Europe has not forgotten. She is busy for the moment setting her own house in order for the supreme conflict which her leaders foresee with the advance of the dangerous heresy of people claiming the right to govern themselves.
The Emperor of Germany sounds the keynote in an address to his magnificent army—The Divine Right of Kings was never so boldly proclaimed by any ruler of the world. He speaks the last word of Imperial Culture to Modern Democracy:
“We Hohenzollerns hold our crown from God alone. Who opposes me I shall crush to pieces!”
The American Republic is but a lusty youth of untried strength among the nations of earth. The real battle between the Crown and the People for the mastery of the world is yet to be fought. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty today as yesterday and forever.
CHAPTER I
THE liveried flunkey entered the stately library and bowed:
“You rang, sir?”
He scarcely breathed the words. In every tone spoke the old servile humility of the creature in the presence of his creator the King. He might have said, “Sire.” His voice, his straight-set eyes, his bowed body, did say it.
His master continued the conversation with the two men without lifting his head. He merely flung the order with studied carelessness:
“Lights, Otto—the table only.”