No, no, the Kaiser did not know, he could not know! But this must have been because of the law of the land, and the Kaiser must be cognisant of it.
As he entered the door of the building where his chambers were, he saw a young fellow whom he knew slightly.
"I say, have you seen this, Nancarrow?" he said.
"What is it?"
"It is an order given to his army by the Kaiser. It was sent me by a man who actually saw it. Just read it. It is the sweetest thing I have seen yet."
Bob read what has since become public property, but which was at the time but little known:—
"It is my Royal and Imperial Command, that you concentrate your energy, for the immediate present, upon me single purpose, and that is that you address all your skill, and all the valour of my soldiers, to exterminate first the treacherous English, and walk over General French's contemptible little Army.
"HEADQUARTERS,
"AIX-LA-CHAPELLE,
"August 19."
"Pretty, isn't it?"
Bob's heart grew hot. The arrogance, the self-glory, the mountebankism of the order aroused all the fighting spirit of the old Trelawneys.