“So you thought that our troops had all the best of the enemy this morning?” he said with a grave smile as he shook my hand.

“Incomparably the best of it,” I answered.

[Sidenote:  Why Venizelos is confident in the power of Greece.]

“Then perhaps you will understand why I felt so confident that the Bulgars would not have come into the war if they had known that Greece would stand by Serbia.  And you will also understand why I feel so confident that our military help to the Allies will be a very real one, perhaps enough of a one even to save Greece from herself.”

This was, I believe, the latest occasion on which M. Venizelos visited his troops at the front.  Before another fortnight had gone by the forces of the “Protecting Powers” were moving into Old Greece, and in a month Constantine had abdicated and opened the way for the return of his former Prime Minister to Athens.

[Sidenote:  The maker and Savior of Modern Greece.]

From the time of the Balkan wars of 1912-13 to the outbreak of the present one Venizelos was often referred to as “The Maker of Modern Greece.”  After this war he may well be known as “The Savior of Modern Greece”; and of the two achievements there can be no doubt that history must record that the one of “saving” was incomparably greater than the one of “making.”

[Sidenote:  What the influence of Venizelos may do.]

It is still too early to make it worth while to endeavor to forecast what is on the knees of the capricious war-gods of the Balkans, and there is no use in trying to deny that the Bulgar—­just as long as Germany has the power and will to back him up—­will take a deal of beating.  But that Venizelos will be able to make the army of reunited Greece a potently contributive factor in bringing about that devoutly-to-be-wished consummation may now be taken as assured.

Copyright, World’s Work, January, 1918.

* * * * *

We have seen in a previous narrative the difficulties which the Italians encountered in conducting their campaign against Austria.  As a result of German falsehood and propaganda, the Italian line was weakened and penetrated by a great German army, and the Italian lines were swept back.  They finally held, however, and the strength of their resistance is indicated in the following pages.

THE ITALIANS AT BAY

G. WARD PRICE

[Sidenote:  Udine as it seemed before the war.]

Udine was a typically quaint and sleepy little Italian town galvanized into unnatural life and prosperity.  Every one who has spent a week in Italy can put the picture of the place before his imagination in a moment:  streets of dark, restful, Gothic cloisters; a broad piazza flanked by a graceful loggia; remains of medieval fortification of which the towering gate-houses still narrowed each entrance to the town; a general air