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THE    CAMPAIGN    OF   1914 
IN  FRANCE  AND  BELGIUM 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1914 
IN  FRANCE  AND  BELGIUM 


By 
G.    H.    PERRIS 


ADTHOE  OF  "  GERMANY  AND  THE  GERMAN  EMPEEOR,"  "  A 
SHORT  HISTORY  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE,"  "  THE  INDUSTRIAL  HIS- 
TORY OF  MODERN  ENGLAND,"  ETC.  ;  SPECIAL  CORRESPONDENT  IN 
FRANCE  OF  THE  LONDON  "  DAILY  CHRONICLE  "  ;  FORMERLY 
HON.  SECRETARY  OF  THE  ANGLO-GEEMAN  FEIENDSHIP   COMMITTEE 


With  Maps  and  Plans  by  F.  F.  Peri-is  and  Photographs 
by  the  Author 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 

LONDON :  HODDER  AND  STOUGHTON 

1915 


Copyright,  1915, 

BT 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 
Published  July,  1915 


£2, 


THE    QUINN    £    BODEN     CO.     PRESS 


AUG  12  191b 
©CI.A410050 

7u>  •  A 


CONTENTS 


Introduction 


PAGE 

ix 


BOOK  I 
PREPARATION 

( AUGUST  4-20 ) 

AFTER 

I.     The  Defense  of  Liege 3 

II.     The  Plans  Revealed 12 

I.  Of  Certain  Uncertainties — II.  In  the  Vosges  and 
Alsace — III.  The  Advance  in  Lorraine — IV.  The 
Fall  of  Namur— V.  England's  Part 

III.  The  Terror,  from  Aerschot  to  Louvain  ....       46 

IV.  The  "Sacred  Union" Gl 

V.     Paris  in  August 68 


BOOK  II 


VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XL 

XII. 


XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 


THE  ONSLAUGHT 

(august  21 -september  5) 

Behind  the  Screen 85 

The  Battle  of  Mons-Charleroi 96 

The  Retreat  to  the  Marne 109 

Paris  prepares  for  the  Worst 124 

The  Flight  from  Paris 130 

On  the   Ramparts 142 

The  Battle  of  the  Marne 147 

I.  The  Strategic  Idea— II.  West  Wing:    Battle  of  the 
Ourcq — III.  Center:   The  Retreat  in  Champagne 

The  Turning-point 179 

"  Sufficient  unto  the  Day  " 192 

On  the  Ourcq  Battlefield 202 

In  the  Ruined  Villages 210 

v 


VI 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 

XXI. 


XXII. 


XXIII. 


BOOK  III 
TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

PAGE 

Back  to  the  Aisne 221 

Rheims  Bombarded 231 

The  Eastern  Barries 245 

The  Battles  of  the  Aisne 254 

The  North-west  Turn 265 

I.  A    Flank    Blow   that    Failed — II.  From    Amiens    to 

Lille— III.  The  Fall  of  Antwerp 

The  Battles  of  Flanders 282 

I.  The  "  Race  for  the  Sea  "—II.  The  Battle  of  the  Lys— 

III.  The  Battle  of  Ypres— IV.  The  Battle  of  the 

Yser 
Paris,  the  Austere 308 


BOOK  IV 


ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

XXIV.    Behind  the  Western  Wall 
XXV.     From  Furnes  to  Ypres 
XXVI.     The  Defense  of  Verdun 
XXVII.     Under  Fire  in  Rheims  . 
XXVIII.     The  Lines  of  the  Aisne 
XXIX.     The  Government  returns 
XXX.     War  as  It  Is  . 

I.  The  Costs  in  Life  and  Wealth— II.  The  Deadlock  of 
the  Trenches — III.  The  Farm  of  Quennevieres — 
IV.  The  Christmas  Truce 


315 
322 
335 
348 
357 
363 
373 


Index 393 


LIST  OF  MAPS  AND  PLANS 

PAGE 

East  Belgian  Main  Lines 4 

Liege,  its  Railways,  Roads,  and  Forts 6 

"Gaps"  on  the  East  Frontieb 1G 

Lorraine  and  Alsace 18 

First  Position  of  Armies  on  the  East 24 

The  Lorraine  Frontier 27 

French  Offensive  in  Lorraine 29 

Positions  after  the  Fall  of  Liege 31 

Facsimile  of  Paris  Communique 74 

Facsimile  of  "  Bulletin  des  Armees  " 77 

"  Zone  Actuelle  des  Armees  "  (August  10) 92 

The  French  Defeat  at  Charleroi 98 

Battle  of  Mons  and  Siege  of  Maubeuge 100 

Main  Railways  and  Rivers  of  Northern  France  .       .       .       .111 

The  Retreat  from  Mons  to  the  Marne 115 

"  Recurrent  Flank  Attack  " 150 

The  Defenses  of  Paris 153 

Strategy  of  the  Battle  of  the  Marne 156 

Battle  of  the  Ourcq 158 

Battle  of  the  Marne 162 

The  Center:   Scene  of  Foch's  Success 168 

The   Argonne 176 

The  Defense  of  Nancy 248 

Triangle  of  the  Laon  Mountains 255 

The  British  Right  above  the  Aisne 258 

The  Siege  of  Antwerp 276 

The  Western  Armies 284 

Battle  of  the  Lys 287 

Battle  of  Ypres 295 

Battle  of  the  Yser 302 

The  Four  Phases  at  Verdun 345 

The  Front  at  the  Beginning  of  1915 361 


INTRODUCTION 


It  needs  but  little  research,  to  lead  the  fair-minded  student 
to  the  conclusion  that,  behind  the  immediate  causes  of  the 
great  war,  there  were  others  of  old  standing  and  wider  pur- 
port, combinations  and  divisions  of  interest  which,  for  many 
years,  had  brought  upon  the  European  family  penalties  only 
less  heavy  than  those  of  open  conflict.  Several  times  of 
late,  the  same  States  had  narrowly  escaped  this  calamity; 
and,  in  the  teeth  of  a  growing  desire  for  settled  peace,  the 
preparations  for  war  on  land  and  sea  were  everywhere  stead- 
ily increased.  These  increases  of  armament  (as  in  the  Anglo- 
German  naval  rivalry,  and  the  German  and  French  return 
to  three-years  army  service)  were  always  dangerous,  not 
only  as  direct  threats,  but,  indirectly,  as  alterations  of  the 
balance  of  means  to  ends  other  than  national  defense,  the 
most  important  of  which  ends  were  the  acquirement  of  (1) 
foreign  possessions,  (2)  spheres  of  special  or  exclusive  eco- 
nomic interest,  (3)  political  predominance,  either  in  Europe 
generally,  or  in  particular  areas.  Every  one  of  the  Great, 
and  several  of  the  small,  Powers  had  fished  in  these  troubled 
waters;  and  there  was  not  one  of  them  that  could  show 
perfectly  clean  hands.  Even  Belgium,  not  so  long  since, 
was  being  held  accountable  for  the  heritage  of  misrule  in  the 
Congo.  There  were  no  angelic  States ;  all  had  dabbled  in  the 
imperial  vices,  from  land-grabbing  to  diplomatic  intrigue. 
Nevertheless,  it  may  be  said  that  there  were  many  and  not 
inconsiderable  differences  in  the  bias  of  their  policy,  due, 
for  the  most  part,  neither  to  original  sin,  nor  to  abnormal 
virtue,  but  to  historical  and  geographical  circumstances  for 


x  INTRODUCTION 

which  living  people  cannot  be  wholly  blamed  or  praised,  and 
the  political  constitutions  resulting  therefrom. 

The  new  German  Empire  entered  the  lists  under  very 
heavy  disadvantages.  Late  in  appearing,  and  almost  land- 
locked, it  must  find  foreign  possessions  and  trade  difficult  to 
get  and  hold ;  and  the  problem  of  defense  on  two  flanks  was 
aggravated  by  the  fact  that  the  provinces  on  either  side  con- 
tained large  populations  conquered  and  unreconciled.  At 
best,  great  tact  and  capacity  must  be  required  to  overcome 
these  disadvantages.  Tact,  however,  was  not  a  Berlin  virtue ; 
and  the  types  of  capacity  there  encouraged  were  not  those 
called  for  by  the  international  tasks  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury. Politically  immature,  though  remarkable  in  their  in- 
dustrial and  civic  achievements,  the  German  people  had  been 
led  into  trusting  all  to  State  authority  and  armed  force 
just  when  the  rest  of  the  western  world  was  turning  to  the 
opposite  ideal  of  democracy,  and  free,  peaceful  co-operation. 
Bismarck  proclaimed  the  opposition  frankly  at  the  outset, 
and  established  the  combined  system  of  militarism  and 
alliance  by  which  the  ambitions  of  the  Central  European 
Powers  were  to  be  vindicated.  When  France  and  Russia 
joined  hands  over  this  iron  wall,  its  builders  affected  to 
be  outraged  that  force  should  breed  force.  Then  the  present 
Emperor  set  out  to  add,  to  the  strongest  army  in  the  world, 
a  navy  able  at  least  to  threaten  the  strongest  navy.  England 
being  thus  tempted  into  special  association  with  France  and 
Russia,  a  cry  went  up  from  the  Fatherland  that  it  was 
being  "  encircled."  There  was  some  justice  in  the  complaint, 
as  there  was  also  justice  in  the  retort  that  if,  by  phases  of 
action  and  reaction,  Europe  had  at  length  been  split  into 
two  opposed  camps,  the  heirs  of  Bismarck  had  chiefly  them- 
selves to  blame.  That  the  German  people  were  no  more 
satisfied  than  other  peoples  with  the  results  of  the  policy 
which  the  conquerors  of  1870  had  fathered  upon  them  is  sug- 
gested by  the  emigrations  en  masse  in  the  early  years  of  the 
period,  by  the  feverish  agitations  of  the  later  years,  and  by 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

the  growth  of  the  one  party  of  protest,  the  Social  Democrats, 
to  be  the  largest  party  in  the  Reichstag.  Unfortunately,  dis- 
satisfaction with  the  results  did  not  here  give  rise,  as  it  did 
in  France,  England,  and  other  countries  concerned,  to  a 
decided  dissatisfaction  with  the  means,  the  process  of  the 
Armed  Peace,  the  new  Balance  of  Power,  itself.  Individu- 
ally, the  German  people  may  have  desired  peace;  collectively, 
they  did  not  will  the  means  to  peace,  even  to  the  inadequate 
degree  that  these  other  peoples  did. 

In  a  speech  at  Dublin,  during  the  early  days  of  the  war, 
Mr.  Asquith  stated  what  he  considered  "  the  end  we  ought 
to  keep  in  view."  Taking  as  his  text  a  phrase  used  by 
Mr.  Gladstone  at  the  time  of  the  Franco-German  War,  "  The 
greatest  triumph  of  our  time  will  be  the  enthronement  of 
the  idea  of  public  right  as  the  governing  idea  of  European 
politics,"  he  proceeded : 

"  The  idea  of  public  right,  what  does  it  mean  when  trans- 
lated into  concrete  terms?  It  means,  first  and  foremost,  the 
clearing  of  the  ground  by  the  definite  repudiation  of  mili- 
tarism as  the  governing  factor  in  the  relation  of  States  and 
of  the  future  molding  of  the  European  world.  It  means, 
next,  that  room  must  be  found  and  kept  for  the  independent 
existence  and  the  free  development  of  the  smaller  nationalities, 
each  for  the  life  of  history  a  corporate  consciousness  of  its 
own.  Belgium,  Holland,  and  Switzerland,  the  Scandinavian 
countries,  Greece  and  the  Balkan  States — they  must  be  rec- 
ognized as  having  exactly  as  good  a  title  as  their  more  power- 
ful neighbors,  more  powerful  in  strength  and  in  wealth — 
exactly  as  good  a  title  to  a  place  in  the  sun.  And  it  means 
finally,  or  it  ought  to  mean,  perhaps  by  a  slow  and  gradual 
process,  the  substitution  for  force,  for  the  clashing  of  com- 
peting ambitions,  for  groupings  and  alliances  and  a  pre- 
carious equipoise,  the  substitution  for  all  these  things  of  a 
real  European  partnership,  based  on  the  recognition  of  equal 
right,  and  established  and  enforced  by  a  common  will.  A 
year  ago  that  would  have  sounded  like  a  Utopian  idea.  It 
is  probably  one  that  may  not  or  will  not  be  realized  either 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

to-day  or  to-morrow.  If  and  when  this  war  is  decided  in 
favor  of  the  Allies,  it  will  at  once  come  within  the  range, 
and  before  long  within  the  grasp,  of  European  statesman- 
ship." 

Whether,  or  not,  they  truly  described  the  aim  of  the  Allied 
Governments  in  the  war,  these  words  did  unquestionably  em- 
body the  ideal  of  powerful  parties  and  movements  in  the 
Allied  and  other  progressive  countries,  an  ideal  served  by 
the  increasing  weight  of  democratic  opinion  in  their  internal 
constitution.  This  ideal — everywhere  supported  by  the  or- 
ganized working  classes,  elaborated  by  bodies  like  the  Inter- 
Parliamentary  Union  and  many  kinds  of  pacifist  association, 
and,  finally,  expressed  in  The  Hague  Conferences  and  the 
arbitral  court  and  conventions  deriving  therefrom — offered 
the  only  alternative  to  the  ancient  method  of  settling  dis- 
putes by  trial  of  brute  force.  It  was  an  alternative,  no 
doubt,  difficult  for  the  rulers  of  the  German  Empire  to 
accept — nearly  as  difficult  as  the  concession  of  democratic 
rights  at  home.  Nor  did  the  German  people  show  any  will 
to  impose  such  aims  upon  their  rulers.  The  Socialists 
grumbled;  a  few  academic  heretics  occasionally  lauded  the 
idea  of  international  comity ;  for  the  rest,  the  results  of  two 
generations  of  militarist  theory  and  practice  appeared  in  a 
slavish  obedience  under  which  the  olden  culture  of  the  nation 
withered,  and  manly  independence,  conscience,  chivalry,  and 
all  high  public  aims  were  at  a  discount.  At  The  Hague, 
in  all  the  councils  of  Europe,  Germany  came  to  stand  nearly 
always  for  the  reactionary  refusal  of  better  things.  Despotic 
Russia  had,  at  least,  spasms  of  righteousness.  The  Tsar 
would  have  revolutionary  petitioners  shot  down  in  the  street, 
but  would  yield  them  a  Duma;  would  establish  a  State  liquor 
trade,  and  then  abolish  it ;  would  persecute  Jews,  but  liberate 
Poles ;  would  wage  a  nefarious  war  in  Manchuria,  but  estab- 
lish the  world's  law  courts  at  The  Hague.  Behind  these  in- 
consistencies flames  the  soul  and  genius  of  the  Russian  folk, 
for  whom  no  hopes  are  too  high.     There  has  never  been  a 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

Russian  Treitschke,  or  a  German  Tolstoy.  France  remains, 
at  heart,  the  land  of  the  Revolutionary  formula — liberty, 
equality,  fraternity.  England,  with  all  the  faults  which  her 
children  are  usually  the  first  to  point  out,  is  still  the  Eng- 
land of  Gladstone.  Germany  has  not  got  beyond  the  Bis- 
marckian  doctrine  that  might  is  greater  than  right.  For 
such  a  case,  the  ancient  warning  was  uttered :  "  he  who  lives 
by  the  sword  shall  die  by  the  sword." 

II 

One  result  of  the  growth  of  German  power  was  to  revive 
and  stimulate  the  Austro-Russian  rivalry  which  was  an  olden 
curse  of  the  Balkan  races.  When  Austria,  in  1908,  taking 
advantage  of  the  situation  created  by  the  Young  Turk  revo- 
lution, annexed  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  in  the  teeth  of  Rus- 
sian protests,  Germany  insisted  upon  a  refusal  to  submit 
this  matter  to  the  co-signatories  of  the  treaty  under  which 
Austria  had  provisionally  occupied  this  region.  Five  years 
later,  as  we  now  know,  amid  the  Balkan  conflict,  Austria 
and  Germany  proposed  to  coerce  Servia,  but  were  restrained 
by  Italy.  The  summer  of  1914  presented  what  seemed  in 
Berlin  and  Vienna  a  final  opportunity  of  finishing  Russia's 
patronage  and  Servia's  independent  growth ;  and  again  every 
attempt  to  assert  an  interest  superior  to  that  of  any  or  all 
of  the  parties  to  the  quarrel — the  interest  of  European  com- 
ity and  peace — broke,  not  upon  Russia's,  but  Germany's 
obstinate  refusal.  The  risk  run  was  so  incommensurate 
with  the  immediate  stake  that  the  question  inevitably  arose 
whether  Berlin  was  not  merely  repeating  the  successful  bluff 
of  six  years  before.  Against  this  hypothesis  there  lies  the 
recklessly  clear  statement  of  the  German  Government  that 
"  we  were  perfectly  aware  that  a  possible  warlike  attitude 
of  Austria-Hungary  against  Servia  might  bring  Russia 
upon  the  field,  and  that  it  might  therefore  involve  us  in  a 
war."    The  immediate  pretext  calls  for  only  a  word. 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

The  assassination  at  Serajevo,  on  June  28,  1914,  of  the 
Archduke  Franz  Ferdinand  and  his  wife  excited  universal 
reprobation.  If  anyone  had  thought  of  this  foul  crime 
setting  the  world  on  fire,  he  would  have  been  reassured 
when,  eight  days  later,  the  German  Emperor  sailed  quietly 
from  Kiel  for  his  usual  summer  cruise  in  northern  waters. 
Did  the  Kaiser  know  what  was  afoot,  or  did  the  war  party 
seize  the  opportunity  of  his  absence?  However  this  may  be, 
when  he  returned  to  Berlin  on  July  27,  Austria  had  pre- 
sented to  Servia  a  thoroughly  humiliating  ultimatum  (July 
23) ;  Servia  had  replied  (July  25)  in  a  very  chastened  tone, 
which  was  yet  accounted  insufficient;  Russia  had  begun  to 
intervene  (26th)  on  behalf  of  the  "little  Slav  brother"; 
and  Germany  had  appeared  once  more  beside  her  ally  "  in 
shining  armor."  England,  with  the  support  of  France  and 
Italy,  was  energetically  acting  as  mediator,  committed  to 
neither  side,  deeply  alarmed  at  the  speed  with  which  the 
crisis  was  developing.  Well  she  might  be :  for,  within  eight 
days  of  the  Servian  reply  and  Sir  Edward  Grey's  first  peace 
proposal,  the  German  army  was  marching  across  Luxemburg 
to  the  Belgian  frontier. 

The  chief  events  of  these  eight  black  days  revolve  round 
four  points:  (1)  the  military  preparations,  (2)  Germany's 
bids  for  British  and  French  neutrality,  (3)  the  invasion  of 
Luxemburg  and  Belgium,  and  (4)  the  mediation  pro- 
posals. 

In  all  these  categories,  the  main  facts  are  now  pretty  clear. 
We  know  that  the  Austro-Hungarian  army  was  partially 
mobilized  on  July  26;  that  Austria-Hungary  declared  war 
on  Servia  on  July  28;  that  Russian  mobilization  in  four 
southern  districts  (Odessa,  Kiev,  Moscow,  and  Kazan)  was 
ordered  on  July  29;  that  on  that  night  the  Kaiser  held  a 
War  Council,  and  sought  to  obtain  British  neutrality;  that 
Belgrade  was  bombarded  on  July  30;  that  Austrian  and 
Russian  general  mobilizations,  and  German  ultimatums  to 
Russia  and   France,   followed   on  the  31st,   German  and 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

French  mobilization  orders  and  the  German  declaration  of 
war  on  Russia  on  the  next  day,  and  the  German  invasion 
on  Sunday,  August  2.  In  the  diplomatic  exchanges,  Ger- 
many cited  the  Russian  mobilizations  as  a  casus  belli;  but, 
according  to  the  French  Premier  (post,  Chap.  IV.),  the 
German  Government  had  itself  been  engaged  in  active 
preparations  for  war  since  July  25,  before  the  Austrian 
Minister  had  left  Belgrade.  Berlin  and  Vienna  were  aware 
as  soon  as  the  Servian  question  became  acute  that  Russia 
would  not  permit  them  to  extinguish  this  small  Kingdom;  and 
they  acted  throughout  as  in  face  of  a  Pan-Slav  conspiracy. 
If  they  had  been  content  to  play  any  part  but  that  of  the 
angry  bully,  there  would  have  been  no  war.  M.  Sazonof 
preferred  direct  conversations  with  Austria,  but  "  was  ready 
to  fall  in  with  the  British  proposal,  or  any  other  proposal, 
of  a  kind  likely  to  lead  to  a  favorable  settlement."  England 
held  back  as  she  had  never  done  before,  during  the  exist- 
ence of  the  Entente,  from  espousing  the  cause  of  her  friends. 
France,  equalty  disinterested  save  for  the  obligation  of  her 
alliance,  was  now  doubly  restrained  by  the  threatened  alter- 
native of  losing  the  friend  who  could  alone  help  her  in  the 
west,  or  betraying  her  eastern  partner. 

Meanwhile,  the  Austrian  army  marched  to  the  Save,  and 
the  Kaiser's  lieutenants  set  themselves  to  arrange  the  most 
promising  kind  of  offensive  campaign.  The  possibility  of  a 
defensive  in  the  west  was  rejected,  or  never  considered. 
The  need  of  first  crippling  France  was  assumed — though 
France  had  not  uttered  a  provocative  word.  Accordingly, 
on  July  29,  after  a  war  council  at  Potsdam,  presided  over 
by  the  Emperor,  England  was  asked  to  promise  to  stand 
aside,  on  condition  that  France  should  be  stripped  only  of 
her  foreign  trade  and  possessions.  Sir  Edward  Grey  refused 
this  bargain,  but,  still  hoping  to  succeed  as  mediator,  refused 
also  to  range  England  with  the  threatened  States.  The 
German  Chancellor  had  added,  with  what  afterwards  proved 
a  remarkable  economy  of  truth :  "  It  depended  on  the  action 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

of  France  what  operations  Germany  might  be  forced  to  enter 
upon  in  Belgium;  but  when  the  war  was  over,  Belgian  in- 
tegrity would  be  respected  if  she  had  not  sided  against  Ger- 
many." To  this  Sir  E.  Grey  replied:  "The  Chancellor  also 
in  effect  asks  us  to  bargain  away  whatever  obligation  or 
respect  we  have  as  regards  the  neutrality  of  Belgium.  We 
could  not  entertain  that  bargain  either"  (July  30).  On 
August  1  the  German  Ambassador  in  London  put  to  Sir 
Edward  Grey  two  further  questions  on  the  point,  on  his  own 
responsibility,  without  authority  from  Berlin:  Would  Eng- 
land remain  neutral  if  Belgian  neutrality  were  not  violated? 
"  he  even  suggested  that  the  integrity  of  France  and  her 
colonies  might  be  guaranteed."  The  reply  was  that  the  Brit- 
ish Government  would  keep  its  hands  free.  This  discussion 
can  hardly  be  taken  seriously.  The  German  declaration  of 
war  had  already  been  sent  to  St.  Petersburg;  troops  had 
crossed  the  French  frontier;  and  the  value  of  German 
promises  was  already  gravely  compromised.  Indeed,  Prince 
Lichnowsky  came  back  to  Sir  Edward  Grey  on  August  3 
to  ask  him  "  not  to  make  the  neutrality  of  Belgium  one 
of  our  conditions."  Luxemburg  had,  in  fact,  already  been 
occupied,  and  an  ultimatum  was  being  presented  to  Belgium 
demanding  a  free  passage. 

So  far,  Great  Britain  had  taken  but  one  step  beyond  the 
path  of  strict  neutrality — a  step  of  great  importance  for 
France,  but  motived  also  by  considerations  arising  from  the 
naval  situation  in  the  Mediterranean,  where  the  French  fleet 
was  concentrated,  and  British  communications  had  little 
independent  protection.  This  step  consisted  in  an  under- 
taking, on  August  2,  subject  to  Parliamentary  approval, 
that,  "  if  the  German  fleet  comes  into  the  Channel  or  through 
the  North  Sea  to  undertake  hostile  operations  against  the 
French  coasts  or  shipping,  the  British  fleet  will  give  all  the 
protection  in  its  power."  This  did  not  involve  war  with 
Germany,  at  any  rate  until  she  had  come  triumphantly 
through  to  the  French  coast.     But  when  the  Belgian  cam- 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

paign  was  openly  declared,  no  room  was  left  for  hesita- 
tion. On  the  afternoon  of  the  day  on  which  the  assault 
upon  Liege  was  begun,  Sir  E.  Goschen  waited  successively 
upon  the  German  Foreign  Secretary  and  Chancellor  to  pre- 
sent the  British  ultimatum.  There  was  now  no  pretense  of 
French  aggression,  as  there  had  been  in  the  ultimatum  deliv- 
ered in  Paris.  Herr  von  Jagow  excused  the  invasion  frankly 
on  the  ground  that  "  they  had  to  advance  into  France  by 
the  quickest  and  easiest  way,  so  as  to  be  able  to  get  well 
ahead  with  their  operations,  and  endeavor  to  strike  some 
decisive  blow  as  early  as  possible.  It  was  a  matter  of  life 
and  death  for  them,  as,  if  they  had  gone  by  the  more 
southern  route,  they  could  not  have  hoped,  in  view  of  the 
paucity  of  roads  and  the  strength  of  the  fortresses,  to  have 
got  through  without  formidable  opposition  entailing  great 
loss  of  time.  This  would  have  meant  time  gained  by  the 
Russians  for  bringing  up  their  troops  to  the  German  fron- 
tier." On  his  part,  the  Chancellor  "  began  a  harangue  which 
lasted  for  about  twenty  minutes."  The  central  phrase  will 
be  for  long  memorable:  "He  said  that  the  step  taken  by 
His  Majesty's  Government  was  terrible  to  a  degree;  just  for 
a  word — 'neutrality,'  a  word  which  in  war  time  had  so 
often  been  disregarded — just  for  a  scrap  of  paper,  Great 
Britain  was  going  to  make  war  on  a  kindred  nation  who 
desired  nothing  better  than  to  be  friends  with  her."  On 
the  same  day,  speaking  to  the  Reichstag,  Herr  von  Bethmann- 
Hollweg  used  other  words  no  less  memorable :  "  We  are  now 
in  a  state  of  necessity,  and  necessity  knows  no  law.  Our 
troops  have  occupied  Luxemburg,  and  perhaps  are  already 
on  Belgian  soil.  Gentlemen,  that  is  contrary  to  the  dictates 
of  international  law.  .  .  .  We  were  compelled  to  override 
the  just  protest  of  the  Luxemburg  and  Belgian  Governments. 
The  wrong — I  speak  openly — that  we  are  committing  we  will 
endeavor  to  make  good  as  soon  as  our  military  goal  has 
been  reached.  Anybody  who  is  threatened,  as  we  are  threat- 
ened, and  is  fighting  for  his  highest  possessions,  can  only 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

have  one  thought — how  he  is  to  hack  his  way  through  "  ( TJw 
Times,  August  11,  1914). 

Ill 

If  any  douht  remains  of  the  balance  of  responsibilities  for 
the  catastrophe  thus  precipitated,  there  is  a  simple  test  that 
can  be  applied  with  very  clear  results.  The  violation  of  the 
neutrality  of  Luxemburg  and  Belgium  did  not  constitute 
the  only,  or  the  chief,  breach  of  treaty  promises  by  the  Ger- 
manic Powers.  Reluctantly,  no  doubt,  they  had  both  signed 
the  Convention  for  the  Pacific  Settlement  of  International 
Disputes,  and  had  made  themselves,  in  1899  and  1907,  parties 
to  the  establishment  of  regular  methods  of  arbitration, 
mediation,  good  offices,  and  investigation  by  commissions  of 
inquiry,  methods  centering,  but  not  exclusively  operating,  in 
the  Permanent  Court  at  The  Hague.  From  beginning  to 
end,  Austria-Hungary,  and,  still  more  decidedly,  Germany, 
opposed  every  attempt  to  procure  a  settlement  of  a  friendly, 
mediatory,  or  arbitral  character,  and  until  the  end  when,  too 
late,  Austria  began  to  resume  direct  conversations  with  Rus- 
sia, insisted  upon  coercion  pure  and  simple.  It  was,  they 
held,  "  a  matter  for  settlement  between  Servia  and  Austria 
alone,"  between  the  lad  and  the  giant.  As  though  there 
should  be  no  doubt  on  this  point,  Germany  rejected  the 
conference  proposal  on  the  specific  (and,  of  course,  quite  un- 
tenable) ground  that  it  would  amount  to  a  "  Court  of 
Arbitration."  Only  forty-eight  hours  were  given  to  Servia 
to  surrender  to  the  extraordinary  demands  of  the  i\.ustrian 
Note.  The  reply — which,  Sir  Edward  Grey  said,  "  involved 
the  greatest  humiliation  that  he  had  ever  seen  a  country  un- 
dergo " — accepted  all  of  these  demands  save  two,  and  on 
these  proposed  a  reference  to  The  Hague  Tribunal.  The 
Austrian  answer  was  an  immediate  declaration  of  war 
(July  28),  quickly  followed  by  a  bombardment  of  the  insub- 
ordinate capital.     Sir  Edward  Grey   tried   one  mediatory 


INTRODUCTION  xix 

suggestion  after  another,  always  strongly  supported  by  the 
third  member  of  the  Triple  Alliance,  Italy.  Several  pro- 
posals aimed  at  gaining  time  and  delaying  military  prepara- 
tions ;  others  at  joint  mediation  at  St.  Petersburg  and  Vienna 
by  Germany  and  Italy,  England  and  France;  at  a  Conference 
of  these  four  Powers  to  find  a  solution,  or  a  simple  resump- 
tion of  direct  negotiations.  "  The  whole  idea  of  mediation 
or  mediating  influence,"  the  Foreign  Secretary  told  Prince 
Lichnowsky  (July  29),  "  was  ready  to  be  put  into  operation 
by  any  method  that  Germany  could  suggest,  if  mine  was 
not  acceptable."  We  have  seen  that  England  risked  her 
own  international  partnership  in  order  that  this  mediatory 
r61e  should  not  be  compromised. 

One  result  of  first-class  importance  was  gained :  Italian 
neutrality.  On  July  30,  before  the  final  die  was  cast,  the 
Italian  Premier  was  reported  by  Sir  R.  Rodd  as  having 
decided  to  break  the  partnership  which  had  lasted  for  thirty- 
two  years.  "  The  war  undertaken  by  Austria,"  he  said, 
"  and  the  consequences  which  might  result  had,  in  the 
words  of  the  German  Ambassador  himself,  an  aggressive 
object.  Both  were,  therefore,  in  conflict  with  the  purely 
defensive  character  of  the  Triple  Alliance.  In  such  circum- 
stances, Italy  would  remain  neutral."  By  whatever  pru- 
dential considerations  this  decision  may  have  been  con- 
firmed, it  constituted  a  verdict  by  the  most  friendly  of 
judges;  and  the  impression  it  made  was  deepened  some 
months  later  by  the  revelation  that,  in  1913,  Germany  and 
Austria  had  proposed  to  coerce  Servia,  and  Italy  had  then 
declined  to  act  with  her  Allies  in  what  Signor  Giolitti  called 
a  "  most  perilous  adventure." 

The  German  people  knew  nothing  of  these  major  facts  till 
it  was  too  late ;  and,  such  was  the  strange  mingling  of  bois- 
terous self-assertion  and  sense  of  martyrdom  into  which  they 
had  been  trained,  it  would  have  made  very  little  difference 
had  they  known.  No  body  of  men  in  modern  Germany  has 
ever  dared  to  question  the  wisdom  of  its  war-lords  as  did  the 


xx  INTRODUCTION 

so-called  "  Pro-Boers  "  in  England  in  1899.  The  stern  dis- 
cipline which  was  the  national  ideal — free  nations  would 
call  it  servile  obedience — showed  no  breach,  no  inconvenient 
outburst  of  thought  or  conscience,  during  the  black  week 
when  a  trivial  quarrel  that  a  stipendiary  magistrate  could 
have  judged  was  blown  out  into  a  cause  for  world-wide 
slaughter.  History  will  show  few  such  tragic  spectacles  as 
this  collective  infatuation,  upheld,  let  us  say,  with  a  courage, 
en  durance,  energy,  and  organizing  power  which  only  needed 
some  moral  element  to  make  them  sublime. 

There  has  been  altogether  too  much  disposition  in  the  west 
to  learn  this  Teutonic  lesson  of  obedient  "  efficiency  "  di- 
vorced from  high  social  ends.  The  efficiency  of  the  German 
military  machine,  whatever  virtues  may  have  been  sacrificed 
in  its  service,  was  essentially  damnable.  It  challenged  every 
liberal  and  progressive  element  in  European  life.  The  in- 
crease of  militarism  had,  indeed,  become  general;  but  no- 
where else  did  it  take  a  form  so  daringly  logical,  so  merci- 
lessly inhumane.  The  crime  of  crimes,  the  original  aggres- 
sion, having  been  decided  upon,  no  sort  of  scruple  was 
permitted  to  prejudice  the  chances  of  success.  Every  Power 
has  dabbled  in  the  dirty  business  of  espionage;  but  no  other 
State  had  imagined  anything  like  the  swarm  of  spies  that 
was  suddenly  let  loose  upon  Belgium  and  France.  To  the 
last  moment,  cajolery  was  kept  up  in  Brussels.  Afterwards, 
men  recalled  the  visit  of  King  Albert  to  Liege  in  1914,  when 
General  von  Emmich  was  a  guest,  and  overwhelmed  the  Bel- 
gian Ministers  with  assurances  of  friendship.  They  recalled 
that,  on  the  afternoon  preceding  the  delivery  of  the  Ger- 
man ultimatum  to  Belgium,  the  Prussian  Minister  in  Brus- 
sels, Herr  von  Below,  interviewed  by  a  leading  newspaper 
of  the  city,  had  freely  professed  the  friendliest  feelings, 
using  the  words :  "  Your  neighbor's  roof  may  burn ;  but  your 
house  will  be  safe."  They  recalled  that,  on  the  evening  of 
August  1,  the  German  Military  Attache  in  Brussels  had 
called  upon  the  chief  secretary  of  the  Minister  of  War,  and 


INTRODUCTION  xxi 

congratulated  him  upon  the  remarkably  rapid  execution  of 
the  Belgian  mobilization.  Not  content  with  this  call,  he 
had  himself  telephoned  to  a  leading  Brussels  newspaper 
asking  it  to  publish  this  compliment.  I  was  in  Brussels 
that  day,  attending  an  emergency  meeting  of  the  Interna- 
tional Peace  Bureau,  and  well  remember  the  state  of  mind 
prevailing.  Everywhere,  the  little  Belgian  soldiers  were 
pouring  toward  the  railway  stations  to  join  their  regiments. 
The  hope  of  European  peace  being  maintained  was  ebbing. 
Some  limited  breach  of  the  eastern  Belgian  frontier  was 
anticipated.  But  any  man  who  had  then  said  that  a 
devastating  descent  into  the  plains  of  Flanders  was  an  in- 
tegral part  of  the  German  plan  of  campaign,  long  prepared 
and  to  be  ruthlessly  executed,  would  have  been  dismissed 
as  a  raving  maniac.  Such  assurances  as  those  quoted  above, 
the  ties  of  the  Belgian,  Prussian,  and  Bavarian  royal  fam- 
ilies, a  thousand  commercial  and  financial  bonds,  and  the 
commonest  feelings  of  decency  and  honor,  were  all  against 
the  supposition.  The  manifest  preparation  for  this  aggres- 
sive campaign,  on  the  one  side,  the  manifest  unprepared- 
ness  of  the  Allies,  even  for  defense,  on  the  other,  may  be 
treated  by  the  pure  militarist  as  merely  the  results  of  effi- 
ciency and  inefficiency.  By  the  mass  of  ordinary  folk,  who 
will  suffer  the  burdens  of  defense,  but  regard  an  aggressive 
war  as  the  worst  of  crimes,  because  it  includes  all  crimes, 
this  contrast  will  confirm  the  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from 
the  diplomatic  documents.  The  German  plan  of  campaign 
assumed,  and  the  early  weeks  of  the  war  proved,  the  invul- 
nerability, in  either  direction,  of  the  short  Franco-German 
frontier:  it  proved,  that  is  to  say,  that  Germany  had  no 
defensive  need  to  attack  France  and  Belgium. 

In  an  aggressive  war  on  two  fronts,  however,  Herr  von 
Jagow  did  but  echo  a  commonplace  of  the  Prussian  Staff 
when  he  said  that  "  to  strike  some  decisive  blow  as  early 
as  possible  was  a  matter  of  life  and  death  for  them."  Eng- 
land's entry  made  it  impossible  to  strike,  or  help  to  strike, 


xxiI  INTRODUCTION 

such  a  blow  by  way  of  the  high  seas.  On  the  other  hand, 
Germany's  land-locked  position,  which  had  been  so  loud 
a  grievance,  proved  in  these  circumstances  a  positive  advan- 
tage for  her  defense.  On  land,  the  aggressors,  for  a  short 
time,  would  have  an  advantage,  both  in  numbers  and  con- 
centration of  forces ;  but  the  advantage  would  soon  pass,  and 
in  a  struggle  of  exhaustion  the  numbers  that  could  ulti- 
mately be  brought  up  by  Russia  and  the  British  Empire  must 
turn  the  scale.  At  the  outset,  Germany  could  throw  a 
peace  strength  of  860,000  men  immediately  into  the  field. 
France,  two  or  three  days  behind  in  effective  mobilization, 
would  only  have  790,000  when  her  Algerian  Army  Corps 
had  been  got  over.  Meanwhile,  a  sufficient  guard  could  be 
left  in  East  Prussia;  and  Belgium's  little  army,  only  about 
60,000  men  on  a  peace  footing,  could  be  crushed  before  the 
British  Expeditionary  Corps  had  time  to  land.  Austria- 
Hungary  would  have  immediately  marched  500,000  men 
against  Russia  and  Servia.  Reserves  would  now  be 
available.  "  War  footing "  is  a  very  elastic  phrase;  but  the 
Germanic  Powers,  together,  could  count  on  putting  man 
against  man  of  France,  and  having  a  surplus  of  between 
four  and  five  millions  to  meet  the  slow-coming  hosts  of 
Russia  and  England.  Strange  if,  before  then,  a  decisive 
blow  could  not  be  struck. 

Such  was  the  calculation;  and  it  came  painfully  near 
being  justified  by  the  event. 

There  is  a  continuity  of  mise-en-scene  in  history  that  may 
too  easily  lead  to  pessimism.  Much  of  the  European  past  is, 
indeed,  comprised  in  the  ancient  rivalry  of  powerful  neigh- 
bors for  the  lands  of  the  great  central  highways  from  the 
North  Sea  and  Baltic,  through  the  Rhineland,  to  Italy  and 
the  Levant — the  endless  strife  of  Merving  and  Karling,  Neus- 
tria  and  Austria,  royal  France  and  confederate  Germany, 
Burgundy  and  Spain,  France  and  Austria,  which  has  filled 
with  battlefields  the  line  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  Liege,  Bra- 
bant, and  Flanders.     Of  this  secular  antagonism,  that  of 


INTRODUCTION  xxiii 

Austria  and  Russia  for  dominance  in  the  Danubian  lands, 
and  of  their  financial  and  political  friends  for  profit  in 
Constantinople  and  Mesopotamia,  may  be  regarded  as  a 
modern  extension.  When  Sir  John  French  faced  north  from 
Mons,  a  few  miles  from  the  field  of  Waterloo  where,  a  cen- 
tury before,  Wellington  faced  south  against  the  greatest  of 
adventurers,  he  showed  England  once  more  stepping  aside 
from  her  own  paths  to  help  the  small  peoples  of  this  middle 
tract  of  the  Old  World,  and  casting  her  weight  against  the 
challenge  of  an  upstart  imperialism.  Can  this  insane  cycle 
revolve  eternally?  In  truth,  perennial  as  folly  and  selfish- 
ness seem  to  be,  they  also  change.  The  stage  remains;  the 
play  and  the  actors  are  never  really  the  same.  Dynastic  and 
religious  motives  no  longer  bring  nations  to  arms.  Empire 
can  no  longer  be  fed  on  loot,  tribute,  and  slaves.  The  Old 
Hemisphere,  with  its  feuds  and  poverty,  stands  in  too  absurd 
contrast  with  the  New,  united  and  prosperous.  The  process 
that  has  transformed  war  itself  has  begun  to  subordinate  it 
to  the  arts  and  laws  of  peace.  No  nation  will  gain  by  this 
war,  and  every  one  will  lose.  We  live  in  a  world  that  reads 
and  writes,  that  can  only  subsist  by  labor  and  trade,  in 
which  open  violence  is  the  exception  proving  the  rule  of 
public  order,  and  the  peoples  begin  to  determine  their  own 
destinies.  The  chief  institutions  of  a  comity  of  nations  are 
actually  in  being.  Let  them  be  strengthened  by  an  operative 
will,  and  an  agreement  for  mutual  defense,  and  "  the  substi- 
tution for  force,  for  groupings  and  alliances  and  a  precarious 
equipoise,  of  a  real  European  partnership  "  will  soon  be 
achieved.  If  it  bring  us  to  that,  the  blood-offering  of  the 
great  war  will  not  have  been  all  in  vain. 

London,  April  1915. 


BOOK  I 
PREPARATION 

(August  4-20) 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  DEFENSE  OF  LIEGE 

On  the  morning  of  Monday,  August  3,  immediately  after 
receipt  of  the  Belgian  refusal  of  a  free  passage,  covering 
troops  consisting  of  the  7th  German  Army  Corps,  under 
command  of  General  von  Emmick,  advanced  from  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,  and  crossed  the  Belgian  frontier  by  the  narrow 
tract  between  the  protruding  Dutch  district  of  Maestricht, 
on  the  north,  and  the  Vesdre  Valley,  on  the  south. 

This  is  the  only  easy  road  into  Belgium  from  the  east, 
the  mountains  of  the  Ardennes  and  the  Eiffel  obstructing 
the  roads  further  south.  Hence  the  importance  of  Liege, 
in  times  both  of  peace  and  war.  Five  main  lines  of  railway 
cross  Belgium  from  east  to  west,  following,  generally,  ancient 
natural  highroads.  Two  of  these  lines  connect  the  Middle 
Rhine  directly  with  Antwerp — these  were  ruled  out  by  the 
German  decision  not  to  violate  the  neutrality  of  Holland, 
for  both  of  them  pass  through  the  Maestricht  enclave.  An- 
other runs  north-westward  through  the  Luxemburgs  to  Brus- 
sels, and  could  thus  be  used  only  as  a  bypath  for  an  attack 
on  France.  The  remaining  two  are  branches  of  the  great 
international  trunk-lines  from  Cologne  to  Ostend  and  Paris, 
dividing  at  Liege,  the  one  for  Brussels,  the  other  for  the 
French  frontier,  a  hundred  miles  away.  We  shall  see  that 
this  latter  road,  through  the  Meuse-Sambre  valleys,  was  only 
too  obviously  the  path  of  a  conqueror  for  whom  a  little 
State  was  merely  a  little  hindrance,  a  treaty  merely  a  "  scrap 
of  paper."  Here,  therefore,  were  placed  three  of  Belgium's 
four  fortresses,  while  the  outlet  into  France  was  covered  by 
Maubeuge  and  various  lesser  works. 

3 


4  PREPARATION 

Liege,  therefore — a  great  industrial  center  and  junction 
of  railways,  roads,  and  rivers,  guarded  by  a  ring  of  twelve 
forts  extending  across  a  diameter  of  eight  miles — must  first 


0SSEL0ORF 


COUOCNE 


East  Belgian  Main  Lines. 

be  reduced :  it  would  then  be  possible  to  break  westward,  or 
to  go  on  up  the  valley  railroad  to  Namur,  or  both.  It  may 
have  been  hoped  that  the  Prussian  frontier  troops  could 
rush  this  obstacle;  at  least,  the  attempt  would  prevent  the 
strengthening  of  the  works  and  the  arrival  of  re-enforcements. 
Two  railway  lines  and  three  roads  served  them  for  crossing 
the  border.  The  railways,  one  entering  by  Gemmenich,  and 
the  other  by  Herbestal,  then  united  to  form  the  Aix-Liege 
route  (forty  miles)  ;  this  was,  of  course,  broken  by  the  re- 
treating Belgians.  The  most  northern  highroad  passes 
through  Gemmenich,  crosses  the  Meuse  at  Vis6,  six  miles 


THE  DEFENSE  OF  LIEGE  5 

north  of  Liege,  and  then  strikes  into  central  Belgium;  the 
other  two  run,  through  Herve  and  Verviers  respectively,  into 
Liege.  By  these  three  routes  the  preliminary  invasion  was 
effected. 

It  met  with  an  unexpectedly  stout  resistance.  The  posi- 
tion at  Vise  was  defended  obstinately  all  through  the  4th 
and  5th  by  the  Belgian  12th  line  regiment,  with  the  broad 
stream  of  the  Meuse,  bridged  only  at  one  place,  in  front,  the 
Dutch  frontier  on  their  left  flank,  and  the  Liege  forts  cover- 
ing their  right.  Pontoon  bridges  were  repeatedly  destroyed, 
but  at  last  a  crossing  was  secured.  A  number  of  civilians 
were  afterward  seized  and  shot  by  the  invaders,  on  the 
ground  that  shots  had  been  fired  from  houses  in  the  little 
town.  The  country-people  fled  inland;  many  wounded  sol- 
diers were  taken  over  the  border  into  Maestricht.  The  vic- 
torious troops  marched  south  upon  Liege  on  the  6th,  steadily 
opposed  by  General  Bertrand's  brigade.  Meanwhile,  other 
columns  representing  the  main  advance  body  of  the  inva- 
sion, and  including  the  9th  and  10th  Army  Corps  and  a  bri- 
gade of  the  4th  Corps,  had  come  in  by  the  roads  from  Eupen, 
through  Herve  and  Verviers,  and  from  Malmedy-Stavelot, 
through  the  Spa,  Ambleve,  and  Ourthe  valleys  on  the  south. 
Verviers  and  Pepinster  having  been  occupied,  the  army 
found  itself  before  the  first  earthworks  of  the  Liege  ring. 
Some  of  these  troops  were  ill-provisioned  and  weary  from 
hard  marching,  a  result  of  incomplete  mobilization. 

The  six  major  and  six  minor  forts  surrounding  the  city  at 
the  great  crossways  were  designed  in  1886  by  the  able  mili- 
tary engineer,  General  Brialmont ;  and  they  had  been  par- 
tially reconstructed,  in  view  of  the  immense  increase  in  the 
power  of  siege  artillery,  under  King  Albert.  Two  of  them, 
Forts  Pontisse  and  Barchon,  covered  the  plain  towards  Vis6 ; 
three  others — Fleron,  Evegnee,  and  Chaudfontaine — faced 
the  hilly  approach  by  the  Vesdre  Valley ;  Forts  Embourg  and 
Boncelles  commanded  the  Ourthe  Valley,  southward;  the 
remaining  five,  from  Flemalle  to  Liers,  overlooked  the  west- 


THE  DEFENSE  OF  LIEGE  7 

era  plain.  The  largest  forts  were  surrounded  by  a  ditch, 
within  the  glacis,  or  exterior  earthen  slope ;  the  banquette, 
or  outer  wall,  of  this  ditch  and  the  summit  of  the  escarp 
served  as  infantry  parapets.  Above  these,  within  a  concrete 
shell,  rose  the  steel  cupolas,  moving  up  and  down  before 
and  after  tire.  The  structure  was  pierced  with  galleries  from 
which  machine-guns  could  be  worked  under  the  protection  of 
solid  masonry,  tunnels  for  the  movements  of  the  garrison, 
and  cellars  for  ammunition  and  stores.  The  ring  included 
four  hundred  guns ;  but  many  of  these  were  at  first  far  from 
the  main  field  of  attack.  Both  the  strength  and  the  weakness 
of  these  works  were  to  receive  a  quick  and  tragic  demonstra- 
tion. Thanks  to  the  gallantry  of  General  Leman,  the  Com- 
mandant of  Liege,  and  his  men,  they  secured  an  invaluable 
delay  for  the  half-mobilized  Allies:  but,  as  fortifications, 
they  revealed  two  vital  weaknesses:  the  cupola  fort  gives  a 
prominent  mark  for  the  attackers,  and  the  mechanism  of  the 
disappearing  or  oscillating  cupola  is  very  liable  to  disable- 
ment. Although  the  enemy  guns  could  be  concealed,  if  those 
of  the  defenders  could  outrange  and  overpower  them  there 
might  be  some  hope;  but  no  such  claim  could  be  made  for 
the  Belgian  guns.  The  forts  had  garrisons  averaging  little 
more  than  a  hundred  men;  and  the  strain  of  a  week's  con- 
stant bombardment  on  a  hundred  men  is  indescribable.  An 
army  50,000  strong  was  needed  to  hold  the  intervening  field- 
works  ;  but  the  whole  Liege  garrison  fell  greatly  below  that 
figure. 

The  question  whether,  even  in  the  domain  of  armed  force, 
numbers  and  organization  can  eclipse  the  factor  of  moral 
inspiration  was  now  to  be  tried  before  a  breathlessly  watch- 
ing world.  The  defenders  of  Liege — the  3rd  Belgian  Divi- 
sion, re-enforced  by  militia,  reservists,  and  Civil  Guards — a 
total  of,  perhaps,  40,000  men — had  to  face  three  Prussian 
Corps,  about  120,000  men.  They  had  no  ground  for  expect- 
ing re-enforcement:  England  and  France  were  not  nearly 
ready  to  help  them,  and  the  main  Belgian  army,  which  was 


8  PREPARATION 

not  yet  concentrated,  must,  even  then,  wait  for  its  greater 
friends.  General  Leman  did  what  was  possible — the  forts 
were  provisioned,  and  thousands  of  civilians  helped  to  dig 
trenches  and  put  up  wire  entanglements  across  the  intervals 
between  them.  On  the  night  of  August  4-5,  the  German 
attack  began  on  the  south-eastern  side,  the  apparent  object 
being  to  seize  the  river  crossing,  and,  after  masking  Liege, 
to  hasten  on  to  Namur.  A  full  moon  shone,  and  search- 
lights flashed  to  and  fro  over  the  scene.  While  the  German 
field-guns,  using  high  explosive  shells  of  a  power  unknown  to 
the  defenders,  from  well-concealed  positions  in  the  wooded 
hills,  made  excellent  practice  against  Forts  Fleron,  Embourg, 
and  Boncelles,  masses  of  infantry  in  close  formation  were 
thrown  against  the  gaps,  held  by  the  Belgian  9th  and  14th 
line  regiments.  Before  the  trenches,  and  along  the  glacis 
of  the  forts,  they  were  mown  down  by  fire  from  above  and 
below;  but  they  still  came  on.  Although  the  Belgian  reports 
may  have  been  exaggerated,  the  losses  up  to  this  point,  a 
result  of  the  first  crude  application  of  the  "  smashing  blow  " 
tactic,  were  certainly  very  heavy.  The  battle  continued 
fiercely  through  the  following  day.  The  defenders,  at  most 
one  against  three,  and  at  last  overborne  in  artillery,  had  to 
be  moved  from  gap  to  gap  to  meet  successive  assaults ;  some 
infantry  sections  thus  marched  for  twenty-five  or  thirty  miles 
in  course  of  the  night.  At  length,  they  were  driven  in  be- 
tween Forts  Evegnee  and  Fleron ;  and  the  latter  was  silenced 
on  the  morning  of  the  6th,  much  of  the  gun  machinery  being 
smashed,  and  great  blocks  of  masonry,  supporting  the  tur- 
rets, shattered.  It  is  understood  that  the  largest  German 
siege  mortars  were  not  used  at  Liege,  but  were  sent  on  direct 
to  Namur,  either  because  the  one  task  was  under-,  or  the 
other  was  over-estimated. 

In  face  of  this  breach  in  his  line  of  defense,  and  as  the 
river  crossing  had  been  forced  lower  down,  General  Leman 
withdrew  the  field  troops  to  the  west  side  of  the  Meuse,  and 
blew  up  the  two  southern  bridges,  leaving  the  remaining 


THE  DEFENSE  OF  LIEGE  9 

eastern  forts  to  do  their  best  to  obstruct  the  passage.  That 
morning,  a  daring  attempt  was  made  to  kidnap,  or,  perhaps, 
to  kill  the  General,  half  a  dozen  Uhlans  succeeding  in  pene- 
trating to  his  headquarters  in  the  town.  Probably,  the  3rd 
Division  was  already  commencing  its  retreat  toward  Brus- 
sels. During  the  day,  the  complete  surrender  of  the  fortress 
was  demanded,  and  refused.  The  last  train,  crowded  with 
refugees,  left  in  the  afternoon ;  and  at  6  p.m.  a  short  and  not 
yery  serious  bombardment  of  the  town  began.  In  the  evening, 
the  German  commander  proposed  a  twenty-four-hours'  armis- 
tice to  bury  the  dead  and  remove  the  wounded.  This  was  also 
refused.  On  the  next  day,  August  7,  the  attack  was  resumed. 
The  city,  now  evacuated,  was  occupied  by  Von  Emmich. 
Most  of  the  river  bridges  had  been  left  intact.  General 
Leman,  who  had  withdrawn  into  Fort  Loncin,  continued  to 
direct  the  resistance  of  the  broken  ring.  Not  till  Sunday, 
the  9th,  was  the  investment  complete  and  the  siege  artillery 
ready.  Some  of  the  forts  held  out  for  eight  days  longer, 
the  men  dying  with  Spartan  fortitude  at  their  posts.  One 
fort  was  the  scene  of  a  conspicuous  act  of  heroism.  Situated 
near  the  Chaudfontaine  tunnel,  it  had  the  special  duty  of 
covering  the  Verviers  railway  line.  When  nothing  more 
could  be  done,  Major  Mameche,  the  Commandant,  blocked  the 
tunnel  by  colliding  several  engines  at  its  mouth,  and  then 
fired  his  powder  magazine,  blowing  up  the  fort.  For  a  week 
the  cannonade  never  ceased ;  and  in  further  infantry  assaults, 
the  Germans  suffered  very  heavy  casualties. 

The  last  stage  in  Fort  Loncin  was  thus  described  in  a  diary 
attributed,  apparently  with  truth,  to  General  Leman  himself, 
and  published  in  Berlin  during  his  subsequent  imprisonment 
at  Magdeburg: 

"  On  the  11th,  the  Germans  started  bombarding  us  with 
7-  and  10-centimeter  (3-inch  and  4-inch)  cannon:  and,  on  the 
12th  and  13th,  they  brought  their  21-centimeter  (8-inch)  guns 
into  action.  But  it  was  not  until  the  14th  that  they  opened 
fire  and  began  their  destruction  of  the  outer  works.    On  that 


10  PREPARATION 

day,  at  4  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  a  German  officer  ap- 
proached to  within  200  yards  of  the  fort  with  a  signaling 
hag  in  his  hand;  and  shortly  afterwards,  the  siege  gunners, 
having  adjusted  their  range,  began  a  fearful  firing,  that 
lasted  a  couple  of  hours.  The  battery  on  the  left  slope  was 
destroyed,  the  enemy  keeping  on  pounding  away  exclusively 
with  their  21-centimeter  cannons. 

"  The  third  phase  of  the  bombardment  began  at  5  o'clock 
in  the  morning  of  the  15th,  firing  being  kept  up  without  a 
break  until  two  in  the  afternoon.  A  grenade  wrecked  the 
arcade  under  which  the  general  staff  were  sheltering.  All 
light  was  extinguished  by  the  force  of  the  explosion,  and 
the  officers  ran  the  risk  of  asphyxiation  by  the  horrible  gases 
emitted  from  the  shell.  When  firing  ceased,  I  ventured  out  on 
a  tour  of  inspection  on  the  external  slopes,  which  I  found  had 
been  reduced  to  a  rubble  heap.  A  few  minutes  later,  the 
bombardment  was  resumed.  It  seemed  as  though  all  the 
German  batteries  were  together  firing  salvoes.  Nobody  will 
ever  be  able  to  form  any  adequate  idea  of  what  the  reality 
was  like.  I  have  only  learned  since  that  when  the  big  siege 
mortars  entered  into  action  they  hurled  against  us  shells 
weighing  1,000  kilos  (nearly  a  ton),  the  explosive  force 
of  which  surpasses  anything  known  hitherto.  Their  ap- 
proach was  to  be  heard  in  an  acute  buzzing ;  and  they  burst 
with  a  thunderous  roar,  raising  clouds  of  missiles,  stones, 
and  dust. 

"  After  some  time  passed  amid  these  horrors,  I  wished  to 
return  to  my  observation  tower;  but  I  had  hardly  advanced 
a  few  feet  into  the  gallery  when  a  great  blast  passed  by,  and 
I  was  thrown  violently  to  the  ground.  I  managed  to  rise,  and 
continued  my  way,  only  to  be  stopped  by  a  choking  cloud 
of  poisonous  gas.  It  was  a  mixture  of  the  gas  from  an  ex- 
plosion and  the  smoke  of  a  fire  in  the  troop  quarters.  We 
were  driven  back,  half-suffocated.  Looking  out  of  a  peep- 
hole, I  saw  to  my  horror  that  the  fort  had  fallen,  slopes  and 
counter-slopes  being  a  chaos  of  rubbish,  while  huge  tongues 


THE  DEFENSE  OF  LIEGE  11 

of  flame  were  shooting  forth  from  the  throat  of  the  fortress. 
My  first  and  last  thought  was  to  try  and  save  the  remnant 
of  the  garrison.  I  rushed  out  to  give  orders,  and  saw  some 
soldiers,  whom  I  mistook  for  Belgian  gendarmes.  I  called 
them,  then  fell  again.  Poisonous  gases  seemed  to  grip  my 
throat  as  in  a  vise." 

A  shell  had  fallen  in  the  powder  magazine,  and  most  of 
the  garrison  were  overwhelmed  by  the  explosion. 

"  On  recovering  consciousness,  I  found  my  aid-de-camp, 
Captain  Colland,  standing  over  me,  also  a  German  officer, 
who  offered  me  a  glass  of  water.  They  told  me  I  had 
swooned,  and  that  the  soldiery  I  had  taken  for  Belgian 
gendarmes  were,  in  fact,  the  first  band  of  German  troops 
who  had  set  foot  inside  the  forts.  In  recognition  of  our 
courage,  the  Germans  allowed  me  to  retain  my  sword." 

In  declining  to  receive  it,  the  German  commander  is  said 
to  have  remarked :  "  To  have  crossed  swords  with  you  has 
been  an  honor."  In  a  letter  to  the  King  of  the  Belgians, 
General  Leman  narrated  the  circumstances,  adding :  "  Deign 
to  grant  pardon,  Sire.  In  Germany,  whither  I  am  proceed- 
ing, my  thoughts  will  be,  as  they  have  ever  been,  of  Belgium 
and  the  King.  I  would  willingly  have  given  my  life  the 
better  to  serve  them,  but  death  was  not  granted  to  me." 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  PLANS  REVEALED 

I.     Of  Certain  Uncertainties 

If  history  were  reduced  to  a  narrative  of  events  as  they 
are  afterward  found  to  have  occurred,  it  would  give  any- 
thing but  a  true  picture  of  the  passage  of  life  with  which 
it  is  concerned.  Not  only  are  motives,  opinions,  and  even 
prejudices  and  superstitions,  an  integral  part  of  this  life; 
one  of  the  essential  facts  which  the  historian  must  present 
is  that  his  actors  did  not  know  the  facts  as  he  does,  could 
never  see  what  it  is  his  chief  business  to  see,  their  develop- 
ment in  its  length  and  breadth,  could  very  rarely  grasp 
their  significance  before  it  was  too  late,  and  so  could  rarely 
set  a  course  by  their  logic.  In  the  history  of  warfare,  where 
the  concealment  of  facts  is  general,  and  systematic  deception 
is  frequent,  this  consideration  is  of  peculiar  importance. 
The  governments  and  commanders  know  very  much  more 
than  the  newspapers  and  their  readers,  as  a  rule ;  but  it  will 
be  safe  to  suppose  that,  at  any  given  moment,  there  were 
many  things,  and  some  considerable  things,  they  did  not 
know  which  were  commonplaces  six  months  later.  An  ag- 
gressor of  superhuman  foresight,  assured  of  a  good  start, 
and  backed  by  a  colossal  organization,  will  meet  with  dis- 
turbing surprises.  The  defense  is  more  seriously  handi- 
capped; for  its  plans  cannot  be  fixed  until  the  nature  of 
the  attack  is  known ;  and  this  may  not  be  accurately  known 
until  it  has  already  been,  wholly  or  partially,  transformed. 

