_July 30._
It is confirmed that Warsaw has fallen! Every one is very much
depressed. What can stop the Germans? Some one speaks of the forts of
Vilna and Grodno, which are supposed to be impregnable. But what about
the forts on the Western front? What do forts amount to nowadays? The
strongest walls are razed by the Germans' big guns!
"The Germans do just as they like--nothing can stop them. In the
beginning the Kaiser said he would sleep at Warsaw," Count S---- says
gloomily.
"And he said he would dine in Paris," some one else remarks.
It is funny how much pleasure Count S---- takes in every foot of land
the Germans capture. When he talks about the war, he seems to take a
perverse pleasure in accenting their inexhaustible munitions and men and
the perfection of their whole military organization. "We have men, but
we are children." At every German victory he shakes his head. "I told
you so." "I've said from the first--" "There is no limit to what these
_cochons_ can do." He seems glad to see his prophecies come true;
probably, because he has seen his own security destroyed, he feels the
safety of the whole world shaken. A hundred times he has said: "There
isn't a foot of ground that belongs to me any more. For a man of my age
it is a terrible thing to see your life-work wiped out all of a sudden."
Only a world destruction could come up to his expectations now.
After dinner, in the drawing-room, we spoke about the fall of Warsaw.
What would the Germans do to the city? Some spoke of German
frightfulness in Belgium. Pan K---- thinks Warsaw will be treated
leniently, as Germany wishes to enlist the German sympathizers. Still,
most of the Poles in the _pension_ are horrorstricken. They see the
Germans marching through the streets, and they see the flames and
shuddering civilians. I can see the Germans' spiked helmets in the room.
"The English must start an offensive. England lets France and Russia
bleed to death before she sheds her own blood." There is much talk of
England's selfishness.
Something is wrong somewhere. Every one seems skeptical about the Duma.