Stenson said slowly. "We set out to fight for
democracy--your cause. That fight would be a failure if we
allowed the proudest, the most autocratic, the most conscienceless
despot who ever sat upon a throne to remain in his place."
"But that is just what we shall not do," Fenn interrupted.
"Freistner has assured us of that. The peace is not the Kaiser's
peace. It is the peace of the Socialist Party in Germany, and the
day the terms are proclaimed, democracy there will score its first
triumph."
"I find neither in the European Press nor in the reports of our
secret service agents the slightest warrant for any such
supposition," Mr. Stenson pronounced with emphasis.
"You have read Freistner's letter?" Fenn asked.
"Every word of it," the Prime Minister replied. "I believe that
Freistner is an honest man, as honest as any of you, but I think
that he is mistaken. I do not believe that the German people are
with him. I am content to believe that those signatures are
genuine. I will even believe that Germany would welcome those
terms of peace, although she would never allow them to proceed
from her own Cabinet. But I do not believe that the clash and
turmoil which would follow their publication would lead to the
overthrow of the German dynasty. You give me no proof of it,
gentlemen. You have none yourselves. And therefore I say that
you propose to work in the dark, and it seems to me that your work
may lead to an evil end. I want you to listen to me for one
moment," he went on, his face lighting up with a flash of terrible
earnestness.
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