That, in a nutshell, is the history of the war." Yeovil was silent for a moment or two, then he asked: "And the sequel, the peace ?" "The collapse was so complete that I fancy even the enemy were hardly prepared for the consequences of their victory.

No one had quite realised what one disastrous campaign would mean for an island nation with a closely packed population.

The conquerors were in a position to dictate what terms they pleased, and it was not wonderful that their ideas of aggrandisement expanded in the hour of intoxication.

There was no European combination ready to say them nay, and certainly no one Power was going to be rash enough to step in to contest the terms of the treaty that they imposed on the conquered.

Annexation had probably never been a dream before the war; after the war it suddenly became temptingly practical.