"You were miserable Celts, sunk in the vileness of an inferior and
mongrel race whose domination by Rome but made your situation worse.
Fortunately you were conquered by the Goths and others of our race who
implanted in you a sense of personal dignity. Do not forget, young man,
that the Vandals were the ancestors of the Prussians of to-day."

Again Argensola tried to speak, but his friend signed to him not to
interrupt the professor who appeared to have forgotten his former
reserve and was working up to an enthusiastic pitch with his own words.

"We are going to witness great events," he continued. "Fortunate are
those born in this epoch, the most interesting in history! At this
very moment, humanity is changing its course. Now the true civilization
begins."

The war, according to him, was going to be of a brevity hitherto unseen.
Germany had been preparing herself to bring about this event without
any long, economic world-disturbance. A single month would be enough
to crush France, the most to be feared of their adversaries. Then they
would march against Russia, who with her slow, clumsy movements could
not oppose an immediate defense. Finally they would attack haughty
England, so isolated in its archipelago that it could not obstruct the
sweep of German progress. This would make a series of rapid blows and
overwhelming victories, requiring only a summer in which to play this
magnificent role. The fall of the leaves in the following autumn would
greet the definite triumph of Germany.

With the assurance of a professor who does not expect his dictum to be
refuted by his hearers, he explained the superiority of the German