I have said that Armageddon was instigated by the German War Party. In substantiation of that charge let me narrate a bit of unrecorded history. About four o’clock of the afternoon of July 25--the day of orgy in Berlin above described--the Austrian Foreign Office in Vienna issued a confidential intimation to various persons accustomed to be favored with such communications that the Serbian reply to the ultimatum had arrived and was satisfactory. It did not succumb in respect of every demand put forth by Austria, but it was sufficiently groveling to insure peace. Foreign newspaper correspondents, to several of whom the information was supplied, learned, when they applied at their own Embassies for confirmation, that the latter, too, had been formally acquainted with the fact that Serbia’s concessions were far-reaching enough to guarantee a bloodless settlement of the ugly crisis. Vienna breathed a long, sincere sigh of relief. She had feared the worst from the moment Count Berchtold dispatched _the Berlin-dictated ultimatum_ to Belgrade; but the worst was over now. Serbian penitence had saved Austrian face. While correspondents were busily preparing their telegrams, which were to flash all over the world the welcome tidings that war had been averted, though only by a hair’s breadth, the Austrian Foreign Office was telephoning to the Foreign Office in Berlin the text of Serbia’s reply. A certain journalist was on his way to the telegraph office to "file" his "story." The editor of a great Vienna newspaper, a friend, intercepted him. "Well, what are you saying?" the editor inquired. "That it’s peace, after all," replied the correspondent. "It _was_ peace," said the editor sadly, "but meantime Berlin has spoken." * * * * *