Such were the Kaiser's words, breathed into the {200} ear of the world to conceal the result of Jutland, if this might be done; and hardly was the armistice signed before they were openly given the lie by one of Germany's leading authorities. After the Battle of Jutland, said Captain Persius, so shattering had been its results for the German navy, it had at once become clear to all thinking men that no second engagement must be risked; and, even at the time, it soon began to be suspected by the rest of the world that this was the truth. As for the Grand Fleet itself it was content to wait. It knew that it had won, and it had long learned patience. Let the Kaiser harangue. To-morrow would come, and, with to-morrow, the truth would out. Meanwhile it rode the seas on its accustomed ways, while, behind its shield, and beneath its pressure, the armies of freedom poured into Europe, and the strength of Germany continued to crumble. {201} CHAPTER IX THE DOVER PATROL The kings and the presidents go their ways, Their armies march behind them, But where would they be, Said the man from the sea, Without us Jacks to mind them? It is seldom possible, during the course of a war, to appraise the ultimate value of any single action; and it was only by slow degrees, as we have suggested, that the results of Jutland were to become visible. Not until the very end was it fully to appear that the enemy's capital surface ships had been so hammered and cowed as to have freed the seas of them with a finality equalled by no other naval fight in history. Presently, as we shall show, that proved to be the case; and, from now onward, he relied upon his submarines--it was early in 1917 that these reached their high-water mark of mercantile destruction--and occasional tip-and-run raids on the part of his destroyers based upon Zeebrugge and Ostend. With regard to the submarine campaign, this was the most serious menace the Admiralty had been required to face; and it was to take charge of the grave situation, created by its initial success, that Sir John Jellicoe, to the sorrow of the Fleet and with {202} much personal regret, was called to the Admiralty as First Sea Lord in succession to Sir Henry Jackson. This able officer had succeeded Lord Fisher on the latter's resignation in May, 1915--when the Gallipoli campaign had seemed to him finally to have made an end of his alternative policy--Mr. Balfour having become First Lord in the Coalition Government formed at the same time. In Admiral Beatty, however, both the navy and the nation felt that the Grand Fleet would be in capable hands--the changes taking place after friendly discussion between the officers concerned, in the _Iron Duke_--and Sir John Jellicoe returned to Whitehall to deal with as perilous a crisis as had ever faced the empire.