New-York tribune., 1918-05-16
A Last Chance
By Captain Lord Dunsany
~ ESCRIBING a visit which the Kaiser
paid incognito to Cologne Cathc
dral on March Is, before the great

N ESCRIBING a visit which the Kaiser
paid incognito to Cologne Cathc
dral on March Is, before the great
battle, the Cologne correspondent of the
Amsterdam "Tyd," March %, says:
"Thcre were only a few persons in the
building Under high arches and in spa
cious solitude the Kaiser sat, as if in deep
thought before the priests choir. Behind
him his military staff stood respectfully at
a distance. Still musng as he rose, the
monarch, resting with both hands on his
walking stick, remained standing immov
able for some minutes. Then he turned
and without exchanging a word with his
suite left the cathedral at their head
| shall never forget this picture Of the
musing monarch praying in Cologne Cathe-
dral on the eve of the great battle"
Probably he won't forget it. The Ger
man casualty list will help to remind him.
But what is more to the point is that the
correspondent propagandist has presum-
ably received orders that we are not to
forget it, and that the sinister originator
of the then impending holocaust should be
toned down a little in the eyes at least of
the "Tyd"-into something a little more
amiabe And no doubt the little piece Of
propaganda gave every satisfaction to those
who ordered it, or they would not have
passed it out to the "Tyd," and the touch
ing little scene would never have reached
our eyes. At the same time the little tale
would have been better suited to the
psychology of other countries if he had
made the war lord kneel when he prayed
in Cologne Cathedral, and if he had rep
resented the military staff as standing out
of respect to One who, outside Germany, is
held in greater respect than the Cali
Highest"
And had the war lord really knelt, is
it not possible that he might have found
pity humility, or even contrition Fittings
easily overlooked in so large a cathedra
when sitting erect, as a war lord before
the priests choir, but to be noticed, per-
haps, with ones eyes turned to the ground.
Perhaps he nearly found one of those
things. Perhaps he felt (who knows?) just
for moment that in the dimness of those
enormous aisles was something he had lost
long, long while ago.
For what was the war lord seeking? Did
he know that pity for his poor slaughtered
people, huddled by him on to the cease
less machine guns, might be-found by seek
ing there? Or was it only that the lost
thing, whatever it was, made that faint
appeal to him passing the door by chance
and drew him in, the scent of some
herb or flower in moment draws US ba X
years TO look for something lost in our
youth? We gaze back wondering and do
not find it.
And to think that perhaps he lost it by
very little! That but for that proud atti-
tude and the respectful staff he might have
seen what was lost and have come out
bringing pity for his people. Might have
said to the crowd that gave him that ova-.
ton, as we read, outside the door: "My
pride has driven you to this needless war;
my ambition has made sacrifice of mill
ions, but it is over and shall be no more;
Will make no more conqucsts."
They would have killed him. But for
that renunciaticn, perhaps, however late,
the curses of the widows of his people
might have kept away from his grave
But he did not find it. He sat at PRAYER.
then he stood. Then he marched cut, and
his staff marched out behind him. And
in the gloom of the floor of the vast
Cologne Cathedral lie the things that the
Kaiser did not find and never will find
now. Unnoticel thus, and in some silent
moment, passes a mans last chance.