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312 SWEDISH NEUTRALITY [chap, xviii.
mathematically-correct preparation for the terrible
world-war which all Germans were expecting, and most
of them were wishing for.
I remember the effect produced during the first days
of the struggle by the noble resolution of Belgium and
her King; by the first encounters between the Belgian
Army and the invaders, by the short but sanguinary
and glorious resistance of Liege. One talked then of
the ten, or perhaps twenty, thousand men that the
Germans lost during these first fights, and said that
they could not continue to sacrifice so many men daily;
that they would exhaust themselves quickly at that rate.
If at that moment any one had foretold that eighteen
months later the Germans would still be in a position to
lose 300,000 men in a fortnight, in not taking Verdun, and
that this terrible reverse would not even constitute a
definite defeat for them; that war would continue after
that for another thirty-three months without decreasing
for an instant in intensity and horror; if, as I say, some
one had foretold such things in August, 1914, he would
have been accused of insanity. Every one felt sure that
the war could not last more than a year and a half, and
that because none of the belligerents—except perhaps
Russia—could bear such protracted tension of efforts,
such terrible cost, and such complete disturbance of all
economic and social life. Yet all the belligerents—
except just Russia—have borne these awful conditions
for four 3^ears and four months.
I must, however, admit that during the first two or
even three weeks, I had no time to consider the events
of the war either as a whole or in detail. I was too
much absorbed by the crushing task which had fallen
to the Russian Legation in Stockholm in connection
with the enormous numbers of compatriots of all
conditions who, fleeing from Germany, passed through the
Scandinavian countries in these days to get back to
their homes. I have already related how from the
morning of Sunday, 2nd August, I had found myself
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