So Belgium was invaded, and this terrible breach of faith on the part of the Germans shocked all neutral nations. Great Britain had been the leading Power in neutralizing Belgium, and she could not in honour desert the little country which was ready to fight to the death for its independence. Nor dared she stand by with folded arms and see France overcome. A victorious Germany in possession of Antwerp and the Channel ports of France would be in a very favourable position to attack British shores. Should Germany become master of the west of Europe, the existence of the British Empire would be in dire peril. Britain, therefore, was compelled by dictates of honour and self-preservation to declare war on Germany. This declaration of war was a great blow to Germany; it upset all her calculations. It brought into the struggle not only the greatest naval Power in the world, but the unrivalled riches and resources of the British Empire. The British army which could be sent overseas was so small as to seem negligible to the Germans; but they could not shut their eyes to the fact that the British Empire, with its 417 millions of inhabitants, could, in the course of time, array colossal forces against them. In the meantime the British could, by means of their navy, paralyze German sea-power, and sweep German commerce from the seas, and at the same time, out of the abundance of their riches, find plentiful sinews of war for their Allies. Our declaration of war was bitterly resented in Germany, and a flood of hate against all things British began to sweep over the country. [Illustration: German Soldiers leaving Berlin for the Front. An amateur artist is drawing a caricature of General Joffre on the side of the carriage.] On 2nd August Germany demanded a free passage through Belgium; it was refused, and two days later the enemy was swarming across the frontier. Within ten days the great barrier forts of Liége were crushed into shapeless ruin by shells of such explosive power that neither steel nor concrete could resist them. Within a fortnight the greater part of Belgium was in German hands. Brussels was entered and occupied, and two and a half million men were ready to fall like an avalanche on France.