When Don Marcelo with optimistic enthusiasm announced the end of the war
in the following Spring or Summer--in four months at the outside--the
Russian shook his head.
"It will be long . . . very long. It is a new war, the genuine modern
warfare. The Germans began hostilities in the old way as though they had
observed nothing since 1870--a war of involved movements, of battles
in the open field, the same as Moltke might have planned, imitating
Napoleon. They were desirous of bringing it to a speedy conclusion, and
were sure of triumph. Why employ new methods? . . . But the encounter of
the Marne twisted their plans, making them shift from the aggressive to
the defensive. They then brought into service all that the war staff had
learned in the campaigns of the Japanese and Russians, beginning the war
of the trenches, the subterranean struggle which is the logical outcome
of the reach and number of shots of the modern armament. The conquest of
half a mile of territory to-day stands for more than did the assault
of a stone fortress a century ago. Neither side is going to make any
headway for a long time. Perhaps they may never make a definite advance.
The war is bound to be long and tedious, like the athletic conquests
between opponents who are equally matched."
"But it will have to come to an end, sometime," interpolated Desnoyers.
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