The Grossmachte had not succeeded in stifling the roll of the
war-drum, that was true; the big battalions of the Ottoman Empire would
have to do some talking, and then the big purses and big threatenings of
the Powers would speak and the last word would be with them. In
imagination Luitpold heard the onward tramp of the red-fezzed bayonet
bearers echoing through the Balkan passes, saw the little sheepskin-clad
mannikins driven back to their villages, saw the augustly chiding
spokesman of the Powers dictating, adjusting, restoring, settling things
once again in their allotted places, sweeping up the dust of conflict,
and now his ears had to listen to the war-drum rolling in quite another
direction, had to listen to the tramp of battalions that were bigger and
bolder and better skilled in war-craft than he had deemed possible in
that quarter; his eyes had to read in the columns of his accustomed
newspaper a warning to the Grossmachte that they had something new to
learn, something new to reckon with, much that was time-honoured to
relinquish. "The Great Powers will have not little difficulty in
persuading the Balkan States of the inviolability of the principle that
Europe cannot permit any fresh partition of territory in the East without
her approval.
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