THE DRAMA OF 365 DAYS
"sense of the theatre," and knows better, perhaps, than any European sovereign since Napoleon how to apply it to real life) played upon the eyes of the Italian race, always susceptible to grandiose exhibitions of power and splendour. But we cannot forget the old Austrian sore, and we remember what Antonelli is reported to have said to Pius IX before the outbreak of the campaign of 1859: "Holy Father, if the Italians do not go out to fight Austria, I believe, on my honour, the nuns will do so."
THE PART PLAYED BY ITALY
The Triple Alliance was a secret document,
but everybody knew that it required Italy to
join with Austria and Germany in the event of
their being compelled to engage in a defensive
war. Therefore the first question for Italy was
whether the war declared by Austria against
Serbia and by Germany against Belgium, although
apparently aggressive, was in reality
defensive. There was a further question for
Italy—what would happen to her if she decided
against her Allies? She did decide against
them, thereby giving the lie direct to the Harnacks,
Hauptmanns, Ballins, and von Bülows
who had been telling the neutral nations that the
war had been forced upon Germany. By all the
