ever brave and heroic, they are virtually sub-
jected. The bare possibility that England and
France might go to war for her sake has pro-
tracted and embittered the agony of this gallant
country. The Danes were afraid of owning to the
world, or even to themselves, that the time had
come to submit to force, for fear that such an
admission might extinguish the last prospect of
foreign aid. So they have gone on since the fall
of Dybbol, to repeat an expression I have used
before, drifting into peace. First they were con-
fident — or I should rather say professed to be
confident — that Fredericia would be defended to
the last; then, that a stand would be made in
North Jutland ; and, finally, that the war by sea
would be maintained at all hazards. Illusion
after illusion has had to be abandoned, and at last
the end has come.
The Government has reflected faithfully enough
the indecision of the people. I have never dis-
guised my conviction that a suspension of hostili-
ties had become unavoidable, and that, as the
Germans would most certainly refuse to permit
the continuance of the blockade while Fiinen lay
practically within their grasp, the blockade would



THE SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN WAR. 263

have to be raised I was assured on every side
that such a proposition could not be entertained.
