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50 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
also the judgment of history will be in his favour. In the
meantime Germany armed herself for the sanguinary conflict
as to the coming of which no far-sighted man could doubt.
In the end the struggle for the maintenance of peace became
hopeless. This was realised by no one better than by the
Emperor himself, and for this reason he has throughout his
reign striven to strengthen the Empire’s fighting resources on
land and water. At the present moment the fleet is riding
on the seas like a gigantic monument to the wise and clear-
eyed foresight of its creator. For it is the Emperor himself
who, in co-operation with his peerless Grand Admiral von
Tirpitz, created the floating fortresses without which
Germany’s position would have been precarious when England
came along with her declaration of war.
Wben the spark of war was kindled, Emperor William was
spending his usual summer vacation off the coast of Norway.
He went home at once—^with the same haste that brought
President Poincaré from Stockholm, where he was spending a
day after his doubtless very important visit to Petrograd.
Since then events have succeeded one another rapidly. The
little spark at Serajevo has become a conflagration which has
spread over the entire earth like a devastating prairie fire.
It was a fortunate thing for Germany and her Germanic
neighbours that she was armed to the teeth and possessed a
ruler who knew what he wanted, who wanted what was right
and beneficial to his country, and who fully realised the grave
responsibility which rested on his shoulders.
But let us return to the Great Headquarters.
Directly I arrived in Luxemburg, I was honoured with an
invitation to dine with the Emperor William the following day
at one o’clock. Most of the guests were stopping at the Hotel
Staar, and the cars were to leave there in good time. I went
with Adjutant -General, Lieutenant - General von Gontard,
Acting General a la suite. The street close to the Imperial
residence was railed off, the barriers being withdrawn by the
soldiers to let our car pass. The Emperor lived in the house of
the German Minister and had his private apartments on the
first floor. On the ground floor was the chancellerie, where
enormous maps of the theatres of war were mounted on easels,
and next to it was the dining-room, quite a small apartment.
The guests, all in field uniform, without any display, for-
gathered in the chancellerie. I myself was dressed in the most
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