King Albert I held the German ambassador's gaze for several long seconds.
Anger rose hot enough that, for a moment, the King looked less like a constitutional monarch than a soldier forcing himself not to reach across the room. What had just been delivered in his council chamber was not diplomacy in any meaningful sense. It was an ultimatum dressed in polite language, a boot placed carefully upon Belgium's throat and then described as an invitation.
There were several answers Albert wanted to give.
None of them belonged in the mouth of a king addressing an ambassador.
So he swallowed them.
Around the council table, his ministers were equally rigid. Men who had spent years treating Belgian neutrality as something almost sacred now stared at one another with the dawning realization that treaties were only as strong as the powers willing to respect them.
Prime Minister Charles de Broqueville spoke first, his voice controlled despite the anger beneath it.
"Your Excellency, Belgium is a neutral kingdom. We have no quarrel with Germany, France, Russia, Serbia or anyone else involved in this conflict. We intend to maintain that neutrality strictly and avoid becoming part of this war."
Albert gave a restrained nod. That remained the obvious answer. Belgium was prosperous, industrial and proud, but it was still a country of barely more than seven million people sitting between continental giants. A European war could ruin it within months.
The German ambassador, Claus von Below-Saleske, listened without interruption.
Then the faintest smile touched his face.
"His Majesty's Government understands Belgium's desire for peace," he replied. "But circumstances have moved beyond the luxury of standing between two camps."
His eyes passed slowly across the assembled ministers.
"Germany would prefer Belgium as a friend."
The room grew still.
"Should Belgium permit passage—and, better still, choose to stand beside Germany—such friendship would not be forgotten. His Imperial Majesty's Government is prepared to discuss territorial and economic compensation after victory. Luxembourg presents obvious possibilities. There are colonial questions as well. Trade arrangements. Guarantees. Germany rewards those who stand with it."
Albert's expression hardened.
The offer itself was almost as insulting as the threat behind it.
Belgium should abandon its neutrality, turn against Britain and France, open its roads to German armies and then accept payment afterward like a merchant being compensated for the use of a warehouse.
Von Below-Saleske continued before anyone could answer.
"But the Crown Prince has made the position of the German Empire equally clear in another respect. This war is no longer regarded in Berlin as an ordinary dispute between states. Serbia has been designated a supporter and harbourer of political terror. Russia has chosen to stand beside Serbia. France has chosen Russia."
His voice remained perfectly calm.
"The Axis of Evil has declared itself."
De Broqueville's jaw tightened visibly.
Von Below-Saleske looked directly at Albert.
"And Germany will no longer recognize indefinite neutrality toward such powers as morally or politically meaningful."
A pause.
"You are either with us, Your Majesty, or you are against us."
The words fell heavily into the chamber.
Albert's hand tightened against the arm of his chair.
The ambassador went on.
"If Belgium joins Germany, or permits German forces peaceful passage, Belgium will retain its sovereignty and receive Germany's gratitude after victory. If Belgium refuses and obstructs military operations against those Germany now recognizes as supporters of terror, Berlin will regard Belgium as having deliberately chosen their side."
Foreign Minister Julien Davignon stared at him.
"You are threatening to designate Belgium itself a supporter of terrorism?"
"I am explaining the legal position my government will adopt."
"And what precisely does that mean?"
Von Below-Saleske's expression did not change.
"That Belgian leaders who knowingly assist the enemies of Germany may ultimately be held personally responsible for the consequences of that decision."
The implication required no elaboration.
Not merely defeat.
Trials.
Condemnation.
Perhaps executions, should Germany win and choose to apply its new laws with the severity Oskar's rhetoric suggested.
De Broqueville finally lost some of his restraint.
"This is absurd," he snapped. "Belgium had nothing to do with Sarajevo. Nothing to do with Serbia. You cannot simply decide that neutrality constitutes support for terror because we refuse to surrender our roads to your army."
His palm struck the table.
"If Germany invades a neutral country on such grounds, Europe will condemn it."
Von Below-Saleske regarded him almost patiently.
He did not argue.
That somehow made the insult worse.
Albert forced himself to remain calm.
"How long do you expect us to consider this... proposal?"
"Twenty-four hours."
The answer came immediately.
"Germany will await a satisfactory reply. Until such a reply is received, I have been instructed to leave Belgian territory."
That caused several ministers to exchange looks.
The ambassador was not returning to the embassy.
He was leaving the country.
Which meant Berlin did not truly expect another round of diplomacy.
Von Below-Saleske gathered his papers.
"I sincerely hope, Your Majesty, that when next I enter Belgium, I do so as the representative of a friendly power."
He bowed.
"Germany awaits your answer."
Another slight bow.
"Good day, Your Majesty."
Albert said nothing.
The doors closed behind the ambassador.
For several seconds, the chamber remained completely silent.
Then it erupted.
"What in God's name was that?"
"They threaten us in our own palace—"
"Supporters of terrorism? Belgium?"
"And then offer Luxembourg as payment!"
"He came here to deliver a declaration, not negotiate."