Many  years  may  elapse,  many  of  the  great  actors  may  be 
dead,  and  the  blood-lust  exhausted  and  half-forgotten,  ere 

12 


THE  PLANS  REVEALED  13 

we  know  exactly  and  completely  what  was  tbe  original 
German  plan  of  campaign,  with  its  supporting  calcu- 
lations. To  suppose  that  what  occurred  was  just  what  had 
been  planned  would  be  to  attribute  to  the  Grand  Staff  in 
Berlin  something  like  omniscience — an  hypothesis  plainly 
contradicted  by  their  failure  to  comprehend,  in  particular, 
the  spirit  of  the  Belgian  and  the  British  peoples.  It  is 
evident  that  an  advance  upon  France  through  Belgium  was 
a  prominent  feature  of  this  plan,  because  the  advance  actu- 
ally made  at  the  outset  of  the  campaign  was  so  strong  that 
it  must  have  been  long  prepared.  The  Allied  commanders 
had  only  to  glance  at  a  map  to  see  that  the  whole  of  Prus- 
sia and  the  great  bulk  of  the  German  Empire  lie  north  of  the 
meridian  of  Paris-Stuttgart,  where,  in  fact,  two-thirds  of  the 
German  army  had  its  stations  in  time  of  peace.  For  a  full 
half  of  it,  indeed,  Belgium  was  the  nearest  as  well  as  the 
easiest  way  to  Paris.  But,  in  civilized  States,  political  and 
moral  considerations  weigh  more  heavily  than  those  of  a 
purely  military  order;  there  could  be  no  certainty  of  a  Bel- 
gian invasion  till  it  was  an  accomplished  fact;  and  even 
then  its  direction  and  its  dimensions  had  to  be  discovered. 
The  Germans,  on  their  part,  knew  that  they  had  to  count 
with  Belgian  and  British,  as  well  as  French,  opposition ;  and, 
the  aggression  once  decided  upon,  the  importance  of  striking 
a  crushing  blow  on  this  side  before  turning  to  the  more 
numerous  but  slow-moving  Russians  was  evident.  Yet  they 
could  not  know  positively  where  France  would  make  her 
chief  effort,  what  Belgian  resistance  would  amount  to,  how 
many  British  troops  would  be  landed  on  the  Continent 
before  a  crisis  was  reached,  or  how  soon  Russia  would 
seriously  threaten  their  eastern  flank. 

It  is  no  part  of  the  game  of  government  to  confess  to 
ignorance,  hesitation,  uncertainty;  for  the  historical  student, 
however,  these  major  uncertainties,  and  others — among  them, 
as  to  the  attitude  of  neutrals,  and  the  sentiment  of  the  bel- 
ligerent peoples — are  a  most  important  part  of  the  play  of 


14  PREPARATION 

forces  with  which  he  has  to  reckon.  The  inordinate  size 
of  the  modern  war-machine  implies  a  plan  of  campaign  elab- 
orated long  in  advance,  and  then  very  difficult  of  modifica- 
tion. Nevertheless,  in  a  struggle  so  complex  as  this,  the 
second  or  third  week  of  hostilities,  when  much  more  is  known 
than  could  have  been  anticipated,  must  needs  be  a  time  of 
anxious  reconsideration  among  some,  if  not  all,  of  the  direct- 
ing Staffs.  It  will  be  well,  therefore,  before  we  reach  the 
period  of  direct  and  rapid  development  beginning  with  the 
battle  of  Mons-Charleroi,  to  review  rapidly  the  course  of 
events  in  the  whole  western  land  area  during  and  imme- 
diately after  the  investment  of  Liege,  with  a  view  to  finding 
some  clew  to  the  relation  between  what  was  planned  and 
what  actually  occurred. 

No  doubt  remains  of  the  purely  defensive  attitude  of 
France  on  the  eve  of  the  war.  This  was,  indeed,  dictated 
as  clearly  by  prudential  motives — the  need  of  British  sup- 
port, of  Italian  neutrality,  and  of  domestic  unity — as  by  the 
spirit  of  the  Government  and  the  nation  at  large.  Until  the 
actual  outbreak  of  hostilities,  the  French  troops  were  kept 
withdrawn  eight  kilometers  (five  miles)  behind  the  frontier, 
so  that  there  should  be  no  "  incidents  "  to  cite  as  a  casus 
belli.  One  major  cause  of  anxiety  immediately  disappeared : 
in  all  four  countries,  political  and  other  divisions  ceased. 
The  Socialist  and  Pacifist  organizations  said  their  last  words 
at  meetings  of  their  respective  International  Councils  in 
Brussels  during  the  last  week  in  July.  The  silent  accept- 
ance by  four  million  German  Social  Democrats  of  an  issue 
having,  to  say  the  least,  no  favorable  relation  to  their  pro 
fessed  principles  was  conclusive.  It  might  be  explained  by 
reference  to  the  national  trait  of  obedience  to  constituted 
authority ;  it  could  not  be  harmonized  with  the  traditions  of 
the  Red  Flag,  or  any  kind  of  internationalism.  To  men  in 
other  lands  who  had  given  years  of  labor  for  peace  and 
democratic  progress,  this  was  the  cruelest  blow  of  all.  It 
dispelled  some  illusions ;  destroyed,  or  indefinitely  postponed, 


THE  PLANS  REVEALED  15 

many  high  hopes.  It  brought  the  elemental  sentiment  of 
patriotism  surging  back,  like  a  tidal  wave.  Leading  Social- 
ists— MM.  Sembat  and  Gnesde  in  France,  M.  Vandervelde  in 
Belgium — assumed  Ministerial  responsibilities,  as  Jean 
Jaures  would  have  done  had  he  lived.  Exiled  revolutionists 
returned  to  Russia  to  join  the  colors.  Until  the  German 
challenge  became  explicit  and  unmistakable,  there  was  de- 
cided hesitation  among  British  Radicals  and  Labor  men, 
long  devoted  to  the  idea  of  a  reconciliation  of  the  rival 
Alliances;  and,  before  the  last  step,  Lord  Morley  and  Mr. 
John  Burns  had  resigned  their  seats  in  the  Cabinet.  There- 
after, no  division  appeared.  Suffragettes  had  already  ceased 
from  troubling.  Ou  August  3,  Mr.  John  Redmond  declared 
that  the  Government  might  remove  all  their  troops  from 
Ireland,  which  Catholic  Nationalists  and  Protestant  Ulster- 
men  would  join  hands  to  defend.  The  Home  Rule  Bill  was 
then  passed,  but  its  operation  postponed  till  the  end  of  the 
war.  At  home,  as  in  South  Africa,  the  spirit  of  self-govern- 
ment was  again  justified.  All  were  nationalists  now.  For 
good  or  ill,  whatever  its  original  causes,  whoever  its  responsi- 
ble authors,  this  was  to  be  in  the  fullest  sense  a  war  of 
nations.  This  was,  perhaps,  the  most  considerable  fact  that 
had  emerged  clearly  before  the  river  crossings  and  railways 
of  Liege  had  been  lost  and  won. 

II.     In  the  Vosges  and  Alsace 

We  may  now  turn  to  the  military  plans  of  the  western 
Allies  and  their  chief  enemy,  taking  France  first,  as  the 
Power  longest  acquainted  with  the  threat  of  a  new  inva- 
sion. The  German  Empire  is  bordered  on  the  west,  to  the 
extent  of  nearly  two-thirds  of  its  extent,  by  Holland  and 
Belgium,  and  to  the  extent  of  little  more  than  one-third  by 
France.  During  the  armed  rivalry  that  followed  the  war  of 
1870,  this  short  Franco-German  frontier — only  170  miles  in 
length,  counting  all  its  indentations,  from  Longwy  to  Belfort 


16  PREPARATION 

— had  been  so  effectively  blocked  by  systems  of  fortification, 
centering  in  Diedenhofen  (Thionville),  Metz,  Strassburg,  and 
Neu-Breisach  on  the  one  side,  Verdun,  Toul,  Epinal,  and 


Em  den  __  .  _ 

7\  A 


HOLLAND  ;  &| 


5: 


Q.S 


Q 


*$  § 


S3 


BELGIUM  y,  a 


GERMAN 


EMPIRE 


\^^f    -Treves 
coivqwr*?*-'  — 3C--  lu 

fOVL  4.  ^jfiA  STKASSBUftC     S'S 

FRANCE  £PimL  Wi  |;S 

BELFORT-Sf-*''',  SWITZERLAND^ 


"  Gaps  "  of  the  East  Frontier. 

Belfort  on  the  other,  that  any  rapid  invasion  in  either  direc- 
tion was  generally  considered  impossible.  It  was,  indeed, 
the  prospect  of  over-pressure  of  millions  of  men  in  the  gaps 
between  these  great  fortresses  that  German  military  writers 
cited  as  justifying  their  assumption  of  a  violation  of  Belgian, 
and  perhaps  also  of  Dutch  and  Swiss,  neutrality.     If  these 


THE  PLANS  REVEALED  17 

neutral  States  were  barred,  the  defensive  position  of  the  Ger- 
man Empire  on  the  west  was  very  strong — the  Italian  Alli- 
ance apart — the  possibility  of  any  serious  attack  being 
limited  to  the  gaps  between  the  fortresses  on  the  north  of 
the  Vosges  (B,  C)  and  the  gap  of  Belfort  leading  into  the 
plain  of  southern  Alsace  (D — p.  16).  We  have  seen  that 
the  German  Imperial  Government  was  in  no  merely  defensive 
mood,  but  had  immediately  struck  out  through  neutral  Lux- 
emburg and  the  Liege  gap.  What  was  France  doing,  mean- 
while? 

She  was  playing  the  game  on  orthodox  lines,  all  warnings 
notwithstanding.  The  mobilization  progressing  smoothly, 
the  chief  armies  were  hurried  to  the  eastern  frontier.  A 
minor  force  was  sent  north  to  guard  the  gates  of  the  Sambre 
and  Meuse  and,  generally,  the  line  from  Maubeuge  to 
Longwy.  The  western  half  of  the  northern  frontier  was  left 
practically  uncovered.  An  offensive  was  at  once  taken  from 
Belfort  into  southern  Alsace,  supported  by  an  advance  along 
the  crests  of  the  Vosges,  under  the  direction  of  General 
Dubail.  Evidently,  the  plain  round  Mulhouse  was  only 
lightly  held.  Perhaps  this  French  advance  was  deliberately 
permitted;  certainly  it  absorbed  in  Paris  and  the  country 
at  large  a  great  deal  of  attention  which  should  have  been 
directed  elsewhere.  On  Friday,  August  7,  a  French  brigade, 
with  cavalry  and  artillery,  occupied  the  town  of  Altkirch, 
and  on  the  following  morning  advanced  along  the  railway 
across  the  low  country,  and,  after  another  stiff  fight  with 
the  retiring  German  troops,  entered  Mulhouse  at  5  p.m. 
This  was,  politically  speaking,  a  great  event.  At  last,  after 
forty-four  years,  French  soldiers  again  trod  the  bank 
of  the  "  German "  Rhine.  Much  was  made  of  the 
victorious  march  of  twenty-five  miles  into  Alsace;  and  Gen- 
eral Joffre  issued  a  proclamation  in  which  he  said  that  the 
magic  names  of  Right  and  Liberty  were  inscribed  upon  the 
flags  of  his  soldiers,  "  the  first  laborers  in  the  great  work  of 
la  revanche." 


18 


PREPARATION 


Correspondingly  acute  was  the  disappointment  of  the  fol- 
lowing retreat.     On  August  9,  the  Austrian  Government  was 


Belgium     ;wxeMBwlw. 


1  «IANGR£<S 


I     Switzerland 


Lorraine  and  Alsace. 


reported  to  be  sending  troops  through  southern  Germany  to 
Alsace;  and  it  was  only  then  that  the  French  Government 


THE  PLANS  REVEALED  19 

broke  off  relations  with  the  Dual  Monarchy.  On  the  same 
day,  Mulhonse  was  retaken  by  the  German  14th  Army  Corps 
and  a  portion  of  the  15th,  the  direct  attack  being  supported 
by  a  flank  movement  against  Cernay  (Sennheim).  The  se- 
quel is  thus  described  in  a  French  official  statement:  "Our 
troops  were  enthusiastically  received  in  Mulhouse  by  the 
Alsatians.  Some  hours  were  spent  in  joyous  excitement, 
and  for  a  moment,  perhaps  too  readily,  the  men  forgot  that 
they  were  in  the  enemy's  country.  Beside  the  Alsatians 
feting  our  arrival,  there  were  a  number  of  German  immi- 
grants who  immediately  informed  the  retreating  Germans  of 
our  exact  position  and  strength.  Mulhouse,  difficult  to 
defend  against  an  attack  from  the  north  and  east,  was  com- 
paratively easy  to  recover  if  vigorously  attacked.  That  is 
what  the  Germans  did  during  the  night,  advancing  on  the 
one  side  from  the  Forest  of  Hard  and  on  the  other  from  the 
direction  of  Neu-Breisach  and  Colmar,  and  marching  toward 
Cernay  in  order  to  cut  our  retreat.  If  we  had  remained 
at  Mulhouse  with  insufficient  forces,  we  would  have  been  in 
danger  of  losing  our  line  of  retreat  toward  the  Upper  Vosges 
and  Belfort.  Orders  were,  therefore,  given  to  retire.  An- 
other plan  might,  indeed,  have  been  conceived  and  carried 
out.  The  troops  we  had  left  at  Altkirch  had  not  been  at- 
tacked. It  would  thus  have  been  possible  to  counter-attack 
the  enemy  marching  on  Cernay  by  utilizing  our  reserves. 
This  plan  was  not  carried  out.  Our  left  was  attacked  near 
Cernay  by  greatly  superior  forces ;  our  center  was  attacked 
at  Mulhouse;  and  our  right  was  inactive.  The  battle  was 
badly  begun,  and  the  wisest  solution  was,  therefore,  to  re- 
treat. In  order  to  carry  out  our  initial  plan,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  recommence  the  operations  on  a  new  basis,  and  under 
a  new  commander.  The  command  was  given  to  General 
Pau." 

When  the  new  start  was  made  in  the  plain,  the  chief  crests 
and  passes  of  the  Vosges  had  been  captured  after  hard 
fighting,  and  were  firmly  held.     The  retirement  five  miles 


20  PREPARATION 

from  the  frontier  on  the  eve  of  the  war  here  involved  a 
peculiarly  hard  penalty  upon  the  mountain  troops.  The 
pass  known  as  the  Ballon  d' Alsace  (Welsche  Belchen — 4,085 
feet),  a  famous  view-point  overlooking  Thann,  was  the  first 
to  be  secured.  It  is  very  steep  on  the  Alsatian  side,  but  less 
so  on  the  French,  where,  moreover,  the  summit  was  com- 
manded by  the  fort  of  Servance.  From  here,  the  Col  du 
Busang  was  easily  taken.  Next,  the  Schlucht,  the  pictur- 
esque pass  between  Gerardmer  and  Munster,  and  the  Hoh- 
neck  (4,465  feet)  were  gained,  under  like  advantageous  con- 
ditions. More  to  the  north,  the  central  Vosges  offered  much 
greater  difficulties,  the  French  sides  being  the  steeper,  so 
that  it  was  difficult  to  bring  up  artillery ;  while  the  Germans 
had  been  able  to  strengthen  their  positions  on  the  narrow, 
thickly  wooded  summits  by  cutting  down  trees,  putting  up 
wire  entanglements,  and  digging  trenches.  The  Col  du  Bon- 
homme  (3,120  feet)  and  the  lower  Col  Ste.  Marie,  captured 
after  a  five-days'  struggle  before  the  middle  of  August,  gave 
protection  to  the  French  right  in  its  progress  toward  Saales, 
at  the  head  of  the  valley  leading  to  Schlestadt;  but  the 
direct  way  to  Colmar  was  blocked  by  German  field-works  and 
by  heavy  artillery  on  the  lower  slopes.  A  further  northward 
advance  was,  therefore,  made  along  the  mountain  crests,  and 
artillery  was  brought  down  from  the  head  of  the  Bruche  Val- 
ley upon  the  German  flank.  This  operation,  in  which  ma- 
terial losses  were  sustained,  opened  the  way  for  the  occupa- 
tion of  Mount  Donon  (3,300  feet),  the  most  northerly  of  the 
Vosges  summits,  on  August  14.  This  quasi- Alpine  campaign 
had  been  skillfully  directed,  and  met  with  a  deserved  success. 
The  numbers  of  men  engaged  were  not  large,  varying  at  first 
from  a  battalion  of  Chasseurs  to  a  regiment  of  infantry,  and 
being  gradually  increased.  The  most  considerable  French 
loss  officially  named  was  600  killed  and  wounded  in  the 
Bonhomme  and  Ste.  Marie  passes.  Apart  from  cannon  and 
material,  the  German  losses  were  believed  to  be  much  larger. 
The  little  manufacturing  town  of  Thann  had  now  been 


THE  PLANS  REVEALED  21 

reoccupied ;  and  at  St.  Blaise,  a  village  near  Ste.  Marie-aux- 
Mines,  in  a  sharp  combat,  General  von  Deimling,  command- 
ing the  15th  German  Army  Corps,  was  wounded,  and  the 
French  took  their  first  standard,  to  the  great  joy  of  Paris 
sightseers  a  few  days  later.  On  August  18,  General  Joffre 
issued  from  eastern  headquarters  the  first  dispatch  bearing 
his  own  signature.  It  reported  steady  advance  along  the 
Alsatian  valleys,  and  declared  that  "  the  enemy  retreated 
in  disorder,  everywhere  abandoning  his  wounded  and  ma- 
terial." General  Pan  had  received  strong  re-enforcements 
with  a  view  to  a  "  decisive  "  action.  Advancing  simultane- 
ously from  Belfort  and  the  Yosges,  but  on  a  narrower  front 
than  previously,  with  their  right  supported  on  the  Rhone- 
Rhine  Canal,  they  had  stormed  Thann  and  Dannemarie,  and, 
bringing  the  left  round  toward  Colmar,  while  the  center 
attacked  Mulhouse,  threatened  the  German  forces  with  a 
serious  breach  of  their  communications.  After  severe  street 
fighting,  in  which  twenty-four  guns  were  taken,  Mulhouse 
was  again  in  French  possession  on  August  20. 

The  whole  of  the  ground  thus  gained  was  abandoned  a  few 
days  later.  This  was  a  grave  blow  to  French  pride,  and 
brought  a  severe  punishment  upon  the  Francophile  Alsatians. 
Naturally,  the  whole  southern  campaign  aroused  severe  criti- 
cism. Several  high  officers  were  retired  for  mistakes  in  the 
first  advance,  which  was  afterwards  officially  described  as  "  a 
mere  reconnoissance."  If  any  less  eminent  soldiers  than 
General  Joffre  and  General  Pau  had  been  responsible,  there 
might  have  been  more  trouble.  But  Joffre  "  the  taciturn," 
the  cool-headed  engineer  whose  powers  had  been  tested  in 
many  a  colonial  field,  and  confirmed  in  long  labors  of  forti- 
fication and  organization,  and  the  veteran  Pau,  who  had 
been  second  in  consideration  for  the  post  of  Generalissimo, 
could  not  be  regarded  as  reckless  adventurers,  aiming  at  a 
political  advantage  which  they  could  not  hold.  The  civilian 
observer  presently  came  to  see  that,  with  the  evident  political 
advantages  of  an  advance  into  Alsace-Lorraine — the  center 


22  PREPARATION 

of  French  hopes  and  of  Prussian  oppression — certain  impor- 
tant military  considerations  were  joined.  The  first  raid  to 
Mulhouse  was,  in  fact,  a  somewhat  clumsily  handled  voyage 
of  discovery,  which  revealed  not  only  that  Upper  Alsace 
was  lightly  garrisoned,  but  (this  too  late)  that  the  only  way 
of  profiting  by  such  a  situation  lies  in  a  rapid,  strong  offen- 
sive, since,  with  a  good  railway  system  behind  him,  the  enemy 
can  bring  up  large  re-enforcements  in  a  few  days.  General 
Pau's  more  substantial  expedition  was  sound,  and,  in  itself, 
completely  successful.  It  had  to  be  withdrawn  because  it 
was  not  supported  by  success  further  north.  It  did  serve, 
however,  for  a  moment,  to  detach  some  German  forces  from  a 
part  of  the  field  where  they  were  more  dangerous;  carried 
further,  it  might  have  released  the  troops  kept  in  the  Vosges, 
and  have  provided  a  base  for  an  invasion  of  South  Germany. 
As  it  was,  German  Alsace  had  to  be  sacrificed  to  save  French 
Lorraine,  and  more  even  than  that.  We  had  before  us  the 
first  great  demonstration  that,  in  modern  warfare,  there  are 
no  more  independent,  free-moving  armies,  and  that  every 
part  of  a  battle-line  hundreds  of  miles  long  is  vitally  depend- 
ent upon  every  other  part. 

III.     The  Advance  in  Lorraine 

We  have  seen  (a)  that  the  superior  numbers  available  for 
the  German  aggression  had  been  further  strengthened  by  a 
gain  of  several  days  in  the  work  of  mobilization ;  and,  as  this 
advantage  of  time  and  numbers  was  not  displayed  in  the 
southern  field,  it  would  evidently  be  doubly  felt  elsewhere. 
(6)  The  short  eastern  frontier  between  the  natural  obstacles 
of  the  Ardennes  and  the  Vosges  is  covered  by  extensive  sys- 
tems of  fortification,  in  which  the  few  narrow  breaks  seem 
to  have  been  deliberately  left  to  tempt  the  enemy.  From  the 
corner  at  Longwy,  where  the  territories  of  France,  Belgium, 
Luxemburg,  and  Germany  meet,  to  the  Col  de  Saales  is  a 
distance  of  only  about  120  miles.     In  1870,  when  the  east 


THE  PLANS  REVEALED  23 

frontier  was  thirty  miles  longer,  the  strategical  deployment 
of  only  sixteen  German  army  corps  was  found  to  be  a  matter 
of  difficulty.  Railways  and  the  petrol  road-car  and  wagon 
have  made  a  great  difference  in  the  power  of  mass  movement ; 
but  it  is  at  least  highly  probable  that,  had  the  war  been 
limited  to  this  front,  the  superior  German  numbers  and 
their  great  new  siege  guns  (a  carefully  guarded  secret  until 
the  campaign  was  well  advanced)  would  have  availed  little, 
and  a  deadlock  would  soon  have  been  reached,  (c)  Refer- 
ence to  the  diagram  on  page  1G  will  show  four  gaps  indicated 
by  arrows,  between  the  obstructing  mountain  systems  and 
the  groups  of  fortifications,  through  which  attempts  at  inva- 
sion might  be  expected.  The  northernmost  and  southern- 
most of  these  represent  the  directions  of  the  chief  German 
and  French  offensives,  through  Liege  and  Belfort,  respect- 
ively, with  which  we  have  dealt.  We  must  now  follow  the 
course  of  the  movements  marked  by  the  arrows  B  and  C, 
through  the  north  and  central  parts  of  the  French  eastern 
border.  i 

The  first  alignment  of  the  opposed  armies — apart  from  the 
three  first  German  armies  and  General  von  Emmich's  Army 
of  the  Meuse,  operating  through  Belgium,  and  the  5th  French 
Army,  covering  the  north-eastern  frontier  from  Maubeuge 
to  Mezieres — is  shown  in  the  accompanying  plan  (p.  24). 
There  are  here  five  German  and  only  four  French  groups, 
two  of  the  former  being  directed,  across  the  Belgian  Ar- 
dennes and  Luxemburg  respectively,  against  the  gap  behind 
Longwy,  while  the  Verdun  army  watches  that  of  Metz,  and 
the  Nancy  army  watches  that  of  Strassburg.  The  rate  of 
development  of  events  in  this  part  of  the  field  contrasts 
strongly  with  the  speed  of  the  blow  at  Liege,  for  which  a 
special  force  had  been  made  ready,  and  of  the  raid  upon 
Mulhouse.  Many  Uhlan  patrols  were  quickly  upon  French 
soil,  with  melancholy  consequences  for  the  villagers;  and  the 
French  cavalry  occupied  Vic,  just  over  the  frontier  north- 
east of  Nancy,  on  August  7.     It  was  not  till  the  12th  that  the 


24 


PREPARATION 


Mezieres 


VAR0ENNE5O 

I 
I 


•  ft* 


STMIH1EL  o 


^Str^sburc; 


Belfort^.  ; 

1 


-fN.BREISACH 

®  i  * 

ISTEIN 


First  Position  of  Armies  on  the  East 

French  ■DBD1DB 
1st  (General  Dubail). 
2nd  (General  de  Castelnau). 
3rd   (General  Ruffey). 
4th    (General  de  Langle  de 
Cary). 


German 

8th   (General  von  Deimling). 
7th  ( General  von  Heeringen ) . 
6th  (Crown  Prince  of  Bavaria), 
5th  (Crown  Prince  of  Prussia). 
4th   (Duke  of  Wiirtemberg ) . 


THE  PLANS  REVEALED  25 

German  offensive  became  marked  along  the  road  from  Lux- 
emburg to  Verdun,  at  Longuyon  and  Spincourt,  and  the 
French  on  the  roads  from  Nancy  to  Saarburg.  Longwy, 
although  without  serious  modern  fortification,  and  having 
but  a  small  garrison,  refused  to  surrender  on  August  3,  and, 
after  being  invested  and  losing  half  its  effectives  by  repeated 
bombardments,  capitulated  only  on  the  27th.  The  gallant 
Governor,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Darche,  was  named  officer  of 
the  Legion  of  Honor  for  this  heroic  defense.  The  feat  indi- 
cates, however,  that  the  German  effort  in  this  direction  was 
of  a  secondary  character;  and,  in  fact,  it  was  checked  at 
Mangiennes  and  Pillon  on  August  10-12,  with  a  loss  of  several 
guns  and  a  thousand  prisoners.  On  this  side,  Verdun  was 
not  to  be  more  nearly  approached.  A  day's  bombardment  of 
the  little  frontier  town  of  Pont&Mousson,  during  which 
over  a  hundred  projectiles  containing  large  charges  of  picrite 
were  thrown  in  by  the  Metz  artillery,  resulted  only  in  four 
civilians  being  killed  and  twelve  wounded.  Two  Verdun 
aviators,  Lieutenant  Cesari  and  Corporal  Prudhommeau,  ac- 
complished more  in  an  air  raid  upon  Metz,  where  they  suc- 
ceeded in  dropping  bombs  on  the  military  airship  sheds,  and 
reached  home  after  an  adventurous  voyage. 

After  repelling  attacks,  and  routing  a  Bavarian  corps 
established  on  the  hills  above  Blamont  and  Cirey,  east  of 
Nancy  and  Luneville,  General  de  Castelnau's  army  of  five 
corps  and  reserve  divisions  now  made  a  bold  entry  into  the 
Lorraine  lowlands.  All  the  signs  seemed  favorable.  The 
Minister  of  War  boasted  (on  August  15)  that  the  expected 
German  attack  on  Nancy  had  "  scarcely  been  attempted," 
that  the  invasion  of  Belgium  had  been  "  foiled,"  that  the 
movements  of  the  Allied  armies  had  been  "  perfectly  co- 
ordinated," and  that  their  supremacy  at  sea  had  secured  the 
free  passage  of  the  Algerian  troops  and  future  foreign 
supplies.  The  British  Expeditionary  Force  was  known  to 
have  crossed  the  Channel.  Mulhouse  was  lost,  but  the 
Vosges  passes  were  won.    The  Generalissimo  was  sure  as  to 


26  PREPARATION 

the  next  move;  the  soldiers  had  already  gained  confidence 
in  themselves,  their  bayonets,  and  their  field-guns,  especially 
their  "  75's."  It  was  with  a  somewhat  tart  note  that  M. 
Doumergue  thanked  President  Wilson  for  a  "  new  evidence 
of  his  interest  in  the  destinies  of  France"  in  the  shape  of 
a  proposal  of  mediation  made  on  August  6.  On  Sunday,  the 
16th,  the  French  troops  had  a  firm  hold  on  Avricourt,  the 
frontier  station  on  the  main  line  from  Paris  to  Strassburg ; 
and  at  the  same  time  an  advance  of  Dubail's  army,  by  the 
Bruche  Valley,  reached  Schirnieck  and  Muhlbach  on  the 
Saales-Strassburg  railway,  and  resulted  in  a  capture  of 
twenty  guns  and  fifteen  hundred  men.  During  that  week- 
end, Lorquin,  a  small  industrial  center  just  south  of  Saar- 
burg,  in  undulating  country  where  lumbering  and  saw- 
mills provide  the  chief  normal  occupations,  was  taken,  as 
were  Chateau-Salins  (Salzburg),  the  pondy  region  west  of 
Fenetrange,  and  several  villages  on  the  Marne-Rhine  Canal, 
on  the  low  borderland  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine.  Fenetrange, 
a  quaint  little  place  with  a  ruined  chateau  and  the  remains 
of  an  ancient  church,  buried  among  fruit  and  walnut  trees, 
was  important  as  threatening  the  railway  communications 
of  Saarburg.  Near  by,  in  the  Saar  Valley,  are  the  ruins 
of  the  medieval  castle  of  Geroldseck,  a  gloomy  reminder  of 
the  Thirty  Years'  War  and  the  eternal  madness  of  armed 
feuds.  Saarburg  was  menaced  from  the  north,  south,  and 
west.  A  sleepy  town,  but  an  important  railway  junction, 
the  authorities  of  the  Reichsland  kept  here  a  considerable 
garrison,  and  the  neighboring  hills  were  defaced  with  huge 
barracks.  To  the  south  of  the  town,  a  strong  artillery  posi- 
tion had  been  established.  This  was  taken  by  assault;  and, 
on  August  18,  the  French  entered  Saarburg,  thus  effectually 
breaking  the  main  railway  communications  between  Metz 
and  Strassburg.  Zabern,  where  Lieutenant  von  Forstner 
had  so  recently  executed  Prussian  military  vengeance  upon  a 
lame  cobbler,  which  Herr  von  Jagow  had  described  as 
"  almost  an  enemy's  country,"  where  the  Prussian  Minister 


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28  PREPARATION 

of  War  had  feared  "  to  see  life  for  a  German  become  less 
safe  than  life  in  the  Congo  " — Zabern,  the  very  name  of 
which  cried  aloud  of  the  uniformed  bull}7,  was  only  a  day's 
march  further  east,  and  Strassburg  itself  only  as  much  more. 

Hope  flashed  over  France  like  a  sudden  conflagration. 
Count  Albert  de  Mun  published  in  Paris  the  narrative  of  a 
refugee  priest  who  declared  that  Metz  was  hungry  and 
terror-stricken.  It  was  the  anniversary  of  the  battle  of  St. 
Privat;  and  the  old  aristocrat  and  soldier,  clerical  deputy 
and  philanthropist,  presented  himself  without  shame  as 
standing  in  the  courtyard  of  the  War  Office  beneath  a  cap- 
tured German  banner,  and  thanking  God  that  the  day  of  the 
long-awaited  revenge  had  come.  Gravelotte,  St.  Privat, 
Sedan — interspersed  with  the  war  news  of  the  day,  these 
anniversaries  were  a  by  no  means  insignificant  factor  in  the 
consciousness  of  the  opposed  armies  and  nations.  General 
Bonnal,  in  the  Gaulois,  quoted  a  prisoner  as  saying :  "  It  is 
an  officers',  not  a  people's  war,"  and  from  this  concluded  that 
there  had  been  "  a  complete  reversal  of  roles  "  since  1870. 
The  Abbe  Wetterle,  a  notable  Alsatian  member  of  the 
Reichstag,  reached  Paris  on  August  19,  by  way  of  Basel  and 
Pontarlier,  having  narrowly  escaped  arrest  and  trial  for  high 
treason.  M.  Blumenthal,  another  deputy,  and  ex-mayor  of 
Colmar,  had  also  had  an  exciting  journey  from  that  town  to 
the  Swiss  frontier.  Their  adventures  accentuated  the  gen- 
eral anticipation  that  the  lost  provinces  were  about  to  be 
liberated. 

The  French  positions  were  quickly  extended  to  the  north- 
west of  Saarburg,  through  Dieuze  and  Morhange — just  such 
little  infernos  as  had  been  described  some  years  before  in 
a  widely  read  book,  Lieutenant  Bilse's  "  Aus  Einer  Kleinen 
Garnison  " — to  Chateau-Salins  and  Delme,  decayed  country 
towns  on  a  strategic  railway  running  to  Metz,  only  twenty 
miles  away.  Whether  they  had  deliberately  tempted  Castel- 
nau  into  this  dangerous  salient,  or  had  retired  only  to  give 
time  for  the  bringing  up  of  heavy  re-enforcements,  the  Crown 


THE  PLANS  REVEALED 


29 


Prince  of  Bavaria  and  General  von  Heeringen  were  now  able, 
with  the  aid  of  the  Metz  garrison,  to  fall  upon  the  French 
from  three  sides  at  once.  The  blow  was  sudden  and  decisive. 
The  French  15th  Corps,  taken  by  surprise,  gave  way — some, 
at  least,  of  these  Southern  troops  tied,  but  they  afterwards 
bravely  retrieved  their  character — and  the  whole  line  had  to 
be  withdrawn.  The  Germans  claimed  to  have  captured 
10,000  prisoners  and  50  guns.  The  French  questioned  these 
figures,  but  could  not  deny  a  severe  reverse.  This  was  on 
August  20,  while  the  German  cavalry  was  entering  Brussels, 
the  French  were  recovering  Mulhouse,  and  the  authorities 
in  Paris  were  congratulating  themselves  that,  except  a 
corner  of  land  at  Audun-le-Roman,  the  frontier  station  be- 
tween Longuyon  and  Thionville,  every  part  of  the  national 
territory  was  free  of  the  invader.  The  retreat  from  Lorraine 
was  arrested  for  a  moment  on  the  line  of  the  Seille  and  the 
Marne-Rhine  Canal.  On  August  22,  it  had  reached  the 
Moselle   and   the  advanced   works   of  Nancy   on   the   left, 


/  ^METZ 


N/\NGYo 


OlEUZE 


LUNEVHJ.E 


EPINAL 


st, 


STR/aSSBURQ 


French  Offensive   Crappy)  in   Lorraine. 


30  PREPARATION 

Badonviller  and  the  Donon  on  the  right.  On  the  23rd,  Lune- 
ville  was  lost;  the  French  retired  to,  and  at  some  points 
beyond,  the  Meurthe,  the  center  of  the  defense  being  the  ring 
of  hills  known  as  the  Grand  Crown  of  Nancy;  and  the 
Donon  and  the  Col  de  Saales  were  abandoned.  On  the  25th, 
Mulhouse  was  evacuated,  and  all  but  the  southern  passes 
of  the  Vosges  were  abandoned.  There  was  now  something 
more  important  than  Alsace  for  General  Pau  to  look  after. 
The  danger  in  the  north  was  unmistakable.  The  change  of 
objective  was  announced  in  the  following  not  very  happy 
terms  in  the  Paris  communique  of  August  26 :  "  The  Com- 
mander-in-Chief, having  to  summon  all  the  troops  to  the 
Meuse  front,  ordered  the  evacuation  of  the  occupied  terri- 
tory. The  great  battle  is  engaged  between  Maubeuge  and 
the  Donon ;  on  it  depends  the  fate  of  France,  and  with  it  of 
Alsace.  It  is  in  the  north  that  the  Commander-in-Chief  calls 
all  the  forces  of  the  nation  to  the  decisive  attack.  Military 
action  in  the  Rhine  Valley  would  distract  from  it  troops 
on  which  victory  might  depend.  It  is  necessary,  therefore, 
to  leave  Alsace  for  the  present.  It  is  a  cruel  necessity  which 
the  army  of  Alsace  and  its  chief  have  submitted  to  with  pain, 
and  only  at  the  last  extremity." 

IV.     The  Fall  of  Namur 

So  much  for  the  first  German  and  French  offensive  move- 
ments of  the  campaign.  We  must  now  return  to  the  front 
in  Belgium,  and  watch  the  development  of  the  German  attack 
in  relation  to  the  three  quantities  by  which  it  was  opposed : 
(a)  the  Belgian  army  and  people,  (&)  the  French  army, 
through  the  Ardennes  westward  to  the  Meuse,  and  (c)  the 
British  Expeditionary  Force. 

The  obstinate  resistance  of  the  Liege  forts,  and  the  escape 
of  the  field  troops  westward  on  August  6,  made  it  clear  that 
Belgium  had  to  be  reckoned  with  seriously.  Von  Emmich's 
Army  of  the  Meuse  was  not  able  to  prevent  this  escape,  as 


THE  PLANS  REVEALED 


31 


a  slower,  more  powerful,  and  well-provided  invasion  might 
have  done.  On  the  other  hand,  if  any  more  time  had  been 
given,  Liege  might  have  been  better  prepared  for  the  siege. 
It  is  impossible,  therefore,  to  say  positively  that  the  sudden 
assault  by  an  inadequate  (though  superior)  force  of  frontier 
troops  was  a  mistake.  But  it  was  a  very  expensive  way  of 
ascertaining  that  there  are  still  Davids,  as  there  are  Goliaths, 
among  the  nations.  In  the  ensuing  pause,  a  screen  of  cav- 
alry scouts  was  thrown  out  far  and  wide  over  the  country ; 
and,  behind  this  screen,  the  concentration  for  the  real  inva- 
sion was  hurried  forward.  Did  the  Allied  Staffs  realize  the 
extent  of  this  concentration?  On  August  12,  the  newly 
established  British  Press  Bureau  issued  a  statement  to  the 
effect  that,  "  of  the  twenty-six  German  Army  Corps,  the 
bulk  have  now  been  definitely  located,  and  it  is  evident  that 


tc.-t- 

VON   HAUSEN'S   ADVANCE 


A-B  -"Belgian  Army 


< 


After  the  Fall,  of  Liege. 


32  PREPARATION 

the  mass  of  the  German  troops  lie  between  Liege  and  Luxem- 
burg. The  number  known  to  be  on  the  western  side  proves 
that,  in  the  eastern  (Russian)  theater  of  war,  the  frontier, 
as  far  as  Germany  is  concerned,  is  comparatively  lightly 
guarded,  unless  by  reserve  troops."  Beyond  this,  nothing 
was  vouchsafed  to  the  public ;  it  was  generally  believed  that 
the  invaders  were  discouraged,  if  not  broken,  and  petty 
skirmishes  between  Uhlans  and  Belgian  detachments  were 
magnified  into  triumphant  battles.  In  an  uncanny  secrecy, 
the  German  commanders  ripened  their  plans. 

The  Belgian  field  army  was  in  being,  with  its  headquarters 
in  Louvain,  its  left  wing  extended  before  Aerschot  towards 
Diest,  and  its  right  through  Tirlemont  and  Waremme  towards 
Gembloux,  where  a  junction  with  French  cavalry  detach- 
ments was  presently  effected.  Throughout  this  line,  small 
test  actions  were  being  fought  on  and  after  August  10 — a 
guerrilla  campaign,  of  intimidation  on  the  one  hand,  of  delay 
on  the  other.  At  the  village  of  Haelen,  near  Diest,  on  the 
10th,  the  Belgians  inflicted  upon  a  division  of  cavalry  and 
an  infantry  regiment  a  complete  defeat.  King  Albert  might 
then,  honorably,  have  withdrawn  his  army  into  the  fortified 
zone  of  Antwerp.  It  is  possible  that  this  course  would  have 
saved  central  Belgium  from  some  slaughter  and  devastation. 
By  removing  an  obstruction  strong  enough  to  check  anything 
but  a  considerable  German  advance,  it  would  have  worsened 
the  military  situation  of  the  Allies.  If,  as  is  possible,  but 
not  probable,  the  German  commanders  had  intended  to 
strike  their  main  blow  down  the  Meuse  Valley,  the  Belgian 
resistance  may  have  diverted  them  westward.  It  is  very 
much  more  likely  that  the  western  campaign  which  was 
to  prove  so  costly  to  the  Allies  was  already  decided  upon, 
and,  in  that  case,  the  gallant  opposition  of  the  Belgian  army 
was  in  every  way  justified.  To  its  chiefs,  all,  at  the  mo- 
ment, seemed  to  rest  in  a  very  simple,  very  unselfish,  calcu- 
lation: how  to  delay  the  invader  until  French  and  British 
help  arrived.     To  withdraw  seemed  to  be  to  abandon  not 


THE  PLANS  REVEALED  33 

only  their  country,  but  their  friends  and  legal  guardians. 
The  question  was  discussed.  The  young  soldier-King  would 
not  take  the  path  of  evasion;  his  Ministers  could  not  say 
him  nay.  It  was  hoped  that  the  French  in  numbers,  per- 
haps some  British  also,  would  arrive  before  the  main  Ger- 
man force  was  ready. 

For  four  days,  the  Belgians — at  Eghezee,  Landen,  Wa- 
remme,  and  Diest — beat  off  all  attacks.  Then  a  severe  pres- 
sure upon  their  left  wing  became  apparent,  the  advance 
proceeding  from  Hassel t  to  Haelen  and  on  toward  Louvain ; 
while  another  threatening  movement  was  made  from  the 
Hesbaye  district,  south  of  Tirlemont,  directly  toward  the 
capital.  These  armies  evidently  could  not  be  for  long  fron- 
tally  resisted  ;  and,  while  the  more  northerly  put  the  Belgian 
line  of  retreat  to  Antwerp  in  danger,  the  other  struck  at  the 
line  of  connection  with  the  French  before  it  could  be  effect- 
ively strengthened  from  the  south.  Only  one  decision  was 
possible,  for,  if  the  Belgian  army  could  be  kept  in  being  in 
the  north-west,  it  might  yet  hope  to  play  an  influential  part 
in  events.  So  the  French  columns  turned  back  southward, 
and  the  country  between  Wavre  and  Brussels  was  evacuated, 
the  Civil  Guards  being  disarmed,  and  the  villagers  left  to 
flee,  or  to  bear  as  best  they  might  the  flood  of  gray-coated 
Teutons.  First  came  groups  of  Uhlan  patrols,  with  armored 
automobiles  and  cars  full  of  infantry  scouts;  then  the  main 
columns  of  all  arms — a  host  such  as  had  never  been  counted 
upon,  developing  an  hourly  increasing  speed  and  power. 

Brussels,  whether  in  the  original  plan  of  campaign  or 
not,  was  now  the  immediate  objective.  The  property  of  the 
Belgian  National  Bank,  and  the  State  papers,  had  already 
been  sent  to  Antwerp;  on  Monday,  the  17th,  it  was  known 
that  the  Queen  and  the  Ministers  were  following.  On  the 
18th,  the  lines  of  Waremme,  Tirlemont,  Louvain,  and  Aer- 
schot  were  evacuated,  a  rear-guard  action  at  the  latter  place 
— in  which  one  heroic  detachment  of  288  men  bad  only  seven 
survivors — being  the  prelude  to  a  peculiarly  atrocious  mas- 


34  PREPARATION 

sacre  of  civilians  by  the  German  troops.  The  road  to  the 
capital  was  thus  thrown  open;  it  was,  however,  still  for  a 
moment  thought  that  nothing  more  than  a  cavalry  raid  on 
Brussels  was  intended,  which  the  Civil  Guard  of  the  city, 
intrenched  across  the  eastern  approaches,  would  be  able  to 
parry.  The  woods  at  Soignes  and  the  Tervueren  district 
were,  therefore,  prepared  for  a  defensive  effort;  but  on  the 
evening  of  the  19th — from  scruples  as  to  submitting  an  im- 
perfectly armed  police  force  to  such  a  test,  as  well  as  from 
better  knowledge  of  the  strength  of  the  invading  army — the 
Guards  were  withdrawn  and  sent  to  Ghent  and  Ostend, 
whither  a  large  part  of  the  civil  population  was  already  in 
flight.  While  King  Albert  and  the  other  national  leaders 
accompanied  the  army  under  the  guns  of  their  one  remain- 
ing fortress,  Burgomaster  Max  set  himself,  with  rare  sagac- 
ity, prudence,  and  courage,  to  bargain  with  General  Sixtus 
von  Arnim,  commander  of  the  German  6th  Army  Corps, 
by  whom  the  city  was  occupied  on  August  20.  They  were 
to  have  passage  through  it ;  but  requisitions  were  to  be  paid 
for  in  cash,  public  and  private  property  was  to  be  respected, 
and  the  Municipal  Council  was  to  carry  on  its  work.  If  any 
injury  were  done  to  the  troops,  "  the  severest  measures " 
would  be  taken;  otherwise  General  von  Arnim  guaranteed 
"  the  preservation  of  the  city  and  the  safety  of  its  inhabit- 
ants." The  streets  where,  less  than  three  weeks  before,  I 
had  watched  the  Belgian  soldiers  gathering  for  mobilization, 
were  now  deserted  and  silent,  a  parade  march  of  40,000  men 
through  the  city  failing  to  produce  the  expected  impression. 
As  at  Liege,  the  conquerors  established  themselves  without 
the  gross  excesses  that  had  marked  their  passage  through 
the  villages  and  smaller  towns.  Instead,  they  imposed 
enormous  fines — £8,000,000  in  the  case  of  Brussels,  £2,000,- 
000  in  that  of  Liege — which  can  only  be  regarded  as  ransom 
in  lieu  of  pillage  or  arbitrary  punishment.  Great  Britain 
and  France  at  once  advanced  to  the  Belgian  Government  the 
sum  of  £10,000,000  sterling  as  a  loan  without  interest. 


THE  PLANS  REVEALED  35 

While  a  part  of  the  German  First  Army,  that  of  General 
von  Kluck,  was  thus  projecting  the  right  or  western  wing  of 
the  invasion,  the  Second,  under  Von  Biilow,  was  crossing  the 
Meuse  bridges  at  Huy,  and  making  for  Namur;  and  the  Third 
and  Fourth,  under  Von  Hausen  and  the  Duke  of  Wiirtem- 
berg,  were  penetrating  through  the  difficult  Ardennes  coun- 
try, the  former  toward  Dinant  and  Givet,  the  latter  through 
Bastogne  toward  Mezieres.  The  most  northerly  of  the 
French  armies  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  that  of  General 
de  Langle  de  Gary,  posted  across  the  Ardennes-Luxemburg 
border,  and  that  of  General  Lanrezac,  from  Maubeuge  to  the 
Meuse  above  Givet,  had  not  waited  for  the  enemy,  but  at- 
tempted an  offensive  which  was  even  less  happy  than  that  of 
their  fellows  in  Lorraine.  It  was  too  much  dispersed,  and, 
on  the  most  important  line,  that  of  the  Meuse  to  Namur, 
showed  neither  speed  nor  strength  enough.  De  Langle's 
advance  from  between  Mezieres  and  Montmedy  through  the 
southern  Ardennes,  which  might  have  threatened  the  Ger- 
man communications  had  it  got  further,  was  stopped  between 
Neufchaleau  and  Paliseul,  the  French  retiring  to  the  south 
and  west. 

Lanrezac  was  at  first  more  fortunate;  but  his  success  at 
Dinant  on  August  15  left  no  lasting  result.  After  the  check 
at  Liege,  the  German  Staff  had  decided  to  bring  new  forces 
to  the  north ;  and  a  fresh  army  consisting  of  two  Saxon 
corps  originally  part  of  the  Duke  of  Wiirtemberg's  army, 
with  the  11th  Reserve  Corps,  and  part  of  the  Guard's  cavalry, 
under  General  von  Hausen,  was  directed  to  strike  across  the 
central  Ardennes,  and  so  get  behind  Namur  and  catch  any 
French  or  Belgian  body  on  the  Sambre  in  flank. 

The  great  cross-roads  of  Namur  were  then  still  blocked 
to  the  Germans,  who  were  thus  forced  into  various  side- 
ways. One  of  these  was  the  railway  from  Liege  and  Huy 
to  Ciney,  whence  Dinant  could  be  reached  either  by  road, 
or  by  railway  through  Rochefort.  Dinant  was  important 
as  holding  one  of  the  direct  ways  by  which  the  French  might 


36  PREPARATION 

relieve  Namur,  and  as  having  a  line  of  its  own,  striking  west 
to  Charleroi.  Hither,  then,  came  at  daybreak  on  August  15 
a  German  force  consisting  of  a  division  of  the  Guard,  an- 
other cavalry  division,  several  battalions  of  infantry,  and 
some  companies  of  small  artillery.  A  few  French  infantry- 
men alone  occupied  the  ancient  citadel  overlooking  the  east 
side  of  the  river;  and  it  was  captured  during  the  morning. 
A  struggle  for  the  crossing  from  the  east  to  the  west  bank 
ensued.  In  the  afternoon,  two  batteries  of  French  artillery 
and  several  regiments  of  infantry  arrived.  The  "  75's " 
quickly  dominated  the  citadel  and  bridge-head  from  the 
neighboring  cliffs ;  and  the  assailants  were  driven  back,  and 
dispersed  by  a  cavalry  charge.  A  French  captain  of  in- 
fantry, who  was  wounded  in  the  engagement,  afterwards 
said :  "  We  were  barely  two  companies  strong  when  we  got 
the  order  to  advance  and  clear  a  position  for  our  artillery. 
Below  us,  the  Germans,  who  had  succeeded  in  bridging  the 
Meuse,  marched  confident  in  their  superiority  of  numbers.  A 
volley  caught  them,  then  another,  and  a  third.  Within  a  few 
seconds,  we  were  close  upon  them;  their  machine-guns 
plowed  through  our  ranks,  but  we  went  on,  and,  when  a  sec- 
ond company  came  to  our  aid,  there  was  a  new  hecatomb  on 
the  German  side.  Around  me  my  men  held  firm,  and  our  com- 
rades, though  new  to  the  firing-liDe,  did  not  hesitate.  Their 
captain,  struck  by  a  ball  in  the  chest,  could  just  give  his 
papers  to  his  lieutenant  as  he  fell,  uttering  the  words :  '  Take 
these  to  my  wife  and  say  farewell  for  me.'  Then  I  remember 
no  more,  for  a  fragment  of  shell  struck  me.  I  learned  after- 
wards that  our  artillery  destroyed  the  German  bridges,  and 
drove  many  of  the  enemy  into  the  river." 

This  success  was  at  once  annulled  by  the  failure  of  Lanre- 
zac's  colleagues  to  the  south-east.  General  Ruffey's  left 
wing  had  crossed  the  frontier  northward  as  far  as  the  river 
Semoy,  there  to  be  arrested  by  the  Imperial  Crown  Prince, 
advancing  from  Luxemburg;  while  the  Wiirtembergers  had 
done  as  much  for  De  Langle  de  Cary  further  west.     The  two 


THE  PLANS  REVEALED  37 

French  armies,  surprised  on  several  occasions,  and  outnum- 
bered, retired,  and  so  uncovered  Lanrezac's  flank.  The  posi- 
tion in  the  Dinant  Valley  became,  or  was  thought  to  be, 
untenable — an  unfortunate  development,  for  Lanrezac's  with- 
drawal left  the  troops  on  the  Sambre  dangerously  exposed, 
and  put  an  end  to  any  hope  of  relieving  Namur. 

During  these  events,  the  main  body  of  the  French  Fifth 
Army  was  slowly  moving  northward  between  the  Sambre 
and  Meuse  valleys,  and  the  Belgian  Government  was 
strengthening  the  small  garrison  of  Namur  till  it  at  last 
numbered  about  26,000  men.  Namur,  a  much  smaller  town 
than  Liege,  was  supposed  to  be  at  least  as  strong  a  fortress, 
with  its  five  large  and  four  smaller  forts  distributed  around 
the  confluence  of  the  Meuse  and  Sambre,  and  the  road  and 
railway  bridges  which  constitute  the  military  importance  of 
this  point.  The  week  preceding  the  battle  of  Mons-Charleroi 
is  the  obscurest  part  of  the  whole  story  of  the  war;  and, 
in  particular,  we  have  little  trustworthy  information  of  the 
events  preceding  the  fall  of  Namur  on  August  23.  An  Eng- 
lish journalist,  who  was  in  the  town  on  the  13th,  describes 
how  the  chief  streets  of  the  town  had  been  barricaded,  and 
other  preparations  made  for  a  siege,  while  German  aviators 
were  already  soaring  above  the  forts.  Areas  before  these 
were  mined,  barbed-wire  obstructions  set  up,  and  the  field 
of  fire  was  cleared.  Stores  of  ammunition  and  food  had 
been  accumulated ;  but  the  anticipation  entertained  afar  off 
that  the  fortress  could  hold  off  a  German  army  for  several 
weeks  was  not  shared  within;  and  all  eyes  looked  for  the 
expected  army  of  relief.  By  the  15th,  the  railway  service  had 
practically  ceased,  and  only  one  road  to  the  north  was  open. 
Next  day,  the  Belgian  garrison  repulsed  a  preliminary  attack 
at  Wierde,  beyond  the  most  easterly  fort.  Some  French 
troops  had  been  got  into  the  town,  including  a  regiment  of 
"  Turcos,"  whose  bayonet  charges  were  already  the  theme  of 
fearsome  story.  But  when,  on  the  17th,  a  German  column 
cut  the  line  of  communications  with  Brussels,  and  engage- 


38  PREPARATION 

ments  between  Uhlans  and  French  Dragoons  or  Belgian 
patrols  began  to  multiply  around  Gembloux  and  Sombreffe, 
the  tired  troops  were  in  a  condition  of  hardly  suppressed 
panic.  The  forts  were  strongly  constructed  of  concrete  with 
armor-plate  turrets ;  but  their  6-in.  guns  and  4.7  howitzers 
were  no  match  for  the  German  8.4  in.  (21  cm.)  and  11-in. 
(28  cm.)  siege-pieces — which  were  able  to  pour  in  a  continu- 
ous torrent  of  shell  from  a  distance  of  three  to  five  miles — 
even  if  none  of  the  huge  Krupp  16.8-in.  (42  cm.)  siege-pieces 
were  used.  The  bombardment,  supported  by  about  four 
army  corps,  began  on  the  20th;  and,  though  several  forts 
were  not  yet  reduced,  the  passage  of  the  Meuse  and  Sambre 
was  secured  by  the  23rd.  If  the  surviving  defenders  had 
not  then  fought  their  way  out,  there  would  have  been  a 
further  heavy  loss,  without  any  compensating  gain.  What- 
ever explanations  of  the  collapse  of  the  defense  may  some 
day  be  offered,  they  will  probably  be  found  to  amount  to 
this :  General  Michel  and  his  staff  could  know  little  of  what 
had  happened  at  Liege,  and,  in  any  case,  they  were  even  less 
able  than  General  Leman  had  been  to  offer  the  mobile  de- 
fense, on  an  extended  line,  which,  as  the  world  now  dis- 
covered, could  alone  save  these  or  any  other  fortresses 
against  such  an  attack.  On  the  other  hand,  the  invaders 
could  hardly  fail  to  learn  the  lesson  of  Liege.  They  essayed 
no  feeble  preliminaries,  but,  while  the  Belgians  were  waiting 
for  them  to  come  up,  prepared  behind  their  cavalry  screen 
an  overwhelming  blow.  They  are  said  to  have  been  favored 
by  a  heavy  mist  while  getting  their  siege  guns  into  position, 
just  out  of  range  of  the  much  inferior  cannon  of  the  forts, 
and  of  the  intrenched  infantry. 

The  following  narrative  was  given  a  fortnight  later  by  one 
of  the  survivors  to  Reuter's  correspondent  at  Ostend :  "  The 
Germans  at  first  centered  their  rain  of  steel  upon  our  in- 
trenchments.  For  ten  hours  our  men  stood  this  without 
being  able  to  fire  a  shot  in  return.  Whole  regiments  were 
decimated.    The  losses  among  the  officers  were  terrible ;  and, 


THE  PLANS  REVEALED  39 

gradually,  the  soldiers,  unled,  became  demoralized.  With 
one  bound,  they  at  last  rose  and  fled — a  general  sauve  qui 
pent.  Meanwhile,  many  German  guns  had  been  turned  on 
the  forts,  especially  on  Maizeret  and  Marchovelette  (which 
covered  the  eastern  approaches  on  either  side  of  the  Meuse). 
These  could  offer  but  a  feeble  resistance ;  and,  in  fact,  Maize- 
ret  only  fired  about  ten  shots,  while  it  received  more  than 
1,200  shells,  fired  at  the  rate  of  twenty  a  minute.  At  Marcho- 
velette, seventy-five  men  were  killed  in  the  batteries,  and  both 
forts  soon  surrendered.  The  other  works  were  still  holding 
out  when  the  army  left  the  town.  Fort  Saurlee  resisted  from 
the  morning  of  the  23rd  to  5  p.m.  on  the  25th.  The  eventu- 
ality of  a  retirement  had  not  been  provided  for,  and  great 
confusion  ensued.  Soldiers  declare  that  officers  cried  out: 
'  Get  out  as  best  you  can.  The  thing  is  to  get  to  Antwerp.' 
No  provision  had  been  made  for  the  destruction  of  the  im- 
mense stores;  and  all  these,  with  the  fortress  artillery,  and 
most  of  the  field  artillery,  the  horses  being  killed,  fell  into 
the  enemy's  hands.  At  the  Cadets'  School  alone,  there  was 
a  store  of  3,000,000  daily  rations.  The  ambulance  corps  lost 
150  of  its  600  men.  Our  line  of  retreat  was  on  St.  Gerard 
(south-west,  between  the  Meuse  and  Charleroi),  where  we 
hoped  to  meet  the  French  brigade  which  was  in  retreat  from 
Dinant.  They  had  fallen  back  by  way  of  Morville,  and 
could  only  send  us  two  regiments,  which  bravely  fought  their 
way  through,  and  joined  us  not  far  from  Namur  much  re- 
duced in  numbers.  Our  generals  had  believed  that  the 
blowing  up  of  the  bridge  at  Jambes  (southern  suburb  of 
Namur)  would  cover  our  retreat;  but  the  Germans  cut  it  at 
Bois-les-Villers,  and  we  got  through  only  with  heavy  losses. 
Our  retreat  continued  by  way  of  Hirson,  Laon,  and  Amiens, 
to  Rouen ;  and  we  were  taken  from  Havre  back  to  our  own 
shores.  Of  26,000  men  constituting  the  garrison  of  Namur 
and  troops  sent  to  occupy  the  intervals  between  the  forts, 
those  who  have  returned  to  Belgian  soil  number  only 
12,000." 


40  PREPARATION 

V.     England's  Part 

The  preliminary  stage  of  the  land  campaign  was  thus  be- 
ing completed  before  any  British  soldiers  had  come  into 
action — a  fact  which  could  not  but  weigh  heavily  upon 
thousands  of  uninstructed  minds,  especially  among  the  suf- 
fering Belgians.  The  Governments  concerned,  and  studious 
observers  everywhere,  knew,  however,  that  England's  three- 
fold contribution  to  the  war,  while  it  could  not  be  imme- 
diately decisive,  would  presently  become  as  important  as 
those  of  the  more  immediate  parties,  France  and  Russia,  and 
all  the  more  important  because  of  its  quite  different  and  sup- 
plementary character.  For  England,  and  England  only 
among  the  Allies,  was  in  a  position  to  disarm  the  powerful 
German  fleet,  and  to  deprive  its  owners  of  the  innumerable 
military  and  economic  advantages  that  arise  from  free  sea 
communications.  In  a  series  of  relatively  small,  though 
positively  impressive,  engagements  in  near  and  distant 
waters,  this  supremacy  was  established  before  the  end  of 
the  year,  so  that  only  small  occasional  raids  were  then  to  be 
feared.  Meanwhile — the  Atlantic  and  North  Sea  dominated 
by  British,  the  Mediterranean  by  French,  ships — the  trans- 
port of  troops,  of  wounded  and  prisoners,  of  supplies  and 
munitions,  proceeded  uninterruptedly ;  the  colonies  and  pos- 
sessions of  France  and  Great  Britain  were  preserved  in 
peace  and  security,  while  those  of  the  enemy  were  seized  or 
threatened;  above  all,  the  power  of  economic  resistance  of 
the  Allies  was  maintained  at  the  maximum  by  the  continu- 
ance of  their  foreign  trade. 

