(_Herr MICHAELIS: Marshal VON HINDENBURG_.)
_Herr M._ Good morning, my dear Marshal. I am glad we have been able
to arrange a meeting, for there are certain points I wish to settle
with you.
_Von H._ I am, as always, at your Excellency's service; only I beg
that the interview may not be prolonged beyond what is strictly
needful. Time presses, and much remains to be done everywhere.
_Herr M._ But I have the commands of the ALL-HIGHEST to speak with you
on some weighty matters. He himself, as you know, has several speeches
to make to-day.
_Von H._ Oh, those speeches! How well I know them. I could almost make
them myself if I wanted to make speeches, which, God be thanked, I do
not need to do.
_Herr M._ No, indeed. Your reputation rests on foundations firmer than
speeches.
_Von H._ You yourself, Excellency, have lately discovered how
fallacious a thing is a speech, even where the speaker honestly tries
to do his best to please everybody.
_Herr M._ You are very kind, my dear Marshal, to speak thus of my
humble effort. The result of it has certainly disappointed me.
_Von H._ What was it that LEDEBOUR said of it? Did he not describe it
as "a political hocus-pocus"? Such men ought to be at once taken out
and shot. But we Prussians have always been too gentle in our methods.
_Herr M._ We have. It is perhaps our only fault; but this time we must
see that we correct it. In any case, to be so misunderstood is most
painful, especially when one has employed all one's tact.
_Von H._ Ah, tact. That is what you are celebrated for, is it not?
_Herr M._ HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY has more than once been graciously
pleased to compliment me upon it. And he, if anyone, is a judge of
tact, is he not?
_Von H._ I have not myself any knowledge of it, so I cannot say for
certain. Does it perhaps mean what you do when you entirely forget in
one speech what you have said or omitted to say in a previous speech?
_Herr M._ (_aside_). The old fellow is not, after all, so
thick-skulled as I thought him. (_Aloud_) I will not ask you to
discuss this subject any more, but will proceed to lay before you the
commands of HIS MAJESTY.
_Von H._ I shall be glad to hear them.
_Herr M._ Well, then, to cut the matter as short as possible, HIS
MAJESTY insists that there shall be a victory on the Western Front.
_Von H._ A victory?
_Herr M._ Yes, a victory. A real one, mind, not a made-up affair like
the capture of Langemarck, which, though it was certainly captured,
was not captured by us, but by the accursed English. May Heaven
destroy them!
_Von H._ But it was by HIS MAJESTY'S orders that we announced the
capture of Langemarck.
_Herr M._ I know; but he is graciously pleased to forget that, and to
desire a genuine victory now.
_Von H._ Tell him I cannot promise. We have done our best at Verdun,
at Lens and at Ypres, but we have had to retreat everywhere. Our turn
may come another time, but, as I say, I cannot promise.
_Herr M._ Please go on doing your best. It is so annoying and
temper-spoiling for HIS MAJESTY to make so many speeches of a fiery
kind, and never to have a victory--at least not a real one for which
Berlin can hang out flags. Besides, if we don't get a victory how
shall we ever get a good German peace? And peace we _must_ have, and
that very soon.
_Von H._ Don't talk to me of peace. War is my business, not peace;
and if I am to carry on war there must be no interference. If the
ALL-HIGHEST does not like that, let him take the chief command
himself.
_Herr M._ God forbid!
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