If he had resigned,
rather than consent to the resumption of V-boat war, he would
have stood out as a great Liberal rallying point and probably
have returned to a more real power than he ever possessed. But
half because of a desire to retain office, half because of a
mistaken loyalty to the Emperor, he remained in office at the
sacrifice of his opinions; and when he laid down that office no
title of Prince or even of Count waited him as a parting gift.
In his retirement he will read the lines of Schiller--a favourite
quotation in Germany--"Der Mohr hat seine Schuldigkeit gethan,
der Mohr kann gehen." "The Moor has done his work, the Moor can
go." And in his old age he will exclaim, as Shakespeare makes
the great Chancellor of Henry the Eighth exclaim, "Oh Cromwell,
Cromwell! Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served
my King, He would not, in mine age, have left me naked to mine
enemies." But this God is not the private War God of the Prussians
with whom they believe they have a gentlemen's working agreement,
but the God of Christianity, of humanity and of all mankind.
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