The object of the Kaiser was achieved--the quarrel between Austria and Russia was now likely to provoke a European war. Our Foreign Minister, Sir Edward Grey, worked night and day to bring the estranged Powers to peaceful agreement, and he so far succeeded that on the 30th July Austria showed signs of drawing back. At once the Kaiser saw that all his hopes were likely to be shattered. That same evening he took steps which made war certain. He ordered Russia to cease all warlike preparations within twelve hours, and France within eighteen hours. Before France had returned an answer to this impudent demand, his Uhlans were over her border. The Germans began the campaign absolutely certain of victory. While all the talk of peace was going on, their General Staff was poring over maps of the future battlefields. France was to be overwhelmed by a mighty rush; she was to be beaten to the ground before her armies could be marshalled in strength. Short, sharp, and sudden was to be the blow; and when France lay at her conqueror's feet, the victorious legions would be entrained for the eastern front in sufficient time to meet the slow-moving Russians, who could be easily held up by the Austrians until the main German armies were free to assail them. The Germans believed that when Russia found herself alone in the struggle some arrangement could be made with her so that thenceforth she would not stand in the way of their ambitious schemes. Such was the plan of campaign, and it will readily be seen that any long delay in invading and subduing France would enable the Russian millions to be arrayed on the eastern frontier, and to carry war into Germany and Austria. Consequently, no time was available in which to besiege the barrier fortresses on the eastern frontier of France, and to push through the difficult country behind them. The quickest and easiest route to the heart of France had to be taken, and that lay through the Belgian plain, which was so well supplied with railways that food and munitions from the German bases could readily reach the invading armies as they pushed forward. Belgium, it was true, had been guaranteed freedom from invasion by a treaty to which Prussia was a party; but in the opinion of the German Government military necessity overrode all such engagements and reduced them to mere "scraps of paper." Belgium, it was thought, would make little or no resistance. She had but few trained soldiers, and these were ill-equipped. She had powerful fortresses on her frontier, but there were not enough men to garrison them properly, and there was a grave lack of ammunition for the guns. Even if the fortresses did resist, the Germans were prepared with a plan to deal with them.