against attacks from those that stand outside the alliance, for the maintenance of internal order, for affording aid....”
“I understand....”
“Yes, I knew that you are one who would understand. But do you understand also why I, an American, have the fate of Europe so deeply at heart; why I want to see the Old World protected from a catastrophe, why I likewise wish that its aristocratic and monarchical institutions, so long ago with us outlived, should, at least for a time, remain intact?”
“Perhaps from an artistic sense,” suggested the prince, “just as we preserve picturesque ruins.”