To  this  r61e,  England  brought,  beside  her  naval  power,  her 
strength  and  weakness  as  the  chief  creditor  nation  of  the 
world,  and  the  first  industrial  nation  in  the  old  hemisphere. 
Russia,  with  her  vast  bulk  and  population  and  her  primitive 
rural  economy,  could  hope  to  stave  off  any  vital  injury.  Not 
so  the  western  States.  Belgium  had  the  choice  of  ceasing 
to  exist  except  as  a  Prussian  province,  or  becoming  depend- 


THE  PLANS  REVEALED  41 

ent  upon  her  treaty  guardians,  for  food  and  shelter  imme- 
diately, for  re-establishment  later.  France  did  what  she 
could  amid  the  ruin  of  several  of  her  own  departments ;  the 
people  and  Government  of  Holland  took  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  refugees  into  their  homes,  and  cared  for  them  with 
a  generosity  that  can  never  be  too  warmly  recognized;  the 
United  States  sent  help  both  in  money  and  kind.  England, 
while  bearing  a  principal  share  in  this  effort,  had  to  con- 
stitute herself,  to  a  large  extent,  the  banker  and  manufac- 
turer of  the  Alliance.  Not  only  had  warships  to  be  made 
and  repaired,  cannon  and  shell,  small-arms  and  ammunition, 
clothing  and  food,  land  and  sea  transport  to  be  provided  in 
hitherto  undreamed-of  quantities,  without  unnecessary  dis- 
turbance of  the  normal  trade  and  industry  by  which  the 
nation  lives:  the  credit  necessary  to  trade  had  to  be  main- 
tained; the  resources  of  the  State  had  to  be  enormously 
expanded. 

The  first  shock  due  to  general  insecurity  and  the  arrest  of 
foreign  remittances  to  British  creditors  was  met  by  the  clos- 
ing of  the  London  Stock  Exchange,  on  July  31,  the  extension 
of  the  August  Bank  Holiday  by  three  days,  and  a  simple 
moratorium  postponing  pre-war  obligations  for  one  month. 
The  State,  through  the  Bank  of  England,  then  undertook 
to  provide  assistance  for  the  fulfillment  of  these  obligations ; 
and,  early  in  September,  it  offered  like  aid  in  the  meeting 
of  post-war  obligations.  The  moratorium,  several  times  ex- 
tended, did  not  apply  to  wages  and  salaries,  rates  and  taxes, 
sea  freights,  or  small  debts,  and  it  expired  in  November; 
but  much  of  its  effect  was  continued  by  the  Courts  (Emer- 
gency Powers)  Act,  which  gave  the  law  courts  power  to 
stay  actions  for  the  recovery  of  debt  when  the  debtor's  em- 
barrassment was  due  directly  or  indirectly  to  the  war.  By 
the  end  of  September,  Treasury  notes  of  one  pound  and  ten 
shillings  had  been  issued,  largely  through  the  joint  stock 
banks,  to  the  extent  of  over  £28,000,000,  a  material  supple- 
ment to  the  Bank  of  England's  note  issues;  and,  after  falling 


42  PREPARATION 

to  the  lowest  point  for  twenty-five  years,  the  Bank  reserve 
rose  steadily  through  August  and  September.  On  August  6, 
a  Government  credit  for  £100,000,000  was  voted ;  and,  three 
weeks  later,  the  War  Loan  Bill  enabled  the  Treasury  to  bor- 
row whatever  money  became  necessary  for  the  supply  serv- 
ices of  the  following  year.  The  money  was  easily  raised, 
for  the  most  part  by  issues  of  six-months  Treasury  bills. 
Repeated  visits  of  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  to  Paris 
and  of  French  Ministers  to  London  marked  the  development 
of  financial,  as  well  as  of  military  and  naval,  co-operation 
among  the  Allies. 

In  the  economic  and  naval  spheres,  then,  England  was 
able  at  once  to  do  more  than  her  share.  Her  only  possible 
military  effort  at  the  outset — the  dispatch  of  an  expedi- 
tionary force  of  150,000  men,  comprising  three-eighths  of  the 
existing  regular  army  and  reserves — was  a  mere  preliminary 
to  the  raising  of  new  armies  which  were  to  number,  count- 
ing the  votes  of  August  6,  September  10,  and  November  16, 
2,000,000  of  men  more.  The  importance  of  this  beginning 
proved,  however,  to  be  far  beyond  the  numerical  promise. 
It  represented  the  best  of  the  voluntary  long-service  system ; 
and  its  proof  in  one  of  the  hardest  ordeals  recorded  in  mili- 
tary history  constituted,  together  with  the  success  of  the 
subsequent  recruiting,  an  unanswerable  justification  of  that 
system.  There  was  a  story  of  a  German  army  order  issued 
by  the  Emperor  on  August  19  directing  that  a  special  effort 
should  be  made  to  "  exterminate  the  treacherous  English 
and  walk  over  General  French's  contemptible  little  army.'' 
The  story  was  generally  credited  at  the  time,  for  there  then 
seemed  to  be  no  bounds  to  German  anger  over  England's 
intervention.  It  was  somewhat  tardily  denied,  and  it  may 
have  had  no  foundation;  it  is  certain  that  this  little  army 
excited  feelings  quite  other  than  contempt  among  its  foes, 
even  when  they  were  driving  it  before  them  in  the  long 
retreat.  It  was  a  title  of  pride,  not  shame,  to  the  British 
peoples  that  this  little  army,  all  that  could  be  spared,  until 


THE  PLANS  REVEALED  43 

the  Indian  contingent  arrived,  from  the  police  duties  of  a 
far-stretched  realm,  could  be  so  spared  because,  among  the 
hundreds  of  millions  of  subjects  of  that  realm,  there  was 
not  one  alien  race  which  wished  to  weaken  the  central 
power  in  its  day  of  trial.  Presently,  there  came  Indians 
with  princely  chiefs,  Canadians  from  the  prairie,  and  Aus- 
tralians from  the  bush.  Canada  sent  a  division  of  all  arms 
and  a  gift  of  100,000,000  pounds  of  flour.  Australia  offered 
her  little  navy,  20,000  infantry,  6,000  light  horse,  and  a 
quantity  of  foodstuffs.  Botha,  the  ablest  of  the  erstwhile 
Boer  generals,  now  head  of  a  United  South  Africa,  under- 
took the  suppression  of  a  trivial  revolt  and  the  invasion  of 
German  South-West  Africa,  with  local  levies.  India,  whose 
disloyalty  German  agents  had  confidently  promised,  sent  at 
once  two  infantry  divisions  and  a  cavalry  brigade,  and  later, 
three  more  cavalry  brigades,  with  various  contingents  of- 
fered from  the  great  native  States.  The  Maharajas  of 
Mysore,  Gwalior,  Bhopal,  and  other  chiefs  presented  large 
sums  of  money  toward  the  cost  of  the  Expeditionary  Force; 
and  a  dozen  or  more  of  them  accompanied  the  Indian  con- 
tingent to  Europe  at  the  head  of  their  men.  Though  all 
the  majesty  of  a  family  of  nations  can  never  be  exhibited 
on  the  battlefield,  the  world  saw  in  this  symbol  something 
of  the  strength  of  the  invisible  bonds  woven  in  years  of 
broadening  liberty,  and  the  will  that  liberty  breeds  to  give 
up  all,  if  need  be,  to  arrest  a  great  wrong. 

The  Expeditionary  Force,  planned  during  the  previous 
decade,  was  to  consist  of  five  divisions,  each  of  three  infantry 
brigades,  one  regiment  of  cavalry,  and  seventy-six  guns,  with 
engineers  and  other  services.  There  were  also  five  brigades 
of  cavalry,  with  two  horse-artillery  brigades  attached.  Lord 
Kitchener  had,  on  August  5,  accepted  the  Secretaryship  for 
War  for  the  period  of  the  campaign,  recognizing  that  the 
organization  of  future  resources  at  home  was  more  impor- 
tant than  present  leadership  in  the  field.  Field-Marshal  Sir 
John  French  thus  became  the  obvious  Commander-in-Chief. 


44  PREPARATION 

The  1st  Army  Corps  (1st  and  2nd  Divisions)  was  placed 
under  Lientenant-General  Sir  Douglas  Haig;  the  2nd  (3rd 
and  5th  Divisions)  under  General  Sir  Horace  Smith-Dorrien ; 
and  the  4th  Division  under  Major-General  Snow ;  while  four 
cavalry  brigades  formed  a  Division  under  Major-General 
Allenby.  Hundreds  of  trains  and  scores  of  steamships  hav- 
ing been  commandeered,  the  embarkation  began,  on  Au- 
gust 8. 

Ten  days  after  the  issue  of  the  mobilization  order,  by  an 
admirable  co-operation  between  the  railways  and  the  navy, 
the  force  was  landed  at  Boulogne  and  other  French  ports; 
and  on  August  15,  Sir  John  French  paid  a  courtesy  visit  to 
Paris.  It  is  characteristic  of  the  unintelligence  of  the  press 
censorship  that,  while  that  visit  was  freely  reported  in  Paris, 
our  telegrams  to  Fleet  Street  about  it  were  all  stopped. 
After  a  short  stay  in  rest-camps  on  the  coast,  the  1st  and 
2nd  Army  Corps  were  moved  across  the  Belgian  frontier  to 
the  region  west  and  east  of  Mons.  The  whole  vast  movement 
had  been  conducted,  so  far  as  the  general  public  in  England 
and  France  was  concerned,  in  complete  secrecy.  It  was 
carried  through  without  a  single  hitch.  A  rare  pen  would 
be  needed  to  sum  up  the  emotions  excited  by  this  first  land- 
ing within  living  memory  of  a  British  army  in  western  Eu- 
rope, this  armed  hand-clasp  of  races  so  different,  now  united 
in  one  vital  aim.  The  good  folk  of  Normandy  and  the  Pas 
de  Calais  laughed  and  cried.  "  Tommy  Atkins,"  generally, 
in  this  first  expedition,  young  and  unmarried,  always  trim, 
straight,  clean,  and  purposeful,  was  a  strangely  impressive 
visitor.  It  soon  emerged  that  he  carried  in  his  pack  a  final 
letter  from  the  grim  soldier  whom  he  called  "  K.  of  K." 
"  You  are  ordered  abroad  " — so  ran  Lord  Kitchener's  bene- 
diction— "  as  a  soldier  of  the  King  to  help  our  French  com- 
rades against  the  invasion  of  a  common  enemy.  You  have  to 
perform  a  task  which  will  need  your  courage,  your  energy, 
your  patience.  Remember  that  the  honor  of  the  British 
army  depends  on  your  individual  conduct.     ...     Be  in- 


THE  PLANS  REVEALED  45 

variably  courteous,  considerate,  and  kind.  Never  do  any- 
thing likely  to  injure  or  destroy  property,  and  always  look 
upon  looting  as  a  disgraceful  act.  .  .  .  Keep  on  your 
guard  against  any  excesses.  In  this  new  experience,  you 
may  find  temptations — in  wine  and  women.  You  must  en- 
tirely resist  both  temptations,  and,  while  treating  all  women 
with  perfect  courtesy,  you  should  avoid  any  intimacy." 
Could  the  witty  Frenchman  refrain  from  a  smile  over  this 
insular  bluntness?     But  it  was  a  very  respectful  smile. 

"  The  concentration  was  practically  complete,"  said  Sir 
John  French  in  his  first  published  dispatch,  "  on  the  evening 
of  Friday,  the  21st,  and  I  was  able  to  make  dispositions  to 
move  the  Force  during  Saturday,  the  22nd,  to  positions  I 
considered  most  favorable  from  which  to  commence  opera- 
tions that  the  French  Commander-in-Chief,  General  Joffre, 
requested  me  to  undertake  in  pursuance  of  his  plans  in 
prosecution  of  the  campaign." 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  TERROR,  FROM  AERSCHOT  TO  LOUVAIN 

Guilty  in  its  origin  and  object,  and  unscrupulous  in  its 
design,  the  German  campaign  was,  ere  many  days  had  passed, 
more  deeply  damned  in  the  eyes  of  humane  observers  all  the 
world  over  by  the  appearance  of  two  features  which  none  of 
the  prophets  had  been  cynical  or  pessimistic  enough  to  an- 
ticipate, and  which  added  immeasurably  to  the  pains  of  this 
vast  catastrophe.  In  Belgium  and  France,  the  path  of  the 
invading  armies  had  been  prepared  by  the  organization  of 
swarms  of  spies ;  and  perhaps  the  greatest  mischief  wrought 
by  their  operations,  in  which  courage  and  treachery  were 
often  strangely  mingled,  lay  not  in  the  acts  of  betrayal, 
but  in  the  suspicion  aroused,  often  against  quite  innocent 
persons.  This  evil  naturally  tended  to  diminish  as  the  war 
proceeded;  but  no  information  has  been  made  public  suf- 
ficiently comprehensive  and  exact  to  justify  us  in  attempt- 
ing any  further  account  of  the  matter  in  these  pages.  With 
regard,  secondly,  to  the  systematic  terrorism  by  which  the 
German  commanders  sought  to  ease  or  consolidate  their 
advance  through  invaded  districts,  our  difficulty  lies  in  the 
mass,  not  the  lack,  of  evidence.  Several  volumes  would  be 
required  for  even  a  summary  account  of  the  acts  of  devasta- 
tion and  cruelty  by  which  it  was  sought  to  break  the  spirit 
of  the  Belgian  people;  all  that  can  be  attempted  here  is  to 
cite  very  briefly  a  few  typical  instances  out  of  the  many 
which  were  investigated  by  a  judicial  committee  appointed 
by  the  Belgian  Government,  and  were  the  subject  of  suc- 
cessive reports. 

When  the  first  incursion  was  made  at  Vis6,  General  von 

46 


THE  TERROR,  AERSCHOT  TO  LOUVAIN       47 

Emmich  issued  a  proclamation  in  which  he  said :  "  I  give 
formal  guarantees  to  the  Belgian  population  that  it  will 
not  have  to  suffer  the  horrors  of  war;  that  we  shall  pay  in 
money  for  the  food  we  must  take  from  the  country;  that 
our  soldiers  will  show  themselves  to  be  the  best  friends  of 
a  people  for  whom  »ve  entertain  the  highest  esteem,  the 
greatest  sympathy."  On  the  9th,  General  von  Biilow  was 
already  tiring  of  this  benevolent  tone,  and  warning  the  Wal- 
loons that  any  attempt  to  oppose  his  troops  would  be  severely 
dealt  with.  On  the  following  day,  a  body  of  German  cav- 
alry occupying  the  village  of  Linsmeau  was  attacked  by  some 
Belgian  infantry,  who  were  accompanied  by  two  gendarmes. 
A  German  officer  was  killed  in  the  fight,  in  which,  according 
to  the  Belgian  authorities,  no  civilians  took  part.  Later, 
the  village  was  invaded  by  a  strong  German  force  of  cavalry 
and  artillery.  Two  farms  and  six  outlying  houses  were 
destroyed  by  gunfire  or  burnt;  and  the  male  villagers  were 
then  examined.  No  recently  discharged  firearms  were  found. 
Eleven  inhabitants  were,  nevertheless,  placed  in  a  ditch  and 
killed,  their  heads  being  broken  in  by  blows  from  rifle-butts. 
Many  retail  cruelties  were  perpetrated  in  neighboring  vil- 
lages during  this  and  the  following  nights. 

The  Belgian  Government  claimed  to  have  issued,  imme- 
diately after  the  first  invasion,  public  statements  which  were 
placarded  in  every  town,  village,  and  hamlet,  warning  all 
civilians  to  abstain  scrupulously  from  hostile  acts  against 
the  enemy's  troops;  and  such  warnings  were  also  spread 
broadcast  by  the  newspapers.  Since  the  Belgians  are  evi- 
dently not  lacking  in  love  for  the  homes  and  the  country 
that  had  been  subjected  to  a  burglarious  entry,  it  is  only 
too  likely  that  the  prudential  order  was  sometimes  dis- 
obeyed. In  such  cases,  punishment  was  invited,  and  it 
would  not  have  outraged  the  world's  sense  of  justice  and 
humanity.  The  German  officers  never  pretended  to  hold 
themselves  within  such  limits.  When,  in  the  middle  of 
August,  their  cavalry  screen  began  to  move  out  westward, 


48  PREPARATION 

the  "  effective  occupation  "  which  is  the  first  condition,  in 
international  law,  of  the  right  to  emphasize  the  difference 
between  civilians  and  regular  soldiers  was  altogether  want- 
ing. What  was  imposed  was  not  "  law  "  of  any  kind,  but 
simply  wholesale,  deliberate  terrorism.  The  Belgian  retreat 
from  Aerschot,  on  August  18,  in  course  of  which  the  German 
advance  guard  suffered  heavy  losses,  has  been  mentioned. 
On  the  following  day,  the  town  was  occupied  without  resist- 
ance. The  remaining  inhabitants  were  ordered  to  leave  their 
houses,  and,  as  they  did  so,  a  number  were  shot  down.  On 
the  following  day,  M.  Thielemans,  the  burgomaster,  his  son, 
a  lad  of  fifteen,  and  eleven  prominent  citizens  were  taken 
outside  the  town,  and  shot.  The  town  was  then  destroyed  by 
fire.  In  all,  26  prisoners  were  shot  by  the  Germans  after 
the  fighting  at  Aerschot.  "  Whole  villages,"  says  the  fifth 
report,  of  the  Belgian  Commission  of  Inquiry,  "  have  been 
wiped  out.  Their  inhabitants  who  have  taken  refuge  in 
the  woods  are  without  shelter,  without  food.  In  the  ditches 
along  the  roads,  the  dead  bodies  of  peasants,  women,  and 
children  murdered  by  the  Germans,  are  left  unburied. 
Many  corpses  have  been  thrown  into  the  wells,  contaminat- 
ing the  water.  Wounded,  without  distinction  of  age  or  sex, 
have  been  abandoned,  without  any  attempt  to  relieve  their 
sufferings.  A  great  part  of  the  male  population  was  com- 
mandeered throughout  this  region.  Most  of  them  were  com- 
pelled to  dig  trenches  and  to  build  defensive  works  against 
our  troops,  in  defiance  of  the  laws  of  warfare.  Others  fre- 
quently were  forced  to  walk  in  front  of  the  German  troops 
during  the  fighting." 

Tamines,  a  rich  and  populous  village  on  the  Sambre  be- 
tween Charleroi  and  Namur,  was  occupied  by  detachments 
of  French  troops  on  August  17-19.  On  the  20th,  a  German 
patrol  appeared  before  the  suburb  of  Vilaines;  and  several 
Uhlans  were  killed  by  the  fire  of  the  French  soldiers  and  a 
party  of  Civic  Guards  from  Charleroi.  This  is  the  supposed 
origin  of  the  massacre  at  Tamines  on  the  following  day. 


THE  TERROR,  AERSCHOT  TO  LOUVAIN       49 

The  village  was  occupied  by  the  Germans  in  force,  the  French 
retiring,  on  the  21st;  and  the  houses  were  at  once  sacked  and 
set  on  fire.  Most  of  the  inhabitants  were  arrested;  but  a 
good  many  were  burnt  to  death  or  suffocated  in  the  houses, 
204  in  number,  which  were  fired.  "  On  the  evening  of  Satur- 
day, August  22,  a  group  of  between  400  and  450  men  was 
collected  in  front  of  the  church,  not  far  from  the  bank  of 
the  Sanibre.  A  German  detachment  opened  fire  on  them; 
but,  as  the  shooting  was  a  slow  business,  the  officers  ordered 
up  a  machine-gun  which  soon  swept  off  all  the  unhappy 
peasants  still  left  standing.  Many  of  them  were  only 
wounded,  and,  hoping  to  save  their  lives,  got  with  difficulty 
on  their  feet  again.  They  were  immediately  shot  down. 
Many  wounded  still  lay  among  the  corpses.  Groans  of 
pain  and  cries  for  help  were  heard  in  the  bleeding  heap. 
On  several  occasions,  soldiers  walked  up  to  such  unhappy 
individuals  and  stopped  their  groans  with  a  bayonet  thrust. 
At  night,  some  who  still  survived  succeeded  in  crawling 
away.  Others  put  an  end  to  their  own  pain  by  rolling 
themselves  into  the  neighboring  river.  About  100  bodies 
were  found  in  the  river."  Next  day,  Sunday,  another  party 
of  villagers  was  compelled  to  dig  trenches  for  the  burial  of 
the  bodies,  soldiers  with  fixed  bayonets  standing  over  them. 
Fathers  thus  buried  their  sons,  and  sons  their  fathers. 
The  women  of  the  village  were  compelled  to  watch.  The 
German  officers  were  drinking  champagne.  One  man  was 
buried  while  still  alive,  on  the  order  of  a  military  doctor. 
"  When  a  soldier,  seized  with  an  impulse  of  pity,  came  near 
us,"  said  a  survivor,  "  an  officer  immediately  scolded  him 
away.  I  saw  German  soldiers  who  could  not  refrain  from 
bursting  into  tears  on  seeing  the  despair  of  the  women." 
The  total  number  of  victims  at  Tamines  was  over  650.  The 
survivors  positively  asserted  that  none  of  the  inhabitants 
fired  on  the  Germans. 

The  quaint  Flemish  town  of  Dinant,  on  the  Meuse,  so 
well  known  to  British  and  American  holiday-makers,  suf- 


50  PREPARATION 

fered  a  like  fate  on  the  following  days.  After  the  French 
victory  on  the  15th,  there  was  complete  quiet,  till  the  even- 
ing of  the  21st,  when  the  Germans  re-entered  in  force,  shot 
several  civilians,  and  fired  a  number  of  houses.  Next  day 
was  calm:  probably  most  of  the  troops  had  gone  west  or 
south.  "  On  Sunday,  August  23,  at  6.30  a.m.,  soldiers  of 
the  108th  Regiment  of  Infantry  invaded  the  Church  of  the 
Premonstratensian  Fathers,  drove  out  the  congregation, 
separated  the  women  from  the  men,  and  shot  fifty  of  the 
latter.  Between  seven  and  nine  the  same  morning,  the 
soldiers  gave  themselves  up  to  pillage  and  arson,  going  from 
house  to  house  and  driving  the  inhabitants  into  the  street. 
Those  who  tried  to  escape  were  shot.  About  nine  in  the 
morning,  the  soldiery,  driving  before  them,  by  blows  from  the 
butt  ends  of  rifles,  men,  women  and  children,  pushed  them 
all  into  the  Parade  Square,  where  they  were  kept  prisoners 
till  6  o'clock  in  the  evening.  The  guard  took  pleasure  in 
repeating  to  them  that  they  would  soon  be  shot.  About  6 
o'clock  a  captain  separated  the  men  from  the  women  and 
children.  The  women  were  placed  in  front  of  a  rank  of 
infantry  soldiers,  the  men  were  ranged  along  a  wall.  The 
front  rank  of  them  were  then  told  to  kneel,  the  others  re- 
maining standing  behind  them.  A  platoon  of  soldiers  drew 
up  in  face  of  these  unhappy  men.  It  was  in  vain  that  the 
women  cried  out  for  mercy  for  the  husbands,  sons,  and 
brothers.  The  officer  ordered  his  men  to  fire.  There  had 
been  no  inquiry  nor  any  pretense  of  a  trial.  About  twenty 
of  the  inhabitants  were  only  wounded,  but  fell  among  the 
dead.  The  soldiers,  to  make  sure,  fired  a  new  volley  into 
the  heap  of  them.  Several  citizens  escaped  this  double  dis- 
charge. They  shammed  dead  for  more  than  two  hours,  re- 
maining motionless  among  the  corpses,  and  when  night  fell 
succeeded  in  saving  themselves  in  the  hills.  Eighty-four 
corpses  were  left  on  the  square,  and  buried  in  a  neighboring 
garden. 

"  The  day  of  August  23  was  made  bloody  by  several  more 


THE  TERROR,  AERSCHOT  TO  LOUVAIN       51 

massacres.  Soldiers  discovered  some  inhabitants  of  the 
Faubourg  St.  Pierre  in  the  cellars  of  a  brewery  there  and 
shot  them.  Since  the  previous  evening,  a  crowd  of  workmen 
belonging  to  the  factory  of  M.  Himmer  had  hidden  them- 
selves, along  with  their  wives  and  children,  in  the  cellars 
of  the  building.  They  had  been  joined  there  by  many  neigh- 
bors and  several  members  of  the  family  of  their  employer. 
About  6  o'clock  in  the  evening,  these  unhappy  people  made 
up  their  minds  to  come  out  of  their  refuge,  and  defiled  all 
trembling  from  the  cellars  with  the  white  flag  in  front.  They 
were  immediately  seized  and  violently  attacked  by  the 
soldiers.  Every  man  was  shot  on  the  spot.  Almost  all  the 
men  of  the  Faubourg  de  Leffe  were  executed  en  masse.  In 
another  part  of  the  town  twelve  civilians  were  killed  in  a 
cellar.  In  the  Rue  en  He  a  paralytic  was  shot  in  his  arm- 
chair. In  the  Rue  Enfer  the  soldiers  killed  a  young  boy 
of  fourteen.  In  the  Faubourg  de  Neffe,  the  viaduct  of  the 
railway  was  the  scene  of  a  bloody  massacre.  An  old  woman 
and  all  her  children  were  killed  in  their  cellar.  A  man  of 
sixty-five  years,  his  wife,  his  son,  and  his  daughter  were  shot 
against  a  wall.  Other  inhabitants  of  Neffe  were  taken  in  a 
barge  as  far  as  the  rock  of  Bayard  and  shot  there,  among 
them  a  woman  of  eighty-three  and  her  husband.  A  certain 
number  of  men  and  women  had  been  locked  up  in  the 
court  of  the  prison.  At  six  in  the  evening,  a  German 
machine-gun,  placed  on  the  hill  above,  opened  fire  on  them, 
and  an  old  woman  and  three  other  persons  were  brought 
down.  While  a  certain  number  of  soldiers  were  perpetrat- 
ing this  massacre,  others  pillaged  and  sacked  the  houses  of 
the  town,  and  broke  open  all  safes,  sometimes  blasting  them 
with  dynamite.  Their  work  of  destruction  and  theft  accom- 
plished, the  soldiers  set  fire  to  the  houses,  and  the  town 
was  soon  no  more  than  an  immense  fturnace. 

"  The  women  and  children  had  all  been  shut  up  in  a  con- 
vent, where  they  were  kept  prisoners  for  four  days.  These 
unhappy  women  remained  in  ignorance  of  the  lot  of  their 


52  PREPARATION 

male  relations.  They  were  expecting  themselves  to  be  shot 
also.  All  around,  the  town  continued  to  blaze.  The  first 
day  the  monks  of  the  convent  had  given  them  a  certain  sup- 
ply of  food.  For  the  remaining  days  they  had  nothing  to 
eat  but  raw  carrots  and  green  fruit.  To  sum  up,  the  town 
of  Dinant  is  destroyed.  It  counted  1,400  houses;  only  200 
remain.  The  manufactories  where  the  artisan  population 
worked  have  been  systematically  destroyed.  Rather  more 
than  700  of  the  inhabitants  have  been  killed;  others  have 
been  taken  off  to  Germany,  and  are  still  retained  there  as 
prisoners.  The  majority  are  refugees  scattered  all  through 
Belgium.  A  few  who  remained  in  the  town  are  dying  in 
hunger.  It  has  been  proved  by  our  inquiry  that  Ger- 
man soldiers,  while  exposed  to  the  fire  of  the  French 
intrenched  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Meuse,  in  certain 
cases  sheltered  themselves  behind  a  line  of  civilians,  women 
and  children." 

For  a  lesser  massacre,  in  the  village  of  Andenne,  General 
von  Billow  assumed  personal  responsibility  in  a  proclama- 
tion (August  22)  containing  these  sentences:  "  The  inhabit- 
ants of  Andenne,  after  having  protested  their  peaceful  inten- 
tions, have  taken  our  troops  by  a  treacherous  surprise.  It 
is  with  my  consent  that  the  commanding  officer  has  had 
the  whole  place  burned,  and  that  about  a  hundred  persons 
have  been  shot."  The  survivors  denied  that  there  was  any 
such  provocation;  and  the  Belgian  authorities  stated  the 
number  of  victims  at  over  200.  On  entering  Namur,  Von 
Biilow  issued  a  proclamation  announcing  that  citizens  who 
did  not  at  once  give  up  any  hidden  French  or  Belgian  sol- 
diers would  be  "  condemned  to  hard  labor  for  life  in  Ger- 
many," while  any  soldier  found  would  be  "  immediately 
shot."  In  the  small  town  of  Wavre,  a  German  soldier  was 
wounded  in  the  street.  Lieutenant-General  von  Nieber  at 
once  issued  a  notice  that  a  fine  of  3,000,000  francs  must  be 
paid  promptly,  or  "  the  town  will  be  burned  and  destroyed, 
without  regard  for  persons,  the  innocent  suffering  with  the 


THE  TERROR,  AERSCHOT  TO  LOUVAIN       53 

guilty."  The  town  was,  in  fact,  destroyed,  and  twenty  of 
the  chief  citizens  were  taken  away  as  hostages. 

The  southern  districts  of  Belgian  Luxemburg  were  the 
scene  of  many  and  extreme  excesses.  Hostages  were  usually 
taken,  sometimes  maltreated,  and  often  removed  to  Ger- 
manjr.  "  In  almost  every  locality,"  says  an  official  report, 
"  pluuder  was  systematically  complete.  In  Arlon,  47  houses 
had  been  sacked  before  the  ransom-money,  £4,000,  could  be 
raised."  The  number  of  houses  deliberately  burnt  in  the 
province  was  calculated  to  be  over  3,000.  Over  1,000  civil- 
ians were  executed,  including  about  300  in  Ethe,  157  in 
Tintigny,  106  in  Rossignul,  and  111  persons  of  the  communes 
of  Ethe  and  Rossignol  publicly  shot  at  Arlon.  "  In  most 
of  these  villages,  the  troops  did  not  even  allege  that  they 
had  been  attacked  by  the  civilian  population.  It  seems  cer- 
tain that  the  inhabitants  did  not  commit  any  hostile  act.  In 
many  places  German  soldiers  had  been  shot  by  French 
patrols  and  sentinels,  but  often  destruction  of  the  villages 
cannot  be  explained  even  on  this  pretense.  The  inhabitants 
say  that  the  crimes  of  which  they  were  victims  can  only  be 
explained  by  the  soldiers  being  drunk,  by  their  pleasure  in 
inflicting  suffering,  or  by  their  anger  at  the  unexpected 
resistance  of  the  Belgian  army,  or,  finally,  by  their  having  re- 
ceived orders  for  systematic  destruction  from  their  superiors." 

In  this  domain  of  evil,  it  is  impossible  to  measure  one 
kind  of  crime  against  another,  and  range  each  in  its  degree. 
But  a  peculiar  infamy  will  attach  to  the  memory  of  the 
sack  and  fire  of  Louvain,  one  of  the  oldest  of  European 
seats  of  learning,  and  not  the  least  of  Belgium's  treasuries 
of  art  and  history.  "  The  German  army,"  says  the  Com- 
mission   of    Inquiry,1    u  entered    Louvain    on    Wednesday, 

1  It  was  thus  composed:  President,  M.  Cooreman,  Belgian  Minister  of 
State;  members:  Count  Goblet  d'Alviella,  Minister  of  State,  Vice-Pres- 
ident of  the  Senate;  M.  Ryckmans,  Senator;  M.  Strauss,  Sheriff  of  the 
city  of  Antwerp;  Van  Cutsem,  Hon.  President  of  the  Court  of  First 
Instance,  Antwerp;  Secretaries:  Chevalier  Ernst  de  Brunswyck,  secretary 
to  the  Minister  of  Justice,  M.  Orts,  Councilor  of  Legation. 


54=  PREPARATION 

August  19,  after  having  burnt  down  the  villages  through 
which  it  had  passed.  As  soon  as  they  had  entered  the  town 
and  requisitioned  food  and  lodging,  they  went  to  all  the 
banks,  and  took  possession  of  the  cash  in  hand.  Soldiers 
burst  open  the  doors  of  houses  which  had  been  abandoned, 
pillaged  them,  and  committed  other  excesses.  The  German 
authorities  took  as  hostages  the  Mayor,  Senator  van  der 
Kelen,  the  Vice-Rector  of  the  Catholic  University,  the  senior 
priest,  and  certain  magistrates  and  aldermen."  A  number 
of  outrages  were  perpetrated  in  the  neighborhood,  but  the 
city  seems  to  have  remained  quiet  for  a  week.  On  August 
24  and  25,  the  Belgian  troops  made  a  sortie  from  the  in- 
trenched camp  of  Antwerp,  attacked  the  German  army  which 
was  masking  it  before  Malines,  and  drove  it  back  toward 
Louvain  and  Vilvorde.  This  rout  is  the  only  discoverable 
cause  of  what  followed.  At  nightfall  on  the  26th,  the  re- 
treating German  soldiers  entered  Louvain ;  and  the  German 
garrison  appears  to  have  mistaken  some  of  them  for  Bel- 
gians, in  the  prevailing  panic,  and  to  have  fired  upon  them. 
In  order  to  explain  away  the  mistake,  it  was  then  pretended 
that  civilians  had  fired  on  the  troops — "  a  suggestion  which 
is  contradicted  by  all  the  witnesses,  and  could  scarcely  have 
been  possible,  because  the  inhabitants  had  had  to  give  up 
their  arms  to  the  municipal  authorities  several  days  before." 
The  bombardment  and  fire  followed,  a  large  part  of  the  city, 
including  the  ancient  Cathedral  of  St.  Pierre,  the  University 
buildings,  together  with  the  University  Library,  its  priceless 
manuscripts  and  book  collections,  and  the  Municipal  Theater, 
being  destroyed. 

"  On  the  orders  of  their  officers,  the  German  soldiers 
broke  into  the  houses,  and  set  fire  to  them  with  the  help  of 
fuses.  They  shot  at  the  inhabitants  who  tried  to  escape 
from  their  houses.  Many  people  who  sought  refuge  in  their 
cellars  were  burnt  alive.  Others  were  shot  as  they  tried  to 
escape  from  the  burning  houses.  A  great  number  of  inhabit- 
ants who  had  succeeded  in  getting  out  of  their  houses  through 


THE  TERROR,  AERSCHOT  TO  LOUVAIN       55 

their  back  gardens  were  led  to  the  Place  de  la  Station, 
where  they  saw  about  ten  dead  civilians  tying  about.  They 
were  then  brutally  separated  from  their  wives  and  children, 
and  stripped  of  all  they  had  succeeded  in  carrying  away. 
The  women  and  children  remained  without  food  on  the  Place 
de  la  Station  during  the  whole  day  (August  26).  They  wit- 
nessed the  execution  of  about  twenty  of  their  fellow-citizens, 
among  whom  were  several  priests,  who,  bound  together  in 
groups  of  four,  were  shot  at  one  end  of  the  square,  on  the 
footpath  in  front  of  the  house  of  Mr.  Hamaide.  On  Thurs- 
day, the  27th,  at  8  o'clock,  order  was  given  to  all  the  inhabit- 
ants to  leave  Louvain ;  the  town  was  to  be  bombarded.  Old 
men,  women,  children,  sick  people,  lunatics  from  the  asy- 
lums, priests,  nuns,  were  driven  like  cattle  about  the  roads. 
They  were  driven  in  different  directions  by  brutal  soldiers, 
forced  to  kneel  and  to  lift  their  arms  each  time  they  met 
German  soldiers  and  officers;  they  were  left  without  food 
during  the  day,  without  shelter  during  the  night.  Many 
died  on  the  way.  Others,  among  whom  were  women,  chil- 
dren, and  priests,  who  were  unable  to  follow,  were  shot  dead. 
More  than  10,000  of  them  were  driven  as  far  as  Tirlemont, 
fifteen  miles  from  Louvain.  Their  sufferings  are  beyond 
description.  The  next  day,  many  others  were  driven  fur- 
ther on  from  Tirlemont  to  Saint  Trond  and  Hasselt. 

"  The  looting  began  on  August  27,  and  lasted  eight  days. 
By  groups  of  six  or  eight,  the  soldiers  broke  into  the  houses, 
through  the  doors  or  the  windows,  entered  the  cellars,  drank 
the  wine,  ransacked  the  furniture,  breaking  the  safes,  steal- 
ing all  money,  pictures,  works  of  art,  silver,  linen,  clothes, 
wines  and  provisions.  A  great  part  of  the  booty,  packed 
on  military  carts,  wras  then  sent  to  Germany  by  train.  The 
burning  and  the  looting  did  not  stop  until  Wednesday, 
September  2.  On  this  day  four  more  fires  were  lighted  by  the 
German  soldiers,  one  in  the  Rue  Leopold  and  three  in  the 
Rue  Marie  Therese.  Without  countiug  the  Halles  Universi- 
l aires   and   the  Palais  de  Justice,  894   houses  were  burnt 


56  PREPARATION 

within  the  limits  of  the  town  of  Louvain,  and  about  500 
houses  within  those  of  the  suburb  of  Kessel-Loo.  The  sub- 
urb of  Herent  and  the  village  of  Corbeck-Loo  were  practically 
entirely  destroyed.  On  August  25,  while  they  were  setting 
fire  to  houses,  the  Germans  wrecked  the  fire-engines  and  fire- 
escapes  ;  they  shot  the  people  who  from  the  roofs  were  try- 
ing to  stop  the  flames.  Looting  is  nearly  always  followed  by 
fires,  which  seem  often  to  be  prompted  solely  by  the  desire 
to  hide  the  traces  of  the  looting.  The  houses  are  frequently 
set  on  fire  by  fuses;  at  other  times  they  are  sprayed  over 
with  petrol  or  naphtha.  Sometimes,  in  order  to  hasten  the 
action  of  the  fire,  the  German  soldiers  use  a  kind  of  inflam- 
mable tablet,  containing  nitro-cellulose  gelatine." 

An  eye-witness  who  left  Louvain  on  August  30,  when  the 
fire  was  still  burning,  said:  "The  town  has  the  appearance 
of  an  ancient  ruined  city,  in  the  midst  of  which  only  a  few 
drunken  soldiers  move  about,  carrying  bottles  of  wine  and 
liqueurs,  while  the  officers,  seated  in  armchairs  round  the 
tables,  drink  like  their  men.  In  the  streets,  swollen  bodies 
of  dead  horses  rot  in  the  sun,  and  the  smell  of  fire  and  putre- 
faction pervades  the  whole  place.  Leaving  Weert  St. 
Georges,  I  only  saw  burnt-down  villages  and  half-crazy  peas- 
ants who,  on  meeting  anyone,  held  up  their  hands  as  a 
sign  of  submission."  M.  Paul  Delannoy,  librarian  of  the 
University,  was  able,  in  the  disguise  of  a  chauffeur  conduct- 
ing a  Dutch  traveler  who  had  a  passport,  to  visit  Louvain 
while  the  fire  was  still  burning,  and  human  bodies  still  lay 
about  the  streets  and  the  steps  of  ruined  houses.  He  said : 
"  Fire  was  put  to  the  Library  and  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Pierre 
on  the  first  day.  Of  the  latter,  only  the  walls  remain.  The 
Library  is  still  burning,  and  the  wind  blows  hither  and 
thither  scraps  of  burnt  or  burning  paper.  The  Hotel  de 
Ville  is  intact,  as  are  several  colleges  which  had  been  turned 
into  ambulances  before  the  occupation.  The  poor  quarters 
are  also  intact,  but  deserted.  The  rich  quarters  were  sys- 
tematically burnt,  on  different  days;  for,  before  setting  them 


THE  TERROR,  AERSCHOT  TO  LOUVAIN       57 

on  fire,  officers  and  soldiers  entered  the  houses,  took  the  valu- 
able articles,  labeled  them,  and  sent  them  to  the  station, 
where  trains  were  read}'  to  take  away  the  spoil.  All  the 
horrors  related  of  the  bad  treatment  of  the  inhabitants  are 
within  the  reality.  The  loss  of  the  Library  is  irreparable; 
many  rare  and  precious  works,  more  than  300  incunabula, 
manuscripts,  and  maps,  have  been  destroyed.  No  pecuniary 
compensation  can  mend  the  loss.  If,  after  victory,  the  works 
on  the  history  of  the  Netherlands  in  every  German  University 
were  brought  to  Louvain,  it  would  not  be  made  good."' 

On  August  27,  while  the  flames  of  this  sacrifice  were  rising 
to  heaven,  the  German  "  wireless  "  news-supply  was  ticking 
out  to  a  horrified  world  the  following  sentence:  "The  only 
means  of  preventing  surprise  attacks  from  the  civil  popu* 
lation  has  been  to  interfere  with  unrelenting  severity,  and 
to  create  examples  which,  by  their  '  frightfulness,'  would  be 
a  warning  to  the  whole  country."  Students  already  knew, 
indeed,  not  only  that  the  German  Imperial  Government  was 
opposed  to  the  extension  of  arbitral  and  like  methods  of 
settling  international  disputes,  and  to  experimental  steps 
toward  a  general  arrest  of  armaments,  not  only  that  it  took 
a  thoroughly  unsympathetic  view  of  the  rights  of  small 
nations,  and  of  irregular  forces  particularly,  to  resist  con- 
quest— these  things  were  unmistakably  shown  at  The  Hague 
Conferences  in  1899  and  1907;  they  knew,  also,  that  this 
same  Government's  faith  in  force  ran  even  to  the  point  of 
favoring  systematic  terrorism  and  breach  of  the  usages  of 
warfare  whenever  any  kind  of  military  "  necessity  "  could 
be  cited.1 

1  See  "The  German  War  Book"  (London:  Murray,  1915),  a  full  and 
literal  translation,  by  Professor  J.  H.  Morgan,  of  the  Kriegsbrauch  im 
Landkriege,  issued  by  the  German  General  Staff  for  the  instruction  of 
officers.  In  a  critical  Introduction,  Professor  Morgan  shows  the  rela- 
tionship between  this  cult  of  the  "  mailed  fist "  and  the  cynical  develop- 
ments of  German  diplomacy,  politics,  and  academic  teaching,  in  the  last 
forty-five  years. 


58  PREPARATION 

Clausewitz,  the  highest  source  of  German  military  inspira- 
tion, declared  that  "  to  introduce  into  the  philosophy  of  war 
a  principle  of  moderation  would  be  an  absurdity,"  because 
"  war  is  an  act  of  violence  which  in  its  application  knows  no 
bonds."  Professor  J.  H.  Morgan  observes  of  the  book  on  the 
Usages  of  Land  Warfare  issued  by  the  Great  General  Staff 
that  "  when  it  inculcates  '  Rightfulness '  it  is  never  obscure, 
and  when  it  advises  forbearance  it  is  always  ambiguous  " ; 
and  the  text  abundantly  justifies  his  conclusion  that  "  to 
'  terrorize '  the  civil  population  of  the  enemy  is  a  first  prin- 
ciple with  German  writers  on  the  Art  of  War,"  the  aim 
being  "  to  smash  the  total  spiritual  resources  of  a  people,  to 
humiliate  them,  to  stupefy  them — in  a  word,  to  break  their 
spirits."     Preachers  and  teachers,  statesmen  and  diploma- 
tists, having  established  the  idea  of  war  as  a  moral  necessity, 
before  which  ordinary  scruples  are  folly,  and  prior  under- 
takings may  be  cast  away  as  so  many  "  scraps  of  paper,"  the 
professional  soldier,  when  his  opportunity  comes,  naturally 
gives  full  swing  to  his  most  violent  impulses.     If  he  be  a 
naturally  humane  and  just  man — and  there  must  have  been 
many  such  in  the  German  armies — he  is  overborne  by  the 
general  tradition,  now  sharply  backed  by  coercive  authority. 
He  may  weep  in  secret,  like  some  of  the  assassins  of  Tamines ; 
not  having  the  blood  of  martyrs  in  his  veins,  he  carefully 
conceals  his  tears  from  his  superiors.     There  are  always  su- 
periors, and  they  have  been  chosen  as  tearless  men.     Was 
it   not   the   highest   of   them,   the   Emperor   himself,    who 
claimed  "  the  God  of  armies  and  of  battles  "  as  his  "  great 
Ally,"  and  said :  "  The  soldier  must  not  have  his  own  way, 
but  you  must  have  only  one  will,  and  it  is  mine ;  one  law, 
and  it  is  mine";  and  again:  "  It  may  happen,  though  God 
forbid,  that  you  may  have  to  fire  on  your  own  parents  or 
brothers.     Prove  your  fidelity,  then,  by  your  sacrifice  "  ?  x 
From  Clausewitz  to  Bernhardi  and  Von  der  Goltz,  exposi- 

1  Other   considerations   on  this  point  will  be    found  in  the  author's 
"  Germany  and  the  German  Emperor." 


THE  TERROR,  AERSCHOT  TO  LOUVAIN       59 

tions  of  this  monstrous  doctrine  were  familiar  to  the  outer 
world.  Why,  then,  should  the  story  of  Aerschot  and  Ta- 
nnines, Dinant  and  Louvain,  produce  a  thrill  of  horror 
throughout  the  west?  The  answer  can  only  be  that,  to 
citizens  of  progressive  and  liberal  States,  while  it  was  out- 
rageous that  such  ideas  should  be  proclaimed,  it  was,  also, 
incredible  that  they  should  ever  be  acted  upon  by  a  people 
that  had  often  boasted  itself  the  spiritual  children  of  Kant, 
Lessing,  Goethe,  and  Schiller.  These  ideas  seemed  to  be  a 
part  of  a  modern  pose,  a  very  ugly  pose — ugly  with  the  sensa- 
tional-sentimental ugliness  of  Berlin  architecture  and  the 
German  comic  press — a  pose  strangely  compounded  of  up- 
start arrogance  and  ancient  servility,  a  pose  very  annoying 
and  even  dangerous,  but  by  no  means  to  be  taken  as  more 
than  a  pose.  This  is  the  mistake  made  by  generous  minds  all 
over  the  world.  The  discovery  of  the  fearful  truth,  during 
the  third  week  of  the  war  and  afterwards,  gave  the  struggle 
a  new  element  of  abnormality.  Possibilities  of  moderation 
and  mediation,  which  would  early  have  arisen  in  any  less 
extreme  issues,  were  decisively  excluded.  The  unity  of  the 
Allies  and  of  every  class  in  every  Allied  country  was  sealed 
anew.  England  was  now  pledged  as  deeply  to  the  utmost  ef- 
forts as  she  had  been  during  the  Napoleonic  wars.  The  defi- 
nite breaking  of  the  German  war  spirit  became  an  aim  sec- 
ondary only  to  the  liberation  of  the  soil  of  Belgium  and 
France.  The  Governments  of  France  and  England  had  been 
far  from  immaculate  in  the  development  of  European  rival- 
ries during  the  preceding  decade.  But  in  neither  of  these 
countries  was  the  State  regarded,  even  in  times  of  stress,  as 
above  criticism  and  above  law ;  in  neither  were  the  whole  re- 
sources of  the  community,  nor  could  they  be,  concentrated 
toward  the  purpose  of  an  offensive  war.  Tn  both,  the  preser- 
vation and  strengthening  of  international  peace  was  an  aim 
frequently  avowed  by  leading  statesmen,  energetically  pur- 
sued by  considerable  organizations,  and  commanding  sincere 
and  general  support  among  the  people.   In  England  the  com- 


60  PREPARATION 

plete  lack  of  military  forces  for  such  an  emergency , in  France 
the  strong  opposition  to  three  years'  service  and  the  neglect 
of  fortresses,  are  proofs  positive,  to  which  many  others 
might  be  added,  that,  grudging  even  the  sacrifices  demanded 
for  defense,  these  nations  could  not  be  persuaded  to  sup- 
port a  clear  aggression.  Not  only  was  a  war  destructive  of 
their  best  hopes,  personal  and  public,  forced  upon  them,  but 
a  war  of  unspeakable  savagery,  in  which  it  must  soon  become 
difficult  for  the  Englishman  to  preserve  his  proverbial 
phlegm,  the  Frenchman  his  native  gallantry.  In  the  market- 
place of  Tamines  and  the  bloody  streets  of  Louvain,  men 
who  had  loved  the  singers  and  thinkers  of  the  Fatherland 
saw,  with  sickness  in  their  souls,  the  fruit  of  the  Kaiser's 
partnership  with  Abdul  Hamid,  continued  through  Enver 
Bey,  his  palace  guards,  and  his  Kurdish  levies.  Now  that 
the  very  foundations  of  civilized  society  were  seen  to  be  in 
danger,  who  could  hesitate?  Three  weeks  of  German  terror- 
ism in  Belgium  braced  the  will  of  the  Allies — after  a  pause 
of  sheer  incredulity — as  nothing  else  could  have  done. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  "  SACRED  UNION  " 

I  came  through  from  Brussels  to  Paris,  on  the  afternoon  of 
Saturday,  August  1,  by  one  of  the  last  normal  trains  on 
the  direct  route.  Communications  over  the  German  fron- 
tiers both  of  Belgium  and  France  were  already  broken ;  but 
we  little  thought,  and  there  was  nothing  to  suggest — for 
the  fact  that  only  a  few  frontier  pickets  were  visible  did 
not  then  seem  significant — that  this  route  would  soon  be- 
come one  of  the  chief  lines  of  supply  for  conquering  Ger- 
man armies.  The  train  was  crowded  with  foreigners  leav- 
ing Belgium,  many  of  them  Americans.  We  exchanged  ex- 
periences of  petty  inconvenience  not  worthy  to  be  recalled 
(the  difficulty  of  cashing  notes  and  credit  orders  was  a 
prominent  theme),  and  speculated  anxiously  about  a  future 
in  which  there  was  now  no  more  than  a  glimmer  of  hope 
for  the  maintenance  of  peace. 

War  had  been  declared  by  Germany  that  day,  though  we 
did  not  yet  know  it,  upon  Russia,  and  Luxemburg  had  been 
invaded.  On  the  morrow,  Sunday,  the  Kaiser  presented  his 
ultimatum  to  Belgium.  The  peace  that  had  lasted  in 
western  Europe  for  forty-three  years  was  at  an  end.  On 
Monday,  France  received  the  expected  declaration  of  war 
from  her  old  enemy.  And  now  one  question  beat  insistently 
upon  the  British  ear:  What  would  England  do?  It  was  sug- 
gested, I  think,  less  by  anxiety  as  to  the  fate  of  France  than 
by  the  inherent  chivalry  of  the  Gallic  character,  to  which  it 
is  incomprehensible  that  anyone  should  hesitate  to  step  in 
when  a  foul  crime  is  threatened.  England  has  never  taken 
any  particular   trouble   to   enable   her  foreign    friends   to 

61 


62  PREPARATION 

appreciate  the  gravity  of  the  burden  of  her  imperial  responsi- 
bilities; and  I  have  surprised  many  Frenchmen  by  compell- 
ing them  to  reflect  what  it  must  mean  to  add  participation  in 
a  European  war  to  the  guardianship  of  400,000,000  of  natives 
scattered  all  over  the  face  of  the  earth.  At  the  outset,  the 
insular  and  continental  peoples  naturally  looked  at  the 
European  conflict  from  different  angles.  The  facts  which 
were  major  for  the  one  were  minor  for  the  other.  It  was 
only  on  second  thoughts  that  the  French  realized  at  all 
fully  how  important  for  them  was  the  British  power  to  keep 
open  sea  communications.  The  Frenchman  stood  with  his 
face  to  the  east,  his  back  to  the  ocean.  Very  soon,  however, 
we  heard  discussions  as  to  the  price  of  coal  and  the  pros- 
pect of  importing  Argentine  meat.  The  most  obvious  cause 
of  artificially  high  prices  was  removed  by  the  lowering  or 
canceling  of  the  food  duties.  The  German  sea  raiders  com- 
pelled reflection;  and  the  slowly  tightening  blockade  of  the 
German  Empire  completed  the  educative  process.  Long  be- 
fore this,  on  Tuesday,  August  4,  England  had  become  a 
party  to  the  war,  and  from  that  day  onward  there  was  not 
in  France  a  responsible  voice  that  expressed  anything  but 
warm  appreciation  of  the  British  contribution  to  the  com- 
mon cause. 

A  second  matter  of  anxiety  was  the  attitude  of  Italy ;  and 
her  prompt  declaration  of  neutrality  not  only  relieved 
France  of  a  grave  peril,  but  afforded  the  simplest  and  most 
conclusive  exhibition  of  the  aggressive  character  of  Ger- 
many's action,  and  of  the  inner  falsity  of  the  Triple  Alliance. 
Austria-Hungary,  the  original  cause  of  the  universal  calam- 
ity, was  not  officially  at  war  with  the  western  Powers  until 
August  10.  This  was  the  end  of  statistical  feats  in  which 
Austrian  and  Italian  Dreadnoughts  were  counted  together  as 
Germany's  instruments  in  the  Mediterranean.  Within  three 
days  of  the  outbreak  of  war  there  were  no  active  warships 
there  except  those  of  England  and  France,  though  several 
German  raiders  appeared  later  on. 


THE  "  SACRED  UNION  "  63 

For  a  moment,  there  bad  been  a  yet  graver  question: 
Would  France  herself  be  united?  There  has  never  been  a 
Quaker  or  Tolstoyan  movement  in  France ;  but  the  Socialist 
party  was  profoundly  international  and  pacific  in  sentiment, 
and  had  participated  recently  in  many  efforts,  very  ill-sup- 
ported on  the  other  side,  toward  Franco-German  reconcilia- 
tion. Its  leader,  Jean  Jaures,  struck  down  in  a  cafe  near  the 
office  of  their  journal,  UHumanite,  on  July  30  by  a  half- 
witted royalist,  had  only  just  returned  from  the  meetings 
of  the  International  Socialist  Bureau  in  Brussels,  and  died 
struggling  to  the  last  moment  to  avert  the  European  catas- 
trophe. How  would  his  followers  regard  this  sudden  breach 
of  all  that  was  promised  for  the  Armed  Peace?  Perhaps  the 
most  emphatic  reply  was  given  by  a  Socialist  who  had 
often  mocked  at  Jaures  as  a  moderate,  and  who  might  claim 
to  be  the  author  of  the  idea  of  an  international  labor  strike 
against  war — Gustave  Herve.  A  more  regular,  collective 
answer  was  afforded  at  tbe  special  session  of  the  Chamber 
on  August  4,  when  the  Socialist  deputies  applauded  the 
Presidential  and  Ministerial  declarations,  and  M.  Deschanel 
pronounced  a  warm  eulogy  of  Jaures,  his  "  magnificent  elo- 
quence," his  "  remarkable  cultivation  and  power  of  work," 
his  "  generous  heart,  wholly  devoted  to  social  justice  and 
human  fraternity."  "  From  the  grave  of  the  man  who  has 
perished,  a  martyr  of  his  ideas,  arises  a  thought  of  union; 
from  his  icy  lips  comes  a  cry  of  hope.  To  maintain  this 
union,  to  realize  this  hope,  for  the  fatherland,  for  justice, 
for  the  human  conscience,  is  it  not  the  worthiest  homage  we 
can  render  him?  "  The  working-men  of  France  had  already 
made  up  their  minds  on  the  merits  of  the  case;  but  words 
like  these  certainly  helped  them  to  accept  what  for  them, 
private  sacrifice  apart,  was  an  evil  only  less  intolerable  than 
another  Prussian  conquest. 

The  issue  was  placed  before  the  nation  and  the  world,  on 
this  occasion,  by  the  President  of  the  Republic  and  the  Prime 
Minister  in  phrases  worthy,  by  their  clarity  and  eloquence, 


64  PREPARATION 

of  a  high  place  in  the  records  of  French  oratory.  "  France 
is  being  made  the  object,"  said  M.  Poincare,  "  of  a  brutal 
and  premeditated  aggression,  which  is  an  insolent  defiance  of 
the  law  of  nations.  Before  a  declaration  of  war  had  been 
addressed  to  us,  even  before  the  German  Ambassador  had 
demanded  his  passports,  our  territory  was  violated.  The 
Emperor  of  Germany  gave  tardily,  only  last  evening,  the  true 
name  to  a  situation  which  he  had  already  created."  No  act, 
no  gesture,  no  word  could  be  attributed  to  France  that  had 
not  been  pacific  and  conciliatory.  She  had  made  up  to  the 
last  "  supreme  efforts  to  conjure  a  war  of  which  the  German 
Empire  will  have  to  bear  before  History  the  crushing  respon- 
sibility. .  .  .  She  will  know  now,  as  ever,  how  to  reconcile 
the  most  generous  pride  and  the  most  enthusiastic  ardor 
with  that  self-mastery  which  is  the  sign  of  durable  energies 
and  the  best  guarantee  of  victory.  In  this  war,  France  will 
have  with  her  Right,  of  which  peoples  can  no  more  than 
individuals  with  impunity  misconceive  the  eternal  moral 
power.  She  will  be  heroically  defended  by  all  her  sons, 
whose  sacred  union  before  the  enemy  nothing  will  break.  .  .  . 
Already,  from  all  parts  of  the  civilized  world,  sympathy  and 
good  wishes  reach  her.  For  she  represents  to-day,  once 
again,  before  the  world,  Liberty,  Justice,  and  Reason." 

M.  Viviani  rapidly  traced  the  course  of  events  since  "  the 
abominable  crime  "  of  Serajevo,  dwelling  particularly  upon 
the  final  stage.  When,  on  July  31,  Germany  proclaimed  the 
Erie gszufahr stand,  she  had  already,  he  said,  several  days 
before,  prepared  the  passage  of  her  army  from  a  peace  to  a 
war  footing.  "  As  far  back  as  the  morning  of  July  25,  that 
is,  before  the  expiry  of  the  period  given  by  Austria  to 
Servia,  she  had  warned  the  garrisons  of  Alsace-Lorraine. 
The  same  day,  she  had  armed  the  defense  works  near  the 
frontier.  On  the  26th,  she  had  given  the  railways  prelimi- 
nary instructions  for  the  concentration.  On  the  27th,  she  had 
effected  the  requisitions  and  put  in  place  her  covering  troops. 
On  the  28th,  the  individual  summonses  to  reservists  had 


THE  "  SACRED  UNION  "  65 

begun,  and  the  units  distant  from  the  frontier  were  brought 
nearer.  Such  was  the  situation  when,  on  the  evening  of 
July  31,  the  German  Government,  which  for  a  week  had  not 
participated  by  any  positive  act  in  the  conciliatory  efforts  of 
the  Triple  Entente,  addressed  its  ultimatum  to  Russia.  On 
the  same  day,  this  unfriendly  step  was  doubled  by  clearly 
hostile  acts  toward  France:  rupture  of  road,  railway,  tele- 
graph, and  telephone  communications,  seizure  of  French 
locomotives  on  their  arrival  at  the  frontier,  placing  of  mi- 
trailleuses on  the  railway,  which  had  been  cut,  and  concen- 
tration of  troops  on  this  frontier. 

"  From  this  moment,  we  could  no  longer  believe  in  the 
sincerity  of  the  pacific  declarations  which  the  representative 
of  Germany  showered  upon  us.  We  knew  that,  under  shel- 
ter of  the  '  state  of  warning  of  war,'  Germany  was  mobiliz- 
ing. We  learned  that  six  classes  of  reservists  had  been 
called  up,  and  that  the  concentration  transport  even  of  army 
corps  far  removed  from  the  frontier  was  being  pursued. 
The  general  mobilization  of  our  land  and  sea  armies 
was,  therefore,  ordered.  On  that  evening  (August  1),  al- 
though the  Cabinet  of  St.  Petersburg  had  accepted  the  Eng- 
lish proposition,  Germany  declared  war  on  Russia.  On  the 
morrow,  in  contradiction  to  her  Ambassador's  declarations, 
the  German  troops  crossed  our  frontier  at  three  points; 
while  the  neutrality  of  Luxemburg  was  violated,  and  that 
of  Belgium  was  menaced.  Since  then,  the  aggressions  have 
been  renewed,  multiplied,  and  accentuated.  On  more  than 
fifteen  points,  our  frontier  has  been  violated.  Shots  have 
been  fired  at  our  soldiers  and  customs  officers.  There  have 
been  killed  and  wounded.  Yesterday,  a  German  aviator 
threw  three  bombs  upon  Lune>ille.  Last  night,  the  German 
Ambassador  asked  for  his  passports,  and  notified  the  state 
of  war,  alleging,  quite  untruly,  acts  of  hostility  by  French 
aviators  in  German  territory.  .  .  .  European  opinion  has 
already  done  justice  to  these  miserable  inventions." 

