"We did support you. For years we supported you. We lost
millions of men in your service.... Now this terrible slaughter must
cease, and Russia show the way to peace."
Bohun's moment then came upon him. He sprang to his feet, his face
crimson, his body quivering; so desperate was his voice, so urgent his
distress that the whole room was held.
"What has happened to you all? Don't you see, don't you see what you are
doing? What has come to you, you who were the most modest people in
Europe and are now suddenly the most conceited? What do you hope to do
by this surrender?
"Do you know, in the first place, what you will do? You will deliver the
peoples of three-quarters of the globe into hopeless slavery; you will
lose, perhaps for ever, the opportunity of democracy; you will establish
the grossest kind of militarism for all time. Why do you think Germany
is going to listen to you? What sign has she ever shown that she would?
When have her people ever turned away or shown horror at any of the
beastly things her rulers have been doing in this war?... What about
your own Revolution? Do you believe in it? Do you treasure it? Do you
want it to last? Do you suppose for a moment that, if you bow to
Germany, she won't instantly trample out your Revolution and give you
hack your monarchy? How can she afford to have a revolutionary republic
close to her own gates? What is she doing at this moment? Piling up
armies with which to invade you, and conquer you, and lead you into
slavery.
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