Page:The Prime Minister by Hall Caine.djvu/161

Rh  The enemy Commander-in-Chief has asked for twelve hours' armistice to propose fresh terms of peace. Our own Commander has given him six.

 [As before.] It is the beginning of the end! I knew it must come soon! You have released the report?  Yes. It will be all over the world to-morrow morning—before midnight, perhaps.  [Rapturously.] To-night of all nights, too! What a Christmas greeting! Already I hear it crackling through the dark air all over Europe! Already I hear the Christmas bells ringing! Peace to men, after all the bloodshed and barbarity! We have a Cabinet at ten in the morning. You must be here, Burnley.  I shall be.  [Carried away, enthusiastically, with exaltation.] Our work comes now. We must hold the ground the free peoples of the world have won. No more brute force! No more military despotism! No more of the wail of death that has been echoing round the world! If it is to be peace it must be worth all the blood and all the tears that have been shed for it by the sons and daughters of this dear land. And it will be—it shall!