And what stretch of land necessary for the German people, or useful in the real sense of the word, could France or even Russia vacate for us in Europe?  To be “unassailable”—­to exchange the soul of a Viking for that of a New Yorker, that of the quick pike for that of the lazy carp whose fat back grows moss covered in a dangerless pond—­that must never become the wish of a German.  And for the securing of more comfortable frontier protection only a madman would risk the life that is flourishing in power and wealth.  Now we know what the war is for—­not for French, Polish, Ruthenian, Esthonian, Lettish territories, nor for billions of money; not in order to dive headlong after the war into the pool of emotions and then allow the chilled body to rust in the twilight dusk of the Deliverer of Races.

No!  To hoist the storm flag of the empire on the narrow channel that opens and locks the road into the ocean.  I could imagine Germany’s war lord, if, after Ostend, Calais, too, is captured, sending the armies and fleets back home from the east and front the west, and quietly saying to our enemies: 

“You now have felt what Germany’s strength and determination can do, and hereafter you will probably weigh the matter well before you venture to attack us.  Of you Germany demands nothing further.  Not even reimbursement for its expenses in this war—­for those it is reimbursed by the wholesale terror which it evoked all around in the Autumn battles.  Do you want anything of us?  We shall never refuse a challenge to a quarrel.  We shall remain in the Belgian netherland, to which we shall add the thin strip of coast up to the rear of Calais, (you Frenchmen have enough better harbors, anyway;) we terminate, of our own accord, this war which, now that we have safeguarded our honor, can bring us no other gains; we now return to the joy of fruitful work, and will grasp the sword again only if you attempt to crowd us out of that which we have won with our blood.  Of a solemn peace conference, with haggling over terms, parchment, and seal, we have no need.  The prisoners are to be freed.  You can keep your fortresses if they do not seem to you to be worthless, if the rebuilding of them still seems worth while to you.  Tomorrow is again a common day.”

Do not lapse into dreams about United States of Europe, about mild-intentioned division of the Coburg heritage, (a bit of it to Holland, a bit to Luxemburg, perhaps even a bit to France.  Any one with even the slightest nobility of feeling would reject the proffered dish of poison with a gesture of disgust,) nor be lulled into delusions of military and tax conventions that would deprive the country of its free right of determining its own destiny.