M.  Viviani  then  read  the  Franco-British  exchange  of  let- 


G6  PREPARATION 

ters  of  November  1!>1l\  by  which  it  was  agreed  thai  there 
should  be  military  and  naval  consultations,  withoul  preju- 
dice to  the  liberty  of  each  country  on  any  occasion  to  decide 
for  itself  whether  it  would  co-operate  with  the  oilier.  Be 
also  cited  a  new  declaration  of  Sir  Edward  Grey  promising 
that,  if  the  German  fleet  emerged  to  attack  France.  England 
would  intervene,  and  would  then  be  at  war  with  Germany. 
This  undertaking,  which  was  received  by  prolonged  applause 
from  the  Chamber,  had  been  given  in  London  two  days 
before,  subject  to  Parliamentary  approval.  The  appeal  of 
Belgium  to  England,  her  response  promising  support,  and 
the  appearance  of  the  first  Belgian  troops  before  Liege, 
were  only  occurring  during  this  historic  session  of  the 
French  Chamber.  "France,  unjustly  provoked,  did  nol 
wish  for  war,"  declared  the  Premier,  in  conclusion.  "  She 
has  done  everything  to  avoid  it.  We  are  without  reproach. 
We  shall  be  without  fear.  To  sustain  the  weight  of  a  heavy 
responsibility,  we  have  the  comfort  of  an  untroubled  con- 
science, and  the  certitude  of  duty  accomplished.*'  Before 
the  sitting  closed,  Ministerial  Bills  were  produced  to  estab- 
lish payments  to  the  necessitous  families  of  soldiers,  to  ex- 
tend the  power  of  the  Bank  of  France  to  issue  notes,  to 
authorize  a  moratorium,  to  suspend  import  duties  on  food 
and  necessaries,  to  set  up  a  state  of  siege,  to  admit  Alsatians 
and  Lorrainers  into  the  French  army,  and  "  to  repress  indis- 
cretions of  the  press  in  time  of  war." 

Long  before  the  dreadful  character  of  the  German  cam- 
paign in  Belgium  became  known,  the  cause  of  the  Allies  had 
excited  the  sympathies  of  neutral  nations  of  a  progressive 
type.  There  was,  indeed,  one  grave  subject  of  hesitation. 
This  was  to  be  a  war  against  the  spirit  of  militarism,  eon- 
quest,  and  arbitrary  rule,  a  war  in  aid  of  a  great  Republic 
and  two  little  peoples  threatened  in  their  independence. 
What  could  or  would  a  State  so  constituted  as  that  of  Rus- 
sia contribute  to  such  ends?  Optimists  replied  that,  unlike 
the  less  arbitrary,  but  harder  and  more  heartless.  Slate  of 


THE  "  SACRED  UNION  "  67 

Prussia,  Russia  holds  surprising  and  incalculable  powers  of 
sudden  progress  and  moral  grandeur  which  war  has  liberated 
before  (as  in  the  freeing  of  the  serfs  after  the  Crimean  War, 
and  the  establishment  of  the  Duma  after  the  war  in  Man- 
churia), and  may  liberate  again.  No  mere  promise  could 
suffice  to  establish  this  view;  but  the  Tsar's  appeal  to  the 
Poles  of  Austria  and  Germany,  and  his  pledge  to  set  up  a 
new  Poland,  enjoying  complete  autonomy  and  freedom  of 
language  and  religion,  which  was  the  greatest  news  of  mid- 
August,  went  far  to  justify  the  optimists.  The  student  of 
history  will  recognize  the  irony  of  this  proclamation  by  the 
descendant  of  Catherine  the  Great  at  the  cost  of  the  descend- 
ant of  her  partner  in  the  iniquity  of  1772,  Frederick  the 
Great.  Like  the  invitation  from  the  same  monarch  to  the 
first  Peace  Conference  at  The  Hague,  this  bold  stroke  came 
as  a  complete  surprise  to  Europe.  Even  among  the  most 
patriotic  Poles,  the  hope  of  recovering  their  national  unity 
and  autonomy  was  the  faintest  and  most  visionary.  Prob- 
ably it  is  as  true  to-day  as  formerly  that  an  absolutely 
independent  Poland  could  not  exist  between  the  three  great 
neighbors  who  brought  about  its  extinction  formerly.  But, 
set  up  under  Russian  suzerainty,  its  position  and  the  num- 
bers of  its  population  might  well  favor  a  liberal  develop- 
ment which  would  react  upon  the  condition  of  all  the  Slavic 
lands.  All  the  Poles  were  not  in  the  same  case.  In  East 
Prussia,  they  had  been  subjected  for  twenty  years  to  a  sys- 
tematic, costly,  and  yet  futile  course  of  repression.  In 
Galicia,  they  had  been  more  fortunate,  and,  therefore,  more 
loyal.  To  all,  this  lightning  flash  out  of  the  east  brought  a 
quickened  pulse,  a  new  aim  and  strength.  It  was  one  of 
the  master-strokes  of  history ;  and  the  day  has  not  come  when 
any  man  can  say  where  or  when  the  reverberations  will  cease. 


CHAPTER  V 
PARIS  IN  AUGUST 

These  were  days,  for  the  young  manhood  of  the  Republic, 
of  swift,  excited  movement,  of  brave  farewells,  of  journeys 
too  full  of  dire  expectation  to  be  tiresome,  of  work  at  un- 
precedented pressure.  For  the  families  left  behind,  and  all 
mere  watchers,  they  were  days  of  deepening  stupefaction. 
On  the  busy  boulevards,  or  in  little  seaside  and  country 
resorts  far  from  the  throbbing  center  of  political  life,  we 
were  surprised  to  find  the  echoes  of  a  distant  disturbance 
swelling,  without  apparent  cause,  into  the  imminent  threat 
of  war  in  these  very  streets  and  fields  upon  which  the  sun 
shone  so  radiantly.  Hour  by  hour,  then  minute  by  minute, 
the  thunder  of  gathering  legions  sounded  nearer  and  nearer ; 
curiosity  passing  into  anxiety,  astonishment,  anger,  and  at 
last,  when  the  storm  burst,  into  a  dull,  bitter  impotence  of 
feeling.  Taken  together,  the  work  of  mobilization  and  the 
censorship  completed  the  social  transformation.  When  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  men  of  all  classes  are  suddenly  en- 
rolled and  removed,  business  life  is  automatically  reduced  to 
a  necessary  minimum.  Within  a  few  hours  half  the  shops  and 
offices  of  Paris  were  closed,  three-quarters  of  the  machinery 
of  transport  was  removed,  and  an  unknown  but  very  large 
part  of  the  industry  of  the  country  came  to  a  standstill. 
The  banks  and  bourses  were  idle;  therefore  there  were  no 
financial  newspapers.  The  actors  had  put  on  uniform,  and 
there  were  no  theaters.  The  daily  papers  were  reduced  to 
small  single  sheets — no  more  advertisements,  no  more  fic- 
tion, no  more  criticism  of  art  and  literature.  The  Goddess 
of  Fashion  had  fled.    When  the  night  was  yet  young,  a  full 


PARIS  IN  AUGUST  69 

moon  looked  down  upon  a  city  apparently  asleep,  except 
along  a  few  streets  leading  to  the  eastern  and  northern 
railway  stations.  These,  day  or  night,  and  the  Government 
offices,  were  always  simmering  like  the  blowholes  on  the 
flanks  of  a  volcano. 

Thus,  Paris  rapidly  assumed  the  appearance  of  a  belea- 
guered city.  The  mobilization  not  only  robbed  factories, 
workshops,  offices,  and  shops  of  most  of  their  adult  male 
workers;  it  not  only  required  the  transfer  to  the  military 
authorities  of  the  whole  of  the  railways  and  much  of  the 
road  and  water  transport  of  the  country,  the  telegraphs  and 
telephones,  and  the  main  power  of  the  postal  service.  Into 
nearly  every  home  in  the  land  it  brought  warning  of  wages 
and  salaries  stopped,  employment  of  every  kind  disorgan- 
ized, and  prices  of  commodities  rising.  On  top  of  this  came 
the  stern  announcement  of  the  state  of  siege,  by  which  mili- 
tary law  was  made  supreme  over  the  destinies  of  the  civil 
population,  or  what  remained  of  it.  The  money  famine  of 
these  first  days,  though  it  had  its  amusing  side,  was  tragic 
for  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  lower  middle-class  folk  for 
whom  small  change  is  not  merely  a  convenience,  but  a  neces- 
sity. The  inconvenience  continued  for  several  weeks,  despite 
an  issue  of  20-franc  and  5-franc  bank-notes.  I  heard  of  a 
rich  traveler  who  was  going  about  with  20,000  Austrian 
crowns,  and  for  some  hours  could  not  raise  the  price  of  a 
meal.  In  many  cases  it  was  possible  to  change  foreign 
money  only  at  cent,  per  cent,  discount.  Our  civilization  now 
rests  so  much  upon  credit  and  ready  exchange  that  the  mind 
was  altogether  unprepared  for  the  flood  of  individual  mis- 
fortunes which  the  arrest  of  retail  credit  caused.  It  was 
like  a  return  to  the  pre-banking  era.  At  the  restaurant,  the 
waiter  politely  asked  at  the  outset  if  you  could  pay  in  coin; 
at  the  magazin,  the  shopman  deeply  regretted  to  have  to  put 
the  same  question,  but  Monsieur  must  pardon  him,  for  he 
had  veritably  no  alternative.  So,  howling  crowds  gathered 
at  the  bank  doors,  aud  the  proverbial  messenger  from  Mars 


70  PREPARATION 

might  have  supposed  that  the  thriftiest  people  in  Europe  had 
with  mysterious  suddenness  lost  all  their  savings.  It  was, 
no  doubt,  this  very  thrift,  made  feverish  by  fear  of  the  un- 
known future,  that  created  the  difficulty. 

Even  metal  money  is  not  the  most  essential  of  our  needs, 
and  cannot  procure  everything  when  the  army  is  in  posses- 
sion. The  question  of  the  feeding  of  Paris  loomed  threaten- 
ingly before  us.  "  Despite  the  absorption  of  railway  services 
by  the  army,"  said  the  Prefect  of  the  Seine,  "  a  certain 
number  of  trains  are  reserved  for  the  transport  of  essential 
commodities,  notably  meat,  milk,  and  potatoes,  as  well  as  the 
flour  necessary  for  making  bread.  The  public  will  continue 
to  obtain  these  provisions  at  such  retail  shops  as  remain 
open.  As  to  milk,  special  measures  are  being  taken  to 
secure  a  preferential  supply  for  children  and  invalids.  Per- 
sons who  wish  to  avail  themselves  of  this  measure  must  enter 
their  names  at  the  mairies,  producing  such  evidence  as  birth 
certificates  of  children,  doctor's  certificates,  etc."  The  same 
officer  confessed  that  the  sanitary  as  well  as  other  public 
services  must  suffer  from  the  mobilization  by  urging  house- 
holders to  rely  as  little  as  possible  upon  scavengers,  and  to 
burn  their  old  paper,  bones,  foodstuff,  and  other  refuse. 
Working  bakers,  it  should  be  said,  were  exempted  from  the 
call  to  the  colors.  Several  incipient  riots  against  shop- 
keepers who  tried  to  put  up  food  prices  exorbitantly  took 
place.  The  police  promised  special  measures  to  secure  "  loy- 
alty of  transactions "  in  the  provision  markets,  including 
prosecution  of  those  unamiable  persons  who  used  to  be  called 
"  forestallers  and  regrators." 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  all  foreigners  in  Paris  were 
required  to  report  to  the  police,  who  either  gave  them  a 
permit  to  remain  in  the  city  or  an  order  to  leave  the  coun- 
try, unless  they  were  sent  to  a  concentration  camp.  Out- 
side the  police  commissary's  offices  one  saw,  day  after  day  for 
a  whole  fortnight,  thousands  of  people  of  different  national- 
ity, class,  and  age,  lined  up  awaiting  admission  to  the  com- 


PARIS  IN  AUGUST  71 

niissary's  presence.  The  weather  was  still  hot,  and  many 
of  the  women  and  girls  who  stood  waiting  on  the  pavement 
for  hours  swooned.  In  such  circumstances  the  Parisians 
showed  their  native  kindliness.  One  evening,  a  frail  Ger- 
man seamstress  fainted  outside  a  dairyman's  shop.  The 
dairyman's  wife  and  sister,  who  wrere  caring  for  her,  ex- 
plained that  she  had  been  in  line  from  early  in  the  morning 
until  the  police  officials  closed  their  doors,  and  had  then 
been  turned  away.  "  Poor  things ! "  said  the  dairyman's 
wife.  "  Of  course,  we  are  at  war  with  Germany,  but  we 
cannot  help  pitying  them."  The  little  seamstress  was  not 
allowed  to  make  any  payment,  and  was  escorted  home  by 
two  residents  of  the  Rue  de  la  Victoire.  There  were  still, 
also,  thousands  of  English  and  American  holiday-makers  and 
travelers  who  had  not  been  able  to  get  away,  or  had  not  tried 
to  do  so,  hoping  against  hope  for  peace.  For  many  of  them 
the  language  difficulty  did  not  exist;  but  to  others  the  rule 
forbidding  the  acceptance  of  any  private  telegraphic  mes- 
sages in  foreign  languages  inflicted  hardship.  At  the  same 
time,  it  was  announced  that  no  private  telegrams  would  be 
accepted  at  railway  stations.  In  many  small  places  this 
meant  that  none  could  be  sent  at  all.  Telephone  communi- 
cations between  town  and  town  were  altogether  suspended ; 
and  the  Paris-London  telephone  service,  upon  which  Fleet 
Street  had  come  to  depend  more  and  more,  was  closed.  No 
telegrams  at  all  were  allowed  to  Germany  and  Austria ;  with 
neutral  or  friendly  countries  they  could  only  be  sent  or 
received  under  police  sanction. 

The  museums  were  permanently  closed,  and  the  last  traces 
of  Paris  the  Holiday  City  disappeared — or,  rather,  the  only 
remaining  traces  consisted  of  cues  of  distracted  English, 
American,  and  other  visitors  at  the  Consulates  and  police 
headquarters  seeking  the  special  passports  which  were  now 
necessary  to  get  out  of  the  country.  Many  of  these  people, 
especially  the  women,  were  in  pitiful  case.  It  is  impossible 
to  convey  to  comfortable  stay-at-home  readers  any  adequate 


72  PREPARATION 

impression  of  the  disturbance  and  anxiety  involved  in  the 
mere  fact  of  not  being  able  to  obtain  any  definite  informa- 
tion. You  wished  to  get  to  London.  But  all  regular  train 
services  were  suspended,  and  the  station-master  himself — 
if  you  could  penetrate  into  the  station,  which  was  completely 
blocked  by  troops  and  by  officials  wielding  military  law — 
could  not  tell  you  when  it  would  be  possible  for  a  passenger 
train  to  leave  for  the  north  or  west  coast.  Meanwhile,  you 
must  have  money.  If  you  were  poor,  Heaven  help  you. 
Otherwise,  there  was  a  double  difficulty:  it  was  still  ex- 
tremely difficult  to  get  change  for  French  50-franc  and  100- 
franc  notes,  and  restaurants  and  shops  insisted  on  having 
small  money.  On  the  other  hand,  the  British  sovereign  was 
no  longer  negotiable  in  the  ordinary  way,  and  the  banks  kept 
their  stock  for  special  customers. 

Much  of  this  was  to  be  expected,  but  few  had  anticipated 
a  week  without  news.  When  the  censorship  established  it- 
self under  the  shadow  of  martial  law,  I  thought  it  impossible 
that  public  patience  could  be  long  maintained.  Yet  the 
memory  of  the  cost  of  certain  newspaper  indiscretions  in 
1870  sufficed  to  condone  it.  Up  to  August  4,  the  only  in- 
formation from  the  front  allowed  to  appear  in  the  Parisian 
press— after  news  of  the  first  German  incursions  on  the  east- 
ern border — consisted  of  three  or  four  trivial  items  about 
bomb-throwing  from  a  German  aeroplane  at  Nancy,  and 
patrol  raids  near  Renoncourt  and  Belfort.  What  censors 
commonly  fail  to  appreciate  is  that  news  cannot  be  sup- 
pressed— that,  if  true  news  is  forbidden,  false  rumors  will 
have  a  more  lively  and  persistent  circulation.  Rumor  at 
this  time  considerably  exaggerated  the  natural  anxiety  as 
to  the  lot  of  French  residents  in  Germany,  especially  in 
Lorraine,  of  whom  their  families  had  learned  nothing 
since  the  eve  of  the  war.  On  the  night  of  August  4,  the 
establishment  in  Paris  of  a  censor's  office  and  a  bureau  of 
official  information  was  announced  in  the  following  terms  by 
the  Minister  of  War : 


PARIS  IN  AUGUST  73 

"  It  is  forbidden  to  publish  any  news  relative  to  events 
of  war,  mobilization,  movements,  embarkations,  transport 
of  troops,  composition  of  armies,  effectives,  etc.,  which  have 
not  been  communicated  by  the  Press  Bureau  organized  by 
the  Ministry  of  War. 

"  The  communiques  will  be  made  three  times  daily — be- 
tween 10  and  10.30  a.m.,  between  2.30  and  3  p.m.,  and 
between  11.30  and  11.59  p.m. 

"  The  directors  of  the  different  daily  and  periodical  pub- 
lications are  invited  to  inform  the  Press  service  at  the  Pre- 
fecture of  Police  in  writing,  to-day,  August  4,  of  their 
regular  day  and  hour  of  publication.  All  special  editions 
are  forbidden,  as  are  also  announcements  cried  or  placarded 
in  the  public  streets. 

"  Further,  they  must  transmit  to  the  Ministry  of  War 
(Press  Bureau)  final  proofs  of  each  number  as  soon  as  the 
last  page  is  made  up. 

"  The  newspaper  or  publication  concerned  will,  otherwise, 
be  free,  after  sending  this  proof,  to  print  and  sell  without 
other  formality.  But  it  will  expose  itself  to  immediate  con- 
fiscation if  the  examination  of  the  proof  reveals  the  insertion 
of  any  military  news  whatever  which  has  not  been  com- 
municated by  the  Press  Bureau  or  Ministry  of  War. 

"  Messimy." 

With  the  exception  of  the  first,  which  could  not  be  literally 
applied,  these  rules  were  rigorously  imposed.  No  responsi- 
ble journalist,  so  far  as  I  know,  either  in  France  or  England, 
has  ever  questioned  the  necessity  of  a  censorship  of  wai* 
news;  but  it  would  be  hard  to  find  a  responsible  journalist 
in  either  country  to  justify  the  censorship  as  it  has  actually 
existed  and  operated.  If  a  general  distinction  can  be  made 
between  the  experience  of  the  two  countries,  it  is,  probably, 
that  opinion  was  most  severely  dealt  with  in  France, 
and  statements  of  fact  in  England.  For  a  time,  the 
French  press  was  nearly  extinguished,  and  many  of  the 
censors'  decisions  were  merely  stupid  and  annoying.  After- 
wards, there  was  a  reorganization  and  some  improvement 


74  PREPARATION 

The  official  bulletins  also  became  franker,  fuller,  and  more 
dependable.  If  there  is  ever  to  be  another  war,  however, 
this  question  of  press  censorship  should  be  well  considered 
in  consultation  with  responsible  and  representative  journal- 
ists. Meanwhile,  in  France,  as  in  England,  strange  and  er- 
ratic decrees  have  been  accepted  with  a  remarkable  loyalty 
and  patience. 

During  those  first  days,  we  lived,  as  it  were,  behind  an 
impenetrable  curtain.  Lacking  fresh  material,  the  news- 
papers repeated  the  old  endlessly,  and  then  dwindled  to  tiny 
single  sheets  in  which  the  official  communique's — the  first  of 
which  was  issued  on  August  5 — were  eked  out  with  editorial 
reflections  (interspersed  with  white  patches  marking  the 
censor's  activity)  and  notes  on  the  aspect  of  the  city.  It 
was  an  extraordinary  thing  to  reflect  that,  with  a  million 
men  at  the  front,  Paris  had  not  the  least  idea  what  they  were 
doing.     The  German   declaration  of  war,   received  by   M. 

Oomrauniqu.e""a  la  Presse-du~ler--&eFte7flWe,  1S^ 
(.£3  heures); 

1°.-       A  notre  alle  gauche,  par  suite  de  la  coittlhtotlon-Hlu^iKnr^e- 
ment  ernreloppant  des  Alleroands,  et  dan6  le  but  de  ne  pa-accepter 
une  action  dgclBlve  qui  auralt  pu  §tre  engagSe  dans  ae  mauvaltfes 
conditions,    noa  troupes  Be  sont  repliees  partie  vers  le  Gud,  par- 
tie  vers  le  sud-ouest. 

L'actlonengage'e  dans  la  region  de  Bethel  a  psrral3  e  nos  for- 
ces d'arreter  iaoraentan6ment  l'ennewl. 

^o  -        au  centre  et  a  notre  droits  (ffoevre,  Lorraine  et  Voegee), 
situation  sans  changement 


LES  AEROPLANES  ALLEMANDS. 

li  a  6te  organise*  une  escadrlile  d'a^roplanes,  bllnd£s  et 
munis  de  rautral Ileuses,  pour  ralre  la  chasse  aux  aeroplanes  alle- 
roands qui  survolent  Paris 

Facsimile  of  Communique. 


PARIS  IN  AUGUST  75 

Viviani  on  Sunday  afternoon,  August  2,  was  only  published 
on  Tuesday  morning,  when  a  thirty-line  summary  had  to 
satisfy  the  anxiety  of  the  French  public  as  to  what  Sir 
Edward  Grey  had  said  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  pre- 
vious afternoon.  Private  and  press  telegrams,  if  they  went 
through  at  all,  were  subject  to  long  delays;  as  for  letters, 
we  came  to  regard  the  Paris  Post  Office  as  a  vast  cemetery, 
full  of  the  remains  of  useless  journalistic  effort.  Most  of  the 
automobiles  were  requisitioned  for  the  army.  Moreover, 
from  August  4  the  gates  of  Paris  were  closed  from  6  p.m. 
to  6  a.m.  (the  evening  hour  was  afterwards  extended  to 
8.30)  ;  and  motor-cars  were  only  allowed  to  leave  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Seine  under  special  and  exceptional  permits.  All 
newspaper  correspondents  were  turned  back  from  the  fron- 
tier region,  and  it  was  practically  impossible  to  enter  what 
was  defined  as  "  the  actual  zone  of  the  armies."  At  the 
same  time,  foreign  war  correspondents  were  encouraged  to 
wait  about  in  the  belief  that  they  would  soon  be  authorized 
and  sent  to  the  front.  A  code  of  rules  was  actually  issued, 
on  August  10,  for  their  guidance,  the  chief  and  severest 
novelty  being  that  telegraphic  dispatches  were  to  be  every- 
where, always,  and  absolutely  forbidden,  and  that  messages, 
to  be  intrusted  to  the  field  post,  must  be  written  in  French. 
Gradually,  the  British  correspondents  drifted  back  home, 
tired  of  waiting. 

The  measures  which  isolated  the  civil  population  also 
isolated  the  army,  whose  consequent  anxieties  had  to  be 
taken  more  seriously.  On  August  11,  the  military  author- 
ities promised  to  publish  a  newspaper  especially  for  the 
troops  at  the  front.  This  novel  enterprise  was  heralded  by 
an  exchange  of  letters  between  M.  Messimy,  the  War  Min- 
ister, and  M.  Viviani,  the  Premier — a  correspondence  inter- 
esting to  a  British  reader  as  marking  the  difference  in  the 
position  of  a  country  that  sends  an  Expeditionary  Force  and 
one  the  whole  of  whose  strongest  manhood  is  gathered  on 
distant  frontiers  for  the  defease  of  the  Fatherland.     "  Over 


76  PREPARATION 

an  immense  front  of  300  miles/'  said  M.  Messimy,  "  officers 
and  soldiers  are  subject  to  momentary  impressions,  without 
news  of  their  homes  or  even  of  the  war.  By  the  Bulletin 
des  Armees  de  la  Republique  they  will  be  able  to  measure 
their  individual  share  in  the  national  effort.  This  will  cre- 
ate a  generous  emulation  of  sacrifice  for  the  independence 
and  greatness  of  France  and  in  the  triumph  of  right  and 
liberty."  M.  Viviani,  in  the  course  of  his  reply  accepting 
the  project,  said  that  the  children  of  France,  then  on  the 
frontier,  and  on  the  morrow  beyond  it,  would  thus  know  that 
their  mothers,  wives,  sweethearts,  and  sisters  watched  them 
with  burning  eyes.  "  Ah,  young  men,  and  you,  my  two  sons, 
among  them,  look  backward,  and  you  will  read  how  France, 
in  her  mission  of  emancipation,  has  been  pursued  by  bar- 
barian hatred !  Look  forward,  and  you  will  see  Europe  freed 
from  abject  tyranny,  peace  assured,  labor  enjoying  a  happy 
resurrection.  Forward,  children  of  the  Fatherland !  When 
you  return  we  will  go,  by  paths  which  your  heroism  opened, 
in  pious  pilgrimage  to  bless  the  tombs  where  the  spirits  of 
the  heroes  of  1870  have  awaited  so  long  the  terrible  awaken- 
ing of  justice." 

The  Bulletin  des  Armees  de  la  Repiiblique  duly  appeared, 
a  small  four-page  sheet,  containing  articles  by  leading 
French  writers,  war  bulletins,  and  other  official  matter;  but 
it  was  soon  found  that  effective  circulation  is  not  easily 
procured  even  when  the  journal  has  the  State  behind  it  and 
no  revenue  is  expected.  The  postal  arrangements  between 
the  front  and  the  soldiers'  families  were  for  some  months 
a  cause  of  bitter  complaint.  An  office  was  established  at  one 
of  the  Paris  barracks  where  lists  of  killed  and  wounded  were 
kept,  and  families  applied  for  news,  no  general  lists  being 
published.  The  applicant  was  told  whether  a  particular  sol- 
dier's name  was  on  either  list,  but  not  the  place  where  he 
was,  or  the  date,  these  and  other  details,  however,  being 
sometimes  obtainable  from  regimental  officers.  Letters  for 
soldiers  had  to  be  addressed  in  the  first  place  to  the  original 


PARIS  IN  AUGUST 


77 


station  of  the  regiment;  as  this  might  be  far  away  in  the 
south  or  west,  delay  was  necessarily  caused.  Widespread 
pain  was  given,  especially  in  the  early  months  of  the  war, 
by  the  simple  impossibility  of  communicating  quickly  with 
absent  fathers,  husbands,  and  sons. 

Early  in  August,  the  Prefect  of  Police,  under  powers  given 
by  the  state  of  siege,  ordered  the  closing  at  9  p.m.  of  all 
places  where  drink  was  sold.  The  order  was  peacefully 
obeyed,  a  few  minutes'  latitude  being  given  to  those  of  us 
who  were  snatching  a  hasty  meal.  More  than  once,  hurry- 
ing Paris-wards  by  motor-car  from  the  eastern  battlefields 
after  nightfall,  I  wished  it  would  serve  to  cry,  "  Curfew  shall 
not  toll  to-night !  "  No  doubt,  the  attenuated  and  wearied 
staffs  of  the  restaurants  rejoiced;  but  thousands  of  people 
who  depend  upon  the  cafes  for  their  food  were  sorely  tried, 


w  20. 


Jeudi  3  Scptembre  1911. 


BULLETIN  DES  ARMEES 

DE    LA    REPUBLIQUE 


PARAISSAUT     CIIAQDE     JOUR 


PROCLAMATION  DU  GOUVERNEMENT 

Francals, 

Of  puis  plasicur'ssemalncijdestomDais  ocharne;  mcllenl  am  prises  no;  troupes 
n6roiqucs  el  I  ormcc  cnncmlo.  La  vaillance  de  nos  soldats  leur  a  valu.  sur  plusieurs 
points,  des  avanlagcs  marques.  Mais,  au  Nord,  la  pousiCe  des  [orccs  aUeonandes 
nous  a  contracts  a  nous  rcplier 

Cello  situation  impose  au  President  de  la  Republiqne  el  au  Gouvemrment  uoe 
decision  douloureux.  Pour  vciller  au  salut  national,  les  pouvoirs  publKS  oat  le 
devoir  dc  s'eloigaer,  pour  I  instant,  de  b  ville  de  Paris. 

Sous  le  commandement  dun  cLct  eminent,  uoe  artnee  fiaoeaise.  plelne  de 
courage  cl  d  entrain,  defcjidra  conlre  lenvahisseur  la  eapitale  el  sa  palriotique 
population.  Mais  la  guerre  doil  so  poursuivre.  en  mCme  tcropa,  sur  le  rcetcdu 
terrllolre. 

Sans  pai\  ni  Irtve,  sans  Jrrtl  nl  dcfaillance.  con)Lnucra  la  lutle  sacrto  pour 
rbonncur  dc  la  oatioa  el  pour  la  reparation  du  droit  viols. 

Aucunc  dt  nos  armees  nest  eolomee.  Si  quclques-unes d  enlre elles ont  suM des 
perles  Imp  seosibles.  les  vides  onl  etO  Imroediaicmont  corables  par  les,  depots  el 
1  appcl  des  rcerucs  nous  assure  pour  dcnui  n  dc  nou\  cllcs  ressourccs  en  liommes  el 
eu  OnejB'e*. 

Diirc»  cl  rombaltrc..  tel  doil  (ire  le  mold'ordre  des  armies  allires  engtaise, 
IBM,  beige  cl  Iraoratse  I 

Durrr  ct  combo Ure,  peritiaol  que  rur  mer  les  Anglais  nous  aldrnl  a  couper  les 
communications  de  nos  contra!;  a%  ec  le  moode  I 


SITUATION  MILITAIRE 

(2  scptembre.) 


t  —  a  nolr?  altc  gauche,  dina  In  Journeo 
da  I"  septembre,  ua  corps  de  ciTiitna 
aUemande.  dias  si  roarcue  vers  U  fortl  do 
Compiegae,  a  eu  ua  engagement  avec  le* 
Antfus  qui  lul  ont  pris  10  caaons. 

Uri  Jjlrt  corps  de  cavalerle  aUemando  a 
pouss$  Juiqu'i  U  ligne  Soissons-Auuy-le. 

Chlleu 

I'iOJ  la  region  de  neihcl  el  de  la  Meuso, 
leonecm  nimioilfsit  aucunc  aclivjie. 

Jl  —  En  Lorraine,  oous  avons  conlioue  4> 
pri'presser  *ur  b  rive  drolia  du  SiCQO;  *ta 
Sud  la  situation  est  inrnangee 

tn  H*ute- Alsace,  les  AHemands  scmblcat 
n'avoir  iHsse"  4tx*a\  Biliorl  qu  un  rtdeau 
de  troupes. 

Ill  —  Dan*  la  raglon  du  Herd,  on  na  si- 
gnal? pa<  d  erjieaus  &  Ulle,  Arras,  Uoual. 


eknf 


Lcni 


iv  —  Oo  annoote  de  8elgtque  que  des 
fracUnpj  af'part^r.uit  ft  plusieurs  corpi 
d'armee  aJlermnd*  soot  raises  en  mosuo- 
raenl  vm  f  tti  cl  reaurrnicn  Alltruagna 


Facsimile  of  the  Soldiers'  Newspaper. 


78  PREPARATION 

as  were  other  thousands  by  the  closing  at  9  p.m.  of  the  Metro- 
politan Railway. 

Our  greatest  satisfaction  in  this  early  phase  was  to  know 
that  nothing  had  been  done  on  the  French  side,  either  with 
intent  or  by  accident,  to  thwart  the  pacific  efforts  of  Great 
Britain,  or,  afterwards,  to  prejudice  a  cause  which  was 
already  strongly  appealing  to  the  conscience  of  the  outer 
world.  Never,  perhaps,  has  there  been  such  complete  una- 
nimity in  a  great  nation  accustomed  to  the  noisy  processes 
of  democratic  government.  When  M.  Viviani,  the  Prime 
Minister,  appeared  on  August  4,  with  Mme.  Jaures  on  his 
arm,  at  the  head  of  the  procession  behind  the  remains  of 
Jean  Jaures,  the  great  Socialist  leader,  it  was  at  once  a  par- 
able and  a  command.  Months  passed,  but  the  truce  continued 
unbroken.  Where  were  the  mobs  of  the  older  France,  now 
intoxicated  with  hope,  then  stricken  to  a  frenzy  of  desperate 
anger;  now  crying  "  Treason!  "  "  Traitor!  "  and  anon  hailing 
some  poseur  as  its  savior?  The  self-control  of  the  Govern- 
ment was  very  marked;  and  petty  incidents  could  not  ob- 
scure the  admirable  spectacle  of  the  restraint,  courage,  and 
intelligence  shown  by  the  population  at  large.  There  was 
no  "  mafficking  "  in  Paris  or  the  provincial  cities.  It  would 
be  unfair  to  exaggerate  the  importance  of  a  few  attacks  upon 
German  shops  following  upon  the  news  of  the  German  viola- 
tion of  the  eastern  frontier.  The  police  took  precautions 
against  the  repetition  of  such  scenes,  and  the  Prefect  of 
Police  issued  an  appeal  to  the  good  sense  of  the  people. 
Riots  against  tradesmen  and  market  people  attempting  to 
obtain  an  excessive  price  for  provisions  were  more  frequent. 

One  saw  many  pale,  distraught  faces,  and  women  with 
their  eyes  red  with  weeping.  The  mobilization  proceeded 
with  a  clock-work  smoothness.  Soldiers  were  continually 
marching  through  the  streets  amid  a  chorus  of  huzzas  and 
waving  of  handkerchiefs  by  enthusiastic  crowds.  Apart  from 
the  marching  of  troops,  the  streets  were  almost  denuded  of 
traffic.     An  ambulance  wagon  carrying  Red  Cross  nurses 


PARIS  IN  AUGUST  79 

was  always  the  sign  for  a  wave  of  applause.  Old  men  re- 
flected how  different  from  this  comparative  calm  was  the 
beginning  of  the  tragedy  of  1870.  Every  stage  in  the  events 
of  this  first  week  was  unprecedented,  incredible.  It  seemed 
as  though  mankind  had  been  stricken  with  mental  paralysis. 
Hundreds  of  millions  had  already  been  expended  before  a 
single  battle  had  been  fought,  and  years  of  battles  across  the 
whole  of  Europe  might  be  before  us.  The  humblest  French- 
man, proudest  of  patriots  as  he  was,  and  outraged  by  an 
unpardonable  aggression,  was  restrained  by  this  thought. 
There  was  no  disorder,  no  intoxication,  only  a  cold  white 
anger,  and  the  sense  of  a  devilish  but  irresistible  destiny. 

The  most  horrible  thing  in  human  life,  perhaps,  is  the 
deadening  of  sensibility  that  conies  about  when  we  see  crime 
or  suffering  no  longer  in  retail,  but  in  wholesale,  and  no 
longer  an  evil  to  prevent,  but  a  fate  to  endure.  The  calm 
of  the  Parisian  people  was,  no  doubt,  in  part  the  proud 
courage  of  which  the  Press  spoke  eloquently — in  part,  it 
was  a  numbness,  an  incapacity  to  feel  more  to  which  I  can 
myself  testify.  We  were  stunned.  Into  every  minute  of 
that  first  week  had  been  crowded  the  pain  of  a  normal  year. 
Over  a  whole  continent  the  tender  ties  of  family  and  social 
life,  the  myriad  nerve-threads  of  industry  and  business,  study 
and  recreation,  were  roughly  torn  asunder.  A  squad  of 
reservists,  not  yet  in  uniform,  trudged  bravely  through  the 
streets  to  the  train  which  would  carry  it  beyond  our  sight 
into  the  zone  of  death.  Husband  and  wife,  lover  and  lass, 
mother  and  son,  white-faced  but  tearless,  snatched  a  fare- 
well kiss.  They  felt — because  they  were  for  each  other 
familiar  living  individuals,  heart  to  despairing  heart.  We 
felt  less  and  less,  because  they  had  become  for  us  a  proces- 
sion, a  spectacle,  a  formula — something  infinitely  sad  and 
brave  and  sacred,  it  is  true,  our  saviors  by  vicarious  sacri- 
fice, but  not,  like  ourselves,  beings  of  flesh  and  blood  who 
must  be  rescued,  there  and  then,  from  injury.  Day  by  day 
this  insensibility  would  spread  and  deepen.     With  it  would 


80  PREPARATION 

be  mixed  elements  of  frenzy  of  which  we,  Englishmen, 
Frenchmen,  Germans,  had  thought  ourselves  incapable. 
There  would  be  hours  of  panic,  hours  of  orgy  over  news  of 
triumph.  This — not  the  material  destruction,  or  even  the 
hideous  loss  of  life— was  the  cost  of  war  we  had  most  to 
fear.  It  was  against  this  deadening  of  heart  and  conscience 
that  our  preachers  and  teachers  should  be  directing  any 
moral  influence  they  could  yet  exert — not  either  an  easy,  or 
always  a  pleasant,  task. 

No  calamity,  perhaps,  can  quite  extinguish  the  smokeless 
flame  of  Parisian  wit.  From  the  workman  to  the  aristocrat, 
everyone  had  for  a  time  his  little  joke,  most  of  them  repre- 
sented by  the  return  railway  ticket  for  Berlin,  marked 
"  August-September,"  which  was  being  sold  on  the  boule- 
vards. "  I  was  going  to  Baden-Baden  in  September,"  said 
an  officer,  "  and  I  shall  still  go,  but  without  any  Customs 
House  nonsense."  A  little  infantryman,  after  the  last  kiss, 
said  to  his  wife:  "  Now,  don't  cry;  I'll  bring  you  some  Ger- 
man helmets  to  make  flower-pots  of."  And,  in  fact,  helmets 
were,  within  six  weeks,  the  favorite  "  relics  "  which  wounded 
soldiers  brought  home.  Old  men  recalled  that  in  August 
1870,  after  the  defeats  of  Wissembourg  and  Froeschwiller, 
"  La  Muette  de  Portici "  was  being  played  at  the  Op6ra, 
"  Lala  Roukh  "  at  the  Opera  Comique,  and  other  pieces  at 
the  Gaiete  and  Varices.  Times  had  changed.  On  the  first 
day  of  this  mobilization,  there  were  forty  spectators  at  the 
TheHtre  Frangais,  and  on  the  third  day  the  doors  were 
closed.  A  number  of  picture  theaters  remained  open  for 
the  benefit  of  the  Red  Cross.  The  silence  deepened  daily; 
and  when  the  great  retreat  began,  there  was  no  more  public 
joking. 

M.  Urbain  Gohier,  one  of  the  extreme  anti-militarists  of  ten 
years  before,  pointed  out  that  if,  and  when,  the  whole  four 
and  a  half  millions  of  mobilizable  men  in  France  were  called 
out,  there  would  be  still  plenty  of  work,  as  necessary  to  the 
State  as  the  military  effort,  for  other  hands  to  accomplish : 


PARIS  IN  AUGUST  81 

"  War  is  not  only  fighting;  it  is,  above  all,  a  proof  of  endur- 
ance, a  succession  of  unaccustomed  effort,  fatigue,  privation 
which  the  young  and  the  strong  can  bear,  but  the  feeble  and 
the  old  would  collapse  under.  Everyone  can  fire  a  rifle,  but 
everyone  cannot  walk  twenty  miles,  knapsack  on  back,  in 
sun  and  rains,  sleeping  upon  the  moist  earth,  starting  off 
again  at  dawn,  and  always  maintaining  his  physical  strength. 
To  make  ourselves  really  useful,  according  to  our  strength 
and  capacity,  without  seeking  theatrical  effect — that  is 
our  duty.  There  are  plenty  of  opportunities  to  fulfill  it. 
The  crops  must  be  harvested,  the  tramway  and  railway 
services  maintained,  letters  transmitted,  the  police  re- 
enforced,  and  the  daily  labor  continued  in  all  the  workshops 
and  factories  in  the  land.  This  is,  in  the  truest  sense,  na- 
tional service."  The  Press  presently  set  up  a  hue-and-cry 
against  those  who  appeared — often  the  appearance  was  quite 
fallacious — to  be  evading  military  service.  On  the  whole, 
the  call  was  responded  to  promptly  and  willingly,  not  only 
by  the  mass  of  young  men  of  unformed  opinions,  but  by 
middle-aged  fathers  of  families,  by  thousands  who  could  have 
pleaded  physical  weakness,  by  poets  and  artists,  deputies 
and  editors,  pacifists,  socialists,  syndicalists. 

Very  soon,  a  large  part  of  the  well-to-do  classes  in  Paris 
and  other  French  cities  was  engaged  in  the  organization  of 
relief.  The  following  figures  are  typical :  In  the  twelfth 
arrondissement  of  the  capital,  6,500  families  were  at  once 
thrown  on  the  charity  lists,  and  the  distributions  of  food, 
clothing,  and  money  were  regularly  made.  In  the  thirteenth 
arrondissement  10,000  families  were  succored,  and  in  the 
fourteenth  more  than  7,000.  In  the  seventeenth,  another 
working-class  district,  milk  was  distributed  largely  to  those 
who  required  it,  and  those  justified  in  asking  for  money  help 
were  found  to  number  about  10,000.  The  Boy  Scouts  made 
themselves  generally  useful.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  fam- 
ilies, many  of  them  accustomed  to  a  comfortable  scale  of 
living,  settled  down  to  a  bare  subsistence  upon  the  legal  al- 


82  PREPARATION 

lowances  of  a  shilling  a  day  to  the  wife,  and  fivepence  per 
child  under  sixteen  years  of  age.  Many  of  the  great  hotels 
and  business  houses  were  turned  into  provisional  ambu- 
lances, or  work-rooms  where  girls  were  kept  at  a  low  wage 
making  hospital  supplies  or  winter  garments  for  the  troops. 
On  August  22,  the  twenty-first  day  of  the  mobilization, 
there  were  1,300,000  Frenchmen  under  arms,  about  a 
half  of  them  on  or  near  the  frontiers.  Brussels  was  already 
lost,  Namur  was  invested,  and  Nancy  threatened.  The  hour 
of  trial  had  come. 


BOOK  II 

TEE  ON  SLAV  GET 

(August  21 — September  5) 


CHAPTER  VI 
BEHIND  THE  SCREEN 

Standing  at  the  critical  point  where  the  mobilization  of 
the  chief  forces  is  practically  complete,  and  the  preliminary 
phase  of  the  campaign  closes,  and  using  our  privilege  of 
looking  backward  and  forward,  we  should  now  be  able  to 
see  more  clearly,  if  not  quite  clearly,  what  were  the  original 
plans  of  campaign,  and  how  they  have  been  modified  as  a 
result  of  the  first  shock  of  arms.  There  is  no  mistaking  this 
critical  point,  which  lies  between  the  German  victory  in  Lor- 
raine and  the  occupation  of  Brussels,  on  August  20,  and 
the  German  occupation  of  Luneville  and  the  passage  of  the 
Meuse-Sambre  at  Namur,  on  August  23.  The  position  thus 
reached  is,  indeed,  an  extraordinary  one;  and  the  main  prob- 
lem it  places  abruptly  before  us  is  so  important  that  it  will 
be  best  to  deal  with  it  before  resuming  our  narrative  of 
events.  This  problem  may  be  thus  stated :  If,  against  the 
trivial  Belgian  army  almost  unaided,  the  invaders  could  only 
get  from  the  northern  frontiers  past  the  obstacle  of  Namur 
in  nineteen  days  (August  4-23),  how  was  it  that  they  were 
able,  against  the  French  and  British  armies,  to  reach  the 
outer  forts  of  Paris  in  another  thirteen  days  (August  23- 
September  5),  fighting  several  big  battles,  holding  Belgium 
and  long  lines  of  communication,  and  overrunning  a  large 
prnrt  of  eastern  France,  the  while? 

We  may  commence  with  an  axiom  and  two  assumptions. 
The  axiom  is  that  we  are  seeking  to  discover  and  explain,  not 
to  judge.  It  cannot  be  too  often  recalled  that,  while  the 
reader  is  spared  the  overwhelming  labors  and  anxieties  of 
the  combatants,  he  lias  before  him  knowledge  which,  if  the 

85 


86  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

commanders  themselves  had  possessed,  this  story  would  not 
be  to  tell,  but  another  very  different.  The  assumptions  are 
these:  (a)  That  the  defeat  and  retreat  of  the  Allies  were  not 
due  to  inferiority  of  soldierly  qualities  in  their  men,  and  that 
the  problem  is,  therefore,  one  of  numbers,  strategy,  prepared- 
ness, and  organization.  (6)  That,  in  so  far  as  it  is  a  prob- 
lem of  numbers,  it  is  one  chiefly  not  of  total  numbers — the 
German  advantage  in  reserves  being  soon  counterbalanced 
to  some  extent  by  Austrian  failures  and  Russian  attacks — 
but  of  forces  somewhat  superior  in  mass,  strategically  dis- 
posed so  as  to  be  markedly  superior  at  certain  points  at  a 
required  moment. 

There  are,  next,  two  sets  of  facts  to  review:  (1)  The  dis- 
position of  forces  on  the  eve  of  the  campaign,  and  (2)  their 
lines  of  movement  from  August  4  to  August  23  when 
Namur  fell,  the  Belgian  army  was  dispersed,  and  the 
main  onslaught  by  the  north  began  at  Mons  and  Char- 
leroi. 

1.  It  has  been  seen  that  the  first  dispositions  indicated  (a) 
that  Belgium  would  resist,  her  small  field  army  supporting 
the  small  garrisons  of  the  Meuse  fortresses.  Much  evidently 
depended  upon  how  long  this  resistance  could  last,  if  there 
was  to  be  an  effective  junction  of  the  Franco-British  with 
the  Belgian  forces.  It  seems  highly  probable  that  the  Ger- 
man commanders  expected  a  shorter  resistance.  Whatever 
General  Joffre  may  have  intended,  and  whatever  the  Belgian 
Government  may  have  secretly  known,  the  army  and  people 
expected  the  Allies  to  march  north  to  their  aid.  (5)  The 
British  force,  landed  at  French,  not  Belgian,  ports,  was  only 
a  late  participant  in  the  French  plan  of  campaign,  which, 
however,  must  have  been  made,  or  promptly  modified,  in  view 
of  its  arrival  on  the  west  wing.  This  could  hardly  have  been 
expected  at  an  earlier  date,  or  in  larger  numbers,  (c)  The 
French  plan  had  to  take  account  of  inferior  numbers,  a  rela- 
tive backwardness,  equal  perhaps  to  two  or  three  days,  or 
even  more,  in  real  mobilization  and  frontier  concentration, 


BEHIND  THE  SCREEN  87 

and  the  difficulties  of  common  action  by  widely  separated 
Allies.  We  have  seen  that  the  great  effort  in  fixed  defenses 
had  been  made  on  the  eastern  frontier  in  the  double  system 
Verdun-Toul  and  Epinal-Belfort.  On  the  north,  the  only 
considerable  fortress  was  Maubeuge,  though  there  were  a 
number  of  isolated  forts,  aud  Longwy,  as  we  have  seen,  made 
an  admirable  resistance.  Lille,  La  Fere,  Laon,  and  Rheims 
had  not  been  modernized,  and  were  all  abandoned  without 
a  serious  attempt  at  defense.  Various  schemes  for  a  north- 
ern system  of  fortifications  had  been  discussed  from  time  to 
time;  but  they  had  been  set  aside  on  account  of  the  enormous 
expenditure  required,  and  the  growth  of  opinion  in  favor 
of  mobile  defense  and  increase  of  artillery.  A  phrase  in  the 
French  official  bulletin  of  August  24,  11  p.m.,  suggests  that 
the  original  plan  of  campaign  did  not  contemplate  an  ad- 
vance into  Belgium,  even  if  it  were  already  invaded  by  Ger- 
many :  "  By  order  of  General  Joffre,  our  troops  and  the  Brit- 
ish troops  have  taken  positions  on  the  covering  line  (i.e.  the 
frontier),  which  they  would  not  have  quitted  had  not  the  ad- 
mirable effort  of  the  Belgians  permitted  us  to  enter  Belgium." 
This,  in  turn,  would  suggest  that  a  lengthy  Belgian  resist- 
ance was  not  expected.  However  that  may  be,  the  French 
frontier  west  of  the  Sambre  was  left  undefended,  until  the 
arrival  of  the  British,  all  the  armies  being  ranged  around  the 
north-east  and  east,  from  Maubeuge  to  Belfort,  with  a  view 
to  getting  contact,  and  an  offensive  concentrated  in  Lor- 
raine and  southern  Alsace,  {d)  Of  the  seven  original  Ger- 
man army  groups  (an  eighth  appeared  later,  that  of  Von 
Hausen),  the  aim  of  five  was  plain  and  not  easily  alterable. 
The  two  northernmost  armies,  those  of  Von  Kluck  and  Von 
Biilow  (seven  army  corps  in  all),  were  North  German 
troops  manifestly  prepared  to  take  the  nearest  way  to  Paris, 
the  way  through  Liege — Von  Emmich's  provisional  army  of 
the  Meuse  was  their  advance  guard  for  the  purpose  of  reduc- 
ing this  fortress.  The  two  southernmost,  consisting  of  six 
corps  based  upon  Metz  and  Strassburg,  had  to  guard  almost 


88  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

the  whole  stretch  of  the  Franco-German  frontier,  and  could 
not  be  strong  enough  for  offense  there  until  they  had  received 
re-enforcements.  The  role  of  the  two  middle  armies  was 
probably  less  definitely  determined  at  the  outset.  The  more 
northerly  of  these,  the  Third  Army,  under  the  Duke  of  Wur- 
temberg,  based  upon  the  railway  system  of  the  Lower  Mo- 
selle, might  be  sent  in  any  one  of  four  directions,  at  need : 
through  Malmedy  to  Liege ;  through  Bastogne  and  the  Lesse 
valley  to  the  Meuse  near  Dinant ;  through  the  southern  Ar- 
dennes to  the  region  of  Sedan ;  or  due  south  to  re-enforce  the 
Crown  Prince  of  Prussia.  Again,  the  Fourth  Army,  under 
the  Crown  Prince,  consisting  of  only  three  corps,  Rhine- 
landers,  Lorrainers,  and  Hessians,  and,  gathered  between 
Treves  and  Thionville,  might  be  thrown  north-westward  into 
the  Ardennes,  or  westward  through  the  Longwy  gap,  or  it 
might  be  sent  south  to  re-enforce  the  Metz  Army  under  the 
Crown  Prince  of  Bavaria.  In  brief,  the  general  prospect  was 
a  strong  northern  offensive,  a  tentative  central  movement 
which  might  be  shifted  north  or  south,  and  a  southern  de- 
fensive which  might  be  stimulated  if  and  when  opportunity 
occurred.  On  both  sides  of  the  Franco-German  frontier, 
railway  communications  were  abundant,  and  were  success- 
fully used  for  rapid  re-enforcement. 

2.  The  actual  course  of  events  on  these  different  fronts  dur- 
ing the  first  nineteen  days  may  be  summed  up  thus : 

(a)  Alsace  and  the  Vosges. — An  inadequate  French  ad- 
vance reached  Mulhouse  (August  8),  but  was  met  next  day 
by  German  re-enforcements,  and  had  to  be  withdrawn.  A 
stronger  movement  under  General  Pau  secured  the  Vosges 
passes  by  the  middle  of  the  month,  and  Mulhouse  on  August 
20.  Immediately  afterwards,  the  turning  of  the  French  south- 
ern line  was  threatened  by  the  German  victory  on  the  Lor- 
raine frontier ;  and  all  that  had  been  gained,  except  the  south 
Vosges  heights,  was  abandoned.  General  Joffre's  original 
aim  being  stated  to  be  "  to  flank  the  attack  of  our  troops 
operating  in  Lorraine,"  as  the  actual  outflanking  occurred  in 


BEHIND  THE  SCREEN  89 

the  opposite  direction  there  can  be  no  disguising  the  fact 
that  there  was  here  a  very  bad  failure. 

(6)  Lorraine. — On  the  12th,  a  French  advance  was  begun, 
under  Castelnau,  through  the  Nancy  gap;  and  on  the  16th 
this  was  supported  by  a  northward  advance  from  Mount 
Donon.  Both  were  directed  against  Saarburg,  which  was 
taken  on  the  18th,  the  direct  railway  communication  between 
Metz  and  Strassburg  being  thus  broken.  This  advance, 
again,  was  insufficiently  strong;  but  whether  its  defeat  (Au- 
gust 20)  was  by  surprise,  or  by  the  arrival  of  heavy  re- 
enforcements,  does  not  plainly  appear.  In  any  case,  the 
German  victory  was  successfully  followed  up;  and,  by  the 
23rd,  the  French  Army  had  retreated  to  or  beyond  the  river 
Meurthe.  The  movements  thus  terminated  were  afterwards 
explained  as  designed  to  hold  as  many  German  troops  as 
possible  on  the  eastern  frontier,  and  so  weaken  the  northern 
attack  (Bulletin  des  Armees,  December  5,  1914). 

(c)  Longivy  corner. — A  German  offensive  of  a  not  very 
serious  character  from  Luxemburg  and  Thionville  toward 
Verdun  was  checked  by  August  12,  and  was  withdrawn.  The 
check  of  General  Ruffey  by  the  Imperial  Crown  Prince  aided 
the  Wtirtembergers'  advance;  but  the  Longwy  gap  only  be- 
came a  considerable  entry  when  the  retreat  of  the  north- 
western Allied  armies  made  a  general  withdrawal  of  the 
French  lines  necessary.  Even  then,  the  successful  resistance 
of  Verdun  greatly  reduced  its  value. 

(d)  Belgian  Ardennes. — The  operations  in  this  difficult 
field  proved  to  be  of  a  more  important  character  than  was 
anticipated,  or,  perhaps,  could  be  anticipated  until  the  na- 
ture of  the  northern  attack  was  revealed.  While  the  Crown 
Prince  held  General  Ruffey  on  the  Semoy,  and  the  Duke  of 
Wiirtemberg  attacked  and  defeated  De  Langle  de  Cary  at 
Paliseul  and  Neufchateau  in  the  south,  a  new  army  under 
Von  Hausen,  a  development  from  the  possibilities  for  the 
German  center  indicated  in  paragraph  1  (d)  above,  struck 
through  Marche  to  Dinant,  so  supporting  Von  Billow's  in- 


90  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

vestment  of  Namur,  and  threatening  the  French  flank.  The 
failure  of  the  French  attempt  to  move  eastward  from  the 
Meuse  through  the  Ardennes  entailed  De  Langle  de  Cary's 
retreat,  which,  in  turn,  uncovered  the  right  wing  of  General 
Lanrezac's  army  in  the  angle  between  the  Sambre  and  Meuse, 
and,  through  it,  affected  the  British  position  west  of  Charle- 
roi. 

(e)  Northern  Belgium. — Without  any  substantial  inter- 
ference except  that  of  the  Belgian  army  and  its  two  fort- 
resses, General  von  Moltke,  then  and  for  some  weeks  longer 
head  of  the  Great  General  Staff  in  Berlin,  under  the  formal 
command  of  the  Emperor  as  War-Lord,  had  procured  the 
concentration  in  northern,  eastern,  and  central  Belgium,  be- 
fore the  French  mobilization  was  complete,  not  of  a  sub- 
sidiary force  intended  to  make  a  useful  diversion  from  the 
north,  but  of  rather  more  than  a  half  of  the  German  armies 
in  the  west — those  of  Von  Kluck,  Von  Biilow,  Von  Hausen, 
and  Duke  Albrecht,  comprising  in  all  twelve  or  thirteen 
army  corps,  with  seven  or  eight  divisions  of  cavalry,  about 
700,000  men  in  all.  In  a  strategical  analysis,  this  achieve- 
ment far  overtops  all  the  dramatic  episodes  by  which  it  was 
obscured  at  the  time.  Without  casting  any  shade  upon  the 
heroic  resistance  of  Liege,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  such  a 
concentration  could  in  any  case  have  been  completed  in  a 
shorter  time  than  it  actually  occupied.  The  atrocious  treat- 
ment of  the  Belgian  villages  goes  to  show  how  much  the  in- 
vaders feared  any  delay;  but  all  we  can  say  with  any  con- 
fidence is  that  to  the  delay  at  Liege  may  perhaps  be  attrib- 
uted the  safe  junction  of  the  French  and  British  armies  on 
the  ground  chosen.  The  Belgian  field  force  retired  west- 
ward from  Liege  on  August  6  or  7.  Yet  the  crossing  at  Huy 
was  only  seized  by  Von  Biilow  on  the  12th,  Brussels  was 
only  occupied  on  the  20th,  and  the  Namur  crossing  was  only 
obtained  on  the  23rd.  Undoubtedly  these  steps  could  have 
been  taken  earlier,  for  they  did  not  need  a  third  of  the  force 
available.    We  must  suppose,  therefore,  that  the  delay  was 


BEHIND  THE  SCREEN  91 

deliberate.  One  reason  for  it,  perhaps,  was  to  give  time  for 
Yon  Hausen's  flank  attack  against  the  Sambre  line  through 
Dinant ;  but  probably  the  chief  reason  lay  in  the  importance 
of  preventing  the  Allies  from  measuring  the  next  move  till 
it  was  actually  taken.  Everything  was  done  to  conceal  what 
was  afoot,  by  terrorizing  the  population,  by  the  ubiquitous 
activity  of  the  cavalry  screen,  and,  above  all,  by  the  delay 
of  the  southward  and  westward  advances  until  everything 
was  ready  for  a  "  smashing  blow." 

How  far,  then,  were  the  Allies  able  to  see  what  was  coming, 
to  anticipate  the  numbers  and  speed  of  the  attack  from  the 
north?  No  full  answer  can  be  given  to  this  question  until 
the  military  archives  are  opened  and  the  memoirs  of  the 
leading  actors  penned.  The  difficulties  for  the  French  and 
British  staffs  were  very  great.  The  war  had  been  sprung 
upon  them  by  an  enemy  fully  prepared.  The  factor  that 
speeded  the  aggressor  delayed  them — -they  had  to  wait  for 
Russia,  and  for  the  still  slower  muster  of  the  British  Em- 
pire. France  must,  in  any  case,  look  first  to  Lorraine,  for 
there  the  enemy  was  always  at  the  gate.  As  to  the  north, 
the  Allies  were  necessarily  dependent  for  information  upon 
the  Belgians,  who  were  in  no  position  to  conduct  the  cool 
work  of  reconnoissance  and  secret  service.  Whether  because 
they  expected  first  to  strike  a  decisive  blow  in  Lorraine  and 
Alsace  which  would  draw  the  enemy  thither ;  or  because  they 
thought  the  attack  from  the  north  would  be  smaller  and 
slower,  and  could  be  dealt  with  by  the  Belgians,  two  French 
armies,  and  the  British  Expeditionary  Force;  or  because  the 
east  must  be  guarded  first,  and  there  were  not  yet  enough 
men  under  arms  for  an  equal  effort  in  the  north, — or  for  all 
these  reasons — no  adequate  preparation  was  made  where  the 
need  proved  greatest. 

