KAISER: To fall back to a line we can hold for years--to prove to our enemies that at the rate of their advance it will take them two years to get into Germany, which extra effort will not mean so much gain to them more than they have at present--but the expenditure of millions of lives and double their war debt. That being so, we win. And now (_rising_) it is my royal wish to distinguish this occasion by conferring on you a Grand Duchy of the Fatherland. I have one vacant. The revenues have accumulated since the war. We will speak further of this at dinner. (_The_ KAISER, _smiling at_ TALAAT, _shakes him by the hand. As the Chancellor reappears for_ TALAAT, _the latter, pale with excitement, bows himself out of the royal presence_.) (_The_ KAISER _falls dejectedly into his chair and rings again_. PROFESSOR ADAM LASSOON _enters--the arch-spy, Press gagger, and confidential friend_.) KAISER: Well, Adam. What news? L.: There has been much public comment on the fact that the Reichstag has even made it possible to demand changes in the Constitution so openly. This has been dealt with. There is also a growing tendency towards isolation. Men sit in cafés and talk. The world is against us, and even the entrance of Hayti has a bad moral effect. They hear the hordes already thundering at our gates for vengeance. This also has been dealt with and articles prescribed for it. KAISER: Be extra vigilant about the provinces, and make a submarine boom. (LASSOON _disappears_.) (KAISER, _now alone and smoking hard, walks to the window. He looks out on the lake in silence. The moonlight streams in across the room. As he watches, a black sailing cloud obscures the moon, and the_ KAISER, _turning down the lights, sinks back dreamily in his chair. The smoke from his cigar floats up in thick clouds as he rests his haggard face in one hand. He sleeps. Past the smothered light the mists grow thicker and in them suddenly appears a form, a spectre--it is the_ SHADE OF BISMARK. _With fearful voice it speaks._) THE SHADE: It is true, Wilhelm. You have need for the pilot, nicht wahr? The glorious empire I gave is on the brink of an abyss. Colonies, commerce, shipping, armies, friends--all are gone. The isolation of England has ended in the isolation of Germany. The very cement with which I bound State by State to Prussia is crumbling to dust. Germany is sliding--soon she will be an avalanche charging to her doom. Even now there is barely time to avert the catastrophe. You dropped me. This is my revenge. KAISER (_awakes with a start, and the_ SHADE _flees_): What a fearful dream (_quotes_)-- "There is a tide in the affair of Nations, Which, taken at the flood, leads God knows where." On such a full sea are we now afloat, and we must take the current when it serves or, like our submarines, go to the bottom. I'll ring for wine.... (_Rings as the curtain falls._) Written in June, 1917.