"Madam, I can't stand it; I won't stand it," he spoke in breathless haste. "I don't care if you kill me for saying it. This declaration of war is impossible."
"I expelled Prince Alexander from the Palace; I gave the Ambassadors from Russia, France and Germany all their passports; I recalled my Ambassadors; I declared war," she turned upon the statesman. "You, Sir Myles, have the frankness and courage to protest, and you had the loyalty to obey."
"I behaved like a madman," he cried. "The Fleet is lost, the army is perishing."
"And the nation," said Margaret, "tearing itself to pieces. See there—all that—look; those are my people murdering each other like mad beasts! What would my fathers, the Kings, have done with them? Do I love my people less than those old kings who called with the bale fires and the trumpets—To arms! To arms! Bring your swords and save England! To-night, Sir Myles, all over the length and breadth of the Kingdom, my trumpets and bugles are sounding the call to arms. The old, old patriotism—the dear love never fails. There will be no factions to-morrow, but England, Britain, the Empire, ready to fight for the flag!"
"And you a woman! Madam!"
"And I, a woman, Sir Myles. I am something come down through many centuries—flesh and bone, blood and nerves, soul, spirit, made that I may suffer for my people. I am not a statesman, not a man, but a weak, miserable woman—and I am England. I know you may think it madness to declare war with the League, having neither Fleet nor troops—I know! Come, put it to the proof. No fleet, you say? The ports are jammed with deep-sea shipping, the arsenals crowded with good aerial ships of the Fleet reserve, the country teems with yachts of the royal yacht squadrons."
"But, madam, the very Formula of the Fleets was betrayed."
"We can change the Formula now."
"But the power station is gone."
"We'll use the mercantile stations."