The  daily  bulletins  of  the  Press  Bureau  of  the  War  Min- 
istry in  Paris,  which  became,  after  the  battle  of  the  Marne, 
the  chief  source  of  public  information,  gave  us  at  this  time 
no  real  guidance;  but  they  are  not  without  historical  inter- 


92 


THE  ONSLAUGHT 


est.  The  eastern  frontier  absorbed  attention;  Liege  was 
always  "  still  holding  out."  On  or  about  August  10,  we  re- 
ceived a  set  of  rules  for  war  correspondents,  and  with  them 


BRUSSELS 


•  ORCHIES 
OGUAl' 


LIEGE 


NAMUR 


MAUBEft^E  ^QlVET 
S'QUENTIN.r^   Bfc 


*»»-— 3?     RETHEL^T-1-J-    * 


'oREIMS 


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♦  - 


VEROON  (•  MET* 


CHALONS^     KANCW*, 


STRRSSBURO 


MUfS 


10     30    SO 


«****v 


Dijon 


"    EPINAL- 


^r 'SEL  FDKt\     -j»»« 


y 


Zone  Actuelle  des  Armees  "    (August  10). 


a  large  skeleton  map  on  which  a  thick  black  line  marked  off 
the  "present  zone  of  the  armies"  (shaded  portion  of  the 
above  map).  The  western  limit  of  this  zone,  on  the  Belgian 
frontier,  was  at  Orchies,  sixteen  miles  south-east  of  Lille, 
and  fifty-six  miles  of  Dunkirk.  When  the  Germans  were 
flooding  through  Orchies  and  occupying  Lille,  we  recalled 
this  map,  with  its  uneasy  advice :  "  La  Limite  de  Cette  Zone 
Peut  Varier  au  Cours  des  Ope'rations."  The  armies,  then, 
covered  two-thirds  of  the  border  from  the  sea  to  Longwy, 
and  left  open  the  western  third,  including  the  great  city  of 
Lille,  seat  of  the  1st  Army  Corps,  once  a  formidable  fortress, 
and  only  recently  dismantled  and  de-classed.     On  August  12, 


BEHIND  THE  SCREEN  93 

the  British  Press  Bureau  announced  it  as  "  evident "  that 
"  the  mass  of  the  German  troops  lie  between  Liege  and  Lux- 
emburg." The  movement  to  the  left  of  De  Langle  de  Gary's 
and  Ruffey's  armies  had  now  begun,  to  support  the  advance 
of  Lanrezac  between  the  Meuse  and  the  Sambre,  and  the  posi- 
tion arranged  for  Sir  John  French,  from  fifteen  to  thirty 
miles  due  east  of  Orchies.  When  these  movements  were  com- 
plete, there  was  no  force  in  Flanders  or  north-western 
France,  except  two  divisions  of  Territorials  at  Arras, 
under  General  d'Amade.  On  August  15 — when  Sir  John 
French  was  in  Paris — the  French  bulletin  announced  that 
the  invasion  of  Belgium  was  foiled,  and  that  the 
movements  of  the  Allied  armies  were  "  perfectly  co- 
ordinated." A  more  noteworthy  fact  is  the  presence  of 
General  Joffre  at  the  "  headquarters  of  the  eastern 
armies  "  as  late  as  August  18.  A  swift  change,  accentu- 
ated by  the  defeat  in  Lorraine,  is  then  discernible.  On 
August  19,  the  night  bulletin  announced  that  "very  im- 
portant German  forces "  had  crossed  the  Meuse  between 
Liege  and  Namur.  On  the  20th,  the  invasion  of  the  Ar- 
dennes was  reported  as  reaching  the  line  Dinant-Neuf- 
chaleau,  and  it  was  added  that  Brussels  was  occupied, 
"  important  columns  pursuing  their  movement  on  this 
side."  On  the  21st,  while  the  British  troops  were  being 
brought  into  position,  the  Paris  Press  Bureau  was  con- 
gratulating itself,  for  the  last  time  for  many  a  long  day, 
that  "  there  is  no  longer  any  point  of  French  territory 
occupied  by  the  enemy,"  except  a  little  corner  near  Briey, 
a  fact  "  the  moral  value  of  which  it  is  good  to  signal." 
Next  day,  the  Germans  were  through  Namur;  and  on  the 
evening  of  the  23rd,  faced  by  "  most  unexpected  "  numbers, 
the  great  retreat  of  the  Franco- British  forces  began.  On 
the  25th,  when  they  were  at  Cambrai-Le  Cateau-Landrecies, 
forty  miles  south-west  of  Maubeuge,  the  Paris  communique' 
stated,  in  one  breath,  that  "  the  great  battle  is  engaged  be- 
tween Maubeuge  and  the  Donon  on  which  depends  the  fate 


94  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

of  France,"  and  that  German  cavalry  were  at  Douai,  sixty- 
five  miles  west  of  Maubeuge. 

These  citations  suggest  that  not  only  the  numbers  and 
speed,  but  the  direction  also,  of  the  northern  invasion  were 
most  imperfectly  appreciated.  The  north-western  advance 
of  Von  Kluck's  army  from  Liege  was,  no  doubt,  motived 
by  the  need  of  driving  back  the  Belgian  army  and  masking 
it  after  it  had  retired  to  Antwerp,  and  by  the  moral  value 
for  the  Germans  at  home  of  a  demonstrative  occupation  of 
the  capital.  But  there  was  another  important  object  which 
these  proceedings  helped  to  conceal.  This  was  to  carry 
a  large  marching  wing  far  to  the  west  without  exciting 
suspicion,  preparatory  to  a  dash  toward  the  unprotected 
extremity  of  the  French  frontier.  Liege  and  Namur  have 
always  exercised  an  hypnotic  influence  upon  discussions  of 
a  possible  German  violation  of  Belgian  neutrality.  Their 
importance  was,  of  course,  great — that  of  Liege  as  the 
necessary  doorway  to  both  west  and  south,  Namur  as  the 
second  doorway  to  the  straight  roads  up  the  Sambre  and 
Meuse,  of  which  the  former  had  a  third  door  at  Maubeuge. 
This  seemed  to  be  the  obvious  way  because  it  pointed  a 
straight  line  to  Paris,  with  a  first-rate  railway:  hence  the 
three  fortresses.  If  the  invasion  of  Belgium  had  been  only 
a  supporting  operation  to  a  main  advance  elsewhere,  this 
might  have  been  the  only  road  taken  (except  those  through 
the  Ardennes).  The  tearing-up  of  the  "scrap  of  paper" 
might  then  have  been  comparatively  easily  forgiven,  for, 
though  the  country  would  have  been  injured,  it  would  not 
have  been  ruined.  The  destruction  of  Belgium  was  due 
mainly  to  the  overrunning  of  the  Flanders  plain,  which  was 
due  mainly  to  the  desire  to  practice  the  favorite  German 
maneuver  in  the  shape  of  an  enveloping  movement  against 
the  weak  western  wing  of  the  Allies.  No  human  scruple 
was  allowed  to  obstruct  this  design;  and,  though  complete 
success  was  not  achieved,  it  was  a  leading  factor  in  deter- 
mining the  precipitate  retreat  on  Paris. 


BEHIND  THE  SCREEN  95 

The  question  with  which  we  started — Why  should  the 
Germans  take  nineteen  days  to  pass  Namur,  and  only  thir- 
teen more  to  reach  the  outskirts  of  Paris? — may,  therefore, 
be  provisionally  answered  thus:  A  longer  period  is  natu- 
rally occupied  in  preparing  than  in  delivering  what  is 
intended  as  a  "  smashing  blow."  The  dominating  feature 
of  the  preliminary  phase  of  the  campaign  was  not  any  of 
the  events  which  at  the  time  loomed  large  and  red  in  the 
public  eye,  but  was  the  secret  preparation  of  a  force  cal- 
culated by  the  numbers,  speed,  organization,  and  directions 
of  its  attack  to  overwhelm  all  possible  opposition.  A  sec- 
ondary, but  important,  feature  was  the  successful  westward 
movement  through  the  Ardennes  toward  the  Sambre.  On 
all  these  heads,  the  Allies  were  ill-informed.  But  they  were 
also  ill-prepared  in  the  north  for  reasons  arising  from  the 
political  character  of  the  war  and  Germany's  advantage  as 
the  aggressor;  from  weakness  of  immediately  available 
numbers,  due  partly  to  the  prior  need  of  a  strong  defense 
on  the  east,  partly  to  the  choice  of  Alsace  for  an  offensive ; 
and  from  necessary  economies  in  the  past  as  illustrated  in 
the  disarmament  of  the  intrenched  camp  of  Lille.  The 
immediate  penalty  fell  with  disproportionate  force  upon 
the  small  British  army  which  formed  the  extreme  left  or 
western  wing;  and  to  its  more  than  Spartan  endurance 
and  vigor  was  largely  due  the  later  turn  of  fortune. 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  BATTLE  OF  MONS-CHARLEROI 

The  plain  of  central  Belgium  lies  between  the  middle 
courses  of  the  two  great  rivers  which  sweep  round  it  to 
Antwerp  and  Rotterdam  respectively,  the  Scheldt  and  the 
Sambre-Meuse.  Rising  near  each  other  in  northern  France, 
they  are  firmly  divided  by  the  hilly  region  which  forms  the 
southern  boundary  of  the  plain,  between  Conde-on-Scheldt 
and  Charleroi  on  the  Sanibre.  This  region,  after  being  for 
many  centuries  one  of  the  cockpits  of  Europe,  had  become 
during  the  last  generation  one  of  its  busiest  industrial 
districts,  the  seat  of  Belgium's  greatest  coalfields  and  iron- 
works. The  two  alien  characteristics  are  marked  all  over 
the  countryside,  the  one  in  many  famous  battlefields, 
ruined  castles  and  abbeys,  and  names  that  have  the  ring 
of  a  bugle-call;  the  other  in  crowded  and  towering  mine- 
heads,  furnaces,  foundries,  glass-works,  and  the  close  net- 
work of  railways  and  canals  needed  for  their  service.  The 
little  river  Haine  (hence  "Hainault")  trickles  westward 
to  the  old  fortress  town  of  Conde',  crooning  to  itself  some 
song  of  bygone  chivalry;  but  the  straight  line  of  the  Mons- 
Conde"  Canal  rather  seemed  to  typify  the  material  purposes 
of  the  twentieth  century,  until  the  cannon  woke  again  the 
echoes  of  the  past.  Hither  came  once  more  armed  hosts  to 
seize  the  gates  of  the  fair  fields  of  France;  and,  to  save 
them,  Sir  John  French  stood  upon  the  hill,  Mons,  where 
Caesar  pitched  one  of  his  castra  against  the  Gauls,  while 
General  Lanrezac  held  the  bridge-head  that  Vauban  had 
fortified  for  Louis  Quatorze.  Jemappes,  Waterloo,  Fleurus, 
and  Ramillies  lay  before  them,  for  remembrance. 

96 


THE  BATTLE  OF  MONS-CHARLEROI  97 

Rising  from  these  bills,  and  ultimately  to  join  the 
Scheldt,  four  lesser  streams  run  northward  across  the  plain, 
with  roads  and  railways  beside  them — the  Dendre  (to 
Alost),  the  Senne  (to  Hal  and  Brussels),  the  Dyle  (to 
Wavre  and  Louvain),  aud  the  Gette  (to  Tirlemont).  Four 
railroads  from  these  towns,  beside  the  main  line  of  the 
Meuse-Sambre  Valley,  were  soon,  if  not  immediately,  avail- 
able, in  addition  to  the  great  highways,  for  the  three  Ger- 
man armies  which,  rested  and  ready  to  the  last  button, 
were  now  flooding  south,  with  cavalry  and  motor-car  parties 
flung  out  far  to  the  west  by  Oudenarde  and  Ghent  toward 
Lille,  as  well  as  forward  of  the  central  advance.  The 
parade  through  Brussels  of  40,000  picked  troops  had  been 
a  very  successful  blind.  A  day  later — August  21 — these 
were  moving  on,  the  mass  of  troops,  who  had  never  entered 
the  city,  well  in  front  of  them.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the 
German  staff  resisted  every  temptation  to  touch  the  Chan- 
nel coast  during  the  effort  to  cut  British  communications 
on  that  side.  Maubeuge  (through  Charleroi),  Valenciennes 
(through  Mons),  and  Lille  (through  Tournai)  are  the  main 
Belgian  routes  to  Paris;  and  these  were  the  routes  of  the 
western  invasion.  How  bold  and  skillful  it  was,  in  design, 
preparation,  concealment,  and  execution,  was  recognized 
only  when  too  late.  The  French  War  Office  had  just  been 
advertising  the  enemy  as  an  insane  "  horde  of  unbridled 
savages."  It  now  learned  that  these  savages  were  capable 
of  an  unprecedented  effort  of  military  organization.  The 
nations  concerned  began  to  realize  the  full  gravity  of  their 
task,  and  the  sacrifices  it  involved. 

From  Meuse  to  Scheldt,  half  a  million  men — on  foot  and 
horse  and  in  motor-buses,  with  guns,  light  and  heavy,  and 
ammunition  wagons,  armored  automobiles,  columns  of  food 
and  other  supplies,  engineer  corps,  aeroplanes,  field  tele- 
graphs, pontoons,  ambulances,  and  officers'  cars — moved 
south  with  machine-like  regularity  and  speed.  We  have 
seen  that  the  French  had  failed  to  hold  their  positions  in 


98 


THE  ONSLAUGHT 


the  Ardennes,  and,  before  the  fall  of  Namur,  had  fallen 
back  up  the  Meuse  toward  Givet,  so  that  Namur  was  left 
isolated,  and  the  left  wing  of  the  Fifth  Army,  on  the  Sam- 
bre,  uncovered.  All  the  week  beginning  August  16,  the 
French  on  the  Sambre  had  been  in  touch  with  flying 
columns  of  the  German  screen,  as  far  north  as  Gembloux. 
On  Thursday  evening,  August  20,  the  pressure  to  the  north- 
west of  Charleroi  was  perceptibly  increasing.  The  north- 
west was  still  relatively  free ;  and  Mons  was  not  threatened, 
although  numerous  bodies  of  Uhlans  had  been  found  about 
Mvelles  and  Hal,  and  the  railway  from  Mons  to  Brussels 


Mons 


CHARLERO/ 


NAMl/R  a  fiuu£2z. 


The  French  Defeat  at  Charleroi. 

(thirty-five  miles)  was  cut  midway.  Early  on  Friday 
morning,  the  21st,  a  column  of  Uhlans  broke  into  Charleroi, 
whose  garrison  was  strengthened  by  a  battalion  of  the  line, 
some  Chasseurs  d'Afrique  and  Turcos,  with  artillery. 
Whether  because  they  were  mistaken  in  the  thick  mist,  or 
because  they  claimed  to  be  such,  the  Uhlans  were  hailed 
as  British  troops. 

That  afternoon,  the  first  shells  fell  on  the  railway  station, 
All  the  northern  approaches  to  Mons  and  Charleroi  were 
swarming  with  bodies  of  the  invaders  on  Saturday,  and 
the  serious  fighting  had  begun.     Artillery  posted  to  the 


THE  BATTLE  OF  MONS-CHARLEROI  99 

south  of  Charleroi  checked  the  first  advance  on  the  town 
and  the  Sambre  bridges  above  and  below.  Infantry  regi- 
ments were  brought  up,  but  not  in  sufficient  numbers  to 
make  a  pursuit  possible.  By  Sunday  evening,  the  position 
was  very  precarious.  Charge  after  charge  had  been  made 
by  one  side  and  the  other  under  a  continual  bombardment, 
the  town  being  repeatedly  taken  and  retaken.  In  one  of 
these  encounters,  the  Turcos  inflicted  heavy  losses  on  the 
Prussian  Guard  Corps.  But  the  French  were  steadily 
losing  ground.  Some  buildings  had  been  destroyed  by  the 
German  artillery,  others  deliberately  fired  by  the  attackers; 
and,  before  it  had  been  decided  to  retire,  the  place  had  be- 
come uninhabitable.  No  full  account  of  the  battle  of 
Charleroi  has  yet  been  permitted  to  appear;  but,  six  months 
afterwards,  General  Joffre  was  reported  as  saying  to  a 
French  friend :  "  We  ought  to  have  won  it.  Our  army  was 
numerous.  We  lost  through  our  own  faults — faults  of 
command."  Probably  the  gravest  was  an  over-sensitiveness 
to  the  threat  on  the  eastern  flank.  However  this  may  be, 
it  was  known  at  French  headquarters  on  Sunday  afternoon, 
August  23,  that  the  resistance  of  Namur  was  broken,  that 
two  of  Von  Hausen's  three  corps  were  advancing  on  the 
east  flank,  that  Von  Biilow  held  the  passages  of  the  Sambre 
between  Namur  and  Charleroi,  and  that  the  attack  in  the 
west  was  very  much  more  powerful  than  had  been  antici- 
pated. The  British  Commander-in-Chief  was  informed, 
after  some  unexplained  delay;  and  the  withdrawal  of  the 
French  troops  towards  Beaumont  and  Philippeville  began. 
Meanwhile,  the  British  army — of  whose  movements  we 
have  precise  and  authentic  information  in  Sir  John 
French's  dispatch  of  September  7 — had  been  holding  its 
own  more  successfully.  It  was,  as  yet,  only  two  army  corps 
strong,  and  the  concentration  of  these  was  only  effected  on 
Friday,  August  21.  During  Saturday,  positions  were  taken 
up  and  intrenched,  the  2nd  Corps,  under  Sir  H.  Smith- 
Dorrien,  holding  the  line  of  the  canal   from  Conde"    (5th 


100 


THE  BATTLE  OF  MONS-CHARLEROI         101 

Division,  General  Ferguson)  to  Mons  (3rd  Division,  Gen- 
eral Hamilton),  and  the  1st  Corps,  under  Sir  D.  Haig  (1st 
and  2nd  Divisions)  extending  eastward  to  Binche,  where 
the  5th  Cavalry  Brigade  (Sir  P.  Chetwode)  covered  the 
right.  The  four  brigades  of  the  Cavalry  Division,  under 
General  Allenby,  formed  a  reserve  pending  the  arrival  of 
the  3rd  Army  Corps,  and  also  aided  Sir  P.  Chetwode  in 
scouting  work  on  Saturday  and  Sunday,  when  skirmishes 
took  place  as  far  north  as  Soignies,  on  the  Brussels  road. 
Saturday  passed  quietly  in  and  behind  Mons  in  prepara- 
tory work.  Mr.  Atkins  stripped  to  the  waist  for  his  morn- 
ing tub;  and  one  imperturbable  British  soldier,  who  had 
tied  a  fishing-line  to  the  end  of  his  rifle,  was  seen  playing 
Izaak  Walton  in  the  unlikely  waters  of  the  Scheldt-Sambre 
('anal.  Parties  were  sent  out  to  blow  up  the  canal  bridges — 
Captain  Theodore  Wright,  of  the  Engineers,  afterwards  re- 
ceived the  Victoria  Cross  for  gallantry  in  this  work,  Lieu- 
tenant Dease  and  Private  Godley,  of  the  4th  Fusiliers,  and 
Lance-Corporal  Jarvis,  of  the  Engineers,  for  defending  the 
passage.  Meanwhile  the  infantry  and  artillery  occupied 
points  of  vantage  overlooking  the  valley.  In  several  villages, 
in  order  to  establish  good  zones  of  fire,  a  number  of  houses 
had  to  be  destroyed,  the  inhabitants  taking  refuge  with 
their  neighbors.  Hundreds  of  them  helped  the  soldiers  to 
dig  trenches  and  build  barricades. 

The  German  attack  began  on  Sunday  morning,  the  23rd. 
At  that  time,  Sir  John  French's  information  from  General 
Joffre  seemed  to  be  confirmed  by  his  own  patrols  and  aero- 
planes— "  that  little  more  than  one,  or  at  most  two,  of  the 
enemy's  army  corps,  with  perhaps  one  cavalry  division,  was 
in  front  of  my  position,  and  I  was  aware  of  no  attempted 
outflanking  movement."  The  first  serious  attack  came  that 
afternoon  on  the  right  wing.  Before  this,  the  1st  Corps 
drew  back  to  high  ground  south  of  Bray,  Chetwode's  cavalry 
evacuated  Binche,  wiiich  the  Germans  at  once  occupied; 
and  before  dark  Mons,  now  "  a  somewhat  dangerous  sali- 


102  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

ent,"  was  abandoned,  General  Hamilton's  division,  the 
center  of  the  line,  being  drawn  back  behind  the  town.  The 
Royal  Irish  and  Middlesex  regiments,  part  of  this  division, 
forming  the  right  wing  of  the  2nd  Army  Corps,  suffered 
heavily  from  a  surprise  attack  of  artillery  and  infantry  on 
the  east  of  Mons,  but,  with  the  aid  of  the  Gordon  High- 
landers, beat  it  off,  and  held  their  position  till  9  p.m.,  when 
orders  were  received  to  retire. 

One  of  the  aforesaid  villagers,  who  watched  the  battle 
from  the  center  of  the  British  line  at  Paturages,  afterward 
a  refugee  in  Paris,  gave  me  an  exceptionally  intelligent  ac- 
count of  the  events  of  these  three  days;  and  a  part  of  his 
story  may  be  here  transcribed :  "  The  British  were  still  busy 
strengthening  their  positions  when,  on  Sunday  morning, 
we  were  surprised  by  a  sudden  attack.  The  Germans  were 
coming  out  of  the  woods  to  the  north-west  of  Mons  in  num- 
bers greatly  superior  to  the  British.  At  the  same  time, 
another  considerable  force  of  the  enemy  assailed  the  French 
positions  beyond.  The  first  German  rush  on  the  British 
advance  posts  near  the  canal  was  quickly  repelled ;  and  we 
could  see  them  falling  back  into  the  woods.  The  distance 
between  the  two  armies  would  then  be  about  three  miles. 
From  our  higher  positions  we  could  follow  the  whole  move- 
ment of  the  invaders  as  they  emerged  into  the  plain  from 
the  shelter  of  the  trees.  It  appeared  to  me  to  be  the  British 
tactics  to  cease  fire  abruptly  all  along  the  line  until  the 
Germans,  supposing  that  there  was  a  weakening  of  the  de- 
fense, swarmed  out  of  the  woods  and  made  rapidly  toward 
the  canal.  Then,  when  the  distance  seemed  right,  the 
British  artillery  would  open  upon  them  a  devastating  fire, 
which  was  echoed  by  that  of  the  rifles  in  the  trenches. 
Thousands  of  Germans  fell. 

"  By  nightfall  on  Sunday,  they  had  not  made  any  prog- 
ress, and  their  dead  and  wounded  were  scattered  over  the 
hills  between  the  canal  and  the  forest.  The  German  shells, 
on  the  other  hand,  were  not  very  effective,  and  the  British 


THE  BATTLE  OF  MONS-CHARLEROI        103 

losses  were  comparatively  small.  The  fighting  slackened 
during  the  night,  but  was  resumed  at  daybreak  more  vio- 
lently than  ever.  The  Germans  had  evidently  received  large 
re-enforcements.  Advance  parties  of  Dragoons  and  Uhlans 
tried  to  reach  the  canal.  Most  of  them  were  killed  by  the 
guns,  but  some  were  made  prisoners.  Then  an  advance  was 
made  en  masse,  and,  although  whole  ranks  were  mowed 
down  by  a  well-directed  tire,  the  main  body  managed  to 
reach  the  north  bank  of  the  canal,  and  began  to  build 
bridges,  without  which  they  could  not  get  at  the  British 
positions.  Ten  several  times  the  Germans  succeeded  in 
throwing  pontoons  over  the  water,  and  ten  times  the 
British  artillery  destroyed  them.  Closer  and  more  desper- 
ate fighting  took  place  in  the  village  of  Jemappes  on  the 
west.  The  British  occupied  a  part  of  the  place,  and  for 
a  time  held  it  against  an  attack,  in  the  course  of  which 
whole  columns  of  German  infantry  fell,  so  that,  as  a  friend 
who  witnessed  the  engagement  told  me,  the  bodies  of  the 
dead  were  piled  one  upon  another  at  several  points,  com- 
pletely blocking  the  streets." 

The  courageous  conduct  of  two  Belgian  doctors  on  this 
occasion  became,  properly,  the  matter  of  after-notice  by 
the  Belgian  Government.  An  ambulance  had  been  estab- 
lished at  the  villages  of  Hornu  and  Wasmes,  between 
Paturages  and  the  canal;  and  hither  came  Dr.  Lecocq  and 
Dr.  d'Huart  to  tend  some  wounded  among  the  British  in- 
fantry and  artillery  in  the  neighborhood.  Some  colliery 
buildings  were  first  used;  but  the  German  gunners  got  the 
range,  and  poured  in  a  rain  of  shrapnel  and  shells.  One 
of  the  ambulances  being  hit,  another  building  was  chosen; 
but  this  also  was  soon  under  fire.  Nevertheless,  the  doctors 
and  their  assistants  continued  steadily  at  their  work.  One 
of  them  afterwards  said :  "  From  a  top  attic,  I  could  keep 
count  of  the  shells  that  fell  among  the  buildings  to  the 
right,  to  the  left,  in  front,  and  behind.  Tiles  and  window- 
panes  of  the  ambulance  station  flew  in  fragments;  pieces 


104  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

of  the  sides  of  the  house  fell  away;  and  the  dust  of  the 
ground  and  of  the  plaster  mingled  with  the  yellow  smoke 
of  the  great  shells.  The  colliery  chimney  had  covered  all 
the  space  around  it  with  broken  bricks." 

At  5  p.m.  on  the  23rd,  General  French  learned  that  the 
attack  was  being  made  by  forces  more  than  twice  as  large 
as  those  reported  in  the  morning,  and  that  Charleroi  was 
being  evacuated.  General  Joffre's  "  most  unexpected " 
telegram  stated  that  "  at  least  three  German  corps,  viz.,  a 
Reserve  corps,  the  4th  Corps,  and  the  9th  Corps,  were  mov- 
ing on  my  position  in  front,  and  that  the  2nd  Corps  were 
engaged  in  a  turning  movement  from  the  direction  of 
Tournai."  A  retirement  of  the  whole  line  about  fifteen 
miles  due  south,  to  positions  which  had  already  been  recon- 
noitered,  just  beyond  the  frontier,  between  Maubeuge  and 
Jenlain,  was  at  once  decided  upon.  This  movement  began 
at  daybreak  on  Monday  the  24th.  To  cover  it,  the  1st  Divi- 
sion, from  about  Harmignies,  advanced  as  though  to  re- 
take Binche,  the  2nd  Division  supporting  it  about  Peissant. 
The  2nd  Corps  was  thus  enabled  to  withdraw  to  the  line 
Quarouble-Dour-Frameries ;  but  its  right,  the  3rd  Division, 
suffered  heavily  during  the  operation  by  a  German  pursuit 
from  Mons.  Sir  Douglas  Haig  then  gradually  withdrew 
the  1st  Corps,  which  reached  its  place  between  Maubeuge 
and  Bavai  without  much  further  loss  by  7  p.m.  The  chief 
German  strength  during  this  afternoon  seemed  to  be  di- 
rected against  the  British  left.  Early  in  the  morning, 
indeed,  General  Allenby  had  been  summoned  urgently  to 
bring  cavalry  toward  the  wing  retiring  from  Conde"  to 
Quarouble,  the  5th  Division  being  very  hard  pressed.  This 
was  effected;  but  the  9th  Lancers  and  18th  Hussars,  part 
of  General  de  Lisle's  2nd  Cavalry  Brigade,  were  pulled  up 
by  wire  obstacles  during  a  charge  upon  the  German  flank, 
and  lost  heavily.  Though  themselves  in  a  serious  plight, 
a  squadron  of  the  Lancers  succeeded  in  bringing  away  a 
battery  of  guns  that  had  been  put  out  of  action.    Captain 


THE  BATTLE  OF  MONS-CHARLEROI         105 

Francis  Grenfell  afterwards  received  the  Victoria  Cross  for 
this  feat.  Sraith-Dorrien  had,  according  to  General  French, 
two  German  army  corps  on  his  front,  and  one  on  his  flank. 
It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the  retirement  was 
costly.  On  the  evening  of  the  24th,  the  2nd  Corps  halted 
between  Jenlain  and  Bavai,  and  the  1st  between  Bavai  and 
Maubeuge.  The  arrival  of  re-enforcements,  the  19th  In- 
fantry Brigade,  had  somewhat  strengthened  the  position  on 
the  left.  But  if  there  had  ever  been  an  idea  of  resting  here, 
it  was  quickly  dispelled  by  two  decisive  considerations — 
the  continued  retirement,  on  the  east,  of  the  armies  of 
Lanrezac  and  De  Langle,  up  the  Sambre  and  Meuse  valleys, 
pressed  by  Von  Btilow  and  Von  Hausen,  and  the  ever  more 
imminent  threat  of  envelopment  on  the  west. 

Uhlan  patrols  were,  in  fact,  boldly  raiding  over  a  wide 
area.  One  such  body  crossed  the  frontier  near  Conde  on 
this  night,  the  24th,  traversed  the  neighboring  towns  and 
villages,  doing  some  small  damage,  and  was  at  last  caught 
by  a  French  artillery  column,  at  Bouchain.  A  similar 
patrol  of  Dragoons  was  stopped  near  Roubaix,  north  of 
Lille,  on  the  morning  of  the  23rd.  Yet  another  was  cap- 
tured at  the  gates  of  Courtrai  by  a  detachment  of  mounted 
Chasseurs.  Its  chief  officer  was  found  to  be  a  Lieutenant 
Count  von  Schwerin,  a  connection  of  the  Kaiser ;  the  young 
man's  blood-stained  sword  was  found,  by  an  inscription 
upon  it,  to  be  a  present  from  the  Emperor  himself.  One 
of  the  purposes  of  these  raids,  no  doubt,  was  to  spread 
alarm  throughout  the  countryside;  and  in  this  they  were 
so  successful  that,  during  the  next  few  days,  the  French 
Government  had  to  cope  with  a  vast  civilian  exodus  from 
the  north,  in  addition  to  a  foreign  invasion.  The  retreat 
of  the  French  and  British  armies  was  no  little  embarrassed 
by  the  plight  of  the  frightened  villagers.  The  refugee,  a 
part  of  whose  story  I  have  quoted,  was  one  of  a  party  of 
some  hundreds,  men,  women,  and  children,  who  were  being 
taken  through  Paris  on  the  night  of  August  27  to  one  of 


106  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

the  concentration  camps  in  the  west  of  France.  Most  of 
them  were  peasants  and  workpeople ;  and  they  carried  little 
bundles  of  clothes  and  food,  all  they  had  been  able  to  save. 
As  they  passed  down  the  boulevard,  a  torrential  downpour 
of  rain  fell.  It  was  as  though  the  heavens  would  wash 
away  the  mist  of  blood  that  enveloped  us;  but  I  thought 
of  Lady  Macbeth's  futile  cry,  for,  guilty  agents  or  guiltless 
victims,  not  in  the  lifetime  of  any  of  us  can  the  "  damned 
spot "  of  this  imperial  crime  be  wiped  away.  The  police- 
man who  guided  the  wretched  exiles  hurriedly  drew  them 
into  the  covered  entry  of  the  underground  railway  near  the 
Madeleine;  and  it  was  there  we  found  them. 

"  The  British  troops " — so  my  informant  concluded — 
"  told  us,  at  about  2  p.m.  on  Monday,  to  make  our  escape 
while  we  could.  They  spoke  in  English;  but  their  gestures 
and  meaning  were  plain  enough,  and  fifteen  hundred  of  us 
gathered  hurriedly  a  few  things,  and  while  we  were  doing 
so  an  English  officer,  who  spoke  French,  directed  us  over 
the  frontier,  and  at  Berlaimont  (fifteen  miles  south  of 
Paturages)  we  got  train  for  Paris.  Many  of  the  peasants, 
especially  the  women  and  children,  could  not  fly  with  us, 
but  hid  in  their  cellars.  We  knew  that,  after  the  capture 
of  a  village,  the  Germans  ransack  the  cottages,  and  fire  vol- 
leys at  the  terrorized  people  hidden  inside.  Some  they  take 
out  and  drive  before  them  as  a  protection.  The  English 
might  have  better  opposed  the  advance  of  some  German 
columns,  but  that  they  would  not  sacrifice  our  folk  by  firing 
through  them."  With  this,  the  rainstorm  having  passed, 
my  Belgian  friend  hoisted  on  to  his  shoulder  one  big  bundle, 
while  his  wife,  who  seemed  very  tired,  took  up  another 
hardly  less  heavy.  But,  as  the  party  came  out  into  the 
street,  one  of  the  police  stepped  up  to  her,  and  took  the 
burden,  saying:  "Give  it  to  me;  it  is  too  heavy  for  you. 
I'll  carry  it." 

It  was  in  such  tales  as  these  that  the  people  of  France 
received  the  first  serious  premonitions  of  the  approaching 


THE  BATTLE  OF  MONS-CHARLEROI        107 

storm.  The  influx  from  the  northern  frontier  began  on 
August  26.  It  being  evidently  impossible  to  leave  such  an 
emergency  to  be  dealt  with  by  private  societies,  the  Prefect 
of  Police  intervened;  and  the  Cirque  de  Paris,  situated  be- 
tween the  Invalides  and  the  Eiffel  Tower,  was  turned  into 
a  refugee  camp.  The  stalls  and  boxes,  galleries  and  corri- 
dors of  this  large  building  overflowed  with  human  jetsam. 
Instead  of  children's  happy  laughter  over  clownish  jokes, 
the  rotunda  was  filled  with  a  ground-swell  of  lamentation, 
broken  by  the  sharp  cries  of  babes.  Their  eyes  red  with 
weeping,  their  faces  drawn  with  fatigue,  the  elder  exiles 
sat  dumb ;  only  here  and  there  was  one  calm  enough  to  tell 
a  clear  tale.  "  My  husband  is  with  the  Belgian  army,"  said 
a  woman  from  Frameries,  one  of  the  villages  in  the  British 
lines  by  Mons ;  "  and  I  was  left  with  my  three  babies  in  our 
cottage.  When  the  Germans  came  on  Monday,  they  sacked 
and  destroyed  every  house,  and  nothing  remains  of  our  poor 
village  but  ruins.  I  saw  one  of  these  bandits  strike  one 
of  my  neighbors  in  the  breast  with  his  sword,  and  then 
flourish  the  bloody  blade,  as  though  proud  of  the  feat." 
A  housekeeper  from  Chatelet,  near  Charleroi,  said  that  she, 
with  her  mother  and  five  children,  had  had  to  walk  for 
seventy  miles  forward  and  about,  before  she  reached  the 
train  that  brought  her  to  Paris.  Another  woman,  from 
Peronne,  near  Binche,  had  started  out  with  a  neighbor  who 
carried  a  young  child  at  her  breast.  On  the  way,  the  mother 
suddenly  found  that  the  little  one  was  dead.  She  could  not 
bear  this  new  shock,  and  became  mad.  When  she  was 
helped  out  of  the  train  on  reaching  Paris,  she  still  held,  and 
was  crooning  over,  the  body  of  her  child. 

Through  the  broken  sentences  of  these  martyrs  of  war 
appeared  a  dim  image  of  a  land  ruthlessly  invaded  and 
ravaged.  We  could  see  the  headlong  escape  from  burning 
villages  in  the  night;  the  terror  of  the  unknown  worse  even 
than  that  visible  in  horizons  riven  by  flashes  of  murderous 
fire;  the  barefooted  children  crying  because  they  could  not 


108 


THE  ONSLAUGHT 


run  fast  enough ;  the  old  folk  left  by  the  way.  All  ordinary 
distinctions  had  been  lost  in  the  despair  of  the  random 
flight.  There  were  now  no  more  "  gentlemen  "  and  "  work- 
men," "  Protestants  "  or  "  Catholics,"  "  Flemings  "  or  "  Wal- 
loons." All  were  simple  paupers,  filled  to-day  with  a  dumb 
fear,  that  would  too  often  crystallize  to-morrow  into  a  last- 
ing hatred.    Was  this  to  be  the  fate  of  France,  also? 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  RETREAT  TO  THE  MARNE 

The  position  on  the  night  of  August  24-25  is  thus  de- 
scribed by  the  British  Commander-in-Chief :  "  The  French 
were  still  retiring;  I  had  no  support  except  such  as  was 
afforded  by  the  fortress  of  Maubeuge;  and  the  determined 
attempts  of  the  enemy  to  get  round  my  left  flank  assured 
me  that  it  was  his  intention  to  hem  me  against  that  place 
and  surround  me.  I  felt  that  not  a  moment  must  be  lost 
in  retiring  to  another  position.  I  had  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  the  enemy's  forces  were  somewhat  exhausted,  and 
1  knew  that  they  had  suffered  heavy  losses.  I  hoped,  there- 
fore, that  his  pursuit  would  not  be  too  vigorous  to  prevent 
me  effecting  my  object.  The  operation,  however,  was  full 
of  danger  and  difficulty,  not  only  owing  to  the  very  superior 
force  in  my  front,  but  also  to  the  exhaustion  of  the  troops." 

Sir  John  French  does  not  say,  but  it  is  apparent,  that 
General  Joffre  had  already  determined  upon  a  retreat  of 
the  northern  armies  to  the  line  of  the  Marne,  or  even  to 
that  of  the  Seine,  a  movement  pivoting  upon  Verdun,  the 
north  end  of  the  eastern  line  of  defense,  and  bringing  the 
west  wing  swiftly  round  to  lean  upon  Paris.  It  needed  a 
bold  mind  to  conceive  a  scheme  involving  so  large  an  aban- 
donment of  national  territory,  and  good  men  to  execute  it. 
A  lesser  intelligence  would  haA*e  relapsed  into  day-to-day 
expedients,  fighting  rear-guard  actions  from  one  defensive 
position  to  another,  till  the  armies  were  divided  and  broken 
up,  and  the  German  host  could  strike  at  Verdun  and  Nancy 
from  the  rear,  and,  by  opening  that  road  for  re-enforcements, 
complete  their  task  at  will.    If  the  interior  line  of  fortresses 

109 


110  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

- — La  Fere-Laon-Rheims — had  been  in  fact,  as  was  generally 
supposed,  capable  of  resisting  modern  siege  artillery,  they 
might  have  afforded  at  least  a  temporary  line  of  arrest. 
Soldiers  may  find  abundant  room  for  speculation  in  the 
possibilities  of  such  a  situation.  Whatever  may  be  said  of 
the  first  advances  into  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  the  plan  of 
escape  from  the  northern  peril  proves  that  the  genial 
taciturnity  of  Joseph  Jacques  Joffre  covered  a  cool,  clear 
brain,  capable  of  large  and  delicate  combinations,  a  rare 
knowledge  of  the  terrain  of  central  France,  and  a  firm 
belief  in  the  willingness  of  his  men  to  respond  to  the  extraor- 
dinary demand  now  to  be  made  upon  their  endurance. 
France  had  not  begun  well ;  and  the  full  force  of  the  inva- 
sion was  upon  her,  like  a  tornado.  Few  commanders  have 
ever  held  such  a  responsibility;  but,  in  the  supreme  crisis, 
this  captain  did  not  fail. 

Before  tracing  the  course  of  the  retreat,  it  will  be  well 
to  note  some  of  the  strategical  considerations  of  which  the 
opposed  commanders  had  to  take  account.  Subject  to  the 
immediate  aim  of  pursuing  the  retiring  armies,  the  German 
plan  of  campaign  opened  an  evident  alternative :  a  leftward 
turn  against  the  rear  of  the  Verdun -Toul-Epinal  line,  by 
way  of  opening  a  direct  line  of  communications  with  central 
and  southern  Germany,  preparatory  to  a  more  formidable 
advance;  or  a  more  immediate  concentration  against  Paris. 
Doubtless  under  fear  of  Russia,  the  latter  way  was  chosen. 
The  accompanying  skeleton  map  (p.  Ill)  shows  two  sets  of 
natural  features  of  northern  and  eastern  France — the  chief 
rivers,  and  the  densely  wooded  hills  called  the  Forest  of 
the  Argonne;  and  two  artificial  features — the  eastern 
fortress  barrier,  and  the  chief  railway  lines,  which  may  be 
taken  as  sufficiently  indicating  the  direction  of  the  great 
highroads  also.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  whole  system  of 
communications  radiates  fan-wise  from  Paris,  northward 
to  Lille,  eastward  to  Nancy.  Within  these  two  lines,  the 
serious  operations  of  the  campaign  were  to  be  limited.    Be- 


Ill 


112  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

tween  them,  three  trunk  roads,  each  with  many  feeders,  lead 
to  the  French  capital.  The  most  northerly  and  most  im- 
portant comes  down  the  Oise  Valley,  uniting,  at  the  impor- 
tant junction  marked  by  the  old  fortress  of  La  Fere,  tribu- 
taries from  the  Ardennes  through  Hirson,  and  from  Mons 
by  Valenciennes,  with  the  main  line  from  Cologne  through 
Liege,  Namur,  and  Maubeuge.  The  second  line  makes  a 
long  detour  from  Luxemburg  to  Me'zi&res,  and  there  divides, 
one  branch  going  through  Laon  to  Paris,  the  other  through 
Rethel  to  Rheims.  The  third  is  the  direct  route  from  Metz 
to  Paris,  through  Verdun,  the  Argonne,  Chalons,  and  the 
Marne  Valley,  with  a  feeder  touching  Rheims  and  Soissons. 
Except  for  a  few  days,  this  last  remained  in  French  hands, 
and  became  the  real  "  line  of  the  Marne "  on  which  the 
Allies  were  based.  After  Paris,  Rheims  and  Amiens  are  the 
most  important  centers  of  communications,  the  former 
dominating  the  middle  plain,  and  the  latter  the  coast. 
There  is  a  general  south-westerly  trend  of  roads  toward  the 
capital;  but  three  main  ways  run  nearly  due  south:  (1) 
from  Cambrai  through  St.  Quentin  and  Soissons  to  Chateau- 
Thierry  and  Montmirail;  (2)  from  Vervins  to  Rheims  and 
Epernay;  (3)  from  Me'zieres  to  Chalons.  The  area  between 
the  west  wing  of  the  fan,  from  Mons  to  Paris,  and  the  base, 
from  Paris  to  Bar-le-Duc,  may  be  roughly  described  as  an 
equilateral  triangle,  with  sides  145  miles  long,  and  an 
eastern  entry,  about  Me'zieres,  50  miles  below  the  upper 
angle.  The  excellence  of  the  French  highroads  is  an  im- 
portant factor.  The  weather  was  very  hot,  with  some  heavy 
showers. 

We  shall  see  that  the  onslaught  was  remarkably  syn- 
chronized to  fall  around  the  whole  French  front  at  once, 
but  that  the  resistance  of  the  Verdun  and  Nancy  armies, 
the  essential  condition  of  General  Joffre's  maneuver,  was 
successful.  Verdun  could  do  little  more  than  hold  its 
pivotal  point  and  its  southern  communications,  however; 
and  the  Crown  Prince  was  able  to  cross  the  Meuse  and  ad- 


THE  RETREAT  TO  THE  MARNE  113 

vance  down  the  east  side  of  the  Argonne  toward  Bar-le-Duc 
without  serious  resistance.  The  Duke  of  Wtirtemberg's 
army,  on  the  west  of  the  Argonne,  had  greater  difficulty  in 
its  progress  into  the  plain  of  Chalons.  The  French  turned 
on  their  pursuers  at  Charleville,  near  Mdzieres,  on  August 
25;  and  there  was  more  hard  fighting  before  Rethel  was 
reached,  at  Signy  l'Abbaye  and  Novion-Porcien,  on  the  28th 
and  29th.  General  von  Hausen  came  due  southward  from 
Hirson  to  Rheims;  but  before  the  crisis  was  reached  his 
command  seems  to  have  been  absorbed  in  the  2nd  and  4th 
German  Armies,  those  of  Von  Btilow  on  its  west  and  Duke 
Albrecht  on  its  east  flanks.  All  the  importance  of  the  in- 
vasion lay  with  the  two  western  armies,  those  of  Von 
Biilow  and  Von  Kluck ;  and  these  we  must  follow  more  par- 
ticularly. A  glance  at  the  map  will  show  the  risks  of  a 
front  so  widely  extended  as  theirs  was.  Considering  that 
the  western  wing  had  to  cover  about  twice  as  much  distance 
as  the  eastern,  contact  was  kept  remarkably  well.  Yet  the 
weakness  could  not  but  declare  itself  in  time.  While  the 
Allies  were  concentrating  upon  a  line  with  two  strong 
terminals,  admirable  railway  services,  easy  access  to  sup- 
plies and  re-enforcements,  and  tactical  positions  known  to 
every  student  of  Napoleon's  campaigns,  the  invaders  were 
prolonging  their  supply  lines  and  their  fighting  front  in  a 
gamble  on  the  chance  of  enveloping  the  retreating  armies 
on  the  west,  or  smashing  their  center  at  one  blow. 

The  greatest  mass  and  capacity  were  engaged  in  the 
former  effort;  and  it  was  the  honor  of  Sir  John  French's 
little  army,  hardly  maintained  by  re-enforcements  at  its  first 
strength  of  about  80,000  men,  to  bear  the  main  stress  of  this 
attack  by  greatly  superior  numbers  through  the  three  de- 
cisive days.  The  retirement  from  the  positions  between 
Maubeuge  and  Jenlain  began  early  on  the  morning  of 
August  25,  the  direction  being  south-west,  toward  a  line 
that  was  partially  intrenched  in  preparation,  from  Lan- 
drecies,  through  Le  Cateau,  toward  Cambrai,  a  march  aver- 


114  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

aging  over  twenty  miles.  The  4th  Division,  under  General 
Snow,  had  just  detrained  from  the  coast  at  Le  Cateau,  a 
welcome  element  of  new  strength  to  compensate  for  heavy 
losses.  It  was  at  once  sent  to  the  west  flank,  and  did  good 
service  there.  Sir  John  French  says  that  he  had  grave 
doubts  about  stopping  at  this  point,  owing  to  the  continued 
withdrawal  of  the  French  on  his  right,  and  "  the  tendency 
of  the  enemy's  western  Corps  (2nd)  to  envelop  me."  But 
the  men  could  go  no  further.  The  1st  Corps,  under  Haig, 
pursuing  the  road  by  the  eastern  border  of  the  Forest  of 
Mormal,  reached  Landrecies  at  10  p.m.,  the  1st  Division 
having  been  extricated  with  difficulty  in  the  darkness  from 
a  rear  attack  near  Maroilles,  with  the  help  of  some  neigh- 
boring French  troops.  About  the  same  time,  part  of  the 
German  9th  Army  Corps,  coming  up,  probably,  by  the  road 
on  the  other  side  of  the  woods,  entered  the  narrow  streets 
of  Landrecies,  where  a  desperate  struggle  took  place  dur- 
ing the  night,  the  4th  (Guards  Brigade)  at  length  driving 
the  assailants  back  with  very  heavy  loss.  There  had  been 
time  to  put  up  some  barbed- wire  defenses;  four  machine- 
guns  covered  the  entry  to  the  little  town;  and  rows  of  in- 
fantry lay  and  kneeled  across  the  road.  Charge  after 
charge  was  delivered,  and  once  a  gun  was  lost  for  a  short 
time.  The  attack  was  made  in  close  order ;  and  the  German 
casualties  were  estimated  at  from  800  to  900.  After  two  or 
three  hours'  sleep,  the  British  troops  were  roused  to  resume 
their  march  toward  Guise. 

Meanwhile,  on  the  evening  of  the  25th,  the  2nd  Army 
Corps  had  reached  Le  Cateau  by  the  more  westerly  route, 
and  had  taken  their  posts  just  south  of  the  Cambrai  road. 
Some  battalions  had  marched  thirty  miles  in  the  day,  and 
dropped  to  sleep  without  waiting  for  food.  For  the  officers, 
this  was  an  anxious  night.  Sir  John  French  had  earnestly 
requested  the  aid  of  General  Sordet's  Cavalry  Corps,  which 
was  near  Avesnes;  but  the  horses  were  too  exhausted  to 
move.     The  British  force  was  not  now  absolutely  unsup- 


THE  RETREAT  TO  THE  MARNE 


115 


ported  on  its  west  flank.  The  French  were  gathering  to- 
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Marne.  This  was  concentrating  in  the  Amiens  district,  and 
being  joined  by  fragments  of  various  Territorial  units 
which  had  put  up  an  ineffectual  resistance  to  the  German 
onrush  at  Lille,  Be'thune,  Arras,  Cambrai,  and  Bapaume. 
General  d'Amade,  of  Moroccan  fame,  lay  between  Arras 


116  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

and  Cambrai;  and  during  the  next  few  days  his  61st  and 
62nd  Reserve  Divisions  were  able,  as  were  Sordet's  cavalry, 
to  relieve  the  pressure  upon  the  sorely-tried  British 
columns. 

Wednesday,  the  26th,  proved  to  be  "  the  most  critical 
day  of  all."  "  At  daybreak,"  says  Field-Marshal  French,  "  it 
became  apparent  that  the  enemy  was  throwing  the  bulk  of 
his  strength  against  the  left  of  the  position  occupied  by  the 
2nd  Corps  and  the  4th  Division."  Allenby  had  concen- 
trated two  brigades  of  cavalry  south  of  Cambrai,  whence 
the  line  ran  through  Serainvillers  to  Caudry  (4th  Division), 
and  on  to  Le  Cateau.  "  At  this  time,  the  guns  of  four 
German  army  corps  were  in  position  against  them ;  and  Sir 
Horace  Smith-Dorrien  reported  to  me  that  he  judged  it 
impossible  to  continue  his  retirement  at  daybreak  (as  or- 
dered) in  face  of  such  an  attack.  I  sent  him  orders  to  use 
his  utmost  endeavors  to  break  off  the  action  and  retire  at 
the  earliest  possible  moment,  as  it  was  impossible  for  me 
to  send  him  any  support,  the  1st  Corps  being  at  the  moment 
incapable  of  movement.  There  had  been  no  time  to  in- 
trench the  position  properly,  but  the  troops  showed  a 
magnificent  front  to  the  terrible  fire  which  assailed  them. 
The  artillery,  although  outmatched  by  at  least  four  to  one, 
made  a  splendid  fight,  and  inflicted  heavy  losses  on  their 
opponents."  One  of  many  thrilling  incidents  in  this  stand 
of  one  corps,  one  division,  and  two  cavalry  brigades,  against 
five  corps,  including  some  of  the  best  German  troops,  was 
a  charge  of  the  Prussian  Guards  Cavalry  Division  upon  the 
British  12th  Infantry  Brigade,  "  when  the  German  cavalry 
were  thrown  back  with  heavy  loss  and  in  absolute  disorder." 
By  the  afternoon,  the  weight  of  repeated  infantry  attacks 
— concentrated  upon  parts  of  the  line  which  could  not  be 
strengthened,  as  there  were  no  reserves — had  become  intol- 
erable. It  was  "  apparent  that,  if  complete  annihilation 
was  to  be  avoided,  a  retirement  must  be  attempted ;  and  the 
order  was  given  to  commence  it  about  3.30  p.m.    The  move- 


THE  RETREAT  TO  THE  MARNE  117 

nient  was  covered  with  the  most  devoted  intrepidity  and 
determination  by  the  artillery,  which  had  itself  suffered 
heavily,  and  the  fine  work  done  by  the  cavalry  in  the  further 
retreat  from  the  position  assisted  materially  in  the  final 
completion  of  this  most  difficult  and  dangerous  operation. 
Fortunately,  the  enemy  had  himself  suffered  too  heavily  to 
engage  in  an  energetic  pursuit."  Another  incident  may 
serve  as  a  type  of  many.  All  the  officers  and  men  of  one 
battery  had  been  killed  except  a  subaltern  and  two  gunners. 
These  continued  to  fire  one  of  the  guns,  and  emerged  from 
the  battle  unscathed.  Five  Victoria  Crosses  were  granted 
for  this  day's  work — to  Major  Yate  and  Lance-Corporal 
Holmes,  of  the  2nd  Yorks  Light  Infantry,  the  few  survivors 
of  which  made  a  desperate  charge;  and  to  Captain  Douglas 
Reynolds,  and  Drivers  Luke  and  Drain,  of  the  37th 
R.F.  A  battery,  for  bravery  in  covering  the  retreat. 

Sir  John  French,  in  his  dispatch,  regarded  "  this  glorious 
stand  "  as  the  last  phase  of  "  a  four-days'  battle,"  in  which, 
heavy  as  were  the  British  casualties — between  5,000  and 
6,000  men — those  of  the  enemy  were  very  much  heavier.  It 
was  one  of  the  defeats  which  have  all  the  glory  and  some  of 
the  effects  of  victory.  It  had  saved  the  west  flank  of  the 
Allied  armies,  and  so  stiffened  the  whole  retreat.  It  had 
checked  an  onrush  on  which  the  success  of  the  invasion 
depended.  It  had  saved  the  great  body  of  the  British  force, 
and  that  of  General  Maunoury.  Von  Kluck  did  not  imme- 
diately draw  in  toward  his  colleagues  on  the  east;  but,  when 
he  saw  Sniith-Dorrien  escape  him  on  the  evening  of  the 
2Gth,  he  must  have  known  that  a  direct  attack  upon  Paris 
was  now  impossible.  Officers  and  men  of  all  grades  had 
well  earned  Sir  John  French's  praise  and  congratulations. 
"  I  say  without  hesitation  that  the  saving  of  the  left  wing 
of  the  army  on  the  morning  of  August  26  could  never  have 
been  accomplished  unless  a  commander  (Smith-Dorrien)  of 
rare  coolness,  intrepidity,  and  determination  had  been  pres- 
ent   to    personally    conduct    the    operation."      The    Flying 


118  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

Corps  had  furnished  "  most  complete  and  accurate  informa- 
tion, which  has  been  of  incalculable  value,"  and,  incident- 
ally, "  by  actually  fighting  in  the  air,  succeeded  in  destroy- 
ing five  of  the  enemy's  machines."  But  the  most  remarkable 
service  of  all  was  the  dogged  endurance  of  the  rank-and- 
file,  now  half-dead  for  lack  of  rest. 

While  Von  Kluck  was  thus  sweeping  round  westward, 
Von  Billow's  army  advanced  from  Charleroi,  by  Mau- 
beuge,  toward  Guise  and  Laon,  with  the  heavy  siege  guns 
from  Namur  in  its  train.  The  resistance  of  Maubeuge  is 
worthy  of  comparison  with  that  of  Liege;  and  the  delay 
of  twelve  days  which  it  procured  at  this  important  point  on 
the  main  line  of  railway  was  probably  one  of  the  chief 
reasons  for  the  German  decision  to  postpone  the  attack, 
upon  Paris.  The  first  German  troops  arrived  before  the 
place  on  the  25th.  For  three  days  and  four  nights,  they 
had  only  heavy  mobile  artillery  (28  cm.)  to  bring  to  bear 
upon  the  ring  of  forts;  but  these  pieces  were  moved  about 
so  skillfully  that  their  positions  could  not  be  detected  by 
the  defenders.  On  August  29,  the  large  siege  howitzers  (42 
cm.)  were  got  into  position  five  or  six  miles  to  the  north- 
east. Only  two  of  the  six  forts  had  been  strengthened  with 
concrete  and  steel  cupolas;  but  the  garrison  had  been  in- 
creased to  30,000  men,  by  detachments  from  Lanrezac's 
force.  It  was  not  till  September  7  (while  the  issue  was 
being  decided  on  the  Marne)  that  Maubeuge  surrendered, 
and  full  possession  of  the  trunk  railway  was  obtained.  A 
story  widely  current  at  the  time,  that  the  gun  emplace- 
ments had  been  prepared  in  advance  by  secret  German 
agents,  was  afterwards  shown  to  be  unfounded.  On  Sep- 
tember 7  the  Minister  of  War  sent,  on  behalf  of  the  French 
Government,  a  message  of  admiration  to  the  Governor  of 
Maubeuge. 

The  retreat  of  the  British  army  from  Cambrai  and  Le 
Cateau  was  continued  through  the  27th  and  28th  by  the 
St.  Quentin  and  Guise  roads.     The  former  day  witnessed 


THE  RETREAT  TO  THE  MARNE  119 

a  disaster  to  the  1st  Army  Corps,  the  2nd  Minister  Fusiliers 
being  cut  off  and  killed  or  captured.  On  the  28th,  the  re- 
treat lay  along  the  Oise  Valley  from  La  Fere,  westward 
through  Chauny,  to  Noyon.  It  was  hoped  that  the  weight 
of  the  pursuit  had  been  thrown  off;  but,  on  the  evening  of 
the  28th,  the  cavalry  brigades  covering  the  retreat  were 
overtaken  by  large  mounted  forces  of  the  enemy,  General 
Gough's  3rd  Brigade  south  of  the  Somme,  near  Ham,  and 
the  5th  Brigade  under  General  Chetwode,  near  Cerizy,  half- 
way between  St.  Quentin  and  La  Fere.  Both  attacks  were 
repelled,  Gough  driving  back  the  Uhlans  of  the  Guard  with 
heavy  loss,  and  the  eastern  column  "  suffering  very  severe 
casualties  and  being  almost  broken  up,"  as  General  French 
afterwards  reported,  by  a  headlong  charge  of  the  12th 
Lancers  and  the  Scots  Greys.  The  gravity  of  the  position 
could,  however,  scarcely  be  exaggerated.  The  men  had 
marched  about  ninety  miles  in  four  days,  fighting  several 
serious  engagements,  skirmishing  continually,  leaving  vil- 
lages just  as  the  enemy  entered  them,  and  getting  very 
little  sleep.  Many  men,  naturally,  fell  out  of  the  ranks, 
lost  themselves,  and  were  either  hidden  for  a  time  by  the 
remaining  inhabitants  till  they  could  find  their  way  south, 
or  were  captured.  The  marvelous  thing  is  that  the  line  of 
supplies  and  communications  with  the  coast  was  never  lost. 
The  base  had  to  be  twice  changed — first  to  Havre,  then  to 
St.  Nazaire,  with  an  advance  base  at  Le  Mans.  The  short 
German  occupation  of  Amiens  did  not  otherwise  incon- 
venience the  British  force. 

Happily,  General  Joffre  was  now  able  to  make  disposi- 
tions which  finally  relieved  it  of  the  peculiarly  onerous  and 
perilous  part  it  had  had  to  play.  These  he  explained  dur- 
ing a  visit  to  General  French  at  1  p.m.  on  August  29.  "  I 
strongly  represented  my  position,"  the  latter  wrote  to  Lord 
Kitchener,  "  to  the  French  Commander-in-Chief,  who  was 
most  kind,  cordial,  and  sympathetic,  as  he  has  always 
been."    The  plan  was  three-fold:  (1)  the  western  wing  had 


120  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

to  be  more  effectually  guarded;  (2)  new  forces  had  to  be 
gathered  for  the  intended  recoil;  (3)  in  the  meantime,  the 
retreat  was  to  be  continued  to  the  Marne,  the  eastern 
armies  conforming  to  the  western  movement.  The  first  re- 
quirement was  met  by  bringing  General  Maunoury's  new 
6th  French  Army  (composed  of  the  7th  Corps,  four  reserve 
Divisions,  and  Sordet's  Cavalry  Corps)  into  touch  with 
what  had  been  the  British  left  from  near  Amiens  to  Roye; 
while  the  5th  Army  (General  Lanrezac),  which  was  behind 
the  Oise,  between  La  Fere  and  Guise,  was  moved  west  across 
the  British  rear  against  the  German  advance  from  about 
Peronne.  While  these  steps  were  being  taken,  the  British 
force  retired  without  interference  to  positions  to  the  north 
of  the  Aisne  between  Compiegne  and  Soissons.  Though 
Von  Kluck  seemed  to  have  completely  recovered  from  the 
check  at  Le  Cateau,  and  attacked  on  three  lines  with  un- 
diminished vigor  and  a  largely  superior  strength,  the 
French  counter-offensive  was  partially  successful,  and 
wholly  served  its  purpose.  Against  the  four  corps  of  the 
5th  French  Army,  on  the  Oise,  there  were  five  or  six  Ger- 
man corps  marching  from  the  Somme.  "  At  least  two 
corps,"  Sir  John  French  says,  "  were  crossing  the  Somme 
east  and  west  of  Ham."  Three  or  more  corps  were  directed 
against  Maunoury  further  west.  The  French  right  met  the 
first  shock  between  St.  Quentin  and  Guise,  on  the  29th, 
and  inflicted  a  severe  defeat  upon  the  Guard  10th  and 
Guard  Reserve  Corps,  which  were  driven  back  in  disorder, 
with  heavy  loss,  by  the  1st  and  3rd  Corps,  the  north  wing 
of  the  5th  French  Army.  The  left  about  Roye  and  Ham 
was  less  successful ;  and,  threatened  with  being  cut  off,  Gen- 
eral Maunoury  retired  from  Amiens  and  the  Somme  to 
Beauvais,  blowing  up  railway  bridges  on  the  line  to  Paris, 
and  road  bridges,  as  he  did  so. 

