"Madam, if we are caught here in London, it means surrender."
"London, then, is a trap?"
"A perfect death-trap."
"A perfect death-trap." Margaret repeated the words doubtfully; then, like a flash—"If any army is caught in London, it means surrender!"
"Good gracious, madam!" exclaimed the Commander-in-Chief.
"Let me feel my way—perhaps it is nonsense. A million people are being shelled—murdered in the East End. Suppose we clear the East End—here, see on this map—from Stratford say, to Aldgate. I could send the women and children to Windsor Forest—they need a holiday, poor things. Any way we could spare that district to the Germans. Then there's the City and this West-Central district up to Charing Cross—a heap of ruins. We could spare all that to the Germans—enough room for them to lose their whole army. They would rush in to capture our main positions on the Hampstead and Sydenham Hills. They would find themselves in a low valley blocked with ruins, under the fire of a thousand guns, every line of escape blocked by our barricades, the river on their left too broad to swim. Then they would try to get back to their camps—and find their camps fortified with their own guns against them!"
"Madam!"
"My lord, have these Germans any mercy on my poor women and children? I want to capture their army."
"We couldn't possibly feed two hundred thousand prisoners."
"I want no prisoners, I want rifles for my reserves, Lord Fortescue, rifles and powder, and all the provisions in the German camps. As to the——"