148 The Great War armies remained standing. Russia was putting the whole present prospect of the war in jeopardy to strike down the Austrian Army, which represented the full measure of Hapsburg strength and the sole sustaining bulwark for a nation of divided loyalties and many tongues. So far as the Great War was a battle between the Slav and the Teuton it was now being fought about Lemberg. A victory for Russia might prove as de- cisive for the Slav as was Tannenberg five centuries ago, when the Poles checked the eastward advance of the Germans for centuries. More vital for Ger- many by far was the eastern than the western strug- gle, for neither France nor England threatened her existence, sought her provinces, save Alsace-Lorraine, but Slav ambition turned toward East Prussia, Silesia, toward Posen at the very gates of Berlin. If Russia were victorious In the present eastern struggle — a quick change in the west was inevitable. To stem the Russian flood not one but many corps would have to be recalled. Anything but a decisive victory in France might prove but an empty triumph whose prize was lost as soon as won. All this the Germans knew best of all. It ex- plained all their gigantic efforts, their recklessness of life, of resources. The supreme hour had come, precisely as they planned it should come. They had almost reached Paris. Their war machine had ful- filled every task set for it so far, save only one — it had not yet destroyed Anglo-French armies. There