I think it might be
as well if I explained a little of what's back of all this trouble. Want to
listen? If you do, I'll try. And if I'm not making myself clear, ask all
the questions you like."
There was a chorus of assent. Grenfel sat in the middle, the scouts ranged
about him in a circle.
"In the first place," he began, "this Servian business is only an excuse.
I'm not defending the Servians--I'm taking no sides between Servia and
Austria. Here in England we don't care about that, because we know that if
that hadn't started the war, something else would have been found.
"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.
Pages:
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28