landing, upon which they entirely reckoned, more invading forces might easily follow through the great Calais-Dover Tunnel, which great enterprise of that time had already been nearly a score of years at work. What matter if the English fleet, in the interval, annihilated the Franco-German! The war compensation from land-subdued England would restore the loss tenfold.
The venerable field-marshal of those days tore out his remaining hairs in his utter desperation. He admitted that the country was entirely unready to oppose such a force, if the force in question were able to effect a landing; and that such force might capture London, and even overrun the best of the country, ere there was a chance of our confronting our enemies on equal terms. But he, at the same time, most clearly demonstrated, that our three millions of well-educated youth, with all the advantages of the modern arms of precision, might, with only three months military discipline, have made the whole country impregnable to any possible foe. Three months! But the Germans were to be ready in three days!
The Government, perplexed by the rapidity of events, had invited suggestions from a patriotic people, and by return of post a thousand letters lay on the desk of the anxious premier. When morning dawned on that eventful night, the dead hand was found to have grasped the five-hundreth letter; but whether it had been perused or not, like the four hundred and ninety-nine opened before it, who could tell? There was not the slightest ground to suspect suicide. All parties agreed in a magnificent funeral to the adventurous but most patriotic statesman.
