“England wants peace.  And it seems that, every so often, she has to fight for it.  It was so when the Duke of Marlborough won his battles at Blenheim and Ramillies and Malplaquet.  Then France was the strongest nation in Europe.  And she tried to crush the others and dominate everything.  If she had, she would have been strong enough, after her victories, to fight us over here —­ to invade England.  So we went into that war, more than two hundred years ago, not because we hated France, but to make a real peace possible.  And it lasted a long time.

“Then, after the French revolution, there was Napoleon.  Again France, under him, was the strongest nation in Europe.  He conquered Germany, and Austria, Italy and Spain, the Netherlands.  And he tried to conquer England, so that France could rule the world.  But Nelson beat his fleet at Trafalgar —­”

“Hurrah!” interrupted Dick, carried away.  “Three cheers for Nelson!”

Grenfel smiled as the cheers were given.

“Even after Trafalgar,” he went on, “Napoleon hoped to conquer England.  He had massed a great army near Boulogne, ready to send it across the channel.  And so we took the side of the weaker nations again.  All Europe, led by England, rose against Napoleon.  And you know what happened.  He was beaten finally at Waterloo.  And so there was peace again in Europe for a long time, with no one nation strong enough to dictate to all the others.”  But then Germany began to rise.  She beat Austria, and that made her the strongest German country.  Then she beat France, in 1870, and that gave her her start toward being the strongest nation on the continent.

“And then, I believe —­ and so do most Englislmen —­ she began to be jealous of England.  She wanted our colonies.  She began, finally, to build a great navy.  For years we have had to spend great sums of money to keep our fleet stronger than hers.  And she made an alliance with Austria and Italy.  Because of that France and Russia made an alliance, too, and we had to be friendly with them.  And now it looks to me as if Germany thought she saw a chance to beat France and Russia.  Perhaps she thinks that we won’t fight, on account of the trouble in Ireland.  And what we English fear is that, if she wins, she will take Belgium and Holland.  Then she would be so close to our coasts that we would never be safe.  We would have to be prepared always for invasion.  So, you see, it seems to me that we are facing the same sort of danger we have faced before.  Only this time it is Germany, instead of France, that we shall have to fight —­ if we do fight.”

“If the Germans go through Belgium, will that mean that we shall fight?” asked Leslie Franklin.