Here at least we can salute the vanquished.  Admiral von Spee, who went down
with his doomed squadron, was a gallant and chivalrous antagonist, like
Captain Mueller, of the Emden.  Germany’s retort, eight days later, by
bombarding Scarborough and Whitby, reveals the normal Hun: 
  Come where you will—­the seas are wide;
    And choose your Day—­they’re all alike;
  You’ll find us ready when we ride
    In calm or storm and wait to strike;
  But—­if of shame your shameless Huns
    Can yet retrieve some casual traces—­
  Please fight our men and ships and guns,
    Not womenfolk and watering places.

Austria’s “punitive expedition” has ended in disaster for the Austrians.  They entered Belgrade on the 2nd, and were driven out twelve days later by the Serbs.  King George has paid his first visit to the front, and made General Foch a G.C.B.  We know that the General is a great authority on strategy, and that his name, correctly pronounced, rhymes with Boche, as hero with Nero.  He is evidently a man likely to be heard of again.  Another hitherto unfamiliar name that has cropped up is that of Herr Lissauer, who, for writing a “Hymn of Hate” against England, has been decorated by the Kaiser.  This shows true magnanimity on the part of the Kaiser, in his capacity of King of Prussia, since the “Hymn of Hate” turns out to be a close adaptation of a poem composed by a Saxon patriot, in which Prussia, not England, was held up to execration.

Kitchener’s great improvisation is already bearing fruit, and the New Armies are flocking to the support of the old.  Indian troops are fighting gallantly in three continents.  King Albert “the unconquerable,” in the narrow strip of his country that still belongs to him, waits in unshaken faith for the coming of the dawn.  And as Christmas draws on the thoughts of officers and men in the waterlogged trenches turn fondly homeward to mothers, wives and sweethearts: 

  Cheer up!  I’m calling far away;
    And wireless you can hear. 
  Cheer up!  You know you’d have me stay
  And keep on trying day by day;
    We’re winning, never fear.

Christmas at least brings the children’s truce, and that is something to be thankful for, but it is not the Christmas that we knew and long for: 

ON EARTH—­PEACE

  No stir of wings sweeps softly by;
    No angel comes with blinding light;
  Beneath the wild and wintry sky
    No shepherds watch their flocks to-night.

  In the dull thunder of the wind
    We hear the cruel guns afar,
  But in the glowering heavens we find
    No guiding, solitary star.

  But lo! on this our Lord’s birthday,
    Lit by the glory whence she came,
  Peace, like a warrior, stands at bay,
    A swift, defiant, living flame!

  Full-armed she stands in shining mail,
    Erect, serene, unfaltering still,
  Shod with a strength that cannot fail,
    Strong with a fierce o’ermastering will.