General  Joffre,  we  may  suppose,  had  two  particular  pre- 
occupations at  this  juncture.  The  first  was  to  watch  over 
the  integrity  of  the  line  of  the  Allies, — for  the  maintenance 


THE  RETREAT  TO  THE  MARNE  12,1 

of  the  line  was  essential  to  an  effective  recoil — a  task  of 
great  difficulty  under  the  pressure  of  speed  and  superior 
numbers  which  an  extraordinary  organization  enabled  the 
German  commanders  to  maintain.  A  strong  stand,  as  at 
Guise  on  the  28th  and  at  Rethel  on  the  29th,  checked  a 
dangerous  sagging  of  the  long  front  (or  rear)  at  these 
points;  and  the  actions  west  of  Le  Cateau  and  Guise  had 
served  the  further  purpose  of  pressing  the  heavy  enveloping 
movement  outward  toward  the  west,  so  that  it  would  pres- 
ently itself  be  broken  against  the  fortifications  of  Paris,  or 
would  have  to  be  drawn  in  eastward  under  very  disadvan- 
tageous conditions.  There  is  no  reason  to  think  that  a 
stand  upon  the  old  fortress  line  La  Fere-Laon-Rheims  was 
ever  thought  of.  The  armies  were  not  yet  in  a  condition  to 
turn  and  stand.  Their  re-enforcements  were  not  at  hand. 
Above  all,  General  Joffre  had  a  better  plan.  The  million- 
headed  civilian  began  at  this  moment  to  be  obsessed  by  the 
fear  of  a  new  siege  of  Paris,  or  an  assault  which  might  mul- 
tiply a  hundred-fold  the  horrors  of  Liege.  Joffre  knew  that 
he  was  getting  Von  Kluck  upon  the  horns  of  a  dilemma  of 
which  it  would  be  difficult  to  say  which  would  be  the  more 
fatal,  the  assault  upon  Paris,  with  all  the  Allied  armies 
intact,  or  its  refusal.  It  was  for  the  other  end  of  the  line, 
rather  than  for  this  upon  which  the  eyes  of  the  world  were 
concentrated,  that  the  Generalissimo  must  have  felt  most 
anxiety.  Would  the  eastern  wall,  from  Verdun,  down  the 
lesser  forts  of  the  Meuse,  through  Nancy  and  Toul  to 
Epinal,  hold  firm?  The  French  had  abandoned  the  line  of 
the  Meuse  between  Verdun  and  Me'zieres  on  August  26. 
The  Imperial  Crown  Prince  would  hardly  be  given  the  least 
important  role  in  the  invasion.  Suppose  that,  coming 
down  the  east  of  the  Argonne,  and  joining  hands  with  the 
Duke  of  Wiirtemberg  in  southern  Champagne,  he  should 
be  able,  if  not  to  cut  through  the  armies  of  General  Ruffey 
(now  passing  under  the  command  of  General  Sarrail)  and 
De  Langle  de  Gary,  at  least  to  press  them  so  far  south  as  to 


122  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

make  it  impossible  to  keep  up  the  communications  of  Ver- 
dun, to  compel  the  withdrawal  of  De  Castelnau  from  Lor- 
raine, and  so  to  open  the  road  from  Metz  to  the  Marne? 

In  face  of  such  risks,  amid  such  preoccupations,  General 
Joffre  prepared  for  the  day  when  the  retreat  would  end  and 
the  reaction  begin.  While  General  Gallieni  was  making 
ready  the  army  and  defenses  of  Paris,  and  General  Mau- 
noury  was  concentrating  to  the  north-west  of  the  fortified 
ring  of  the  capital,  a  new  army,  consisting  of  three  corps 
from  the  south,  was  brought  into  the  space  between  the 
right  of  the  5th  Army  (which  now  passed  from  the  com- 
mand of  General  Lanrezac  to  that  of  General  Franchet 
d'Esperey)  and  the  left  of  the  4th,  that  of  General  de 
Langle  de  Cary.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  correspond- 
ing part  of  the  German  front  was  weakened  about  this  time 
by  the  disappearance  of  Von  Hausen's  separate  command. 
This  new  7th  1  French  Army,  under  one  of  the  ablest  officers 
of  the  Republic,  General  Foch,  constituted,  therefore,  a  con- 
siderable relative  strengthening  of  the  Allied  center. 

At  Compiegne,  forty-five  miles  from  Paris,  the  south- 
westward  direction  of  the  British  retreat  was  changed  to 
due  south,  to  bring  the  force  below  the  Marne,  with  its  left 
resting  upon  the  eastern  defenses  of  the  city.  Rearguard 
actions  were  repeatedly  fought,  for  the  pursuit  had  not 
flagged,  though  most  of  its  weight  fell  elsewhere.  On  Sep- 
tember 1,  the  10th  Cavalry  Brigade  and  the  4th  Guards 
Brigade  were  overtaken  by  German  cavalry  in  the 
thickly  wooded  tracts  south  of  the  Aisne  known  respectively 
as  the  Forest  of  Compiegne  and  the  Forest  of  Villers-Cot- 
terets.  The  former  column  momentarily  lost  a  Horse  Artil- 
lery battery,  165  of  its  men  being  killed  or  captured;  but 
some  detachments  from  the  3rd  Army  Corps — which  had 
now  arrived  at  the  front,  under  General  Pulteney — were 

1 1  adopt  the  usual  French  numbering.  Sir  John  French  in  his 
dispatches  speaks  of  this  army  as  the  9th,  and  some  English  writers 
have  followed  him. 


THE  RETREAT  TO  THE  MARNE  123 

brought  up,  and  not  only  were  the  guns  recovered,  but 
twelve  German  guns  were  also  taken.  Captain  Bradbury, 
Sergeant-Major  Dorrell,  and  Sergeant  Nelson  won  Victoria 
Crosses  in  this  action.  The  4th  Guards  Brigade,  a  part  of 
the  1st  Corps  which  had  come  through  Soissons,  was  less 
fortunate,  and  lost  about  300  men  killed  and  wounded. 
It  was  regarded  as  worthy  of  note  on  this  occasion  that 
"  the  Germans  were  seen  giving  assistance  to  our  wounded." 
The  following  day  was  one  of  comparative  quiet;  and,  on 
September  3,  Sir  John  French's  columns  lay  south  of 
Meaux  (between  Lagny  and  Signy-Signets),  having  de- 
stroyed the  Marne  bridges  behind  them  at  the  request  of 
the  French  Commander-in-Chief.  This  proved  to  be  insuffi- 
cient for  General  J  off  re's  purpose.  The  trap  must  be  made 
a  little  deeper.  So,  while  Von  Kluck's  and  Von  Billow's 
horsemen  dashed  across  the  river  by  hurriedly  constructed 
bridges  at  La  Ferte'  and  Chateau-Thierry,  the  British  fell 
back  to  the  river  Seine,  and  there  waited.  They  had  hardly 
been  on  French  soil  for  three  weeks,  had  fought  in  that 
time  two  great  battles  and  many  smaller  engagements,  and 
had  lost  nearly  a  fifth  of  their  original  strength,  about 
15,000  officers  and  men.  Well  might  there  be  tears  in  many 
an  island  home.  But  these  men  embraced  their  task  with- 
out fear,  and,  cheered  by  new  drafts  to  fill  the  gaps  in  their 
ranks,  cheered  more  by  the  rumor  that  the  retreat  was 
ended,  turned  grim  faces  toward  the  north. 

The  more  easterly  part  of  the  French  line  was  coinci- 
dently  drawn  back  till  it  had  crossed  the  series  of  west- 
ward-flowing rivers  of  central  France — the  Oise,  Aisne, 
Vesle,  Ourcq,  Marne,  Petit  Morin,  and  Grand  Morin.  Here 
it  was  arrested  on  the  line  Meaux-Coulommiers-Esternay- 
Vitrv-le-Frangois-Revigny-Verdun.  The  anniversary  of  Se- 
dan, September  1,  had  come  and  gone,  a  great  disappoint- 
ment for  Potsdam. 


CHAPTER  IX 
PARIS  PREPARES  FOR  THE  WORST 

On  August  27,  the  reconstruction  of  the  French  Ministry, 
as  an  enlarged  Government  of  National  Defense,  was  an- 
nounced. M.  Viviani  retained  the  premiership;  M.  Mil- 
lerand  succeeded  M.  Messimy  as  Minister  of  War;  M. 
Briand  went  to  the  Ministry  of  Justice,  M.  Delcasse  to  the 
Quai  d'Orsay,  and  M.  Ribot  to  the  Ministry  of  Finance.  M. 
Sembat  and  M.  Guesde  were  also  included  in  this  strong 
combination.  M.  Cle'menceau  remained  prominently  out- 
side, as  did  M.  Caillaux,  who  later  on  accepted  an  admin- 
istrative mission  to  South  America.  The  changes  were  fav- 
orably received,  though  the  censorship  put  all  demonstra- 
tions out  of  the  question. 

The  appointment,  on  the  same  day,  of  General  Gallieni 
as  Military  Governor  of  Paris  excited  keener  interest,  for 
it  bore  more  directly  upon  the  question  that  was  now  be- 
ginning to  fill  most  minds.  On  the  day  of  the  first  air-raid, 
when  the  Germans  were  as  near  as  Birmingham  is  to  Lon- 
don, Paris  presented  an  appearance  of  complete  calm.  It 
seemed  to  me  that  there  were  more  shops  open  than  there 
had  been;  rows  of  chairs  had  reappeared  before  the  chief 
cafes ;  and  the  return  of  a  radiant  sunshine,  after  some  days 
of  gloom  and  rain,  typified  the  smiling  stoicism  which  is 
the  strength  of  the  French  genius.  There  was  no  scare; 
the  question  was  inevitable,  and  was  intelligently  discussed. 
Probably  a  half  of  the  families  in  the  city  had  some  rela- 
tive in  the  retreating  armies.  We  were  constantly  meeting 
wounded  soldiers,  or  refugees  from  the  north,  or  families 
returning  tardily  from  their  holidays  on  the  coast  (15,000 

124 


PARIS  PREPARES  FOR  THE  WORST         125 

such  passengers  were  said  to  have  come  into  Paris  on  one 
day,  the  27th).  Cool  heads  remarked  that  an  attack  upon 
Paris  while  the  Allied  armies  were  intact  would  be  mad- 
ness. That,  however,  could  hardly  be  conclusive — to  the 
good  patriot,  the  enemy  is  usually  mad ;  and  this  particular 
enemy  had  lately  shown  no  scruple  about  bombarding  large 
towns.  Evidently,  General  Gallieni  did  not  think  the  ques- 
tion needless,  for  his  "  Army  of  Paris,"  with  thousands  of 
civilians  helping,  was  busy  night  and  day  strengthening 
the  fortifications;  and  the  Bois  de  Boulogne  and  neighbor- 
ing lands  had  been  turned  into  a  vast  cattle  and  sheep  farm, 
and  large  supplies  of  wheat  stored,  against  the  possibility 
of  a  siege. 

The  ring  of  outer  forts  has  a  circumference  of  nearly  a 
hundred  miles,  extending  thirty  miles  from  east  to  west 
between  Chelles  and  Marly,  and  twenty-three  miles  north 
to  south,  from  the  Domont  to  the  Palaiseau  fort.  The 
shortest  distance  between  these  works  and  the  boundaries 
of  the  city  is  about  eight  miles.  Admitting  that  the  great 
body  of  the  population  would  be  out  of  reach  of  bombard- 
ment from  the  first  German  positions,  how  could  the  de- 
fenders hold  a  line  of  a  hundred  miles,  and,  against  the  con- 
centrated attack  that  had  reduced  Liege,  Namur,  and  Mau- 
beuge,  prevent  a  breach  from  being  made?  No  doubt,  the 
forts  were  now  connected  by  a  system  of  trenches  and 
barbed-wire  entanglements,  and  the  suburban  railway  sys- 
tem would  serve  to  convey  flying  bodies  of  troops  from  point 
to  point.  If,  nevertheless,  the  circle  of  forts  were  broken 
through,  would  the  city  surrender,  and  a  war-tax  be  agreed 
to,  or  not?  Governing  persons  themselves  were  not  com- 
pletely unanimous  in  their  answers  to  such  questions;  prob- 
ably no  authoritative  answer  could  be  given  till  the  last 
moment,  when  all  the  circumstances  could  be  weighed.  My 
own  impression  was  that  the  "  smashing  blow  "  was  impos- 
sible as  things  stood,  but  that,  if  it  should  come,  the  people 
would  fight  from  street  to  street,  and  from  house  to  house, 


126  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

at  however  frightful  a  cost,  rather  than  tolerate  a  sur- 
render. Paris,  we  said  to  ourselves,  may  not  be  a  Tchatalja 
or  a  Port  Arthur;  but  neither  is  it  an  open  town  to  be  hon- 
orably abandoned,  like  Brussels,  or  a  half-barbarian  Mos- 
cow, which  the  inhabitants  can  burn  before  they  take  refuge 
in  the  neighboring  forests  to  wait  for  "  General  Hiver." 

At  the  city  gates,  on  the  line  of  the  old  ramparts,  gangs 
of  men  were  digging  trenches,  setting  up  screens  of  small 
trees,  and  preparing  other  works  of  arrest.  I  was  watching 
one  of  these  groups  when  an  ugly  machine,  like  a  huge  yel- 
low pot  on  an  automobile  chassis,  came  past.  Four  dirty 
soldiers  were  crowded  inside,  and  there  was  an  ominous 
little  tube  sticking  out  in  front.  It  was  an  armored  ma- 
chine-gun. Troops,  mounted  and  on  foot,  constantly  passed 
through  the  town  to  the  northern  suburbs.  In  the  other 
direction,  a  growing  stream  of  wheeled  traffic  from  the 
nearer  invaded  districts  was  pouring  in.  Lost  or  wounded 
soldiers,  French  and  British,  continually  arrived  by  rail- 
way and  road.  One  night,  when  the  post-office  had  become 
useless,  and  we  had  not  yet  established  a  daily  courrier 
service  to  London,  I  went  to  the  Nord  Station  to  find  a 
passenger  willing  to  take  a  letter.  A  convoy  of  140  British 
soldiers  wounded  in  the  fighting  in  the  Oise  Valley  was 
brought  into  the  crowded  great  hall,  and  was  the  object  of 
a  touching  demonstration  of  sympathy.  A  number  of  Bel- 
gian infantrymen  crossing  their  path,  the  two  parties  ex- 
changed hearty  salutations.  Sometimes  we  met  two  or 
three  "  Tommies  "  near  the  city  gates  waiting  to  get  in  or 
out,  each  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  women  in  transports 
of  hero-worship.  "  Having  a  good  time?  "  I  shouted  to  a 
tired  but  happy-looking  lad  in  khaki,  who  was  conducting 
a  commissariat  wagon  and  a  van  marked  with  the  name 
of  a  Canterbury  laundry  company  guaranteed  for  "  high- 
class  work."  "  Rather  too  good !  "  he  replied,  with  a  grin. 
But  these  fellows  could  only  tell  of  isolated  incidents,  and 
a  general  sense  that  all  was  going  well.     Some  of  them 


PARIS  PREPARES  FOR  THE  WORST         127 

had  lost  touch  with  the  fighting  line,  and,  after  various 
adventures,  found  their  way  to  Paris  partly  on  foot,  partly 
by  rail.  There  was  one  particularly  poignant  case  of  this 
kind.  A  French  officer  found  a  British  infantryman  ex- 
hausted and  hungry  by  the  roadside  to  the  north  of  Paris, 
and  took  him  to  an  inn.  Returning  a  little  later,  he 
found  the  man  weeping  like  a  child.  He  had  lost  his  regi- 
ment, and  could  not  get  it  out  of  his  overwrought  brain 
that  he  would  be  suspected  of  having  run  away,  and  be 
court-martialed. 

A  lady  who  lived  in  one  of  the  villages  to  the  north-east 
of  Paris  until  the  approach  of  the  Germans  told  me  an 
episode  out  of  which,  by  adding  here  and  subtracting 
there,  an  artist  would  construct  a  thrilling  romance,  but 
whose  sting  will  touch  the  intelligent  mind  more  sharply 
if  I  tell  only  the  naked  truth.  The  village  lies  not  far 
from  Chantilly  racecourse,  with  the  smoke  of  Paris  visible 
on  one  hand,  and  a  countryside  of  parks  and  mansions  on 
the  other.  Four  lost  Tommies  turned  up,  and  asked  for 
shelter.  They  had  been  chased  by  Uhlans;  and  the  Cure 
probably  realized  the  risks  he  ran  in  taking  them  into  his 
little  house.  Early  next  morning,  sure  enough,  a  German 
patrol  rode  into  the  place,  summoned  the  inhabitants 
together,  and  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  Englishmen, 
threatening  dire  penalties.  Everyone  knew  where  they 
were,  and  turned  to  their  spiritual  guide.  Instinct  saves  us 
from  reason  in  such  crises.  The  good  Cure  lied  boldly,  in  a 
loud  voice,  so  that  his  flock  should  understand.  He  had 
not  seen  the  Englishmen.  No  doubt  they  had  gone  on 
toward  Paris.  The  German  soldiers  rode  on.  What  most 
struck  my  informant  was  the  exceeding  deliberation  with 
which  the  Atkins  four  performed  their  toilet,  and  brushed 
their  hair  and  clothes,  before  making  their  escape.  The 
Cure  then  left  for  a  safer  place.  When  they  returned  and 
found  all  the  birds  flown,  the  Uhlans  took  their  revenge  by 
burning  his  house  down. 


128  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

The  first  of  a  series  of  air-raids  upon  Paris  took  place 
in  the  forenoon  of  Sunday,  August  30,  when  five  bombs 
were  thrown  by  an  aviator  who,  in  a  message  which  he 
dropped,  said :  "  The  German  army  is  at  the  gates  of 
Paris — you  can  do  nothing  but  surrender,"  and  signed  him- 
self "  Lieutenant  von  Heidssen."  Two  women  were 
wounded,  and  a  number  of  windows  were  broken.  The 
exploit  alarmed  no  one  but  the  families  which  suffered 
directly.  The  rumor  of  what  had  occurred  ran  quickly 
through  the  city ;  but  the  spirit  of  exaggeration  which  would 
have  decorated  such  an  outrage  in  normal  times  was  lacking 
now.  Madame  and  the  children  continued  their  Sunday 
walk,  promising  themselves  that  Jean  and  his  fellows  would 
dispose  of  these  birds  of  prey.  "  Attila's  visiting  card " 
was  not  a  bad  mot  for  Heidssen's  letter-case.  "  Go  back 
to  your  Pomeranian  Grenadiers,"  wrote  M.  Henri  Berenger, 
addressing  the  German  aviator.  "  Mimi  Pinson  is  not  for 
you.  We  don't  want  your  Kaiser,  nor  your  Kultur,  nor 
your  Kolossal.  You  are  not  even  original,  wretched  Prus- 
sian cuckoo.  Where  did  you  get  your  wings,  your  motor? 
Who  invented  aviation,  Germany  or  France?  Who  first 
crossed  the  Channel  or  the  Alps,  a  German  or  a  French- 
man? What  did  you  bring  under  your  wings  that  we 
should  surrender  to  you — intelligence,  or  liberty,  or  justice, 
truth,  or  love?  Nothing  of  the  kind.  You  brought  death — 
a  bomb — that  is  all.  That  is  why  you  will  never  have  Paris. 
Paris  is  civilization  in  its  beauty.  You  are  barbarism  in  its 
ugliness.  Possibly  you  may  bombard  us — burn  our  city — 
but  we  shall  never  surrender.  Paris  will  be  wherever  the 
French  flag  floats,  and  in  the  end  Chantecler  will  crow  over 
the  bloody  nest  of  your  crushed  tyrants." 

On  the  following  day,  another  German  aeroplane  ap- 
peared over  the  city,  and,  after  letting  off  three  bombs,  which 
did  no  material  damage,  made  its  escape.  On  September  1, 
there  was  a  still  bolder  raid.  This  time  the  aviator  reached 
the  center  of  the  city,  and  threw,  among  others,  two  bombs 


PARIS  PREPARES  FOR  THE  WORST         129 

which  exploded  hehind  the  great  stores  known  as  the  Maga- 
zin  du  Printemps,  and  in  the  Avenue  de  1'Opera.  No  great 
damage  was  done,  strange  to  say.  A  gun  had  been  mounted 
on  the  roof  of  the  Credit  Lyonnais,  and  fire  was  opened 
there.  Two  British  privates  also  fired  from  the  boulevard, 
but  without  effect,  the  aeroplane  being  out  of  range.  That 
night  it  was  announced  that  a  squadron  of  armored  aero- 
planes provided  with  machine-guns  had  been  organized  to 
pursue  such  intruders.  Accordingly,  on  Wednesday,  Sep- 
tember 2,  the  sportive  Parisian  was  on  the  qui  vive  for  the 
next  German  visitor,  expecting  that  the  long-promised  "  bat- 
tle in  the  air  "  would  be  brought  off  for  his  delectation. 

The  raider  duly  came,  at  about  six  o'clock  that  evening; 
and,  for  at  least  twenty  minutes,  he  carried  out  a  series  of 
cool  evolutions,  first  over  the  Invalides,  on  the  south  side  of 
the  river,  where  he  threw  one  bomb,  if  not  two,  then  over  the 
Elysee,  and  finally  over  the  grand  boulevards.  I  had  the 
privilege  of  witnessing  the  performance  from  a  royal  box, 
as  it  were.  I  happened  to  be  leaving  the  British  Embassy, 
and  was  crossing  the  courtyard,  when  the  familiar  British 
accents  of  the  porter's  voice  called  out  a  warning  and  an 
invitation  to  take  refuge  in  his  lodge.  From  this  shelter, 
we  watched  the  daring  turns  of  the  aviator  over  the  Elysee 
and  its  neighborhood.  Rifle-shots  and  fire  from  some  kind 
of  small  machine-gun  were  then  already  being  directed  at 
the  aeroplane,  evidently  by  men  posted  in  advance  on  the 
roofs  of  various  buildings.  Tbe  outline  of  the  machine  was 
clearly  visible;  but,  although  hundreds  of  shots  were  fired, 
none  seemed  to  hit.  I  walked  back  past  the  Madeleine  to 
the  top  of  the  Boulevard  des  Capucines,  and  watched  the 
war-hawk  make  off  steadily  and  disappear  to  the  north- 
east. Thousands  of  Parisians  witnessed  with  ironical  smiles 
what  seemed  rather  like  a  pigeon-shooting  match,  except 
that  all  the  chances  favored  the  pigeon. 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  FLIGHT  FROM  PARIS 

On  the  night  of  Monday,  August  31,  I  received  privately 
the  alarming  news  that  the  Government  of  France  was 
abandoning  its  capital,  the  first  city  of  Continental  Europe. 
At  four  o'clock  on  that  afternoon,  1,200  of  the  1,500  em- 
ployees of  the  Ministry  of  War,  of  all  grades,  had  received 
notice,  first  to  send  their  families  into  the  country  immedi- 
ately, then  to  go  themselves  to  Tours,  taking  with  them 
what  they  could  of  the  material  for  which  they  were  re- 
sponsible. The  loading  of  automobiles  with  office  docu- 
ments, typewriters,  and  other  effects  was  then  proceeding 
at  full  pressure.  Many  of  the  men  had  already  left.  At 
other  Ministries,  there  was  the  same  scene  of  hurried  pack- 
ing in  corridors  full  of  boxes,  and  a  rapid  succession  of 
motor-cars  carried  away  the  official  property  as  soon  as  it 
was  ready.  Some  was  taken  to  the  Quai  d'Orsay  and  Auster- 
litz  stations ;  other  motor-cars  had  gone  southward  by  road. 
The  decision  to  abandon  Paris  and  to  shift  the  seat  of  Gov- 
ernment to  Bordeaux  was  come  to  on  the  Monday  after- 
noon at  a  Cabinet  Council,  of  which  a  usually  trustworthy 
official  gave  me  a  grievous  account.  This  climax  had  been 
reached  so  rapidly,  and  it  is  so  easy  for  the  stolid  English- 
man to  misunderstand  the  French  temperament — in  which 
wild  gesticulations  are  perfectly  consistent  with  an  heroic 
courage — that  I  will  not  repeat  my  informant's  words,  lest 
it  should  be  supposed  that  there  was  a  flagrant  hour  of 
sheer  panic.  Suffice  it  that  the  Ministers  were  not  agreed 
whether  to  go  or  stay,  but  that  it  was  ultimately  decided 
to  go. 

130 


THE  FLIGHT  FROM  PARIS  131 

It  is  difficult  now  to  recall  the  sense  of  impending  calam- 
ity that  then  seemed  so  real,  and  lay  hourly  more  heavily 
upon  us.  At  the  Central  Telegraph  Office  that  Monday 
evening,  I  was  told  that,  since  the  early  morning,  there  had 
been  no  communication  with  London.  Letters  were  three 
days  late.  We  were,  or  appeared  to  be,  nearly  isolated. 
There  might  have  been  a  great  defeat.  We  did  not  know. 
When  I  went  to  the  War  Office  at  eleven  o'clock  that  night 
to  receive  the  usual  late  communique",  I  already  knew  the 
facts  cited  above,  and  had,  beside,  a  bundle  of  rumors  hot 
enough  then  to  set  the  Seine  on  fire;  but  not  now.  The 
officer  in  charge  of  the  Press  service  did  not  usually  come 
in  person,  but  sent  an  orderly  with  a  parcel  of  type-written 
sheets  which  were  distributed  without  comment.  There  had 
been  an  unusually  long  communique"  at  5  p.m. — a  re- 
chauffe of  the  former  news  which  did  not  indicate  any  new 
defeat  or  cause  for  anxiety.  At  11  p.m.  Commandant 
Thomasson  came  to  us  himself,  and,  after  announcing  that 
no  official  bulletin  would  be  issued,  made  a  short  statement, 
in  course  of  which  he  admitted  that  a  second  aeroplane  had 
appeared  over  Paris  that  day  and  left  the  usual  missiles. 
Not  a  word  as  to  what  many  of  the  responsible  French 
journalists  present  must,  like  myself,  have  been  thinking 
about.  And  therefore  no  guidance  in  the  next  morning's 
papers  for  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  anxious  hearts  in 
a  city  that  had  been  at  full  stretch  of  its  nervous  powers  for 
a  month. 

Or,  rather,  there  were  two  notes,  faintly  struck,  in  either 
of  which  some  comfort  might  be  found,  but  that  neither  had 
any  apparent  authority,  and  they  were  quite  irreconcilable. 
Paris  is  all  right,  said  the  one  voice;  she  can  stand  a  long 
siege,  and  by  that  time  the  Russians  will  be  in  Berlin. 
Paris  may  be  invested,  said  the  other  voice,  and  it  is  evi- 
dently inadvisable  for  the  Ministry  to  be  locked  up  or  cap- 
tured by  the  enemy.  Naturally,  it  will  retire,  as  the  Bel- 
gians retired  from  Brussels  to  Antwerp.     Putting  aside  for 


132  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

a  moment  the  question  of  the  power  of  the  city  to  resist 
assault  and  to  bear  a  siege,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  analogies 
were  unsound.  It  was  supposed  that,  if  the  Russians 
reached  Berlin,  everything  would  be  over  but  the  shouting, 
while,  when  the  Germans  reached  Brussels  and  Paris,  the 
Governments  would  move  away  and  the  resistance  be  main- 
tained as  if  nothing  had  happened.  An  impartial  observer 
would  say  that,  if  the  Russians  continued  their  successful 
march,  the  Prussian  Government  would  leave  Berlin — and 
the  German  people  would  not  lose  much  by  that.  The  Bel- 
gian Government  was  in  being;  but  there  was  this  great 
difference  between  Brussels  and  Paris — Brussels  was  an 
open  town,  and  could  not  be  defended.  Paris  had  a  double 
ring  of  fortifications,  and  we  had  been  told,  with  every  kind 
and  degree  of  positiveness,  that  it  would  resist  capture  to 
the  last.  Evidently,  the  Government,  or  the  main  body  of 
it,  should  be  moved  whenever  there  wras  any  danger  of  its 
being  captured;  but  a  premature  movement  of  the  kind 
could  not  but  be  a  severe  shock  to  the  Parisian  public,  and 
it  was  a  matter  of  no  little  local  importance  that  shocks 
should  be  avoided  if  possible,  apart  from  any  general  effect 
upon  the  feeling  of  the  nation. 

No  news  more  alarming  than  statements  that  the  defenses 
were  being  put  in  readiness,  and  that  it  was  advisable  for 
people  having  relations  in  the  country  to  send  their  women 
and  children  thither,  had  been  allowed  to  appear  in  the 
Paris  Press  for  a  week  past.  Yet  an  exodus,  now  much 
accentuated,  had  begun  on  Saturday,  August  29;  through- 
out that  and  the  following  days,  lines  of  cabs,  many  of  them 
filled  with  household  goods,  were  racing  through  the  boule- 
vards to  the  southern  and  western  railway  stations;  and  a 
very  large  part  of  the  population  of  the  city  was  engaged 
in  discussing  whether,  and  if  so  how,  it  should  remove  itself. 
A  lady  who  had  arranged  some  time  before  to  leave  Paris 
on  the  Saturday  night  for  Biarritz  had  to  be  content  at  the 
last  moment  with  a  seat  on  a  rough  bench  in  a  cattle  truck, 


THE  FLIGHT  FROM  PARIS  133 

into  which  thirty  passengers  or  more  were  crowded,  without 
a  glimmer  of  light.  The  train  carried  nothing  but  third- 
class  and  trucks,  and,  stopping  at  most  stations,  it  took 
about  thirty  hours  to  reach  its  destination.  I  went  down 
to  the  St.  Lazare  Station  on  the  Sunday  morning  to  see 
how  it  was  with  the  British  and  American  passengers  leav- 
ing at  9.30  by  the  Havre  route.  A  quite  orderly,  but  tired, 
anxious,  and  uncomfortable  crowd  of  about  a  thousand  per- 
sons surrounded  the  entry  to  the  platform,  and  more  were 
constantly  arriving.  At  noon  there  were  10,000  persons  in 
and  around  the  Mont  Parnasse  Station,  trying  to  get  train 
for  Rennes,  St.  Malo,  and  Brest;  and  at  the  Invalides  Sta- 
tion, which  had  been  more  carefully  reserved  for  military 
use,  the  officials  said  that  enough  passengers  had  been 
booked  in  advance  for  Brittany  to  fill  all  the  trains  for  a 
week. 

The  odd  thing  was  that  there  was  an  inflow  as  well  as  an 
outflow,  though  not  on  so  large  a  scale.  First,  there  was 
an  uninterrupted  stream  of  refugees  from  the  immediate 
scene  of  fighting — the  region  of  Mons,  and  then  the  region 
around  Laon.  More  than  30,000  of  these  poor  people  were 
landed  at  the  Nord  Station  on  the  29th.  Many  of  them 
were  carrying  oddments  of  property  with  them,  and  some 
of  the  children  had  been  allowed  to  bring  a  favorite  dog 
or  canary.  All  of  this  vast  social  disturbance  was  not 
directed  upon  Paris.  A  lady  who  had  a  summer  cottage 
near  Pontoise  described  vividly  the  abandonment  of  many 
of  the  villages  on  this  north-western  road  by  their  inhabit- 
ants, who  had  not  yet  seen  the  Germans,  and  were  re- 
solved not  to  see  them.  Add  to  the  influx  of  refugees  that 
of  wounded  soldiers — all  the  hospitals  of  the  city  were 
not  full,  but  even  when  expecting  a  siege,  Paris  is  a  great 
distributing  center — and  a  smaller  number  of  German  pris- 
oners; then  offset  against  these  the  flight  of  Parisian 
families  and  foreigners,  and  there  is  given  a  problem  of 
social   migration  that   would  be  very  grave  even  if  there 


134*  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

were  no  urgency  about  getting  troops  mobilized  and  to  the 
front.  So  far,  the  railways  had  worked  marvelously ;  and 
it  was  not  till  Sunday,  the  30th,  that  some  little  efferves- 
cence was  perceptible  among  the  people  of  Paris.  The  cool 
courage  with  which  the  agonies  of  the  past  month  had  been 
borne  deserved  every  word  that  the  best  living  French 
prose  writers  (there  was  here  no  tendency  to  cheap  ver- 
sification) said  in  its  praise.  But  this  patient  loyalty 
could  not  safely  be  abused;  and  the  migration  problem 
could  not  safely  be  allowed  to  be  aggravated  by  an  open 
alarm. 

There  were  various  and  potent  warnings  of  the  gravity 
of  the  situation  other  than  the  statements  of  refugees  and 
wounded  soldiers.  On  the  evening  of  August  30,  the  presi- 
dent of  the  City  Council,  M.  Mithouard,  made  a  statement 
advising  residents  having  friends  in  the  country  to  send 
their  women  and  children  thither,  as  a  siege  would  mean 
privation,  whatever  efforts  were  made  to  assure  the  food 
supply.  On  the  same  day,  the  papers  were  forbidden  to 
issue  more  than  one  daily  edition ;  and  news  became  scantier 
than  ever.  Englishmen,  getting  through  with  difficulty  by 
Dieppe  and  Beauvais,  and  arriving  many  hours  late,  re- 
ported that  the  enemy  was  at  Compiegne,  and  rumor  added 
falsely  that  this  town,  only  45  miles  away,  was  in  flames. 
The  War  Office  admitted  that  the  French  army  was  continu- 
ally retreating,  but  gave  no  details.  It  was  safe  to  con- 
clude that  the  enemy  was  within  two  days'  march.  All 
round  the  northern  suburbs  and  outlying  districts  of  Paris, 
the  inhabitants  were  ordered  to  get  away  immediately ;  and 
many  of  these  were  pouring  into  the  city  by  the  Maillot,  St. 
Ouen,  and  Clignancourt  gates,  while  others  more  sensibly 
took  suburban  roads  to  the  south.  The  telegraphs  were 
working  subject  to  many  hours'  delay,  and  to  England  only 
two  wires,  via  Havre,  were  open  on  September  3.  Orders 
had  been  given  for  all  the  wounded  to  be  removed  outside 
the  "  intrenched  camp  of  Paris."    Those  in  hospital  at  Ver- 


THE  FLIGHT  FROM  PARIS  135 

sailles,  sufficiently  recovered  to  be  moved,  were  taken  by 
train  to  such  distant  points  as  Rennes  and  Nantes. 

Secrets,  like  bombs,  are  a  worrying  cargo;  and  it  was 
with  a  sigh  of  relief  that  I  read  over  my  coffee  and  crust 
(no  fancy  rolls  in  these  days !),  on  the  morning  of  September 
3,  the  proclamation  announcing  the  shifting  of  the  Govern- 
ment to  Bordeaux.  It  was  couched  in  the  following  terms, 
and  signed  by  M.  Poincare  and  all  the  Ministers: 

"  Frenchmen !  For  several  weeks,  our  heroic  troops  have 
been  engaged  in  desperate  combats  with  the  enemy.  The 
valiance  of  our  soldiers  has  given  them  at  some  points  a 
marked  advantage.  But,  in  the  north,  the  onset  of  the 
German  forces  has  constrained  us  to  fall  back. 

"  This  situation  imposes  upon  the  President  of  the  Re- 
public and  upon  the  Government  a  grievous  decision.  In 
order  to  guard  the  national  safety,  it  is  their  duty  to  move, 
for  the  moment,  from  the  city  of  Paris.  Under  the  command 
of  an  eminent  chief,  a  French  army,  full  of  courage  and 
spirit,  will  defend  against  the  invader  the  capital  and  its 
patriotic  population.  But  the  war  must  be  pursued  at  the 
same  time  on  the  rest  of  our  territory. 

"  Without  peace  or  truce,  without  stay  or  default,  the  holy 
struggle  for  the  honor  of  the  nation  and  the  reparation  of 
violated  right  will  continue.  None  of  our  armies  is  crippled. 
If  some  of  them  have  suffered  heavy  losses,  the  gaps  have 
been  immediately  filled  from  the  depots,  and  the  calling  up 
of  recruits  assures  us  for  to-morrow  new  resources  in  men 
and  energy. 

"  To  hold  out  and  to  fight  must  be  the  word  of  command 
for  the  Allied  armies,  British,  Russian,  Belgian,  and  French! 
To  hold  out  and  to  fight,  while  on  the  sea  the  British  help 
us  to  cut  our  enemies'  communications  with  the  outer  world ! 
To  hold  out  and  to  fight,  while  the  Russians  continue  to 
advance  to  strike  a  decisive  blow  at  the  heart  of  the  German 
Empire!  It  is  for  the  Government  of  the  Republic  to  direct 
this  obstinate  resistance.  Everywhere,  Frenchmen  will  rise 
to  defend  their  independence.     But  to  give  this  formidable 


136  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

struggle  all  its  vigor  and  efficiency,  it  is  indispensable  that 
the  Government  should  retain  its  freedom  of  action. 

"  On  the  demand  of  the  military  authority,  therefore,  the 
Government  is  temporarily  removing  its  residence  to  a  place 
where  it  can  remain  in  constant  relations  with  the  whole  of 
the  country.  It  invites  members  of  Parliament  not  to 
remain  far  away,  so  that  they  and  it  may  form  the  guard 
of  the  national  unity. 

"  The  Government  is  quitting  Paris  only  after  having 
assured  the  defense  of  the  city  and  the  intrenched  camp 
by  all  means  in  its  power.  It  knows  that  it  need  not  recom- 
mend calm,  resolution,  and  sang-froid  to  the  admirable 
Parisian  population.  They  are  showing,  every  day,  that  they 
are  equal  to  the  highest  duties. 

"  Frenchmen !  Be  worthy  of  these  tragic  circumstances ! 
We  will  obtain  victory  in  the  end.  We  will  obtain  it  by 
a  tireless  will,  by  endurance,  and  by  tenacity.  A  nation 
which  is  determined  not  to  perish,  and,  in  order  to  live, 
recoils  before  no  suffering  or  sacrifice,  is  sure  of  victory." 

Not  a  hint  of  this  grave  step  had  appeared  in  the  Paris 
Press  till  now,  although  thousands  of  officials  knew  of  it,  and 
a  number  of  journalists  had  scented  sensation  afar  off.  I 
had  learned  that  an  announcement  would  be  issued  before 
midnight  on  Thursday,  September  3;  and  this  was  my  ex- 
cuse for  troubling  the  British  Embassy  with  a  call.  The 
great  door  in  the  Rue  du  Faubourg  St.  Honors,  surmounted 
with  the  royal  arms,  was  closed,  and  the  porter  had  received 
orders,  on  this  sad  and  busy  day,  not  to  admit  any  visitors. 
The  reason  was  soon  apparent;  indeed,  two  furniture  vans 
and  many  half-packed  cases  in  a  corner  of  the  courtyard, 
the  unusual  bustle  on  the  stairs  and  in  the  upper  rooms,  and 
large  labels  showing  that  many  boxes  of  papers  and  other 
property  would  be  left  in  charge  of  the  American  Ambassa- 
dor, told  the  whole  story  so  eloquently  that  there  was  no 
need  for  me  to  do  more  than  wish  the  courteous  Secretary 
bon  voyage.  All  the  same,  there  was  something  very  griev- 
ous about  this  retreat— something,  for  a  civilian,  like  what 


THE  FLIGHT  FROM  PARIS  137 

the  soldier  feels  when  he  witnesses  a  forced  retirement  on 
the  battlefield. 

On  Wednesday  evening,  September  2,  their  various  Ex< 
cellencies  left  the  Quai  d'Orsay  Station;  and  none  who  saw 
it  is  ever  likely  to  forget  the  scene.  Groping  my  way  in 
the  deep,  narrow  streets  about  the  War  Office,  on  the  south 
side  of  the  river,  during  the  past  few  nights,  I  had  con- 
ceived a  perfectly  practical  affection  for  the  much-slandered 
moon.  You  see,  they  were  saving  coal  and  electricity; 
moreover,  it  is  advisable  to  give  no  guidance  to  hostile  air- 
ships. So,  off  the  boulevards,  the  streets  were  hardly  lit  at 
all.  We  may  see  again  a  mild  alarm  such  as  had  carried 
scores  of  thousands  of  Parisians  southward  in  these  critical 
days;  but  we  are  never  likely  again  to  see  the  abandonment 
of  the  first  city  of  Europe  at  dead  of  night  by  a  cosmopolitan 
crowd  of  diplomatists.  There  was  Sir  Francis  Bertie,  in 
black  suit  and  bowler  hat,  and  Mr.  Graham,  very  tall  and 
fair,  talking  to  the  Marquis  Visconti-Venosta — the  Italian 
Ambassador  himself,  Signor  Tittoni,  being  another  dis- 
tinguishable figure,  in  gray  and  a  soft  felt  hat.  Mr.  Myron 
T.  Herrick,  the  United  States  Ambassador,  had  come  down 
with  his  wife  to  say  good-by  to  his  confreres,  and  M.  Is- 
volsky,  the  Tsar's  envoy,  was  chatting  with  the  Spanish 
Minister,  who,  like  Mr.  Herrick,  was  remaining  in  Paris  to 
perform  the  duties  of  courtesy  that  fall  upon  neutrals  at 
such  a  time.  The  windows  of  each  carriage  of  the  special 
train  were  labeled  with  the  names  of  the  countries  whose 
representatives  it  was  carrying  off — there  was  even  an  in- 
scription for  the  more  or  less  imaginary  Republic  of  San 
Marino;  but  no  one  appeared  to  answer  to  this  honorific 
name.  There  was  the  Persian  Minister,  and  M.  Romanos, 
the  black-bearded  Greek,  and  a  Russian  military  attache"  in 
uniform,  and  some  Belgians,  and  all  sorts  of  servants,  in- 
cluding a  Chinese  nurse  feeding  a  yellow  baby,  with  coal- 
black  eyes.  And,  at  last,  a  soft  horn  was  blown,  and  the 
train  rolled  away.    Whatever  might  be  said  about  the  ad- 


138  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

venturous  Herr  Taube,  and  the  possibly  approaching  legions 
of  his  still  more  reckless  Kaiser,  it  was  no  pleasant  thing 
to  see  the  world's  delegates  pack  up  their  traps,  and  leave 
the  splendid  city  of  Paris  to  its  fate. 

President  Poincare,  accompanied  by  all  the  members  of 
the  Ministry,  left  for  Bordeaux  at  5  a.m.  on  Thursday,  and 
they  were  followed  in  two  special  trains  by  the  Presidents 
and  members  of  the  Senate  and  Chamber  of  Deputies,  with 
other  official  persons.  The  main  body  of  the  staff  and  the 
reserves  of  the  Banque  de  France  had  already  been  removed. 
Of  the  major  Embassies,  only  those  of  Spain  and  the  United 
States  remained,  and  the  neutrality  of  the  American  Re- 
public was  oddly  marked  by  the  fact  that  Mr.  Herrick  had 
taken  charge  of  the  records  of  the  British,  the  German,  and 
the  Austrian  Ambassadors.  A  like  transfer  of  the  higher 
legal  machinery  of  France  had  been  made  by  sending  to 
Bordeaux  fifteen  magistrates  selected  from  among  the  three 
sections  of  the  Cour  de  Cassation.  During  the  day,  the 
Presidents  of  the  City  Council  and  the  Council  of  the  Seine 
Department  formed  a  committee,  under  the  authority  of  the 
Military  Governor,  the  Prefect  of  Paris,  and  the  Prefect  of 
Police,  for  the  government  of  the  capital.  A  new  Prefect 
of  Police,  M.  Laurent,  was  appointed  in  place  of  M.  Hen- 
nion,  a  change  warmly  welcomed,  and  connected  by  rumor 
with  official  discussions  as  to  whether,  if  a  breach  were 
made  in  the  line  of  forts,  the  city  should  be  surrendered. 
Thousands  of  people  continued  to  crowd  into  the  southern 
railway  stations,  but  there  was  still  no  panic.  The  quietude 
of  the  population  was  a  worthy  reflection  of  the  courage  of 
the  children  of  the  Republic  under  arms.  As  one  writer 
said,  "  It  was  a  moment  for  those  who  act,  not  those  who 
talk  " ;  and  General  Gallieni  enjoyed  unbounded  confidence, 
both  as  organizer  and  as  soldier. 

Thus  was  Paris  derobed  of  her  accustomed  majesty. 
Long  afterwards,  we  learned  that  many  of  the  treasures  of 
the  Louvre  and  other  museums  and  public  galleries  had  been 


THE  FLIGHT  FROM  PARIS  139 

secretly  removed.  Other  monuments,  and  those  the  most 
characteristic,  if  not  the  most  precious,  remained  only  be- 
cause they  could  not  be  shifted.  The  perspective  of  the 
Champs-Elysees  was  no  less  glorious  because  the  Presiden- 
tial palace  was  closed.  We  could  walk  among  the  flower- 
beds, the  plashing  fountains,  and  the  statuary,  of  the  Tuile- 
ries  gardens,  and  reflect  upon  the  hollowness  of  worldly 
hopes,  or  discover  with  a  more  genuine  surprise  that  noth- 
ing avails  to  extinguish  love's  young  dream.  A  column  of 
Chasseurs  click-clacked  along  the  Rue  de  Rivoli :  what  were 
they  thinking  of  it  all  ?  Perhaps  only  that  the  thin  moon- 
shine was  worth  a  hundred  searchlights  to  General  Gallieni, 
now  master  of  our  immediate  destinies.  To  me,  the  vague 
mist  of  light  made  all  that  had  seemed  so  terribly  real  a 
few  hours  before  most  unreal ;  and  I  saw  only  the  ghosts 
of  the  soldiers  of  olden  times,  called  from  forgotten  graves 
by  the  sound  of  cannon  and  the  cry  of  the  blood-lust,  the 
ghosts  of  the  conquering  fighters  who  built  these  palaces  and 
arches — and,  far  behind,  under  one  blue  star,  the  pale  ghost 
of  a  man  who  was  crucified.    .    .    . 

The  Chasseurs  passed,  and  then  a  regiment  of  infantry; 
a  little  donkey-cart  piled  with  the  poor  property  of  a 
workman's  home  passed ;  and  a  procession  of  such  refugees 
urged  onward  to  the  south  through  the  dead  city.  With  the 
early  daylight,  some  of  the  shutters  fell,  the  doors  opened, 
and  through  these  miles  of  streets,  men  and  women  awoke 
to  ask  what  news  there  was  from  Compiegne,  whether  they 
too  must  go  into  exile,  how  they  could  gather  together  a  few 
shillings  for  bread  upon  the  journey,  and  what  would  hap- 
pen when  that  was  eaten. 

Did  I  say  Paris  had  lost  something  of  her  majesty?  But 
she  had  gained  a  majesty  higher  than  the  glitter  of  any 
official  uniforms  can  give.  Let  me  confess  it.  I  had  feared, 
half  expected,  trouble  in  Ihis  still  crowded  population. 
Rien  <ln  iont!  Where  had  the  volatile,  explosive,  rather 
vicious  Parisian  of  fortv-four  years  ago  ujone?    There  was 


140  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

no  sign  of  him  to-day.  I  have  no  belief  in  easy  generaliza- 
tions— you  do  not  know  much  of  the  mind  of  two  millions 
of  people  by  observing  the  faces  of  two  thousand,  or  by  a 
closer  knowledge  of  two  hundred.  But,  without  over-esti- 
mating the  worth  of  such  evidence  as  one  man  can  gather, 
it  must  yet  be  said  that  the  quietude  of  the  city,  the  appear- 
ance of  a  grave  confidence  and  resolution,  the  perfect  order 
in  public  places,  were  things  to  impress  the  most  skeptical. 
So  far,  I  do  not  believe  that  any  human  society  in  time  of 
peril  could  display  in  a  higher  degree  than  Paris  was  doing 
the  virtues  of  calmness,  courage,  loyalty,  and  endurance. 
Used  to  enjoy  her  powers  and  amenities  in  perfect  security, 
she  had  suddenly  become  a  frontier  town,  imminently 
threatened  with  a  blow  hardly  less  grave  in  its  effect  on  the 
national  spirit  than  in  its  material  injuries.  Pride  and 
calculation,  it  is  true,  combined  to  throw  a  ray  of  light  upon 
this  prospect.  Many  of  these  Parisians,  elders  who  had 
given  their  last  and  dearest  for  the  national  defense,  re- 
called 1870,  and  could  see  that  it  was  not  now  as  it  was  then 
with  France,  that  the  daily  work  of  industrialism  and  of 
political  democracy,  the  progress  of  education  and  humane 
influences,  have  created  a  new  Republic,  more  sober,  stable, 
and  strong.  As  for  the  Government,  they  were  not  indiffer- 
ent to  its  departure,  and  they  did  not  hurl  after  it  the  open 
scorn  reserved  for  more  wealthy  and  less  responsible  fugi- 
tives. They  watched  stoically,  sure  of  the  future.  Many 
old  Parisian  traditions  are  dead;  new  and  better  have 
grown,  and  the  city  has  no  peer  in  the  Latin  world.  To 
imagine  Westminster  and  Whitehall  taken  out  of  London 
does  not  give  an  adequate  analogy  of  this  situation;  for 
Paris  has  always  played  a  larger  part  proportionately  in  the 
crises  of  French  history  than  London  in  ours;  and  the  tie 
between  the  national  Government  and  the  city,  under  the 
French  system  of  centralized  bureaucracy,  is  much  closer. 
The  departure  of  the  President  of  the  Republic,  the  Minis- 
tries, and  the  diplomatic  corps,  broke  many  political  nerve- 


THE  FLIGHT  FROM  PARIS  141 

threads.  It  was  not  a  heavy  price  to  pay  for  the  revela- 
tion of  a  city  more  lovely  and  lovable  than  we  had  yet 
known,  the  beautiful  home  of  a  family  sorely  wounded, 
threatened  with  worse  calamity,  but  whole  in  heart  and 
will,  and,  as  I  felt,  invincible  in  its  faith. 


CHAPTER  XI 
ON  THE  RAMPARTS 

Paris,  September  9. 

A  brief  diary  of  a  Parisian  day  may  illustrate  the  strange 
mixture  of  the  normal  and  abnormal  in  our  life.  The  first 
thing  is  always  to  make  sure,  for  another  twenty-four  hours 
at  least,  that  one's  concierge  and  servants  are  not  going  to 
make  a  sudden  departure,  whether  under  orders,  or  from — 
ahem!  let  us  call  it  conversatism.  Large  numbers  of  male 
artisans,  shop  assistants,  and  servants  of  all  kinds  are  al- 
ways awaiting  the  call  to  the  colors;  and,  now  that  nine 
shops  out  of  ten,  and  a  large  proportion  of  the  houses,  flats, 
and  workshops  of  the  city,  are  closed,  it  becomes  evident 
that  the  exodus  of  the  past  week  has  very  greatly  reduced 
the  female  population  also. 

The  next  business,  after  laying  in  some  necessary  stores, 
is  to  secure  one's  line  of  retreat,  or,  in  the  present  case,  one's 
line  of  communications.  The  telegraphic  service  with  Eng- 
land being  practically  at  an  end,  the  postal  service  much 
delayed  and  very  uncertain,  and  the  train  services,  so  to 
speak,  on  their  last  wheels,  one  naturally  thinks  of  that 
engine  which  has  perhaps  more  than  any  other  proved  its 
utility  during  the  present  crisis — the  motor-car.  The  latest 
triumph  of  the  most  famous  makers  would  be  worthless, 
however,  without  the  various  kinds  of  passport  which  are 
necessary  to  get  out  of  Paris,  to  stay  in  Paris  or  any  other 
town,  to  pass  from  one  town  to  another,  or  to  leave  the 
country.  We  make  our  way,  therefore,  to  the  Prefecture  of 
Police,  just  opposite  Notre  Dame.  After  hours — or  so  it 
seems — of  wandering  through  the  interminable  corridors,  up 

142 


ON  THE  RAMPARTS  143 

and  down  the  endless  staircases,  of  this  huge  barracks  (you 
could  put  New  Scotland  Yard  down  in  the  central  quad- 
rangle with  room  to  spare),  I  have  conceived  the  liveliest 
opinions  about  the  Parisian  police  system;  but  that  is  an- 
other story,  to  be  told  in  cooler  moments.  M.  Hennion  has 
just  been  replaced  by  M.  Laurent;  and  it  is  like  a  change  of 
Ministry — familiar  faces  are  gone,  and  the  new  masters  are 
only  just  settling  down.  At  long  length,  the  right  man  is 
found,  the  papers  of  the  chauffeur  are  shown,  and  the 
necessary  pass  is  made  out  for  two  persons  to  go  by  road 
to  Bordeaux  at  some  time  within  the  next  month.  Later  in 
the  day,  all  this  effort  proves  to  have  been  wasted,  for  sev- 
eral reasons,  only  one  of  which  need  be  named  here.  The 
permit  is  made  out  for  specified  persons,  a  specified  destina- 
tion, and  a  specified  automobile.  But  it  turns  out  that  the 
large  firm  from  whom  our  car  is  hired  will  not  allow  it  to 
go  further  than  Orleans;  and  that  would  cost  a  special  fee — 
£20.  But.  Orleans  is  no  better  than  Paris  for  our  purpose. 
Very  well,  we  can  buy  the  car — £450.  That  may  be  necessary 
presently,  but  not  at  the  present  moment. 

Motoring  being  impossible  within  the  military  zone,  we 
decide  to  run  round  the  inner  fortifications,  that  line  of 
grassy  hills  which  girdles  Paris  with  a  belt  of  playground 
thirty  miles  long.  To  reach  the  Porte  de  Versailles  as  a 
starting-place,  after  resting  a  little  in  the  many-colored 
shades  and  the  blessed  coolth  of  Notre  Dame,  we  have  to 
cross  the  Latin  Quarter.  Poor,  desolate  Bohemia,  where 
now  are  thy  students  of  so  many  races  scattered?  A  few 
bookshops  are  still  bravely  open,  as,  by  the  riverside  near 
the  Louvre,  a  few  old-book  merchants  still  keep  their  zinc 
boxes  on  the  parapet,  though  they  can  sell  nothing  but 
ninps,  and  histories  of  the  war  of  1870.  Science,  art,  let- 
ters, what  are  they  when  the  nations  rush  into  the  gulf  of 
war?  Tell  me  not  of  compensations!  And  yet  it  is  near 
here  that  Mile,  de  Roze,  whose  brother  is  one  of  the  most 
daring  of  French  aviators,  has  her  home  for  poor  work- 


144  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

men's  children — for  the  Quartier  is  also  a  workmen's  dis- 
trict, and  this  part  of  its  desolation  is  the  more  painfully, 
if  less  aesthetically,  interesting.  Here  there  is  no  excitement 
of  passing  uniforms,  no  sunny  vision  of  dainty  midinettes, 
no  boulevard  glamor  to  relieve  the  tension  of  endless  anx- 
iety. The  Sorbonne  glowers  upon  streets  of  shuttered 
shops.  The  workmen  are  on  the  battlefield ;  the  schools  are 
closed;  and  Mile,  de  Roze — a  modern  saint  in  the  manner 
of  Jane  Addams  of  Chicago — is  trying  to  save  a  few  of  the 
little  victims  from  the  extremities  of  suffering.  More  than 
five  hundred  girls,  she  has  already  sent  away  to  homes  in 
the  country ;  others — among  them,  children  of  fugitives  from 
the  north — are  kept  here  for  the  present.  "  I  do  not  know 
how  it  happens,"  she  says,  with  her  serene  smile,  "  but  the 
550f.  which  I  had  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  are  still  in 
the  bank.  I  begin  to  think  le  don  Dieu  wishes  them  to  stop 
there.  I'm  only  sorry  a  little  that  He  does  not  increase 
them,  for  then  I  could  do  more." 

The  Ecole  Polytechnique  is  now  a  Red  Cross  hospital, 
under  Mme.  Messimy's  particular  care.  As  I  walked 
through  the  roomy  corridors  and  the  quiet  little  garden  I 
could  not  but  regret  that  only  officers  enjoy  the  hospitality 
of  this  great  establishment.  One  peculiarly  sad  case  was 
pointed  out  to  us — a  man  sitting  under  the  trees  with  a 
companion.  Some  shock  has  affected  his  brain,  and  he  has 
to  be  constantly  watched  lest  he  should  commit  suicide. 
There  are,  perhaps,  more  cases  of  mental  injury  in  war-time 
now  than  of  old.  Some  weeks  ago,  I  heard  of  an  officer 
who,  before  he  had  seen  any  fighting,  suddenly  went  mad 
in  the  barrack-square,  asked  his  men  why  they  did  not  rush 
at  the  enemy,  and  then  began  firing  his  revolver  at  them. 
The  story  was  told  by  one  of  the  men,  who  received  a  shot 
in  the  leg. 

It  is  a  strange  scene  along  the  long  line  of  the  old  ram- 
parts, and  at  the  numerous  gates,  of  iron  or  stone,  by  which 
vehicles  and  foot  passengers  pass  between  the  city  and  the 


ON  THE  RAMPARTS  145 

suburbs.  At  each  gate  there  is  a  real  control  of  traffic,  and 
a  mild  show  of  armament.  That  is  to  say,  the  roadway, 
except  a  central  passage,  has  been  blocked  with  small  and 
leafy  trees,  and  behind  this  screen  shallow  trenches  have 
been  dug.  I  imagine  that  the  only  intention  is  to  stop  the 
entrance  of  odd  cavalry  raiders  who  might  conceivably  get 
through  the  line  of  modern  forts.  There  are  no  real  forti- 
fications now  along  the  lines  of  1870,  but  only  a  continuous 
grassy  mound,  open  to  the  roadway  on  the  town  side,  and, 
on  the  other,  supported  by  a  wall  perhaps  30  ft.  deep.  The 
lads  and  old  men  gather  on  the  edge  of  the  wall  by  the 
town  gates,  and  watch  the  trench-digging,  or  gaze  over  to 
the  aerodrome  at  Issy-les-Molineaux,  or  northward  to  see  if 
another  5-o'clock  raider  is  coming  down  the  sky.  The 
women  sit  in  little  groups  about  the  grassy  slope,  bare- 
headed, with  the  delightful  neatness,  the  indescribable  air 
of  competence,  that  characterize  the  Parisian  women — never 
more  than  now,  when  they  have  to  fend  for  themselves. 
And,  while  they  sew  and  knit  with  a  calm  intentness,  the 
children  who  are  spared  their  cruel  knowledge  play  inno- 
cently in  the  blazing  sunshine. 

There  are  many  barracks  and  some  recruiting  offices 
around  the  ramparts.  Normally,  it  is  a  lost  and  happy  by- 
way, aloof  from  the  roar  of  the  great  city  thoroughfares. 
Here  and  there  are  high  buildings  of  flats  where,  for  £50  a 
year,  one  may  make  a  comfortable  nest,  with  glimpses  of 
country  upon  the  horizon.  Elsewhere,  as  at  Auteuil,  it  is 
villadom  and  relative  opulence.  To-day  all  this  green  belt 
shows  the  strangest  mixture  of  the  ways  of  war  and  peace. 
There  was  something  in  the  sight  of  those  hundreds  of 
women  gravely  knitting  upon  the  grass  grown  redoubts  of 
the  last  war  that  will  never  pass  from  my  memory.  At 
the  Henri  Martin  Gate— where  a  stronger  barrier  was  being 
built  of  thick  planks  pierced  for  riflemen's  use — we  turned 
inward  to  the  Etoile  and  the  wonderful  vista  of  the  Champs- 
Elys6es.     There   is   no   bustle   of   fashionable   traffic   now. 


146  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

The  great  hotels  and  most  of  the  private  mansions  are 
closed.  Some  of  the  automobile  houses  have  been  con- 
verted into  Red  Cross  work-rooms.  No  more  the  old  flaneurs 
ogle  the  governesses  in  the  shady  walks  by  President  Poin- 
care^'s  abandoned  palace.  The  Place  de  la  Concorde  is 
an  echoing  desert  by  day,  and  by  night  a  pool  of  darkness 
broken  only  by  the  shifting  arm  of  the  searchlight  on  top 
of  the  Automobile  Club. 

Up  by  the  Madeleine,  I  saw  a  white-faced  workwoman. 
So  queenly  she  looked;  and  of  a  sudden  the  empty  street 
was  filled  with  the  ghosts  of  her  children.  Why  should  I 
feel  shame  to  mix  my  tears  with  the  tears  of  France? 
"  Madame,"  I  would  have  said — but  she  had  no  eyes  for 
me — "  Madame,  we  have  gone  mad,  we  men.  We  have 
dreamed  a  mad  dream,  and  we  are  punished.  Save  us  from 
ourselves.  Tame  us.  Help  us  to  build  better.  Open  our 
sight  to  the  divine  pity.  Teach  us  that,  in  war  or  peace, 
gain  is  nothing,  and  only  what  we  lose  can  give  us  a  little 
nobility." 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MARNE 

(September  6-13) 

I.     The  Strategic  Idea 

From  Paris  to  Verdun,  by  the  main-line  through  Chalons, 
is  174  miles;  and,  without  including  the  connected  opera- 
tions east  of  the  Meuse,  this  figure  gives  us  approximately 
the  length  of  the  line  of  that  series  of  actions  which,  be- 
cause they  were  so  closely  articulated,  and  because  it  was 
there,  or  near  there,  that  the  chief  decision  was  won,  we 
may  continue  to  call  the  Battle  of  the  Maine.  Four  Ger- 
man armies,  and  part  of  a  fifth  (Von  Hausen's),  one  British, 
and  five  French  armies,  were  involved  in  this  terrific  en- 
counter— not  much  short  of  two  millions  of  men,  in  all. 
It  will  be  marked  in  history  not  only  by  these  unprecedented 
dimensions,  the  magnitude  of  the  stakes,  and  the  propor- 
tionate horror  of  lives  lost  or  maimed,  but  by  the  fact 
that,  for  a  single  week,  the  ponderous  modern  war-machine 
was  subjected  to  a  definite  strategic  idea.  A  running  nar- 
rative, with  incidental  details,  of  the  simultaneous  struggles 
all  across  central  France  would  effectually  drown  this  gen- 
eral idea.  We  shall  put  it  (or  our  conception  of  it)  first, 
therefore;  then  sketch  briefly  its  fulfillment  in  the  western 
and  the  central  portions  of  the  field;  and  add  afterwards 
several  chapters  of  personal  experience  which  may  in  some 
measure  restore  suffering  humanity  to  its  rightful  place  in 
the  picture. 

