The Shade: It is true, Wilhelm. You have need for the pilot, nicht wahr? The glorious empire I gave is on the brink of an abyss. Colonies, commerce, shipping, armies, friends—all are gone. The isolation of England has ended in the isolation of Germany. The very cement with which I bound State by State to Prussia is crumbling to dust. Germany is sliding—soon she will be an avalanche charging to her doom. Even now there is barely time to avert the catastrophe. You dropped me. This is my revenge.
Kaiser (awakes with a start, and the Shade flees): What a fearful dream (quotes)—
"There is a tide in the affair of Nations,
Which, taken at the flood, leads God knows where."
On such a full sea are we now afloat, and we must take the current when it serves or, like our submarines, go to the bottom. I'll ring for wine....
(Rings as the curtain falls.)
Written in June, 1917.
(10) Ballad by a bombardier on night of Fall of Kut.