Produced by Al Haines. [Illustration: Cover] [Illustration: Ambassador Gerard.] THE ASSAULT Germany Before the Outbreak and England in War-Time _A Personal Narrative_ By FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE Author of "Men Around the Kaiser" ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS AND FACSIMILES OF DOCUMENTS AND CARTOONS INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT 1916 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PRESS OF BRAUNWORTH & CO. BOOK MANUFACTURERS BROOKLYN, N. Y. _To_ AMBASSADOR AND MRS. GERARD LIFE-SAVERS IN GRATITUDE INTRODUCTION This is not a "war book." It has not been my privilege at any stage of the Great Blood-Letting to come into close contact with the spectacular clash and din of the fray. Abler pens than mine, many of them wielded by the "neutral" hands of American colleagues, are immortalizing the terrible, yet irresistibly fascinating, scenes of this most stupendous drama. But every drama has its scenario and its prologue and its behind-the-curtain scenes--none ever written was so rich in these preliminaries and accessories as is Europe’s epic. To have witnessed and lived through some of these was vouchsafed me; and to take American readers with me down the line of the past year’s recollections and impressions is the sole object of this unpretentious effort. History, Carlyle said, was some one’s record of personal experiences. To such experiences, as far as possible, the pages of this book are confined.