The  strategy  is  essentially,  we  may  almost  say  exclu- 

147 


148  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

sively,  that  of  the  French  Commander-in-Chief,  General 
Joffre.  The  governing  ideas  of  the  German  camp — the 
"  smashing  blow  "  and  the  enveloping  movement — were  ex- 
hausted during  the  retreat  from  the  Sambre;  and  so  little 
was  their  place  supplied  by  a  new  dominant  idea  that  it  is 
impossible,  till  the  Great  General  Staff  explains,  to  state  pos- 
itively what  was  the  objective  Von  Kluck  and  Von  Biilow 
were  pursuing  when  they  reached  their  furthest  south  on  the 
plateaux  of  Brie  and  Sezanne.  The  most  probable  supposi- 
tion is  that — ignorant  of  the  French  reserves,  and  miscon- 
ceiving the  morale  of  the  Allied  armies — they  were  aiming  at 
a  concentration  midway  between  Verdun  and  Paris  prelimi- 
nary to  a  serious  attack  upon  the  capital,  and  hoped  mean- 
while to  deliver  the  "  smashing  blow  "  at  the  French  center, 
while  the  Metz  army  and  the  Crown  Prince,  together,  were 
breaking  through  the  fortified  barrier  of  the  Meuse.  They 
had  had  the  advantage,  in  their  first  onslaught,  of  preparation 
carried  to  a  point  that  no  other  State  had  imagined.  They 
were  now  beginning  to  pass  the  point  to  which  this  advan- 
tage carried,  and  to  feel  what  it  meant  to  have  four  dispa- 
rate Powers  directly  across  their  path.  France  had  been  un- 
prepared, many  of  her  forts  worthless.  But  Maubeuge  re- 
sisted till  September  7,  thus  keeping  back  the  siege-pieces 
without  which  (at  least)  Paris  could  not  be  attempted.  On 
September  1,  the  Austrian  army  suffered  a  crushing  defeat ; 
two  days  later,  Lemberg  fell.  Five  or  six  army  corps,  in- 
cluding some  of  Von  Hausen's,  were  at  once  hurried  off  to 
the  eastern  frontier — an  act  of  nervousness  which  was  pos- 
sibly confirmed  by  the  aforesaid  under-estimate  of  the  resist- 
ing power  of  the  retreating  French  and  British  armies. 
Before  he  reached  Compiegne,  Von  Kluck  knew  better;  but 
it  was  then  just  too  late.  Perhaps,  the  generals  in  the  field 
were  overruled  by  their  political  masters. 

Belgium  continued  to  contribute  to  the  confusion  of  the 
German  plans  during  these  critical  days,  despite  terroristic 
penalties  like  the  burning  down  of  Termonde.     The  army 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MARNE  149 

made  constant  demonstrations  toward  Brussels ;  and  a  more 
serious  action  took  place,  before  Ghent  on  September  6. 
This  city  was  surrendered  two  days  later,  largely  out  of  re- 
gard for  its  ancient  monuments.  The  troops  of  the  victori- 
ous General  von  Boehn  were  then  sent  off  to  France;  but 
they  had  to  be  called  back  again  to  deal  with  a  sortie  from 
Antwerp  by  which  Alost,  Aerschot,  and  Malines  were  re- 
taken, and  Louvain  and  Brussels  were  threatened.  After 
heavy  losses  on  both  sides,  the  Belgian  army  was  driven  into 
its  refuge  on  the  Scheldt,  having  again  gravely  retarded  the 
southern  flow  of  German  re-enforcements. 

These  were  outside  factors  favorable  to  General  Joffre's 
calculations.  His  plan,  however,  was  quite  independent  of 
them,  and  of  any  adventitious  aid  (one  adventitious  element, 
in  the  shape  of  a  violent  rainstorm,  did,  as  we  shall  see, 
materially  aid  it).  It  was  the  designed  sequel  to  the  plan 
of  the  great  retreat,  which  was  essentially  a  maneuver  for 
advantage  of  position  and  numbers.  Such  advantages,  of 
which  we  will  speak  directly,  and  the  fighting  qualities  of 
French  and  British  soldiers  which  he  knew  he  could  count 
upon,  were  to  be  used  in  a  particular  manner,  that  is  to 
say,  by  a  combination  of  the  methods  of  the  strategic  re- 
serve and  the  flank  assault.  The  former,  a  favorite  French 
method,  is  only  a  larger,  more  emphatic  form  of  the  usual  re- 
tention of  a  reserve  behind  the  fighting  line,  and  General 
Joffre's  strategical  reserve  consisted  of  three  different  ele- 
ments :  (1)  The  new  7th  Army  under  General  Foch,  of  which 
the  German  commanders  could  know  nothing  till  they  struck 
it,  at  the  French  center.  (2)  The  presence  of  the  6th  Army 
(Maunoury)  between  Paris  and  the  Ourcq  was  known  to 
Von  Kluck  before  he  passed  across  it  to  the  Marue  and 
beyond.  But  it  was  then  strongly  re-enforced  from  Paris. 
(3)  The  British  army  was  known  to  Von  Kluck,  but  sadly 
misconceived.  It,  also,  was  now  re-enforced;  and  it  may 
be  said  to  have  been  used  as  a  strategic  reserve  when,  hav- 
ing been  withdrawn  to  the  Seine,  and  then  brought  back 


150 


THE  ONSLAUGHT 


within  the  covering  woods  of  Creey-en-Brie,  it  was  suddenly 
unleashed  upon  Von  Kluck's  head  columns. 

The  flank  assault  is  an  obvious  expedient,  probably  more 
dangerous  in  modern  than  in  ancient  circumstances  be- 
cause, with  its  large  numbers  and  delicate  marching 
mechanism,  the  army  of  to-day  cannot  very  easily  turn  its 
flank  into  a  front.  What  was  designed  in  the  present  case 
may  be  called  a  cumulative,  or  recurrent,  flank  assault. 
This  may  be  illustrated  by  supposing,  as  in  the  accompany- 
ing diagram,  four  armies,  E,  F,  G,  H,  to  be  meeting  the 
attack  of  four  other  equal  armies,  A,  B,  C,  D.  If,  in  the 
first  phase  of  the  struggle,  army  A  can  by  any  means  be 
disabled  or  removed,  it  should  be  possible  for  E,  F,  G,  H  to 
dispose  of  the  three  remaining  opponents  by  a  recurrent 

combination  of  flank  and 
frontal  attack.  Thus,  in  the 
second  phase  (A  having  dis- 
appeared), E  turns  against 
the  flank  of  B,  which  is  front- 
ally  held  by  F.  B  has,  there- 
fore, to  retreat;  and,  while  E 
carries  on  the  pursuit,  F  is 
able  to  turn  against  the  flank 
of  C,  which  is  frontally  held 
by  G.  C  has  now  to  fall  back, 
with  F  in  pursuit.  Finally,  G 
and  H  can  deal  in  like  manner 
with  D,  and,  perhaps,  turn  the 
whole  retirement  into  a  rout. 
It  is  a  powerful,  but  delicate, 
maneuver  which  can  rarely  be 
possible  in  modern  conditions. 
With  opponents  of  equal  qual- 
ity, it  requires  a  preponder- 
ance of  total  as  well  as  of  local 
"Recurrent    Flank   Attack."       numbers    (for  army  A  is  not 


t    t    t 


G      H 


2. 


*r 


6      H 


3. 


T 


D 


G H 


4. 


l\ 


5. 


_6     H 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MARNE  151 

to  be  abstracted  by  magic)  ;  and  it  asks  for,  if  it  does  not 
positively  require,  advantages  of  total,  as  well  as  of  local, 
position. 

All  these  advantages  General  Joffre  had  played  for,  and 
had  won,  by  the  retreat  from  Belgium  to  a  line  falling  a 
little  south  of  the  great  main  road  from  Paris  to  Nancy. 

Tbe  whole  alignment  of  forces  from  Paris  to  Belfort  was, 
on  September  5,  as  follows : 

German  Allies 

Army  of  Paris  (Gallieni). 
1st  Army   (Von  Kluck).  6th  French  Army  (Maunoury). 

2nd  Army  (Von  Btilow).  British       Force        (Field-Marshal 

French). 
Saxon  troops.  5th  French  Army  (D'Esperey). 

4th  Army  (Duke  of  Wurtemberg) .       7th  French  Army  (Foch). 
5th     Army      (Crown     Prince     of       4th   French  Army   (De  Langle  de 
Prussia).  Cary). 

Garrison  of  Metz.  3rd  French  Army  (Sarrail). 

6th     Army      (Crown     Prince     of 

Bavaria).  2nd  French  Army  (De  Castelnau). 

7th  Army  (Von  Heeringen). 
8th  Army   (Von  Deimling).  1st  French  Army  (Dubail). 

We  are  not  immediately  concerned  with  the  position  of 
the  armies  east  of  the  Meuse;  but  it  should  be  said  that 
General  von  Deimling's  force  was  only  a  detachment,  and 
that  the  1st  French  Army  had  also  been  reduced  to  very 
small  proportions.  Tbe  Metz  garrison  is  named  because  it 
undertook  certain  independent  field  operations.  In  the 
western  and  central  field,  the  army  of  Paris  took  only  a 
passive,  though  influential,  part  in  the  battle  of  the  Marne. 
The  army  of  Verdun,  on  the  other  hand,  could  give  but  a 
portion  of  its  strength  to  tbe  attack  on  the  west.  On  the 
German  side,  we  may  now  regard  the  remainder  of  Von 
Hausen's  Saxon  army  as  a  detachment  divided  between  the 
commands  of  General  von  Btilow  and  Duke  Albrecht.  Al- 
though no  exact  numerical  comparison  can  be  made,  tbe 
Allies  would  seem  to  have  bad  a  superiority  about  equal 


152  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

to  that  of  their  armies — 5-J  to  4-|-  (excluding  Paris,  counting 
the  British  Force  as  a  full  army,  including  only  a  half  of  the 
army  of  Verdun,  and  reckoning  the  Saxons  as  £).  The 
greatest  mass  of  forces,  and  of  the  Allied  superiority,  was 
gathered  in  the  west. 

The  long  retreat  was  dictated  primarily  by  the  neces- 
sity of  obtaining  re-enforcements  before  the  issue  was  de- 
cisively joined,  and  of  gaining  time  for  the  general  adapta- 
tion of  the  original  plan  of  campaign  to  the  exigencies  of 
the  unexpected  attack  from  the  north.  But  it  gave  im- 
portant advantages  of  position,  also,  both  general  and  local. 
It  did  not  actually  shorten  the  front  of  the  Allies:  from 
Conde-on-Scheldt,  through  Charleroi  and  the  southern 
Ardennes,  to  Verdun  is  about  the  same  distance  as  from 
Paris  to  Verdun.  But  it  brought  that  line  very  much 
nearer  to  the  main  bases  of  supply  and  re-enforcement;  it 
may  be  said  to  have  effected  a  concentration  of  national 
resources  (beside  which  the  lengthening  of  British  com- 
munications was  a  small  matter).  On  the  other  hand,  it 
greatly  prolonged  the  German  lines,  abstracting  from  the 
fighting  ranks  large  numbers  of  men,  and  immensely  aggra- 
vating the  labor  and  anxiety  of  the  road  and  base  services. 
It  brought  the  German  armies  on  to  ground  which,  with  all 
their  studies — and  it  was  chiefly  their  studies  of  the  terrain 
that  saved  them  from  a  complete  rout — the  German  com- 
manders could  not  know  as  well  as  the  French.  Coolly 
dangling  the  precious  prize  of  Paris  before  the  Teuton  eye, 
it,  in  fact,  presented  a  deadly  choice :  to  assault  a  powerful 
position,  with  five  armies  free  and  unconquered  beside  it, 
and,  in  case  of  success,  the  task  of  managing  two  millions 
of  enraged  people;  or  to  abandon  Paris  (and  Western 
France  with  it)  and  pursue  the  said  five  armies  on  to  the 
defensive  ground  they  had  themselves  chosen. 

The  most  important  advantage  of  position,  therefore,  was 
that  it  compelled  the  invaders  either  to  stop  the  pursuit,  or 
to  enter  a  wide  trouee  in  which  they  would  have  the  army 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MARNE 


153 


of  Paris  on  one  flank  and  the  army  of  Verdun  on  the  other. 
When,  in  parallel  columns,  they  passed  east  of  Paris  and 
west  of  Verdun,  a  further  portion  of  their  strength  would 
have  to  be  abstracted  to  guard  their  wings  and  lines  of 
communication.     But  for  the  excessive  strain  upon  Verdun, 


The  Defenses  of  Paeis. 

the  pivot  of  the  whole  maneuver,  the  retreat  might  have 
been  continued  to  or  beyond  the  line  of  the  Seine  and  Aube, 
with  a  more  completely  satisfactory  result.  As  it  was, 
General  SarraiFs  army,  hanging  round  its  fortified  i*ing 
down  into  the  Woevre  on  the  east  of  the  Meuse,  and  nearly 
to  Bar-le-Duc  on  the  west,  was  hard  put  to  it  to  keep  touch 
with  the  Government  and  the  rest  of  the  armies.  This 
might  have  proved  impossible,  but  for  two  things:  the  in- 
different talents  of  the  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia,  and  the 


154  THE  ONSLAUGHT 


obstruction  offered  to  military  operations  between  the  plain 
of  Champagne  and  the  Meuse  by  the  obstacle  of  the  Argonne 
Forest.  Coming  through  the  Longwy  gap,  the  Crown 
Prince  had  hardly  a  third  the  distance  to  travel  that  Von 
Kluck  covered;  and  the  Imperial  father  must  have  keenly 
felt  his  failure  in  a  task  of  peculiar  importance.  His  next 
colleague  to  the  west,  the  Duke  of  Wiirtemberg,  once  free 
of  the  Ardennes,  had  a  long  southward  march  over  flat 
plains,  with  few  towns,  roads,  or  railways  to  help  his  sup- 
plies. When  General  Foch's  new  army  fell  upon  him,  the 
difference  between  fresh,  well-fed,  and  tired,  ill-fed  troops 
must  have  been  very  marked.  In  the  western  part  of  the 
field,  the  most  important  physical  feature  is  the  series  of 
v:2stward-flowing  rivers  obstructing  the  route  of  the  armies 
— the  Oise,  Ailette,  Aisne,  Ourcq,  Marne,  Petit  Morin, 
Grand  Morin,  and  Aubetin. 

Skeletonizing  what  occurred  along  the  front  of  nearly 
180  miles  during  the  second  week  in  September,  we  may 
now,  with  the  aid  of  the  following  diagram,  state  briefly 
the  plan  upon  which  General  Joffre  solved  his  problem,  by  a 
combination  of  the  methods  of  the  strategical  reserve  and 
the  flank  assault,  with  the  various  advantages  described 
above.  We  have  here  four  horizontal  blocks,  representing 
the  successive  phases  of  the  whole  battle;  and  there  is  one 
perpendicular  division,  marking  off  the  battle  of  the  Ourcq, 
the  western  region  where  the  chief  decision  was  obtained 
(to  the  left),  from  the  remainder  of  the  field.  In  the  first 
phase,  the  4J  German  armies  are  seen  marching  south  be- 
tween the  intrenched  camps  of  Paris  and  Verdun.  They 
have  three  French  armies  (5th,  7th,  and  4th)  immediately 
before  them;  while  Maunoury's  (6th)  army  covers  Paris 
against  Von  Kluck,  and  Sarrail's  (3rd)  army  strikes  out 
from  Verdun  against  the  Crown  Prince.  General  Joffre 
has  prepared  for  the  shock  by  placing  an  army  of  new 
troops  (7th)  at  his  center.  He  has  kept  a  small  reserve 
(E)  behind  the  6th  Army,  which  is  facing  toward  the  river 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MARNE  155 

Ourcq,  while  Yon  Kluck  passes  it  south-westward,  and 
crosses  successively  the  Ourcq,  Marne,  Petit  Morin,  and 
Grand  Morin.  The  British  force  has  also  been  drawn 
momentarily  into  the  background.  Thus,  Von  Kluck  (I) 
becomes  engaged  with  Franchet  d'Esperey  (5)  ;  and  the 
second  phase  opens. 

The  French  Gth  Army  is  swung  round  against  Von 
Kluck's  right  flank,  on  the  Ourcq;  while  the  British  force, 
emerging  from  the  CreYv  woods,  dashes  at  the  more  ad- 
vanced part  of  the  long  German  line,  and  its  fore-guard  is 
disposed  of  by  the  left  of  the  neighboring  French  army 
(D'EspCrey) .  Von  Kluck  is  badly  outmatched ;  but  he  fights 
desperately  to  avoid  a  rout.  He  first  brings  re  enforcements 
from  his  rear,  and  with  them  endeavors  to  envelop  by  the 
north  and  to  break  the  French  flank  attack  on  the  Ourcq. 
He  nearly  succeeds;  but  Joffre  fetches  up,  at  the  critical 
moment,  the  last  part  of  his  tactical  reserve,  the  4th  Corps. 
In  a  final  counter-effort  to  delay  his  fate,  the  German  com- 
mander withdraws  a  corps  from  the  British  front,  and 
flings  it  against  the  north  end  of  the  attack.  But  the 
French  stand  firm  till  the  British  come  up.  Von  Kluck 
holds  out  long  enough  for  his  forward  columns  to  turn 
north-eastward,  and  come  abreast  of  his  flank  guard  on  the 
Ourcq :  then  it  is  a  headlong  flight  of  the  whole  army  for 
the  Aisne. 

The  rest  of  the  story  is  that  of  a  wave-like  repetition  of 
the  same  maneuver — combined  flank  and  frontal  assault. 
The  pursuit  of  the  first  German  army  being  left  in  the 
main  to  the  Gth  French  and  the  British  armies,  D'Espe'rey 
is  free  to  turn  north-eastward  against  the  uncovered  flank 
of  Von  Biilow  (II),  who  is  frontally  faced  by  the  left  wing 
of  the  7th  Army  (Foch).  Taken  on  two  sides,  Von  Biilow 
retires  north,  with  D'Esperey  at  his  heels  (third  phase)  ; 
and  Foch  is  now  free,  in  his  turn,  to  wheel  north-east  against 
the  uncovered  flank  of  the  Saxons  and  Wiirtembergers,  al- 
ready held  by  De  Langle.     This  double  attack  compels  their 


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Strategical  Plan  of  the  Battle  of  the  Maene. 


156 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MARNE  157 

retreat;  and,  in  the  last  phase,  the  Crown  Prince  has  to 
flee  in  like  manner,  before  the  4th  and  3rd  armies,  from  the 
scene  of  some  of  his  most  miserable  exploits.  Paris  is 
saved.  Verdun  and  the  line  of  the  Meuse  are  saved.  Still 
larger  expectations  are  destined  to  disappointment.  But 
the  fame  of  Joffre  as  strategist  and  tactician  is  put  beyond 
doubt. 

II.     West  Wing:     Battle  of  the  Ourcq 

The  position  on  the  left  wing  of  the  Allies  on  the  morn- 
ing of  September  5  was  as  follows: 

The  defense  of  the  districts  to  the  west  and  north  of 
Paris  had  been  left  to  General  Gallieni  and  the  forts. 
Maunoury's  (6th)  army  had  been  brought  round  to  the 
north-east  of  the  capital,  between  the  suburbs  and  the 
woods  of  Chant'illy  and  Ermenonville ;  and  it  had  spent  there 
a  quiet  day  of  preparation.  Its  left,  the  7th  Army  Corps, 
under  General  Vaulthier,  was  at  the  village  of  Louvres,  on 
the  road  and  railway  half-way  to  Senlis  or  Chantilly,  and 
under  cover  of  the  guns  of  Fort  Ecouen  behind  it.  A 
Reserve  corps,  under  General  de  Lamaze,  lay  immediately 
to  the  south-east,  at  Mesnil-Amelot;  and,  southward  to  the 
Marne  about  Lagny,  territorial  detachments  kept  up  a  loose 
contact  with  the  British  army.  This  had  continued  its  re- 
tirement to  the  Seine  on  the  4th,  evidently  with  the  idea  of 
tempting  Von  Kluck's  advance  guards  to  extend  themselves 
to  the  south-east  as  far  as  possible  without  taking  alarm. 
It  was  only  on  the  morning  of  the  6th  that  Sir  John 
French's  force  was  brought  back  north  to  fill  the  gap  be- 
tween the  French  6th  and  5th  Armies.  The  latter,  that  of 
General  Franchet  d'Esperey,  extended  over  the  Brie  plateau, 
with  its  center  north  of  Provins,  and  its  right  at  Esternay. 
Allenby's  and  Conneau's  Cavalry  Corps  covered  the  gap  be- 
tween French's  right  and  D'Espe'rey's  left,  and  made  a  show 
of  resisting  the  German  advance  about  Coulommiers. 

The  German  armies  concerned  in  this  part  of  the  field 
were  that  of  Von  Kluck  (1st)  and  a  part  of  Von  Billow's 


158 


THE  ONSLAUGHT 


(2nd).  The  latter  had  come  due  south  through  Laon,  Sois- 
sons,  and  Chateau-Thierry.  Von  Kluck's  force,  consisting 
of  the  2nd,  4th  Keserve,  4th,  3rd,  and  7th  Army  Corps  with 
the  2nd  and  9th  Divisions  of  cavalry,  in  its  crescent-like 
detour,  had  gone,  near  Amiens,  well  to  the  west  of  Paris, 
and  was  now  drawing  in  toward  a  point  fifty  miles  east 
thereof — a  very  considerable  deflection.    The  2nd  Corps  pur- 


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Battle  of  the  Ourcq. 

French  Qth  Army   (black)  :   7th  Corps,  positions  on   September  6th  and  9th  ; 

Lamaze's    Reserve    Corps,    position    September    6th    to    9th ;    4th    Corps, 

September  9th. 
German  1st  Army   (shaded)  :   2nd  Corps,   September  6th  :  4th   Reserve  Corps, 

September    7th    to    9th ;    9th    Cavalry    Div.,    September    7th ;    Landwehr, 

September  9th. 
British  advance  toward  the  Ourcq  and  Chateau  Thierry. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MARNE  159 

sued  the  main  road  from  Creil  to  Meaux,  through  Senlis 
and  Nanteuil-le-Haudouin;  the  4th  Reserve  that  from  Com- 
piegne  through  Crepy-en-Valois.  The  whole,  or  the  greater 
part,  of  these  were  left  on  the  Ourcq;  while  the  4th,  3rd,  and 
7th  Corps,  coming  south  mainly  through  Villers-Cotterets 
and  Chateau-Thierry,  went  on  across  the  Marne  in  pursuit 
of  General  d'Esperey,  with  the  two  cavalry  divisions  on 
their  right.  The  furthest  point  reached  by  Von  Kluck's 
advance  guard,  on  September  6,  was  the  little  village  of 
Courchamp,  just  north  of  Provins — thirty  miles  south-east 
of  Meaux,  and  sixty  miles  south-south-east  of  Compiegne. 
To  the  east  of  Von  Kluck,  the  four  corps  (9th,  10th,  10th 
Reserve,  and  Guards)  of  Von  Biilow  were  aiming  at 
D'Esperey's  right  and  the  newly  constituted  French  7th 
Army  under  General  Foch. 

The  statement  of  these  positions  indicates  the  nature  of 
the  counter-stroke  the  Allies  were  now  able  to  deliver. 
When  Sir  John  French  went  to  General  Joffre's  headquar- 
ters at  Clave,  on  the  road  from  Paris  to  Meaux,  on  Satur- 
day, September  5,  the  general  strategic  idea  was  so  evident 
and  simple  a  deduction  from  the  positions  and  balance  of 
forces  that  everyone  must  have  been  feverishly  anxious 
lest  the  wonderful  opportunity  should  be  snatched  away 
at  the  last  moment.  Von  Kluck's  main  body  was  to  be 
caught  in  the  angle  of  the  Ourcq  and  Marne  by  means  of 
the  strategical  reserve,  and  struck  at  once  in  flank  and 
face,  while  the  fore-part  of  his  line  was  being  crumpled 
up  thirty  miles  away  on  the  Brie  plateau.  If  he  should 
retreat  eastward,  he  would  upset  Von  Billow's  ranks;  if  due 
north,  he  would  draw  Von  Biilow  with  him.  In  either  case, 
the  intended  concentration  of  attack  upon  the  French  center 
would  be  checked,  and  the  benefit  would  extend  to  the 
other  armies.  The  French  troops  went  into  this  momentous 
action  with  the  words  of  the  following  pointed  ordre  dtt  jour 
by  the  Generalissimo  ringing  in  their  ears :  "  At  the 
moment  of  the  opening  of  a  battle  upon  which  the  safety 


160  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

of  the  country  depends,  it  must  be  recalled  to  every  man 
that  this  is  no  time  to  look  backward.  All  efforts  must  be 
made  to  attack  and  repel  the  enemy.  A  troop  which  can  no 
longer  advance  must,  at  whatever  cost,  hold  the  ground 
won,  and  let  itself  be  killed  on  the  spot  rather  than  retreat. 
In  the  present  circumstances,  no  failing  can  be  tolerated." 

On  Sunday,  the  6th,  General  Maunoury  began  his  attempt 
to  turn  the  German  right  rear;  while  the  British  and  the 
French  5th,  7th,  and  4th  armies  faced  round  against  the 
front  of  their  various  pursuers,  and  the  3rd  Army  attacked 
westward  from  Verdun.  First,  on  the  extreme  left,  Gen- 
eral Lamaze  advanced  his  Reserve  Corps  from  Mesnil- 
Amelot  to  the  line  of  the  narrow-gauge  railway  on  the  hills 
above  Meaux.  Here  he  came  upon  the  German  4th  Reserve 
Corps,  posted  on  the  heights  above  the  villages  of  Montge, 
Cuisy,  Monthyon,  and  Iverny.  One  by  one,  these  points  were 
taken;  and,  at  night,  the  French  had  reached  the  villages 
of  Chambry,  Barcy,  and  Mareilly,  directly  north  of  Meaux. 
The  7th  Corps,  under  General  Vauthier,  had  advanced  to 
Lamaze's  left,  and,  by  evening,  continued  the  front  north- 
eastward from  Puisieux,  through  Acy-en-Multien,  to  Eta- 
vigny,  pushing  back  the  outposts  of  the  German  2nd  Corps 
on  the  west  side  of  the  Ourcq. 

During  the  morning,  the  British  force,  now  strength- 
ened to  five  divisions,  with  five  cavalry  brigades,  advanced 
from  the  Seine  to  positions  between  Villeneuve-le-Comte 
and  Jouy-le-Chatel  (on  the  road  from  Lagny  to  Provins), 
where  it  was  more  or  less  concealed  by  the  forest  of  Crecy. 
In  the  afternoon,  it  moved  rapidly  forward  to  the  north- 
east, sweeping  through  the  cavalry  which  covered  Von 
Kluck's  flank;  and  during  the  night,  after  several  hours' 
fighting  in  the  streets,  its  center  was  established  in  the 
market-town  of  Coulommiers.  The  German  commander 
now  knew  that  his  army  was  in  danger  of  being  cut  in 
two,  divided  from  its  line  of  communications,  and  extin- 
guished piecemeal.    He  could  not  save  everything;  that  he 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MARNE  161 

saved  so  much  is  proof  of  great  skill  and  energy,  and  a  re- 
markable courage  and  endurance  in  his  exhausted  troops. 
His  reply  to  the  threat  was  to  draw  back  in  a  north-easterly 
direction,  toward  Chateau-Thierry,  the  three  forward  corps 
which  were  at  grips  with  the  British  and  5th  French 
Armies,  and  to  strengthen  the  stand  of  the  2nd  and  4th 
Reserve  Corps  against  the  attack  amid  the  watercourses 
of  the  Ourcq-Marne  angle.  Unfortunately  for  them,  the 
Germans  on  the  Ourcq  could  not  make  a  double  front — west- 
ward against  Maunoury,  and  southward  against  the  advanc- 
ing British. 

On  the  morning  of  September  7,  Maunoury  at  first  made 
further  progress  toward  the  Ourcq.  Then  the  German  4th 
Reserve  Corps  advanced,  and  intrenched  itself  between 
Trocy  and  Vareddes.  Its  right  was  supported  by  the  2nd 
Corps,  the  two  facing  west  over  the  rolling  fields,  with  the 
wooded  ravine  of  the  Ourcq  behind  them,  and  the  hill  run- 
ning down  to  Meaux  on  their  left.  Later  in  the  day,  the 
German  9th  Cavalry  Division,  withdrawn  from  the  British 
front,  was  brought  back  over  the  Marne,  and,  through 
Lizy-sur-Ourcq,  round  toward  Betz.  The  French  north 
wing  was  thus  seriously  menaced.  The  7th  Corps  was  dis- 
lodged from  Acy  by  an  attack  of  the  German  2nd  Corps; 
and,  at  nightfall,  its  exposed  left  was  threatened  at  Eta- 
vigny.  The  fighting  continued  through  the  night;  and,  on 
the  8th,  while  Lamaze's  Reserve  Corps  maintained  its  posi- 
tions, the  7th  Corps  was  compelled  to  fall  back  to  Bouil- 
lancy  and  Villers-St.  Genest.  The  German  artillery  was 
in  great  strength;  destroyed  villages  and  fields  torn  with 
shell-fire  marked  the  fierceness  of  the  struggle. 

While  the  success  of  the  first  phase  of  General  Joffre's 
maneuver  was  thus  in  doubt,  the  second  phase  opened 
in  the  next  area  to  the  east.  On  September  7,  the  British 
force  strode  on  from  Coulommiers,  its  left  toward  the 
Marne,  its  right  toward  the  Petit  Morin,  General  de  Lisle's 
Cavalry  Brigade,  with  the  9th  Lancers  and  18th  Hussars, 


162 


THE  ONSLAUGHT 


showing  especial  vigor.  In  covering  the  German  retreat, 
the  2nd,  9th,  and  Guard  Cavalry  Divisions  were  severely- 
punished.  The  German  retirement  on  this  side  opened  to 
attack  the  right  flank  of  the  advanced  neighboring  force. 
This  was  the  opportunity  of  the  French  5th  Army.  Swing- 
ing his  left  forward  over  the  Brie  plateau,  D'Espe'rey 
reached  the  Grand  Morin,  at  La  Ferte  Gaucher  and  Ester- 
nay,  on  the  7th;  and  on  the  8th,  supported  by  the  British 
offensive,  he  drove  forward  to  the  Petit  Morin. 

D'Esperey's  attack  was  now  quickly  turned  against  the 
open  flank  of  Von  Biilow;  and  the  2nd  German  Army, 
driven  frontally  by  the  7th  French,  was  quickly  retreating 
beside  the  1st.  Thus,  as  we  shall  see,  General  Foch,  at  the 
French  center,  was  enabled  to  carry  on  the  general  move- 
ment. 

On  the  west,  the  progress  of  the  British  force  was  main- 


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SCALE  OF  MILES 


The  Battle  of  the  Makne. 

German  Armies:  I,  Von  Kluck ;  II,  Von  Biilow;  S,  Saxons;  IV,  Duke  of  Wiir- 

temberg. 
Allies:  6th  French  Army  (Maunoury)  ;  B,  British  (Sir  J.  French)  ;  5th  French 

Army   (D'Esp6rey)  ;  7th    (Foch)  ;  4th    (De  Langle  de  Cary). 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MARNE  163 

tained  throughout  the  Sth,  against  stout  opposition  by 
the  enemy  rear-guards  on  the  Petit  Morin.  "  The  First 
Army  Corps,"  wrote  Sir  John  French,  "  encountered  stub- 
born resistance  at  La  Tretoire,  north  of  Rebais.  The  enemy 
occupied  a  strong  position,  with  infantry  and  guns,  on  the 
northern  bank  of  the  river;  they  were  dislodged  with  con- 
siderable loss.  Several  machine-guns  and  many  prisoners 
were  captured,  and  upward  of  two  hundred  German  dead 
were  left  on  the  ground.  The  forcing  of  the  Petit  Morin 
at  this  point  was  much  assisted  by  the  cavalry  and  the  1st 
Division,  which  crossed  higher  up  the  stream.  Later  in 
the  day,  a  counter-attack  by  the  enemy  was  repulsed  by 
the  1st  Army  Corps,  a  great  many  prisoners  and  some 
guns  again  falling  into  our  hands.  On  this  day,  the  2nd 
Army  Corps  encountered  considerable  opposition,  but  drove 
back  the  enemy  at  all  points  with  great  loss,  making  con- 
siderable captures.  The  3rd  Corps  also  drove  back  large 
bodies  of  infantry  and  made  some  captures." 

The  French  on  the  Ourcq  were  now,  however,  very  hard 
pressed,  their  attempt  to  break  the  German  flank  being 
completely  arrested.  The  crisis  of  the  battle  on  the  Allied 
left  was  reached  on  the  fourth  day,  September  9,  when 
masterly  handling  of  the  situation  on  Von  Kluck's  flank 
and  front  (or  rear,  as  it  was  becoming)  decided  the  issue. 
The  morning  of  that  day  found  the  French  6th  Army  in 
great  difficulties.  The  moment  had  come  for  General  Joffre 
to  play  his  trump,  which  was  also  near  being  his  last,  card. 
An  army  corps  (the  4th)  of  troops  from  the  west  had  been 
gathered  under  General  Boelle,  and  rushed  up  from  Paris 
by  railw-ay,  and  by  a  great  fleet  of  taxicabs  and  miscel- 
laneous automobiles  hurriedly  requisitioned  by  General 
Gallieni,  to  Nanteuil — save  one  division,  sent  to  the  aid  of 
the  British.  Von  Kluck  had  also  strongly  re-enforced  his 
flank  guard  on  the  Ourcq;  and  the  new  arrivals,  including 
a  corps  of  Landwehr,  coming  up  by  way  of  Compiegne,  were 
thrown  round  the  north  end  of  the  French  lines.     While 


164  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

the  4th  French  Corps  held  out  at  this  side,  just  south  of 
Nanteuil  facing  north,  the  7th  Corps  and  Lamaze's  Corps, 
facing  east,  stood  firm  through  Bregy  and  Barcy  until,  in 
the  evening,  the  British  advance  from  the  south  brought 
decisive  relief. 

Sir  John  French  had  placed  his  3rd  Corps  at  the  difficult 
point  on  his  left  center — difficult  because  the  narrow  street- 
crossing  of  the  Marne  at  La  Ferte'-sous-Jouarre  was  reso- 
lutely held  by  a  strong  rear-guard  of  artillery  and  infantry. 
This  passage  of  the  river  was  not  won  till  night.  By  that 
time,  part  of  the  3rd  Corps  had  got  across  further  west 
at  the  village  of  Changis,  and  had  begun  to  bombard  the 
nearer  German  positions  on  the  Ourcq.  The  1st  and  2nd 
Corps  gained  the  north  bank  to  the  east  at  Charly  and 
Chateau-Thierry  and,  continuing  their  progress,  threatened 
to  cut  in  between  Von  Kluck's  and  Von  Billow's  lines. 
"  During  the  day's  pursuit,"  says  the  British  commander, 
"  the  enemy  suffered  heavy  losses  in  killed  and  wounded, 
some  hundreds  of  prisoners  fell  into  our  hands,  and  a 
battery  of  eight  machine-guns  was  captured  by  the  2nd 
Division."  At  Chateau-Thierry,  the  British  were  in  close 
contact  with  General  d'Espe"rey's  left,  which  had  cleared 
the  road  from  Montmirail,  "  after  most  serious  fighting," 
of  bodies  from  both  the  1st  and  2nd  German  Armies. 

During  the  night  of  September  9,  the  German  retreat 
from  the  Ourcq  to  the  Aisne  began.  There  was  no  longer 
any  reason  to  hold  this  line,  since  the  main  armies  were 
in  full  retreat;  and  there  was  every  reason  to  hurry  back 
beyond  the  Aisne  to  what  is  one  of  the  strongest  natural 
defensive  positions  in  France.  There  was  no  possibility 
of  an  immediate  resumption  of  the  offensive.  The  troops 
were  thoroughly  exhausted  by  three  weeks  of  uninterrupted 
marching  and  fighting.  Lines  of  communication,  supply, 
and  re-enforcement  must  be  re-formed.  The  "  smashing 
blow  "  had  not  been  delivered ;  the  famous  enveloping  move- 
ment had  failed;  a  new  plan  of  campaign  must  be  thought 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MARNE  165 

out.  Russia  was  demanding  more  and  more  attention; 
Austria-Hungary  must  be  helped,  or  disaster  might  ensue. 
Verdun  and  Nancy  had  proved  invulnerable.  For  the  mo- 
ment, at  least,  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  a  simple  de- 
fensive; and,  for  that,  what  better  center  could  there  be 
than  the  Laon  Mountains?  On  the  morning  of  September 
10,  the  retreat  from  the  Ourcq  was  undisguised.  The  red 
tide  of  battle  ebbed  from  the  stubble-fields  and  coppices 
on  the  hills  above  Meaux;  but  burning  farmsteads  and 
haystacks,  broken  bridges,  shattered  churches  and  houses, 
many  unburied  dead,  and  piles  of  abandoned  ammunition 
and  supplies  still  spoke  of  the  frightful  frenzy  that  had 
passed  over  a  scene  but  lately  marked  by  quiet  charm  and 
happy  labor.  In  the  orchards  and  folds  of  the  open  land, 
the  bodies  of  invader  and  defender  lay  over  against  each 
other,  sometimes  still  grappling.  Every  here  and  there, 
horses  rotted  on  the  roads  and  fields,  presently  to  be 
burned  on  pyres  of  wood,  under  fear  of  a  pestilence  arising. 
The  human  victims  had  been  generally  buried  in  the  trenches 
where  they  had  fought;  little  wooden  crosses  sometimes 
marked  these  great  common  graves. 

On  September  10,  General  Joffre  addressed  to  his  Gth 
Army  a  message  of  congratulation  and  thanks  in  which  he 
said:  "The  struggle  has  been  hard;  the  losses  under  fire, 
and  from  fatigue  due  to  lack  of  sleep,  and  sometimes  of 
food,  have  surpassed  what  could  be  anticipated;  you  have 
borne  it  all  with  a  valor,  firmness,  and  endurance  that  words 
are  powerless  to  glorify  as  they  deserve.  Comrades!  the 
Commander-in-Chief  asked  you,  in  the  name  of  our  country, 
to  do  more  than  your  duty:  you  have  responded  even  be- 
yond what  seemed  possible.  Thanks  to  you,  victory  crowns 
our  flags.  Now  that  you  know  the  glorious  satisfaction  of 
it,  you  will  not  let  it  slip  away.  As  for  me,  if  I  have  done 
some  good,  I  have  been  repaid  by  the  greatest  honor  that 
has  been  granted  me  in  a  long  career:  that  of  commanding 
such  men  as  you." 


166  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

Some  of  Von  Kluck's  columns  went  due  northward 
through  Villers-Cotterets  and  Pierrefonds  to  Vic-sur-Aisne 
and  Attichy.  For  several  days,  there  was  much  scattered 
fighting  on  their  west  flank,  in  the  wooded  district  between 
Dammartin  and  Senlis.  It  was  hardly  realized  by  the 
Allies  that  the  enemy  was  not  so  badly  beaten  as  to  forget 
the  importance  of  holding,  about  Noyon,  his  main  line  of 
railway  communications.  The  main  body  of  the  two  first 
German  armies  raced  north-eastward,  through  La  Ferte"- 
Milon  or  Oulchy-le-Chateau,  to  Soissons,  spreading  out 
thence  to  right  and  left  over  the  hillsides;  or  through 
Braisne  and  Fismes  (on  the  Vesle)  to  Vailly  and  the  Cra- 
onne  plateau.  The  chase  was  hard,  fast,  and  bloody.  In 
one  day,  the  British  1st  and  2nd  Corps  and  cavalry  took 
thirteen  guns,  seven  machine-guns,  about  2,000  prisoners, 
and  quantities  of  transport.  The  Royal  Flying  Corps  did 
invaluable  service,  as  General  Joffre  testified  in  a  special 
message  to  Sir  John  French.  In  the  woods  north  of 
Chateau-Thierry  and  around  Villers-Cotterets,  small  parties 
of  desperate  Germans  fled  and  hid  themselves,  in  hope  of 
reaching  their  fellows  under  cover  of  night.  Many,  no 
doubt,  succeeded  in  doing  so;  others  were  hunted  down,  or 
came  out  and  surrendered  in  a  half-starving  condition. 

The  spoil  brought  into  Paris  during  the  next  few  days 
from  different  parts  of  the  vast  battlefield  included  60 
cannon,  30  mitrailleuses,  about  40  gun-carriages,  train- 
loads  of  arms,  ammunition,  and  other  material,  three  aero- 
planes, and  a  number  of  motor-wagons.  But  the  spectacle 
of  booty,  always  fallacious,  was  in  this  case  peculiarly  so. 
The  main  body  of  the  German  host  was  intact.  It  was 
checked,  but  not  routed;  driven  back,  but  not  dispersed. 
The  skill  and  speed  of  the  retreat  were  very  remarkable; 
and  still  more  so  was  the  preservation  of  the  long  German 
line,  to  the  other  parts  of  which  we  must  now  turn. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MARNE  167 

III.  Center:  The  Retreat  in  Champagne. 

It  will  be  convenient  to  consider  this  section  of  the  field 
in  three  parts:  (a)  The  western,  bounded  on  the  west  by  a 
line  running  due  north  from  Esternay  on  the  Grand  Morin, 
through  Dormans  on  the  Maine,  aud  Fismes  on  the  Vesle, 
to  Berry-au-Bac  on  the  Aisne;  and  on  the  east  by  a  line 
drawn  northward  just  beyond  Fere-Ckampenoise,  Epernay, 
and  Rheiras.  The  southern  portion  of  this  area  is  the 
plateau  of  Sezanne,  which  falls  abruptly  on  the  east  into 
the  plain  of  Champagne;  its  chief  physical  feature,  for  our 
present  purpose,  has  been  mentioned :  the  half-reclaimed 
marsbland  from  which  the  Petit  Morin  rises,  known  as  the 
Marais  de  Saint  Gond.  The  northern  portion  contains  the 
great  city  of  Rheims,  and,  on  either  side  of  it,  the  eastern 
end  of  the  Laon  Mountains,  at  Craonne,  and  the  wooded 
massif  called  the  Mountain  of  Rheims,  both,  like  the  Sezanne 
plateau,  falling  abruptly  on  the  east  into  the  bare  flatland 
called  La  Champagne  Pouilleuse.  Here  the  7th  French  Army, 
under  General  Foch,  faced  the  left  of  Von  Billow's  army, 
including  the  Prussian  Guard,  and  some  fragments  of  the 
Saxon  army  lately  under  Von  Hausen.  (6)  The  plain  of 
Champagne  extending  northwards  from  Vitry-la-Frangois 
through  Chalons,  to  the  river  Suippe.  Here  General  de 
Langle  de  Gary  faced  the  army  of  the  Duke  of  Wiirtem- 
berg.  (c)  The  eastern  area,  consisting  of  the  sub-alpine 
Argonne  Forest  and  the  hill  region  about  the  west  bank  of 
the  Meuse,  including  its  great  fortress  Verdun  only  so  far 
as  operations  on  the  west  are  concerned.  Here,  with  some 
help  from  General  Sarrail,  the  left  of  the  4th  French  Army, 
had  to  meet  the  attack  of  the  Duke  of  Wiirtemberg's  army, 
to  which  most  of  the  remaining  Saxon  troops  were  appended, 
while  its  right  coped  with  that  of  the  Prussian  Crown 
Prince. 

(a)  Foch  had  instructions  to  maintain  the  defensive  until 
the  result  of  the  first  phase  of  the  battle  of  the  Marne  was 


168 


THE  ONSLAUGHT 


declared ;  and,  based  upon  the  Esternay-Vitry  highroad  and 
railway,  between  Sezanne  and  Mailly  (just  south  of  Som- 
mesous),  he  fought  for  three  days  an  obstinate  defensive 
action  against  Von  Billow's  left  wing  and  some  of  the 
Saxon  troops.     It  is  difficult  to  see  how  a  piercing  of  the 


The  Centek:  Scene  of  Foch's  Success. 

French  line  at  this  point  would  have  redeemed  the  German 
position,  though  it  would,  of  course,  have  encouraged  new 
efforts.  At  any  rate,  Von  Biilow  spared  no  sacrifice;  and 
on  September  8  the  right  of  the  new  French  army  was 
pressed  back  as  far  as  the  village  of  Gourgangon.  Early 
on  the  following  morning  it  fell  back  a  mile  or  two  further, 
the  attacking  forces  coming  on  from  both  sides  of  Fere- 
Champenoise.  They  consisted,  in  the  main,  of  picked 
troops.  The  Prussian  Guard  Corps,  30,000  strong,  with  75 
cannon  and  200  machine-guns,  had  hurried  south,  chiefly  by 
the  two  highroads  which  run  from  Eheims  to  Se'zanne  and 
Fere-Champenoise,  but  necessarily,  also,  by  lesser  interme- 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MARNE  169 

diate  country  roads.  Of  the  latter,  several  cross  the  St. 
Gond  marshes  between  St.  Frix  and  Morains.  Being 
checked,  between  St.  Prix  and  Sezanne,  and  finding  here 
a  firm  clay  surface  under  the  long  grass,  the  Guards  dug 
trenches  and  placed  their  guns.  The  position  on  the  morn- 
ing of  September  9  was  this :  on  the  west,  General  Franchet 
d'Esperey  had  reached  Montmirail  (13  miles  north-west  of 
Sezanne)  on  the  previous  day.  The  right  flank  of  the 
Guards  was  thus  completely  exposed,  while  the  German 
left  was  extended  to  the  south-east  of  Fere-Champenoise. 
Foch  immediately  saw  and  took  advantage  of  the  weakness 
of  the  position.  First  his  Moorish  Division  was  sent  charg- 
ing up  the  Sezanne-St.  Prix  road ;  and  in  the  evening  his 
left  army  corps  followed.  This  bold  assault  at  once  re- 
lieved the  pressure  on  the  right,  which  joined  in  the  offen- 
sive. And  now  there  happened  one  of  those  historic 
"  accidents  "  as  we  call  them,  or  "  miracles  "  as  the  ancients 
would  have  said  confidently,  because  of  the  abnormality 
of  result.  We  had  had  several  showery  days  at  the  end  of 
August  and  the  beginning  of  September.  That  Wednesday 
evening,  it  blew  a  half-gale,  and  poured  cats-and-dogs,  along 
the  Marne  Valley  and  the  Sezanne  plateau.  The  clay  pocket 
of  St.  Gond  immediately  became  a  quagmire;  and,  when 
Foch  came  down  on  their  flank,  by  the  solid  main  roads, 
the  gunners  were  up  to  their  knees,  and  their  gun-carriages 
up  to  the  axles,  in  muddy  water.  A  fearful  slaughter  by 
the  French  "  75's "  and  larger  guns  followed,  in  which 
thousands  of  the  picked  German  troops  were  overwhelmed. 
A  week  after  the  battle,  peasants  crossing  the  marshy  roads 
found  wounded  men  still  alive  amid  their  dead  fellows. 
The  horror  of  the  scene  is  not  to  be  described. 

Joffre  and  Foch  knew,  of  course — did  they  remember, 
when  they  planned  their  victory? — that  this  was  an  ancient 
death-trap?  Nearly  all  the  place-names  of  the  battle  of  the 
Marne  of  1914  are  to  be  found  in  the  histories  of  Napoleon's 
campaign  of  1814  "  from  the  Rhine  to  Fontainebleau,"  as 


170  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

Segur  called  it.  Bliicher  retreated  from  the  Ourcq  to  Sois- 
sons,  and  there  escaped,  to  the  enragement  of  a  greater 
than  Joffre;  and  both  the  French  and  the  Allies  of  a  cen- 
tury ago  learned  to  their  cost  the  treachery  of  the  Petit 
Morin  marshes.  It  was  shown  in  the  beginning  of  that 
extraordinary  week  in  which  Napoleon,  against  overwhelm- 
ing numbers,  won  the  victories  of  Champaubert,  Montmi- 
rail,  Chateau-Thierry,  and  Vauchamp.  The  name  still 
survives,  though  little  else,  between  the  villages  of  Fromen- 
tieres  and  Champaubert,  of  the  Bois  du  Desert,  into  which 
Bliicher  beat  his  retreat,  not  knowing  its  boggy  character. 
Three  thousand  Russian  grenadiers  were  here  slain  or  cap- 
tured by  Marmont's  cuirassiers ;  two  hundred  were  drowned 
in  the  marshes;  and  fifteen  hundred  more  gave  themselves 
up  to  the  peasants.  A  few  days  afterward  Bliicher,  Kleist, 
Kapsewicz,  and  Prince  Augustus  of  Prussia  themselves  nar- 
rowly escaped  capture  in  the  neighboring  woods  of  Etoges. 
A  month  later,  "  Marshal  Vorwaerts  "  was  back  from  Laon, 
attacking  on  the  old  ground  as  though  memory  brought  no 
fears  to  him.  Marmont  and  Mortier  were  in  full  retreat 
along  the  highroad  to  Fere-Champenoise,  their  men 
harassed  on  every  side,  and  blinded  by  a  storm  of  rain. 
Pachod  turned  north  to  the  marshes  of  St.  Gond,  as  to  a 
refuge.  The  Russians  and  Prussians  soon  surrounded  them 
— 40,000  cavalry  and  80  guns,  against  2,000  soldiers  of  the 
line  and  4,000  National  Guards.  The  Emperor  Alexander 
directed  his  own  troops.  A  few  hundreds  only  of  the  French 
escaped  by  the  St.  Prix  road.  "  Splendid  misfortune ! "  ex- 
claims Segur.  "  Guards  truly  National !  Noble  victims ! 
In  what  monument  will  the  Fatherland  offer  to  your  de- 
scendants the  memory  of  a  devotion  more  sublime?  " 

The  great  stone  column  in  the  fields  at  Champaubert — 
which  the  Prussians  of  our  day  passed,  but  did  not  touch 
— commemorates,  in  fact,  Napoleon's  victories,  not  any 
"  splendid  misfortune  "  of  his  victim  subjects.  So  it  will 
ever  be  while  men  pursue  this  maniacal  vision  of  armed 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MARNE  171 

conquest.  To-day,  with  a  little  difference,  history  repeats 
itself;  and  the  bones  of  some  thousands  of  German  and 
French  peasants  and  workmen  rot,  as  the  bones  of  other 
thousands  of  their  forbears  rotted  a  hundred  years  ago,  in 
the  bogs  of  the  Sezanne  plateau,  while  we  discuss  the 
butchery  as  though  it  were  a  move  in  a  game  of  chess. 

(6)  Meanwhile,  on  Foclrs  right,  the  Duke  of  Wurtem- 
berg's  army  was  in  a  hardly  less  grave  predicament.  It 
had  reached  further  south  than  its  neighbors,  beyond  Vitry; 
but  the  Saxon  troops  on  its  west  wing  were  a  very  weak 
element.  Foch's  right  had  been  engaged  with  them  for  two 
days  when  the  Prussian  Guard,  perhaps  to  relieve  them, 
entered  the  St.  Gond  marshes.  The  little  town  of  Fere- 
Champenoise  and  the  village  of  Sommesous  (source  of  the 
Somme),  between  which  the  hardest  fighting  took  place, 
have  a  certain  military  interest  as  road  and  railway  junc- 
tions on  the  great  Paris-Nancy  highway,  with  lines  from 
Troyes  and  the  south  running  through  the  former  to  Eper- 
nay,  through  the  latter  to  Chalons.  Vitry-le-Francois,  an 
ancient  and  once  fortified  town  of  9,000  inhabitants,  on  the 
Marne  and  the  Rhine-Marne  Canal,  is  a  more  important 
place.  Here  the  Duke  of  Wurtemberg  had  his  headquarters, 
and  good  road  communication  with  those  of  the  Crown 
Prince  at  Ste.  Menehould,  the  gate  of  the  Argonne.  The 
4th  French  Army  (De  Langle  de  Cary)  lost  Vitry  on  Sep- 
tember 6,  but  resisted  continually,  and  kept  touch  wTith  the 
south-western  end,  now  most  dangerously  extended,  of  the 
army  of  Verdun.  Repeated  assaults  were  made  upon  the 
Wurtemberg  positions,  as  well  as  upon  those  of  the  Crown 
Prince,  whose  men  (if  we  may  judge  by  results)  were 
largely  occupied  in  sacking  the  villages  around  Revigny. 
There  are  indications  that  the  French  artillery  was  particu- 
larly powerful,  and  that  these  German  armies  were  expe- 
riencing, as  would  seem  natural,  difficulty  in  bringing  up 
supplies.  That  they  realized  the  critical  character  of  the 
next  actions  is  testified  by  an  army  order  issued  in  Vitry 


172  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

on  the  night  of  September  7,  and  signed  by  Lieutenant-Gen- 
eral Tiilff  von  Tschepe  und  Weidenbach :  "  The  object  of  our 
long,  hard  marches  has  been  attained.  The  chief  French 
troops  have  been  forced  to  accept  battle  after  their  con- 
tinual retreat.  The  great  decision  is  at  hand.  ...  I  ex- 
pect every  officer  and  man,  notwithstanding  the  hard  and 
heroic  fighting  of  the  last  few  days,  to  do  his  duty  unswerv- 
ingly and  to  the  last  breath.  Everything  depends  on  the 
result  of  to-morrow." 

The  words  echo  those  of  General  Joffre:  the  difference — 
and  it  is  vital — lies  in  the  dates.  It  is  the  difference  of  the 
two  days  in  which  the  first  two  German  armies  had  been 
turned  back.  The  center  had  discovered  the  crisis  two  days 
late.  It  was  dangerously  late  when,  on  the  morning  of 
September  10,  General  Foch  was  driving  the  remnants  of 
Von  Billow's  best  troops  like  chaff  before  him  along  the 
roads  from  Sezanne  and  Fere-Champenoise  which  converge 
at  Rheims.  This  victory  was  so  swift  and  complete  that  it 
left  strength  for  another  bold  operation ;  and  Foch  immedi- 
ately threw  a  large  body  eastward  over  the  edge  of  the 
Sezanne  plateau  against  the  flank  of  the  Wtirtemberg  army, 
now  weakened  by  the  withdrawal  of  the  exhausted  Saxon 
regiments.  On  the  same  day,  De  Langle  de  Cary  was  re-en- 
forced by  an  army  corps,  and  took  the  offensive.  Perhaps 
Duke  Albrecht  had  by  now  received  orders  to  fall  back  to 
the  line  of  the  Aisne,  parallel  with  Yon  Bulow  and  Von 
Kluck;  he  should  certainly  know  that  Von  Billow's  army 
was  already  retreating  far  to  the  north-west.  There  was, 
in  fact,  no  time  to  win  a  victory,  even  if  he  had  power  to 
do  so,  for  in  a  few  hours  the  northern  roads  would  be  cut 
off.  To  check  the  immediate  threat,  a  bloody  struggle  was 
maintained  throughout  the  day,  between  Fere-Champe- 
noise and  the  Marne;  during  the  night,  the  men  were  with- 
drawn from  their  trenches,  and  started  upon  a  forced  march 
over  the  plains  to  the  Suippes  Valley,  fifty  miles  north  of 
Vitry. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MARNE  173 

At  7  a.m.  on  September  12,  a  patrol  of  French  Chasseurs 
re-entered  Chalons,  and  during  the  morning  General  Foch 
followed.  The  town  had  been  held  since  the  afternoon  of 
September  4,  under  General  von  Seydewitz,  who  took  sev- 
eral leading  citizens  as  hostages,  and  extorted,  in  addition 
to  daily  rations  for  his  troops,  a  war  contribution  of  506,000 
francs  (about  £20,000).  During  the  week,  there  was  a  good 
deal  of  pillaging  of  shops  and  houses ;  but  no  part  of  the  city 
was  destroyed,  and  the  acting-mayor  afterward  testified  that 
there  had  been  no  acts  of  violence  against  women.  Von 
Billow's  troops  had  all  reached  Epernay  on  September  9, 
10,  and  11,  and  had  retired  on  the  latter  day  to  the  north 
of  Rheims,  which  was  then  reoccupied  by  the  French.  The 
later  German  fugitives  at  Chalons,  therefore,  must  all  have 
gone  north-eastward  to  Suippes,  and  to  the  railway  line  run- 
ning across  the  plain  of  Champagne  from  Bazancourt  to 
the  northern  end  of  the  Argonne  at  Grand  Pre  and 
Varennes.  In  this  region  they  soon  dug  themselves  in  as 
securely  as  did  Von  Kluck  and  Von  Btilow  in  the  more 
favorable  ground  to  the  west. 

(c)  The  Crown  Prince's  army  entered  the  small  town  of 
Revigny,  on  the  river  Ornain,  twenty  miles  south  of  Ste. 
Menehould,  twenty-five  miles  west  of  the  Meuse  at  St. 
Mihiel,  and  thirty  miles  south-west  of  Verdun,  on  Septem- 
ber 6.  It  was  a  dangerous  position,  between  the  army  of 
Verdun  and  the  garrison  of  Toul  on  the  east,  and  De  Langle 
de  Cary's  army  on  the  west,  with  a  frail  line  of  communica- 
tions behind  interrupted  by  the  forest  block  of  the  Ar- 
gonne.    But  how  tempting  for  a  bold  and  able  soldier! 

Sitting  behind  the  veil  of  the  censorship  in  Paris,  the 
eastern  danger  seemed  to  me  so  plain  that  it  must  dominate 
the  German  plan  of  campaign.  "  As,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  war"  (I  wrote  on  September  7),  "  we  had  our  eyes  too 
closely  fixed  on  the  eastern  frontiers,  so,  more  lately,  we 
have  thought  almost  exclusively  of  the  north-west  of  France 
and  the  long  line  of  communications  round  Brussels  to  Aix- 


174  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

la-Chapelle.  Next,  the  possibility  of  a  siege  of  Paris  hyp- 
notized us ;  and  the  German  advance  seemed  to  shape  itself 
as  a  wedge,  a  triangle  with  its  base  reaching  from  Lille  to 
Sedan,  and  its  sides  compressed  inward  till  they  met  at  an 
apex  just  northward  of  Paris — the  objective  of  the  whole 
movement.  Little  was  known  of  what  was  going  on  out- 
side this  imaginary  triangle,  except  that  there  were  few 
Germans  to  the  west  (the  Dieppe-Paris  trains  have  never 
stopped)  and  that,  far  to  the  east,  what  we  may  call  the 
armies  of  Nancy  and  Metz  were  engaged  in  a  vast  deadlock. 
Such  was  the  conception.  It  flattered  us.  It  was  a  wrong 
conception.  .  .  .  An  incidental  aim  (of  Von  Kluck's  turn 
south-eastward)  may  be  to  reach  the  southern  and  somewhat 
less  fortified  side  of  Paris.  But  I  think  the  whole  idea  is 
something  much  larger  and  bolder.  Let  us  ask  what  are 
the  chief  necessities  of  an  army  situated  as  this  now  is? 
They  are  (1)  to  get  out  of  reach  of  the  Belgians  now  wait- 
ing in  Antwerp,  (2)  to  keep  as  far  away  as  possible  from 
the  ever-increasing  British  contingents,  (3)  to  immobilize 
the  army  of  Paris,  (4)  to  reduce  the  long  line  of  communi- 
cations and  recover  direct  touch  with  the  Rhineland,  (5) 
while  accomplishing  these  ends,  if  possible  to  smash  the 
other  French  armies,  and  then  (6)  when  the  German  armies 
are  united,  to  march  toward  either  Berlin  or  Paris,  as  cir- 
cumstances direct.  The  avoidance  of  Paris  and  the  double 
concentration  toward  the  south-east  appear  to  meet  the 
requirements  of  this  analysis.  The  army  which  has  come 
south  from  Mons  and  Charleroi  will  presently  join  the 
other  army  or  armies  coming  from  the  Ardennes  and  Lux- 
emburg. But  this  junction  will  mean  that  there  is  no 
longer  a  German  army  isolated  in  the  west,  with  an  intol- 
erable train  behind  it,  but  only  a  still  stronger  army  in  the 
east  having  a  direct  line  to  its  bases  in  Luxemburg  and  the 
Middle  Rhine.  This  immense  strategical  overturn  may  in- 
volve the  abandonment  of  Belgium  and  northern  France  by 
the   Germans.     In   revenge,   it  immediately   threatens   the 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MARNE  175 

French  armies  before  the  Vosges  with  a  rear  attack.  If 
they  resist,  they  must  fight  on  two  fronts.  If  they  fall  back 
to  the  south-west,  as  would  seem  probable,  the  German  hosts 
will  join  hands,  and  a  new  war  will  begin." 