Albert remained seated while anger moved around him like fire.
That last observation was the truth of it.
The Germans had not come to persuade Belgium.
They had come to complete a formality.
Berlin had already divided Europe into camps and was now demanding that Brussels choose one before Germany chose for it.
De Broqueville stood slowly.
"Your Majesty, there is nothing to negotiate."
Albert looked toward him.
The Prime Minister's face remained flushed with anger, but his voice had recovered its control.
"We tolerated Germany's rise. We traded with them. We bought their machines, used their medicines and watched their influence spread across the continent. We tolerated even the stranger things Oskar introduced because they were Germany's affairs, not ours."
His expression hardened.
"But what Germany has become in recent years is another matter. Their Crown Prince speaks of nations as terrorists and enemies of civilization. Their newspapers speak of an Axis of Evil. Their government now claims the right to decide which neutral states are morally permitted to remain neutral."
He shook his head.
"And they expect Belgium to join them."
One of the older conservative ministers crossed himself.
There was also a deeper cultural hostility among many gathered there. Oskar's Germany had drifted ever farther from the Catholic and conservative social order familiar to them: the Church of the New Dawn, Oskar's unconventional household, plural marriage, liberal fashions and customs that Belgian conservatives regarded alternately as scandalous, pagan or simply decadent. Those differences alone would never have justified war.
But combined with the threat just delivered in their own palace, they made Germany increasingly difficult to regard as merely another neighbouring power.
De Broqueville leaned toward the table.
"If we must choose, then let us at least choose according to what we believe is right."
His eyes moved toward Albert.
"Britain has guaranteed our neutrality. France has not demanded passage through our country at gunpoint. Germany has."
The room quieted.
Albert knew what followed from that.
"You mean rejection."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"And war."
"Almost certainly."
Albert looked toward the military men.
Germany could bring more than a million soldiers into the west. Belgium could mobilize only a fraction of that number. Nobody in the room was foolish enough to imagine that courage alone would correct the arithmetic.
The Minister of War nevertheless answered firmly.
"Then we make them pay for every kilometre."
He pointed toward the map.
"General Gérard Leman is already at Liège. He has begun strengthening the fortress positions, calling men in and preparing the approaches without waiting for further instructions."
A trace of grim approval entered his voice.
"The forts are being provisioned. Bridges can be prepared for demolition. Additional troops can begin moving east immediately."
"Numbers?" Albert asked.
"Thirty thousand in the first reinforcement wave. More as mobilization proceeds."
The Minister hesitated.
"Liège cannot hold forever, Your Majesty."
Albert nodded.
He had no intention of asking it to.
"How long?"
"As long as possible."
That was enough.
Time remained Belgium's only realistic weapon.
Time for France to react.
Time for Britain to decide whether its guarantees meant anything.
Time for German plans to begin slipping behind schedule.
Albert rose.
"Then we reject the German demand."
No one objected.
"If Germany enters Belgian territory without our permission, Belgium will resist."
The decision settled across the chamber with surprising calm.
Fear remained, but beneath it something harder had begun to form.
Pride.
De Broqueville nodded.
"We would rather suffer as an independent country than survive as the road Germany used to reach someone else."
The Minister of War added quietly:
"If they want Belgium, they will have to take it."
Albert turned immediately toward Davignon.
"Send London our position. Inform them of the German demand in full and request immediate assurances of assistance should our neutrality be violated."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Paris as well."
Another nod.
"Begin mobilization. Reinforce Liège and Namur. Prepare the bridges, railways and flooding plans. Nothing is to be destroyed unnecessarily, but if Germany crosses the frontier, every road and river must become an obstacle."
The ministers began taking notes.
Only then did Albert look again toward the eastern edge of the map.
The insult still burned.
And beneath the immediate question of survival, another thought had already begun taking shape.
If Germany forced Belgium into this war, then Belgium would not emerge from it asking merely to be restored to what it had been before.
Albert's finger moved along the frontier.
"Eupen."
Then lower.
"Malmedy."
The territories remained German, their demographic balance altered over the years by German settlement and policy, but Belgian politicians had never entirely forgotten them.
His finger moved again.
"Moresnet."
The tiny neutral territory between Belgium and Germany had remained an anomaly for nearly a century, small in area but valuable for its zinc and position.
Albert looked around the table.
"If Germany violates our neutrality, destroys Belgian property and kills Belgian soldiers, then when this war ends there will be compensation."
No one misunderstood him.
Land.
Money.
Reparations.
Colonial concessions, perhaps, if Germany lost badly enough.
Belgium had entered the morning hoping only to remain outside the war.
Now its ministers were already considering what Germany might owe them after it.
Davignon inclined his head.
"Britain and France may be sympathetic to such claims."
"They had better be."
Albert withdrew his hand from the map.
"We did not ask for this war."
His gaze hardened toward the east.
"But if Germany brings it to us, Belgium will not leave it empty-handed."
Within hours, orders began moving toward Liège.
And before the German ambassador had even crossed the Belgian frontier on his journey home, the kingdom he had threatened was preparing to refuse him.