CHAPTER XXVII THE FATE OF AUSTRIA "IX/HILE the German war machine was under- ' ' going its supreme test now almost under the walls of Paris, while there was being renewed the age long struggle between the Germans and the French, it was also beginning to be apparent that far off beyond the Carpathians and the Vistula a conflict not less tremendous was proceeding which might have far more enduring consequences In Eu- ropean States. For if Germany defeated France and England there would still remain a France and England. Napoleon could not destroy Prussia. Austria never succeeded in killing the national aspirations of the Italians, but an Austrian defeat in Galicia might mean the end of Austria, for Austria was not the nation of one race or of several races bound to- gether by centuries of common hopes and fears, suf- ferings and ideals; rather it was the combination of peoples of many tongues ruled by two races, in numbers the minority, in intelligence and power dominant. The downfall of Austria-Hungary had been fore- told for a generation. The death of Francis