Last week the shadow lengthened, the Axis grew. Men scurried across Europe signing their names, embellishing the New Order with their countries' allegiance, invoking repeatedly the word "peace" and making it seem to mean less than ever.
The first feast of signatures was spread on a yellow-tapestried table in the Gobelin Hall of old Belvedere Palace, Vienna. In these halls once roared the voice of Eugen of Savoy, one of the Habsburgs' greatest warriors. Here strode Archduke Franz Ferdinand before Sarajevo. Here whispered poor Kurt von Schuschnigg, last Chancellor of independent Austria. Here also the architects of the New Order...
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