That Government has other valuable pawns in its hands besides those I have mentioned.  It still holds a valuable part of France, though with a slowly relaxing grasp, and practically the whole of Belgium.  Its armies press close on Russia and overrun Poland.  It cannot go farther—­it dare not go back.  It wishes to close its bargain before it is too late and it has little left to offer for the pound of flesh it will demand.  The military masters under whom Germany is bleeding see very clearly to what point fate has brought them:  if they fall back or are forced back an inch, their power abroad and at home will fall to pieces.  It is their power at home of which they are thinking now more than of their power abroad.  It is that power which is trembling under their very feet.

Deep fear has entered their hearts.  They have but one chance to perpetuate their military power, or even their controlling political influence.  If they can secure peace now, with the immense advantage still in their hands, they will have justified themselves before the German people.  They will have gained by force what they promised to gain by it—­an immense expansion of German power and an immense enlargement of German industrial and commercial opportunities.  Their prestige will be secure, and with their prestige their political power.

If they fail, their people will thrust them aside.  A Government accountable to the people themselves will be set up in Germany, as has been the case in England, the United States, and France—­in all great countries of modern times except Germany.  If they succeed they are safe, and Germany and the world are undone.  If they fail, Germany is saved and the world will be at peace.  If they succeed, America will fall within the menace, and we, and all the rest of the world, must remain armed, as they will remain, and must make ready for the next step in their aggression.  If they fail, the world may unite for peace and Germany may be of the union.

Do you not now understand the new intrigue for peace, and why the masters of Germany do not hesitate to use any agency that promises to effect their purpose, the deceit of nations?  Their present particular aim is to deceive all those who, throughout the world, stand for the rights of peoples and the self-government of nations, for they see what immense strength the forces of justice and liberalism are gathering out of this war.  They are employing Liberals in their enterprises.  Let them once succeed, and these men, now their tools, will be ground to powder beneath the weight of the great military Empire; the Revolutionists of Russia will be cut off from all succour and the cooeperation of Western Europe, and a counter-revolution will be fostered and supported; Germany herself will lose her chance of freedom, and all Europe will arm for the next final struggle.