Our President is admitting that the war has been a nakba, a setback. 'I take full personal responsibility.' 'But not for long,' murmurs Mahmoud, in whose company I am watching this ultra-dramatic moment.

Into their cloysters now he broken had, Through which the monckes he chaced here and there, And them pursu'd into their dortours sad

What was so dangerous about these sport-jacketed men and pencil-skirt-wearing women that they should be repelled by the cannon blasts of fire hoses or the snarling bite of attack dogs?

But again that last scene at Compiegne rose visibly before her; not only his falsehood to her, but his slander of her, came to mind. It seemed as if she had never felt their full heinousness till now—now that with shame she owned that for a moment she had relented in his favour.