Part 26 (1/2)
”Lord Whittinghame and Lord Kitchener, with Mr Lennard, I presume?”
”Yes, that's so,” said Lord Kitchener, opening the side door and getting out. ”Colonel von Folkerstrom, I believe. I think we've met before. You were His Majesty's _attache_ with us during the Boer War, I think. This is Lord Whittinghame, and this is Mr Lennard. Is His Majesty within?”
”His Majesty awaits you, gentlemen,” replied the Colonel, formally. And then as he shook hands with Lord Kitchener he added, ”I am sorry, sir, that we should meet as enemies on English soil.”
”Just the fortune of war and those d.a.m.ned airs.h.i.+ps of yours, Colonel,”
laughed Lord Kitchener in reply. ”If we'd had them this meeting might have been in Berlin or Potsdam. Can't fight against those things, you know. We're only human.”
”But you English are just a little more, I think,” said the Colonel to himself. ”Gottes willen! What would my August Master be thinking now if this was in Berlin instead of Canterbury, and here are these Englishmen taking it as quietly as though an invasion of England happened every day.” And when he had said this to himself he continued aloud:
”My lords and Mr Lennard, if you will follow me I will conduct you into His Majesty's presence.”
They followed the Colonel upstairs to the first floor. Two sentries in the uniform of the 1st Regiment of Cuira.s.siers were guarding the door: their bayoneted rifles came up to the present, the Colonel answered the salute, and they dropped to attention. The Colonel knocked at the door and a harsh voice replied:
”Herein.”
The door swung open and Lennard found himself for the first but not the last time in the presence of the War Lord of Germany.
”Good-evening, gentlemen,” said the Kaiser. ”You will understand me when I say I am both glad and sorry to see you.”
”Your Majesty,” replied Lord Whittinghame, in a curiously serious tone, ”the time for human joy and sorrow is so fast expiring that almost everything has ceased to matter, even the invasion of England.”
The Kaiser's brows lifted, and he stared in frank astonishment at the man who could say such apparently ridiculous words so seriously. If he had not known that he was talking to the late Prime Minister, and the present leader of the Unionist party in the House of Lords, he would have thought him mad.
”Those are very strange words, my lord,” he replied. ”You will pardon me if I confess that I can hardly grasp their meaning.”
”If your Majesty has an hour to spare,” said Lord Whittinghame, ”Mr Lennard will make everything perfectly plain. But what he has to say, and what he can prove, must be for your Majesty's ears alone.”
”Is it so important as that?” laughed the Kaiser.
”It is so important, sire,” said Lord Kitchener, ”that the fate of the whole world hangs upon what you may say or do within the next hour. So far, you have beaten us, because you have been able to bring into action engines of warfare against which we have been unable to defend ourselves. But now, there is another enemy in the field, against which we possess the only means of defence. That is what we have come to explain to your Majesty.”
”Another enemy!” exclaimed the Kaiser, ”but how can that be. There are no earthly powers left sufficiently strong that we would be powerless against them.”
”This is not an earthly enemy, your Majesty,” replied Lennard, speaking for the first time since he had entered the room. ”It is an invader from s.p.a.ce. To put it quite plainly, the terms which we have come to offer your Majesty are: Cessation of hostilities for six months, withdrawal of all troops from British soil, universal disarmament, and a pledge to be entered into by all the Powers of Europe and the United States of America that after the 12th of May next there shall be no more war. Your fleets have been destroyed as well as ours, your armies are here, but they cannot get away, and so we are going to ask you to surrender.”
”Surrender!” echoed the Kaiser, ”surrender, when your country lies open and defenceless before us? No, no. Lord Whittinghame and Lord Kitchener I know, but who are you, sir--a civilian and an unknown man, that you should dictate peace to me and my Allies?”
”Only a man, your Majesty,” said Lord Whittinghame, ”who has convinced the British Cabinet Council that he holds the fate of the world in the hollow of his hands. Are you prepared to be convinced?”
”Of what?” replied the Kaiser, coldly.
”That there will be no world left to conquer after midnight on the 12th of May next, or to put it otherwise, that unless our terms are accepted, and Mr Lennard carries out his work, there will be neither victors nor vanquished left on earth.”
”Gentlemen,” replied the Kaiser, ”you will pardon me when I say that I am surprised beyond measure that you should have come to me with a schoolboy's tale like that. The eternal order of things cannot be interrupted in such a ridiculous fas.h.i.+on. Again, I trust you will forgive me when I express my regret that you should have wasted so much of your own time and mine on an errand which should surely have appeared to you fruitless from the first.
”Whoever or whatever this gentleman may be,” he continued with a wave of his hand towards Lennard, ”I neither know nor care; but that yourself and Lord Kitchener should have been deceived so grossly, I must confess pa.s.ses the limits of my imagination. Frankly, I do not believe in the possibility of such proofs as you allude to. As regards peace, I propose to discuss terms with King Edward in Windsor--not before, nor with anyone else. Gentlemen, I have other matters to attend to, and I have the honour to bid you good-evening.”