"August Niemann - Coming Conquest of England" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niemann August)

Are things to come to this pass, that Germany is to crave of England's bounty--her air and light, and her
very daily bread? or does their ancient vigour no longer animate Michael's arms?

Shall the three Powers who, after Japan's victory over China, joined hands in the treaty of Shimonoseki,
in order to thwart England's aims, shall they--Germany, France, and Russia--still fold their hands, or shall
they not rather mutually join them in a common cause?

In my mind's eye I see the armies and the fleets of Germany, France, and Russia moving together against
the common enemy, who with his polypus arms enfolds the globe. The iron onslaught of the three allied
Powers will free the whole of Europe from England's tight embrace. The great war lies in the lap of the
future.

The story that I shall portray in the following pages is not a chapter of the world's past history; it is the
picture as it clearly developed itself to my mind's eye, on the publication of the first despatch of the
Viceroy Alexieff to the Tsar of Russia. And, simultaneously like a flash of lightning, the telegram which the
Emperor William sent to the Boers after Jameson's Raid crosses my memory--that telegram which
aroused in the heart of the German nation such an abiding echo. I gaze into the picture, and am mindful of
the duties and aims of our German nation. My dreams, the dreams of a German, show me the war that is
to be, and the victory of the three great allied nations. Germany, France, and Russia--and a new division
of the possessions of the earth as the final aim and object of this gigantic universal war.

THE AUTHOR.




TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
This volume is the authorised translation of Der Weltkrieg deutsche Traume (F. W. Vobach and Co.,
Leipsic). The translator offers no comment on the day-dream which he reproduces in the English
language for English readers. The meaning and the moral should be obvious and valuable.

LONDON, September, 1904.




I. THE COUNCIL OF STATE
It was a brilliant assemblage of high dignitaries and military officers that had gathered in the Imperial
Winter Palace at St. Petersburg. Of the influential personages, who, by reason of their official position or
their personal relations to the ruling house, were summoned to advise and determine the destiny of the
Tsar's Empire, scarcely one was absent. But it was no festal occasion that had called them here; for all
faces wore an expression of deep seriousness, amounting in certain cases to one of grave anxiety. The
conversation, carried on in undertones, was of matters of the gravest import.

The broad folding-doors facing the lifesize portrait of the reigning Tsar were thrown wide open, and
amid the breathless silence of all assembled, the grey-headed President of the Imperial Council, Grand
Duke Michael, entered the hall. Two other members of the Imperial house, the Grand Dukes Vladimir