We  shall  see  presently  that,  at  this  critical  moment,  the 
French  line  of  the  Meuse  was  very  near  being  pierced,  by 
the  fall  of  Fort  Troyon;  and  it  is  highly  probable  that,  if 
the  Crown  Prince  had  been  an  abler  and  more  daring  com- 
mander, it  might  have  been  broken  through,  Verdun  com- 
pletely invested,  the  French  army  of  Lorraine  compelled  to 
retire  south,  and  the  whole  complexion  of  the  campaign 
changed.  Instead,  his  men  were  burning  down  and  pillag- 
ing the  small  towns  and  villages  between  Vitry  and  Bar-le- 
Duc,  in  the  intervals  of  assault  by  De  Langle  de  Cary  and 
Sarrail.  Not  that  the  power  of  these  attacks  can  be  depre- 
ciated. There  was  a  four-days'  battle  near  Triaucourt  on 
September  4-8;  and,  just  south  of  Revigny,  hard  fighting 
took  place,  from  Sermaize  on  the  west  through  Vassincourt 
to  Mogneville,  on  the  10th.  The  retirement  northward  then 
began,  the  last  German  troops  leaving  Revigny  on  Septem- 
ber 12.  The  strategical  importance  of  the  Argonne  now 
declared  itself,  as  it  had  not  done  when  the  Crown  Prince 
had  only  retreating  armies  before  him,  and  when  he  held 
the  southern  as  well  as  the  northern  roads  round  this 
region,  and  the  rare  roads  through  it. 

Counting  from  the  Gap  of  Grand  Pre  on  the  north  to  the 
Villers-Triaucourt  road  on  the  south,  the  Argonne  stretches 
twenty-three  miles  nearly  north-to-south  (the  portion  be- 
yond Grand  Pre,  and  the  woods  of  Belval  and  Belnoue  near 
Triaucourt,  we  need  not  now  consider).  This  range  of 
thickly  forested  clay  hills  constitutes  an  important  ob- 
stacle, secondary  to  the  Heights  of  the  Meuse,  to  an  invasion 
of  France  from  the  east;  and,  though  it  does  not  equally 
obstruct  invasion  from  the  north — its  average  width  being 
only  six  miles — it  compels  the  invader  either  to  neglect  the 
plain  eastward  toward  the  Meuse,  or  to  divide  his  forces. 


176 


THE  ONSLAUGHT 


MILE  S 
2      3     4     5 


When  the  German  retreat  began,  the  French  at  once  re- 
sumed possession  of  the  Triaucourt  road  to  the  Meuse;  but 
the  great  highway  from  Paris  to  Verdun  was  still  beyond 
them.  The  Germans  not  only  held  the  Gap  of  Grand  Pr6, 
where  the  Aire,  coming  up  the  east  side  of  the  Argonne, 

joins  the  Aisne, 
coming  up  its 
west  side,  and 
where  two  lines 
of  railway 
unite  after 
crossing  Cham- 
pagne  from 
the  Rheiras- 
R  e  t  h  e  1  main- 
line. They  held 
also  the  direct 
Paris  -  Verdun 
highroad  and 
railway,  which 
penetrate  the 
Argonne  by 
the  defile  of 
L  e  s  Islettes, 
and  the  only 
two  other  prac- 
ticable roads 
across  the  For- 
e  s  t  ( between 
V  i  1  1  e  -  s  u  r  - 
Tourbe  and  Va- 
rennes),  the  im- 
portance  of 
which  was  to 
appear  later  in 
the    campaign. 


The  Argonne. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MARNE  177 

The  western  entry  to  the  defile  of  Les  Islettes  is  at  the  small, 
ancient  town  of  Ste.  Menehould ;  the  eastern  is  at  Clermont- 
en-Argonne.  Whether  the  Crown  Prince's  chief  instructions 
were  to  advance  south,  or  to  attack  Verdun,  we  do  not  know. 
But  his  headquarters  at  Ste.  Menehould  were  just  equidistant 
from  Verdun,  which  he  never  attained,  and  the  villages  near 
Revigny,  which  he  left  in  ruins. 

When  the  retreat  of  the  western  German  armies  to  the 
Aisne  was  determined,  we  must  suppose  the  consequential 
movement  in  Champagne  and  the  Argonne  to  have  been 
carefully  considered.  Could  a  line  sloping  slightly  south- 
ward beyond  Rheims,  along  the  Suippes  Valley,  to  the  Les 
Islettes  ravine,  be  held — the  main  road  from  Rheims  to  Ste. 
Menehould?  Only  so  could  the  western  attack  upon  Ver- 
dun be  maintained.  But  Rheims,  in  French  hands,  would 
have  made  a  dangerous  salient,  and  Ste.  Menehould  would 
have  been  open  to  attack  from  west,  south,  and  east  at 
once.  The  decision  was  to  draw  the  armies  of  the  Duke  of 
Wurtemberg  and  the  Crown  Prince  back  to  a  line  running 
from  Berry-au-Bac  to  the  Aisne,  through  Souain,  Ville-sur- 
Tourbe,  and  Varenne,  to  the  district  north  of  Verdun.  Here 
they  would  have  behind  them  the  two  railways  which  unite 
to  run  through  the  Gap  of  Grand  Pre.  But  the  hope  of 
reducing  Verdun,  or  of  breaking  through  the  chain  of  the 
Meuse  forts,  was  abandoned — perhaps,  the  most  momentous 
of  all  the  results  of  the  battle  of  the  Marne.  The  Crown 
Prince  pitched  his  tent  on  the  feudal  eyrie  of  MontfauQon. 
General  Sarrail  picked  up  his  direct  communications  with 
Paris,  drew  in  his  western  wing,  and  faced  round  to  Metz. 
On  this  side  of  France,  at  least,  the  worst  days  were  over. 

Thus,  all  along  the  line  of  170  miles,  the  battle  of  the 
Marne  was  a  success  for  the  Allies.  The  offensive  of  Mau- 
noury  and  Sir  John  French,  on  September  G,  almost  imme- 
diately determined  Von  Kluck's  retreat,  though  he  defended 
his  flank  on  the  Ourcq  till  the  night  of  the  9th.  By  that 
time,  D'Esperey  was  at  Montmirail,  and  Foch's  offensive 


178  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

was  beginning.  On  the  night  of  the  10th,  the  retirement  of 
the  Wiirtembergers  began;  and  two  days  later  the  Imperial 
Crown  Prince  followed.  As  a  French  official  statement 
says :  "  Each  army,  opening  the  road  to  its  neighbor,  and 
at  the  same  time  supported  by  it,  took  in  flank  the  adver- 
sary which  the  day  before  it  had  attacked  in  front."  Thus, 
the  whole  victory  was  due  chiefly  to  the  strategical  idea 
upon  which  the  recoil  was  planned.  This  conclusion  de- 
stroys the  belief,  with  which  I  approached  the  subject,  that, 
in  modern  warfare,  any  bold,  large  strategy  had  become  im- 
possible ;  but  the  facts  do  not  seem  open  to  any  other  inter- 
pretation than  that  given  above.  Only  in  one  other  episode 
did  the  western  campaign  of  1914  show  any  considerable 
accomplishment  of  strategy — the  defeat  of  Lanrezac's  army 
on  the  Sambre  by  the  combined  northern  and  eastern  attack. 
Joffre's  feat,  however,  is  incomparably  the  greater  of  the 
two,  and  entitles  him  to  lasting  fame  in  the  sphere  of  mili- 
tary art. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  TURNING-POINT 

Gagny.  east  of  Paris,  Monday  Night,  September  7. 

I  have  spent  a  day  of  crowded  and  thrilling  interest  with 
the  rear  columns  of  the  most  westerly  of  the  armies  that 
are  at  this  moment  engaged  in  meeting  the  German  at- 
tempt to  break  through  by  the  south-east  into  the  heart  of 
France. 

In  this  little  town,  the  broken  remains  of  several  French 
regiments  were  resting  and  re-forming  after  the  retreat  from 
Belgium.  We  went  eastward  through  Gagny,  and  returned, 
after  a  long  detour,  to-night.  A  vast  change  had  happened 
during  the  day.  In  the  morning,  the  town  was  pretty  full 
of  men  of  the  103rd  and  104th  Infantry.  Many  of  them 
were  in  possession  of  the  cafes  of  the  town,  inside  and  out- 
side of  them ;  others  lay  in  siesta  on  the  grass  in  the  gardens 
of  the  villas.  The  elementary  school  playground  formed  a 
little  camp,  with  pyramids  of  rifles  stacked  up  one  side, 
knapsacks  lying  about  in  piles,  and  a  barber  busy  by  the 
doorway.  Several  soldiers  sitting  at  the  little  tables  before 
the  restaurants  had  children  on  their  knees,  and  beside  them 
a  wife  or  sweetheart  who  had  brought  a  basket  of  provi- 
sions. 

A  young  trooper  offered  a  girl,  who  came  up  to  wish  him 
good  luck,  a  piece  of  light  gray  cloth  off  a  German  military 
cloak.     "  We  have  one  here,"  he  said. 

"One  what?" 

"  An  Uhlan,  of  course !  " 

"  Do  you  mean  a  dead  one?  "  the  girl  asked. 

179 


180  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

"  Why,  no ;  he's  very  much  alive." 

"  Where  have  you  shut  him  up?  " 

"  He  isn't  shut  up,  either,"  the  man  explained.  "  We  took 
him  prisoner  near  Rheims,  and  since  then  he  has  become 
servant  to  our  junior  officers." 

"  But  he  will  escape,"  cried  the  girl. 

"  Not  at  all !  He's  a  very  good  fellow.  He's  married  and 
has  two  children,  and  isn't  at  all  anxious  to  see  any  more 
fighting." 

As  we  went  north  and  eastward,  my  comrade  and  I, 
afraid  that  every  sentry  and  outpost  with  bayonet  ready 
would  put  an  end  to  our  unauthorized  expedition,  I  will 
not  deny  that  we  felt  the  panoply  of  war  to  be  rather 
less  terrible  than  we  had  expected.  The  actual  fighting 
was  six  or  eight  miles  away  in  front,  and  not  by  any  means 
to  be  come  at.  The  great  city  and  its  myriads,  now  in  flight 
or  anxiously  awaiting  the  decision,  lay  twelve  miles  behind. 
Here,  the  sun  shone  hot  upon  crowded  town  and  deserted 
countryside.  It  was  a  strange  alternative  of  bustle  and  still- 
ness, both  abnormal ;  but  there  was,  so  far,  not  even  a  Red 
Cross  wagon  to  remind  us  of  the  hidden  cause. 

So  we  went  on  through  the  dust  of  the  empty  fields  and 
shuttered  villages,  passing  here  and  there  a  marching 
column,  an  automobile  carrying  a  group  of  officers,  a  motor- 
wagon  of  the  field  telegraphs  going  at  breakneck  speed,  a 
cyclist  dispatch-rider,  a  battery  of  guns  in  trucks  in  a  rail- 
way siding,  and,  oddest  of  all,  a  flock  of  sheep,  with  a  shep- 
herd in  infantry  blue  and  red  and  a  rifle  under  his  arm, 
and  another  uniformed  shepherd  at  the  tail  of  the  dusty 
procession. 

At  one  wayside  inn,  mine  host  regaled  us  with  an  unex- 
pected, if  not  a  horrifying,  yarn.  Several  regiments  had 
passed,  he  said,  yesterday  and  to-day,  and  were  now  fight- 
ing "  \h  bas."  Yesterday  they  arrested  three  spies  here. 
One  was  dressed  as  an  English  soldier,  another  as  a  French 
infantryman,  a  third  as  a  woman.     "  There  was  a  regular 


THE  TURNING-POINT  181 

outbreak  of  spy-mania.  One  old  reservist  who  had  been 
sent  down  to  do  detective  duty  was  so  excited  that  he 
stopped  everybody  in  the  village — they  were  mostly  women 
and  children — and  demanded  their  '  papers.'  When  our  vil- 
lage constable  tried  to  calm  him,  the  angry  reservist  threat- 
ened to  use  his  rifle;  and  he  was  only  with  difficulty  pla- 
cated by  M.  le  Maire." 

It  was  when  the  moon  was  getting  up  in  the  east,  and 
we  were  beginning  to  think  of  the  night's  lodging,  that  we 
suddenly  struck  the  graver  side  of  the  business.  We  were 
watching  a  small  encampment  in  a  wooded  by-road.  The 
men  had  built  a  fire  between  the  wagons,  and  were  having 
a  pleasant  rest  out  of  the  sun,  when  a  rider  dashed  up  at 
a  speed  that  must  have  made  it  very  uncomfortable  for  him 
to  smoke  his  short  briar  pipe.  At  once  a  bugle  blew,  and 
in  a  moment  the  glade  was  like  a  swarming  bee-hive.  We 
watched  them  leave,  while  the  birds  sang  their  evening 
chorus.    Then  we  went  on  our  way. 

Presently,  as  I  have  said,  we  were  back  in  Gagny,  only 
just  in  time  to  witness  the  departure  of  our  friends  of  the 
morning  for  the  firing-line,  now  brought  to  a  full  army 
corps  by  large  re-enforcements  that  had  arrived  during  the 
day.  The  town  was  boiling  from  end  to  end.  In  the  main 
street  a  regiment  was  already  marching  out  to  the  hills 
above  Meaux,  to  strengthen  the  attack  on  the  German  flank 
which  had  been  proceeding  for  the  last  two  days.  Neither 
here  nor  elsewhere  did  we  see  anything  of  a  regimental 
band  (except  some  drums)  ;  possibly  the  matter  has  now 
become  too  serious  for  musical  accompaniment. 

Looking  at  these  fine  figures  and  bronzed  faces,  one  real- 
ized anew  the  wickedness  of  the  waste  of  warfare.  But 
they  were,  beyond  doubt,  happy  and  confident.  A  thin 
line  of  country  folk  watched  them,  the  women — many  of 
them  come  from  a  distance  to  see  the  last  of  their  men — 
waving  handkerchiefs,  the  girls  running  beside  the  ranks 
to  give  some  handsome  lad  a  flower.     Up  the  side  roads, 


182  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

other  battalions  stood  at  ease,  or  sat  on  the  edge  of  the 
pavement  waiting  their  turn.  A  few  tired  fellows  had 
curled  themselves  up,  and  were  asleep,  against  the  houses; 
and  there  was  one  who  lay  at  full  length  on  the  ground — 
over-exhausted  by  the  sharp  march  of  twelve  miles  which 
they  had  already  made.  As  the  ambulance  took  charge  of 
him,  a  piou-piou  said  to  us,  "  You  see,  the  chaps  of  forty  have 
to  keep  up  with  the  lads  of  twenty." 

We  talked  to  them  for  an  hour  or  more.  A  young  officer, 
of  marked  intelligence,  told  us  that  his  men  were  all  who 
remained  of  two  infantry  regiments  in  a  disastrous  engage- 
ment at  Eth,  near  Valenciennes,  after  the  battle  of  Mons- 
Charleroi — one  of  the  many  affairs  of  which  we  have  heard 
little  or  nothing. 

"  It  was,"  he  said,  "  a  regular  butchery.  We  were  a  full 
army  corps,  moving  eastward  from  Eth,  when  the  Hussar 
regiment  which  served  as  our  advance  guard  charged  a  regi- 
ment of  Prussian  cavalry.  Our  Hussars  were  splendid ;  but 
they  had  no  sooner  routed  the  first  body  of  the  enemy's 
cavalry  than  they  found  themselves  faced  by  another.  We 
were,  in  fact,  flanked  by  overwhelming  numbers,  while  the 
German  artillery  cannonaded  us  from  a  distance  of  several 
miles.  What  could  we  do,  one  against  three?  True,  we 
punished  them,  and,  after  a  moment  of  panic — for  the  attack 
had  been  sprung  upon  us — we  retired  in  good  order.  But 
of  1,000  men  of  the  103rd  only  180  escaped,  and  the  other 
regiment  suffered  hardly  less. 

"  The  success  of  the  Germans,"  he  continued,  "  is  due  to 
their  undoubted  superiority  in  heavy  artillery,  and  to  their 
skillful  and  daring  reconnaissance  work.  We  French  have 
the  best  artillery  in  the  world,  so  far  as  the  ordinary  guns 
and  the  '  75 '  pieces  go ;  but  we  cannot  fire  beyond  9,000  or 
10,000  yards,  while  the  German  heavy  guns  will  do  11,000. 
This  has  been  a  factor  since  the  beginning  of  the  war.  Then 
they  send  out  cavalry  scouts  eight  or  twelve  miles,  and 
sometimes  more,  in  advance.    When  these  patrols  find  and 


THE  TURNING-POINT  183 

report  our  first  lines,  they  send  aeroplanes  to  examine  our 
positions,  especially  those  of  our  cavalry  and  artillery. 
And  in  less  than  an  hour  their  shells  are  beginning  to  fall 
upon  us  from  several  miles'  distance.  So  it  is  under  a 
rain  of  fire  that  we  have  to  advance  to  enable  our  artillery 
to  get  into  action.  Happily  for  us,  the  German  shells  burst 
too  soon,  and  the  fire  is  often  very  badly  measured.  Once 
our  '  75 '  cannon  gets  the  range,  things  take  a  very  dif- 
ferent turn.  Generally  the  Germans  cannot  stand  it,  and 
move  away." 

While  we  were  searching  for  something  to  eat  and  drink, 
we  came  upon  yet  another  surprise,  in  the  shape  of  a  long 
line  of  taxicabs  stretching  through  by-roads  out  of  sight. 
Fifteen  hundred  of  them  there  were,  they  told  us,  in  the 
neighborhood — requisitioned  in  haste  to  carry  forward 
needed  re-enforcements  to  the  French  left  before  the  Ourcq.1 
In  my  innocence,  I  had  supposed  that  infantrymen  must 
march,  and  cavalry  ride,  while  wagons  bring  up  supplies. 
But  the  internal-combustion  engine  is  changing  many 
things.  For  a  quick  retreat,  or  a  quick  advance,  or  the 
transfer  of  cartridge  cases  from  one  wing  to  another,  there 
is  nothing,  it  appears,  like  the  common  or  city  taxi.  So 
now  I  know  why  we  have  to  put  up  with  old-fashioned 
fiacres  on  the  boulevards. 

The  troops  I  met  to-day  were  full  of  news  of  a  victory 
between  Creil  and  Meaux,  which  latter  place  is  about 
twenty-seven  miles  from  the  gates  of  the  capital.  There 
has  been  considerable  fighting  around  Dammartin  to  the 
north  of  Meaux.  To  the  south  of  the  Marne,  on  its  tribu- 
tary the  Grand  Morin,  the  right  wing  of  the  German  ad- 
vance has  been  met  by  a  French  army  prepared  for  this 
diversion,  and  by  Sir  John  French's  army,  which  had  appar- 
ently escaped  notice  in  the  woods  behind  Creey-en-Brie. 
The  Germans  seem  to  have  reached  Coulommiers  and  La 

1  Without  doubt,  the  critical  movement  of  reserves  referred  to  on 
pp.  163-4. 


184  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

Ferte-Gaucher.  This  is  a  land  of  deep  valleys  and  thickly 
wooded  hills,  a  very  favorable  terrain  for  an  army  at  home 
and  on  the  defensive.  It  forms,  in  fact,  a  part  of  what  is 
called  the  Falaise  de  Champagne,  extending  from  the  Forest 
of  Fontainebleau  to  Rheims. 

Paris,  Wednesday  Morning,  September  9. 

Where  are  the  jolly  boys  whose  march  out  to  the  firing- 
line  I  watched  on  Monday  evening?  Dead,  some;  wounded, 
others;  lost,  a  few,  perhaps;  and  the  remainder  happy  in 
their  victory.  How  great  a  victory,  or  what  exactly  is  its 
bearing  upon  the  position  in  the  whole  wide  field,  it  is  still 
too  soon  to  say.  The  official  record  of  the  series  of  actions 
on  the  French  left  and  German  right  wings  to  the  east  of 
Paris  are  brief  and  not  too  clear;  but  their  main  purport 
is  unquestionably  cheering.  The  facts  which  are  clear  are 
that  the  German  right  in  its  southward  advance  has  been 
stopped  both  on  the  west  and  south,  has  been  compelled  to 
retire,  and  is  being  ceaselessly  harried — a  fact  even  more 
important  for  its  consequences  further  east  than  in  its  local 
effects.  It  would  be  altogether  premature  to  suppose  that 
the  main  German  movement  is  yet  decisively  checked.  That 
may  take  some  time. 

M.  Dausset,  an  active  member  of  the  Paris  Municipal 
Council,  happened  to  be  near  Coulommiers  yesterday,  and 
has  an  interesting  story  to  tell  of  what  he  saw  and  heard. 

"  By  sheer  accident,  we  found  ourselves  in  the  midst  of 
the  district  occupied  by  the  British  troops.  In  one  village, 
the  Cure'  alone  had  remained  with  a  few  of  the  more  help- 
less people  when  the  others  abandoned  their  homes.  The 
Germans  had  been  there  a  few  hours  before  (that  is,  yester- 
day morning).  Pushing  forward,  we  reached  a  village 
where  the  British  troops  were  resting.  At  the  railway 
crossing,  near  by,  we  came  across  the  body  of  a  black  horse 
lying  across  the  road.  We  got  down,  and  questioned  the 
crossing-keeper,  a  good  old  fellow  who  was  there  with  his 


THE  TURNING-POINT  185 

wife.  He  told  us  that  that  very  morning  the  Uhlans  had 
eome  down  to  the  railway,  cut  the  telegraph-lines,  and  gone 
away  again.  Soon  afterwards  a  body  of  British  cavalry, 
commanded  by  an  officer  and  guided  by  the  village  chemist, 
had  crossed  the  line.  Some  of  the  Germans,  it  then  ap- 
peared, had  stayed,  hiding  on  a  wooded  slope,  from  which 
they  fired  on  the  British  column.  It  was  then  that  the  black 
horse  was  killed.  The  officer,  seriously  wounded,  was  car- 
ried by  the  old  crossing-keeper  to  his  cottage.  He  was  in 
horrible  suffering,  but  all  he  asked  for  was  a  cigarette. 
Soon  the  British  ambulance  came  up,  and  took  him  away. 
We  learned  afterwards  that  the  chemist  wras  also  seriously 
wounded. 

"We  soon  came  to  another  village;  and  I  shall  never 
forget  the  spectacle  we  saw.  The  place  was  absolutely  de- 
serted; only  three  women  and  a  boy  remained.  They  told 
us  that  the  Germans  came  in  large  numbers  on  Sunday. 
They  occupied  the  whole  village  and  the  neighboring  farms. 
They  looked  harassed,  as  if  they  had  been  marching  for 
days  without  a  stop.  Nearly  all  the  houses  being  shut  up, 
they  broke  open  the  doors;  but  they  respected  the  few  cot- 
tages that  were  still  inhabited.  I  went  to  the  Mairie  to  see 
for  myself,  and  found  it  in  indescribable  disorder.  In  every 
room  there  were  mattresses,  sheets,  and  bundles  of  straw, 
on  which  men  had  been  sleeping;  remnants  of  food,  half- 
empty  bottles,  drawers  piled  on  the  floors,  chests  open;  in 
the  yard  eiderdowns,  mattresses,  and  pillows,  and  the  like 
on  the  village  square.  In  the  church,  more  straw,  wThere 
men  had  been  sleeping;  the  remnants  of  rabbits,  fowls,  and 
pieces  of  meat. 

"  In  the  large  but  not  very  luxurious  country-house, 
which  they  call  the  Chateau,  all  the  rooms  had  been  occu- 
pied by  the  higher  officers.  In  the  large  dining-room,  the 
table  was  covered  with  fine  white  cloths,  vases  full  of  fresh- 
cut  roses,  and  dishes  showing  that  several  courses  had  been 
served.    There  even  remained  two  serviettes  folded  in  miter- 


186  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

shape  before  two  chairs  that  had  not  been  occupied.  An 
oil-lamp  was  still  burning,  and  a  number  of  candles  guttered 
over  the  empty  bottles  into  which  they  had  been  stuck.  The 
invaders  had  drunk  champagne  from  the  cellars  of  the 
house — a  good  deal  of  it.  The  women  who  accompanied 
me  said  that  nearly  all  the  officers  spoke  French.  They 
did  not  hurt  anyone,  but  took  away  all  the  provisions  they 
could  lay  hands  on.  The  first  thing  the  officers  asked  for 
was  a  bath.  They  had  certainly  intended  to  remain;  and, 
in  the  bedrooms  which  I  visited,  they  had  carefully  drawn 
the  blinds,  as  though  for  a  long  sleep.  At  2  a.m.  they 
received  a  sudden  signal  to  leave,  and  the  district  was 
evacuated  immediately.  There  must  then  have  been  stiff 
fighting,  for  on  our  return  we  passed  the  bodies  of  thirty 
horses  and  some  fresh-made  graves." 

At  Massy-Palaiseau  and  other  south-eastern  suburbs  of 
Paris  there  is  a  constant  succession  of  trains  to-day  taking 
British  and  French  troops  toward  the  front,  and  bring- 
ing wounded  and  prisoners  back. 

Behind  the  British  Lines,  on  the  Grand  Morin. 

Thursday,  September  10. 
It  would  be  near  Guignes,  thirty  miles  south-east  of  Paris, 
that  I  first  struck  a  British  detachment,  and  learned  that 
the  line  of  battle  had  moved  rapidly  northward.  They  were 
lads  of  the  Army  Service  Corps,  resting  in  the  shade  of 
one  of  the  long  poplar  avenues,  awaiting  orders,  in  charge 
of  a  line  of  commissariat  wagons,  and  commandeered  carts 
bearing  the  familiar  names  of  great  English  trading  firms. 
Some  of  the  men  were  more  red  of  face  than  brown,  others 
swarthy  with  work  in  the  continuous  sunshine  of  the  last 
month.  Glad,  perhaps,  to  hear  a  new  English  voice,  and 
certainly  glad  to  get  a  taste  of  English  tobacco,  they 
quickly  thawed,  and  launched  out  into  stories  such  as  would 
have  seemed  incredible  six  weeks  ago,  and  are  now  the 
common  talk  of  every  day  over  half  the  Continent. 


THE  TURNING-POINT  187 

A  little  later,  at  a  cross-roads  in  the  dead  black  heart 
of  one  of  the  forests  of  the  Brie  plateau,  full  of  mysterious 
sounds  in  the  gloom  of  nightfall,  I  came  across  a  British 
motor-cyclist  of  the  engineer  branch  of  the  Corps,  keeping 
his  lonely  watch.  He  was  too  full  of  the  morning's  advance 
to  think  about  his  eerie  surroundings.  But  one  of  his  words 
stayed  in  my  mind.  He  had  been  telling  me  of  a  narrow 
escape  he  and  some  of  his  fellows  had  just  had.  They 
suddenly  found  themselves,  with  a  file  of  wagons,  between 
two  German  columns,  within  sight  of  both.  What  do  en- 
gineers do  in  such  a  case?  They  take  out  something  he 
called,  I  think,  the  fusible  plugs — safety  plugs  in  some  part 
of  the  wagon  engine — and  then  they  bolt. 

"  So  the  Germans  got  the  wagons?"  I  asked. 

"  Yes,"  he  replied ;  "  but  they  couldn't  move  them,  and 
we  expect  soon  to  find  them  again." 

And  then  he  added,  very  modestly,  the  word  to  which  I 
have  referred — to  the  effect  that  this  rear  work  of  supplies 
and  communications  is  as  important  as  the  fighting  line 
itself,  although  little  is  heard  of  it.  There  was  not  the 
faintest  suspicion  of  a  complaint  in  the  good  fellow's  voice 
— he  was  simply  stating  a  fact  that  every  soldier  knows. 
But  it  came  home  to  me  almost  as  a  rebuke.  How  often 
and  easily  we  forget  the  high  aim  and  the  whole  design 
of  a  defensive  war  in  the  wild  glamor  of  its  central  strug- 
gles! 

Yet  even  in  the  narrow  view  of  the  military  art  itself, 
the  feeding  and  transport  of  the  troops  assume  a  larger  and 
larger  part  in  modern  warfare.  Napoleon  closed  a  chapter 
of  history;  there  can  never  again  be  a  single  man  equal 
to  the  direction  of  the  multitudes  now  thrown  into  the 
field.  He  began  the  transformation;  it  has  since  gone  so 
far  that  nearly  all  the  impressions  we  get  from  narratives 
of  the  old  campaigns  are  false  to  the  facts  of  to-day.  This 
has  been  called  an  "  anonymous  war "  because,  on  the 
French  side  especially,  great  secrecy  is  maintained  as  to 


188  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

the  whereabouts  of  the  commanding  officers,  and  their  in- 
dividual part  in  the  campaign  is  never  mentioned.  In  a 
larger  sense,  all  warfare  has  become  "  anonymous,"  partly 
because  of  the  fear  of  giving  any  useful  information  to  the 
enemy,  and  partly  because  the  individual  mind  counts  for 
less,  the  prearranged  scheme,  the  system,  the  total  or- 
ganization, the  obscure  engineering  operations,  count  for 
more. 

When  we  entered  the  village  of  Rozay-en-Brie,  we  found 
the  street  deserted  save  for  an  old  lady  who  from  her  gar- 
den gate  watched  curiously  the  approach  of  another  for- 
eigner. But  the  word  "  English  "  counts  for  much  now  in 
these  parts. 

"  Ah,  monsieur,  les  Anglais ! "  And  for  the  moment  she 
could  add  nothing  but  a  beaming  smile  to  this  exclamation. 
The  dear  old  thing  had  stuck  to  her  little  home  all  through 
the  double  inundation.  "  There  were  12,000  of  yours  here 
on  Sunday,"  she  continued.  "  My  daughter,  who  has  lived 
in  London  and  learned  to  speak  English,  acted  as  inter- 
preter for  your  '  Tommies.'  Go  on  two  miles  to  Lumigny, 
Pezarches,  and  Touquin,  and  there  you  will  find  the  battle- 
field." 

Perhaps  that  is  too  large  a  name  for  what  at  this  par- 
ticular point  was  only  a  rather  serious  skirmish,  covering 
a  few  miles  of  stubble-fields  and  broken  forest,  and  several 
small  villages.  In  one  of  these  fields,  as  we  drove  up,  six 
or  eight  peasants  were  digging  a  pit  in  which  to  bury  the 
carcases  of  two  horses  that  lay  near  by.  They  had  already 
buried  fourteen  others.  They  pointed  out  the  woods  in  the 
distance  to  the  east  where  the  Germans  had  taken  cover; 
the  British  were  posted  along  the  roads  by  which  we  had 
come.  These  grave-diggers  seemed  happy  at  their  gruesome 
work — just  such  sententious  fellows  as  Shakespeare  took 
for  his  models  in  an  immortal  scene  three  hundred  years 
ago.  So  little  does  raw  humanity  change!  I  should  have 
to  translate  their  words  into  some  one  of  our  own  provincial 


THE  TURNING-POINT  189 

lingoes  to  give  its  flavor;  and  that  would  overpass  the  limits 
of  true  reporting. 

But  presently  there  came  through  the  stubble  a  neat  cart 
conveying  a  somewhat  superior  person  of  rubicund  visage, 
who  introduced  himself  as  the  Mayor  of  Pezarches,  M. 
Couple",  at  your  service;  and  he  was  able  to  give  a  more  full 
and  consistent  explanation  of  what  had  happened. 

"  We  knew,"  he  said,  "  that  the  Germans  were  at  Coulom- 
miers  on  Saturday,  and  so  we  were  expecting  them.  About 
8  o'clock  that  evening,  I  was  trying  to  eat  my  dinner,  when 
suddenly  I  heard  the  sound  of  horses'  hoofs,  and  said  to  my 
wife :  '  It  is  they.'  Outside  the  door  I  found  a  score  of 
German  Dragoons.  Their  lieutenant  called  out :  '  Where 
is  the  Mayor?'  '  I  am  the  Mayor,'  I  said.  'What  do  you 
want? '  On  this  he  came  up  to  me,  put  the  revolver  which 
he  had  in  his  hand  to  my  head,  and  said:  '  Bread  for  my 
men,  and  oats  for  the  horses.  And,'  he  added,  '  in  five 
minutes  at  latest!'  I  replied  that  I  would  get  what  oats 
there  were,  but  there  had  been  no  bread  at  the  baker's  since 
morning.  He  retorted,  more  imperiously  than  ever :  '  Get 
it  how  you  can,  but  bread  I  must  have.' 

"  I  managed  to  get  together  75  kilos  of  oats  and  15  kilos 
of  bread.  The  officer  seemed  satisfied,  gave  me  a  signed 
receipt,  and  said  it  would  be  paid.  That  night  the  Ger- 
mans passed  behind  the  villages,  putting  their  guns  in  posi- 
tion there.  The  British,  who  were  in  force,  had  established 
themselves  behind  the  little  wood  you  see  at  the  end  of  this 
field.  On  Sunday  morning  they  opened  fire.  One  shell 
went  through  a  villager's  cottage;  but  happily  he  and  his 
wore  hidden  in  the  cellar  and  no  harm  was  done.  Later  on, 
the  Germans  retreated,  and  the  British  have  followed  them 
closely  ever  since." 

I  asked  whether  the  losses  were  serious. 

"  The  Germans  seemed  to  suffer  greatly  here,"  replied 
our  friend  the  Mayor;  "  they  had  many  wounded.  But  the 
English  were  well  covered;  they  lost  only  two  killed  and 


190  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

thirty  wounded.  They  buried  the  two  bodies  over  there  on 
the  border  of  the  wood ;  if  you  will  come,  I  will  show  you 
the  place." 

I  shall  never  forget  that  humble  grave  amid  the  fields  of 
the  Brie  plateau.  No  stone  marks  the  place  where  two  sons 
of  England,  some  one's  beloved,  rest  after  their  labor  and 
sacrifice.  There  is  nothing  but  a  pile  of  brown  earth  in  the 
bottom  of  a  small  chalk  pit,  surmounted  by  a  couple  of 
brown  sticks  tied  together  with  string,  to  make  a  rough 
cross.  A  thicket  looks  over  the  hollow,  and  all  around  are 
rolling  hills  from  which  the  corn  has  just  been  garnered. 
It  is  one  of  thousands  of  anonymous  graves  in  this  "  anony- 
mous war."  If  these  lines  should  meet  the  eyes  of  any  to 
whom  those  two  lads  were  dear,  let  them  be  brave  to  hear  the 
worst,  and  happy  to  hear  the  best,  that  I  can  say.  The  good 
Mayor  told  us  he  had  taken  trouble  to  strengthen  the  mound. 
But  Nature  is  inexorable;  life,  and  ever  more  life,  is  her 
supreme  law.  Such  graves  may  be  lost  before  they  can  be 
found.  Yet  I  cannot  think  of  any  more  fortunate  resting- 
place  than  on  the  edge  of  this  wood  among  the  wheat-fields, 
with  its  fringe  of  flowers,  and  the  pure  sky  above,  where  the 
birds  will  always  sing  matins  and  evensong,  and  the  chil- 
dren of  the  village  will  come  and  speak  of  how  the  two  lads 
from  distant  England  helped  to  save  their  home  and  Fath- 
erland. 

We  must  bow  to  the  law  of  life.  Already  they  are  plow- 
ing the  upper  ridge  of  the  stubble-field  where  the  battle 
was  fought.  Already,  while  the  grave-diggers  are  still  at 
their  task,  at  the  farm  on  the  other  side  of  the  road  a 
threshing-machine  is  working;  and,  as  we  leave,  a  procession 
of  great  harvesting  carts,  full  of  women  and  children  sitting 
on  top  of  their  household  goods,  is  bringing  back  a  first 
party  of  fugitives  to  the  homes  they  abandoned  a  fortnight 
ago.  The  harvest  of  death  gives  way  already  to  the  harvest 
of  life. 

Down  in  the  village,  they  showed  me  holes  in  some  of 


THE  TURNING-POINT  191 

the  houses  made  by  the  artillery  fire.  They  aie  just  recov- 
ering, as  it  were,  from  a  frightful  dream ;  and  the  women 
are  reaching  the  loquacious  stage  following  upon  such  an 
experience.  In  the  village  inn,  Madame,  an  upstanding 
woman  of  about  thirty,  told  us  her  part  of  the  story,  with 
many  lively  gestures. 

"  Imaginez-vous,  monsieur !  When  the  Prussians  came, 
we  took  them  for  Belgians.  As  we  had  been  warned  that 
there  would  be  a  battle,  everybody  took  refuge  in  their 
cellars.  On  Sunday  morning,  my  mother  had  gone  to 
church,  and  I  remained  at  home  with  my  father  and  my 
little  boy.  My  father  had  left  us  to  get  some  tobacco.  Going 
out  for  a  moment  with  my  child,  I  saw  a  group  of  horsemen 
in  the  street,  and  said  to  myself,  '  We  are  saved.  It  is  the 
Belgians ! '  When  I  returned,  to  my  surprise,  they  were 
in  the  house,  sitting  in  my  room  and  in  the  cafe'.  An  officer 
asked  me  to  cook  him  a  couple  of  eggs.  I  noticed  that  one 
of  the  men  was  wounded,  and  asked  if  it  was  painful.  He 
nodded,  and  I  went  to  the  kitchen.  There  I  saw,  on  the 
window-sill,  a  spiked  helmet.  I  nearly  fainted!  So  they 
were  Germans ! 

"  I  managed  to  take  in  the  eggs.  Then  the  officer  very 
politely  asked  me  to  show  him  my  left  hand,  and,  pointing 
to  the  wedding-ring,  said,  "  You  are  married? '  '  Yes/  I  re- 
plied, trembling.  'Your  husband  is  a  soldier?'  'Yes.' 
'  You  have  a  child?  '  '  No,  I  have  no  children,'  I  said.  '  But 
I  saw  him.  You  are  hiding  him  because  you  have  heard  that 
the  Germans  cut  off  the  hands  of  French  children.  That  is 
false.  We  never  hurt  women  or  children.  Bring  your  little 
boy ' 

"  But  as  I  persisted  that  it  was  not  my  child,  he  said  no 
more.  He  and  the  others  paid  for  what  they  had  in  Ger- 
man money,  and  left.  A  quarter  of  an  hour  later  the  firing 
began." 


CHAPTER  XIV 
"  SUFFICIENT  UNTO  THE  DAY  " 

Chateau-Thierry,  Saturday:,  September  12. 

We  first  realized  yesterday,  in  the  little  town  of  Brie, 
which  lies  east  of  Paris  between  the  Seine  and  the  Marne, 
how  difficult  it  is  to  get  food  in  the  rear  of  two  successive 
invasions.  As  in  every  other  town  in  the  region,  all  the 
shops  were  shut,  and  nearly  all  the  houses.  It  was  only 
after  a  long  search  that  we  found  an  inn  that  could  give  us 
lunch.  There,  in  a  large  room  with  a  low,  beamed  roof 
and  tiled  floor,  our  stout  landlady  in  blue  cotton  produced  an 
excellent  meal  of  melon,  mutton,  macaroni,  and  good  ripe 
pears.  The  dogs  and  cats  sprawled  around  us,  and  a  big 
bowl  of  roses  spoke  of  the  serenities  that  are  now  in  gen- 
eral eclipse. 

At  a  neighboring  table,  a  group  of  peasants,  too  old  for 
active  service,  were  discussing,  not  the  battle  that  has  just 
passed  their  doors,  but  their  business  grievances.  A  farmer 
had  refused  to  sell  something  to  one  of  them,  who  thought 
he  should  be  forced  to  do  so.  Another  angrily  protested 
against  this  view;  while  a  third  declared  that  it  was  mon- 
strous to  offer  straw  at  45f.  "  You  may  be  old,"  retorted 
the  other,  "  but  there  are  people  older  than  you,"  meaning 
cleverer.  But  at  the  end  of  the  table  there  was  a  big,  fat 
man  who  showed  the  greater  wisdom;  he  went  on  with  his 
meal,  and  said  nothing. 

At  the  railway  crossing  just  out  of  town,  we  were  blocked 
by  a  train  of  about  a  dozen  big  horse-trucks  and  two  pas- 
senger carriages,  carrying  wounded  and  prisoners  to  Paris 
from  the  fighting  lines.     It  had  been  a  gloomy  morning, 

192 


"  SUFFICIENT  UNTO  THE  DAY  "  193 

and  the  rain  now  fell  in  torrents.  Nevertheless,  the  towns- 
folk crowded  up,  and  for  half  an  hour  managed  to  conduct 
a  satisfactory  combination  of  profit  and  pity  by  the  supply 
of  big,  flat  loaves,  bottles  of  wine,  fruit,  cigarettes,  and  jugs 
of  water,  to  those  in  the  train  who  had  money,  and  some 
who  had  none.  One  very  old  lady  in  white,  with  a  little 
red  cross  on  her  forehead,  turned  up  to  take  advantage  of 
the  only  opportunity  ever  likely  to  fall  in  her  way.  A  great 
Turco,  in  fez,  blouse,  and  short,  baggy  breeches,  was  very 
active  in  this  commissariat  work.  Some  of  the  Frenchmen 
on  board  were  not  wounded  sufficiently  seriously  to  prevent 
their  getting  down  on  to  the  roadway ;  and  you  may  be  sure 
that  they  were  not  ashamed  of  their  plaster-patches  and 
bandaged  arms. 

There  were  about  300  German  prisoners  in  the  train. 
We  got  glimpses  of  them  lying  in  the  straw  upon  the  floor 
in  the  dark  interior  of  the  big  trucks.  I  got  on  to  the 
footboard,  and  looked  into  the  open  door  of  one  wagon.  Fif- 
teen men  were  stretched  upon  the  straw,  and  two  soldiers 
stood  guard  over  them,  rifle  in  hand.  They  all  seemed  to  be 
in  the  extremity  of  exhaustion.  Some  were  asleep;  others 
were  eating  large  chunks  of  bread.  In  the  middle  of  the 
wagon,  a  young  soldier,  who  spoke  French  fairly  well,  said 
that  the  German  losses  during  the  last  three  days  had  been 
enormous;  and  then,  stopping  suddenly,  ''Would  it  be  pos- 
sible, sir,  to  get  a  little  water  for  my  fellows  and  myself?  " 
A  man  belonging  to  the  station,  who  was  passing  with  a 
jug,  said  at  once  that  he  would  run  and  get  some.  The 
prisoner  thanked  him,  and  added  with  a  sigh,  "  They're  very 
good  fellows  here." 

Beside  one  of  the  roads  running  through  the  numerous 
forests  of  the  region,  we  came  upon  a  Tate's  sugar-van  left 
stranded  in  the  ditch,  with  the  engine  smashed.  It  was  the 
first  of  many  abandoned  motor-vans,  lorries,  and  cars  that 
we  were  to  find  during  this  day's  journey.  Some  of  them 
had,  no  doubt,  merely  broken  down;  and  it  was  thought 


194  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

advisable  to  make  them  useless  in  case  they  were  captured 
by  the  enemy.  In  other  cases,  the  danger  of  seizure  was 
more  immediate;  and  they  were  put  out  of  action  and  left. 
These  incidents,  often  repeated,  impressed  upon  us  at  once 
the  importance  of  motor  transport  in  modern  warfare,  and 
the  great  wastage  to  which  it  is  liable — a  wastage,  how- 
ever, probably  much  less  than  would  have  occurred  in  the 
old  horse-transport  days. 

We  thought  that  we  were  going  to  be  shipwrecked  as  un- 
happily ourselves,  for,  in  the  middle  of  the  Forest  of 
Chaumes,  we  completely  lost  ourselves  in  pouring  rain,  and 
at  last  came  to  a  full  stop  in  a  slough  of  mud.  Happily, 
our  labor  and  anxiety  were  of  short  duration;  and  in  the 
evening  we  reached  the  quaint  and  very  ancient  town  of 
Provins,  normally  of  9,000  inhabitants,  on  the  edge  of  a 
rich  green  valley  beneath  the  Brie  plateau.  It  is  odd  to-day 
to  think  that  Provins,  which  was  once  proud  and  great,  was 
nearly  ruined  by  English  invaders  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
whose  descendants  have  now  saved  it  from  a  German  in- 
vasion. An  Englishman  is,  therefore,  as  such,  a  welcome 
visitor;  but  everywhere  in  the  wake  of  the  war  civilian  visi- 
tors are  suspect.  So  we  stuck  to  the  one  hotel  that  was 
open,  and  did  not  attempt  to  visit  the  remarkable  twelfth- 
century  keep  which  is  called  "  Caesar's  Tower,"  or  the  medi- 
eval ramparts.  This  big  hostelry  was  being  run  by  four 
women  who,  despite  a  natural  courtesy,  were  evidently  quite 
unprepared  to  receive  ordinary  guests.  They  let  us  hang 
our  wet  clothes  among  the  brass  pans  in  the  kitchen,  how- 
ever; and  then  we  sat  and  smoked  around  the  charcoal  fire 
in  the  linen-room,  with  piles  of  napkins  and  sheets  around 
us.  At  the  dinner-table,  beside  ourselves,  there  were  only  a 
captain  of  gendarmerie,  several  army  officers,  and  half  a 
dozen  of  the  more  substantial  refugees  from  the  neighbor- 
ing district.  We  went  to  bed  along  ghostly  echoing  corri- 
dors, with  a  feeling  that  the  house  must  have  antedated 
Caesar's  Tower  itself. 


"  SUFFICIENT  UNTO  THE  DAY  "  195 

This  morning  we  had  decided  to  make  an  early  start 
northwards ;  but,  when  we  had  paid  our  bill  and  were  ready 
to  go,  a  venerable,  but  not  otherwise  very  impressive,  French 
officer  came  up,  and  informed  us  that  he  proposed  to  requi- 
sition our  car  for  an  hour.  He  seemed  so  gentle,  and 
he  might  so  well  have  turned  crusty  had  we  refused, 
that  we  promptly  gave  way,  returned  to  the  breakfast- 
table,  and  waited  until  the  car  had  come  back  from  the 
station. 

Then  we  struck  upward  through  fields  and  orchards  on 
to  the  plateau;  and  within  half  an  hour  we  had  reached 
the  first  of  the  ruined  villages  which  mark  the  southward 
limit  of  the  German  advance. 

In  Courchamp,  a  number  of  houses  had  been  burnt  down, 
and  the  neighboring  fields  showed  that  there  had  been  fight- 
ing there.  But  it  was  Courtacon,  half-way  between  Provins 
and  La  Ferte'-Gaucher,  which  presented  the  most  grievous 
spectacle.  Eighteen  of  the  two  dozen  houses — small,  mod- 
ern brick  buildings,  not  old  cottages  of  wood  and  thatch — 
had  been  completely  destroyed  by  fire.  The  walls  were 
partly  standing,  but  the  floors  and  the  contents  of  the  rooms 
were  completely  buried  under  the  debris  of  the  roofs  that 
had  fallen  in.  In  the  little  post-office,  the  telegraphic  and 
telephonic  instruments  had  been  smashed.  Just  opposite 
is  a  small  building,  including  the  Mairie  and  the  village 
school.  The  outside  of  the  building  and  the  outhouses  were 
littered  with  straw,  upon  which  the  Uhlans  had  slept.  In 
the  Mairie  itself,  drawers  and  cupboards  had  been  broken 
open,  and  their  contents  scattered,  with  the  remnants  of 
meals,  upon  the  floor. 

It  is  the  scene  in  the  little  village  school  that  will  longest 
remain  in  my  memory  as  a  flagrant  exhibition  of  brutality 
and  malice.  The  low  forms,  the  master's  desk,  and  the 
blackboard  stand  to-day  as  they  did  on  July  25,  which  was, 
no  doubt,  the  last  day  before  the  summer  vacation,  as  it 
was  also  the  last  week  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war.     On 


196  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

the  walls,  the  charts  remained  which  had  reminded  the  chil- 
dren daily  that — 

"  ALCOHOL THAT  IS  THE  ENEMY," 

and  had  summoned  them  to — 

"  FOLLOW  THE  PATH   OP   KINDNESS,   JUSTICE,   AND  TRUTH." 

The  windows  were  smashed.  Broken  cartridge  cases  lay 
about,  with  the  wings  of  birds  and  other  refuse.  Just  near 
the  door,  I  saw  chalked  up,  in  an  evidently  German  hand- 
writing, the  words,  "  Parti  Paris  " — "  Left  for  Paris."  The 
really  speaking  message  that  had  been  left  lay,  however,  in 
the  piles  of  burnt  straw  with  which  it  had  been  deliberately 
sought  to  burn  the  place  to  ashes.  There  was  one  pile  under 
the  school  book-case,  the  doors  of  which  had  been  smashed, 
and  some  of  the  books  thrown  about.  They  could  not  even — 
these  ruffians — respect  the  little  museum,  consisting  of  a 
few  bottles  of  metal  and  chemical  specimens.  And  when  I 
turned  to  leave,  I  suddenly  perceived,  written  across  the 
blackboard,  in  bold,  fine  writing,  as  the  lesson  of  the  day, 
these  words: 

"  A  CHAQUE  JOUR  SUFFIT  SA  PEINE." 

"  Every  day  brings  pain  enough,"  or  in  the  familiar  words 
of  our  English  version,  "  Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil 
thereof."  No  fictionist's  imagination  could  have  compassed 
the  biting  irony  of  these  words;  but  the  deepest  bitterness 
of  this  irony  lies  in  the  fact  that  such  an  outrage  could  be 
perpetrated  by  men  belonging  to  a  nation  one  of  whose 
boasts  was  that  they  have  been  the  pioneers  in  Europe  of 
elementary  schooling. 

One  of  the  villagers  gave  me  the  following  narrative  of 
their  experiences  during  the  past  week :  "  It  was  last  Sat- 
urday (September  5)  that  about  1,500  Uhlans  arrived. in  the 
village,  with  the  intention  of  marching  on  Provins  on  the 


"  SUFFICIENT  UNTO  THE  DAY  "  197 

morrow.  They  probably  learned  during  the  night  that  the 
British  and  French  lay  in  force  across  their  road ;  and  per- 
haps they  may  then  have  received  orders  to  fall  back  in  any 
case.  At  any  rate,  early  on  Sunday  morning,  they  started 
to  retire,  when  they  met  at  the  entrance  to  the  village  a 
regiment  of  Chasseurs.  This  was  the  beginning  of  fighting 
which  lasted  all  day.  Under  pretext  that  we  had  learned 
of  the  presence  of  French  troops,  and  had  helped  them  to 
prepare  a  trap,  the  Germans  sacked  the  whole  of  the  village. 
Naturally,  there  was  a  panic.  All  the  inhabitants — mostly 
women  and  children,  because,  since  the  mobilization,  there 
have  only  been  nine  men  in  Courtacon — rushed  from  their 
cottages;  and  many  of  them,  lightly  clad,  fled  across  the 
fields,  and  hid  themselves  in  the  neighboring  woods.  In 
several  cottages,  the  Germans,  revolver  in  hand,  compelled 
the  poor  peasants  to  bring  matches  and  themselves  to  set 
fire  to  their  homes.  In  less  than  an  hour,  the  village  was 
like  a  furnace,  the  walls  toppling  down  one  by  one.  And 
all  this  time  the  fighting  continued.  It  was  a  horrible  spec- 
tacle. Several  of  us  were  dragged  to  the  edge  of  the  road 
to  be  shot;  and  there  we  remained  for  some  hours,  believing 
that  our  last  day  had  come.  A  young  village  lad  of  twenty- 
one  years,  who  was  just  going  to  leave  to  join  the  colors,  was 
shot.  Then  the  retreat  was  sounded;  the  Germans  fled 
precipitately;  and  we  were  saved." 

I  asked  whether  the  cottages  had  not  been  fired  by  our 
artillery. 

"Not  a  cannon-shot  fell  here,"  he  replied;  "all  that," 
pointing  to  the  ruined  street,  "  was  done  by  incendiaries." 
And  he  added :  "  Last  Tuesday,  two  French  officers  came  in 
an  automobile,  and  brought  with  them  a  superior  German 
officer,  whom  they  had  made  prisoner.  They  compelled  him 
to  become  a  witness  of  the  mischief  of  which  his  fellow- 
countrymen  had  been  guilty." 

As  we  spoke,  a  peasant  woman  passed,  pushing  a  wheel- 
barrow containing  some  lialf-burned  household  goods,  and 


198  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

followed  by  her  two  small  children.  "  Look,"  she  said,  as  we 
turned  to  her,  "  at  the  brutality  of  these  Germans.  My 
husband  has  gone  to  the  war,  and  I  was  alone  with  my 
two  little  ones.  With  great  difficulty  we  had  managed  to 
gather  our  crop;  and  they  set  fire  to  our  little  farm,  and 
burnt  everything." 

Half  an  hour  later,  we  were  at  La  Ferte'-Gaucher,  a  small 
town  on  the  Grand  Morin,  now  first  made  famous  by  the 
fact  that  it  was  here  the  German  fight  began,  after  severe 
fighting,  last  Monday.  The  invaders  had  only  arrived  on 
the  Saturday,  and  had  the  disagreeable  surprise  of  finding 
that  the  river  bridges  had  been  broken  down  by  the  then 
retreating  French.  The  German  commandant  informed  the 
municipal  officials  that,  if  the  sum  of  60,000  francs  (£2,400) 
were  not  produced,  he  would  burn  down  the  town.  He  then 
compelled  the  people  to  set  about  rebuilding  the  bridge; 
and  they  worked  day  and  night  at  this  job,  under  the  eyes 
of  the  soldiers  with  revolvers  and  rifles  ready  to  shoot  down 
any  shirker.  The  relief  to  these  people  of  the  return  of  the 
Allies  may  be  imagined.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  some  houses 
had  been  burned  down;  otherwise,  the  damage  did  not 
appear  to  be  very  serious. 

The  chief  bridge  being  destroyed,  the  invaders  crossed 
southward  by  boats,  and  over  some  small  private  bridges 
that  had  been  overlooked.  The  villagers  say  that  they  ad- 
vanced with  loud  cries  of  "  Nach  Paris !  "  There  seems  no 
doubt  that  even  the  officers  shared  the  illusion  that  the 
capital  was  besieged,  and  that  already  their  comrades  might 
be  camped  in  the  Place  de  l'Ope'ra.  When  they  learned 
something  of  the  truth,  they  were  stupefied.  This  fact  and 
the  rainfall  help  to  explain  the  suddenness  and  complete- 
ness of  their  breakdown. 

We  now  went  onward  to  the  north-west,  through  Rebais 
to  La  Ferte-sous-Jouarre,  at  the  junction  of  the  Petit  Morin 
and  the  Marne.  This  is  a  larger  place,  normally  of  5,000 
inhabitants,  situated  forty-one  miles  east  of  Paris,  mainly 


"  SUFFICIENT  UNTO  THE  DAY  "  199 

in  a  turn  of  the  fertile,  well-cultivated,  and  beautiful  valley 
of  the  Marne.  As  we  rode  in,  it  was  occupied  by  a  large 
French  detachment.  We  were  immediately  pulled  up  at 
the  broken  bridge,  the  fragments  of  which  partially  dammed 
the  stream  of  the  larger  river.  On  the  top  of  the  ruins  of 
the  bridge  itself,  in  the  river-bed,  lay  several  motor-cars, 
which  had,  no  doubt,  been  used  as  barricades  before  and 
during  the  bombardment.  The  roofs  and  walls  of  many 
of  the  houses,  especially  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Marne, 
were  shattered,  and  some  completely  destroyed,  during  the 
attack  on  the  retiring  German  columns  last  Wednesday. 
They  had  defended  this  passage  hardily.  From  the  ferry- 
boat that  carried  us  over,  we  could  still  see,  on  the  parapets 
of  a  pretty  terrace  overlooking  the  stream,  the  sandbags, 
mattresses,  pillows,  and  cushions  from  behind  which  the 
German  riflemen  had  commanded  the  bridge-head  on  the 
opposite  side.  A  few  hundred  feet  only  had  separated  them 
from  their  British  pursuers. 

The  Germans  were  here  for  a  week ;  and  during  that  time 
they  ransacked  every  shop  in  the  place.  The  staff  put  up  at 
the  best  inn,  the  Hotel  FEpee,  a  title  the  proprietor  is  now 
probably  out  of  love  with.  His  good  lady  told  me  that,  by 
way  of  celebrating  their  arrival,  the  officers — there  were  six- 
teen of  them — demanded  a  good  brand  of  champagne,  as 
they  had  only  had  inferior  sorts  of  late. 

"  I  told  them  our  cellars  were  empty.  They  then  sent 
men  to  search  the  town;  and  these  presently  returned  with 
a  case  of  Moet  and  Chandon.  At  the  end  of  the  dinner-party, 
they  were  all  drunk,  and  set  about  kicking  and  whipping 
some  of  their  servants  and  men.  One  day,  an  officer,  whom 
I  understood  to  be  the  commandant,  ordered  me  to  prepare 
a  special  dinner.  '  But,'  said  I,  '  I  have  no  butter,  and  there 
is  none  to  be  got  in  the  district.'  '  Get  a  knife,  and  come  to 
my  room,'  he  replied.  This  was  not  very  reassuring,  as 
you  may  imagine,  for  these  men  went  about  giving  orders 
with  revolvers  constantly    in  their  hands.     When  we  got 


200  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

upstairs,  he  showed  me  a  large  lump  of  butter,  and  told  me 
to  take  a  little.  I  took  it;  but  I  may  confess,  now,  it  was 
grease  I  used  for  his  meal,  and  the  butter  for  our  own. 

"  One  evening,  a  party  of  soldiers  burst  in  and  asked  me, 
with  their  usual  threats,  for  some  good  wine.  I  said  I  had 
nothing  but  ordinaire.  They  wouldn't  believe  me,  and  told 
me  to  bring  a  light  and  show  them  to  the  cellar.  At  the 
bottom  of  the  steps  they  shouldered  me  away;  but  when 
they  found  the  bottles  which  " — this  with  a  shrewd  smile — 
"  I  had  been  careful  not  to  hide,  they  declared  they  had  only 
wanted  champagne,  and  left  in  a  very  angry  mood.  Un- 
doubtedly, there  is  not  now  a  bottle  of  champagne  in  La 
Ferte",  for  the  Germans  stole  and  drank  thousands  of  bottles 
during  the  few  days  they  were  here." 

We  had  now  to  make  a  long  detour  by  the  village  of  Mery 
in  order  to  get  over  the  Marne;  and,  pursuing  our  way 
through  lovely  vineyards — the  first  of  the  vineyards  of 
Champagne: — and  desolate  villages,  we  reached  Chateau- 
Thierry. 

A  long  French  Red  Cross  convoy  followed  us  into  the 
town,  and,  thereafter,  endless  strings  of  British  supply- 
wagons.  A  few  washerwomen  by  the  riverside  seemed  to 
be  almost  the  only  remains  of  the  civil  population;  but  the 
normal  roll  of  5,000  people  must  have  been  fully  made  up 
by  soldiery  of  the  two  allied  races.  They  were  laagered  in 
every  available  space,  beneath  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  castle, 
and  the  birthplace  of  La  Fontaine  of  the  "  Fables,"  around 
the  square  before  the  town  hall  and  theater,  everywhere  and 
anywhere. 

I  had  some  interesting  chat  with  several  British  soldiers, 
including  a  member  of  the  Flying  Corps,  who  confirmed  my 
impression  of  the  difficulty  of  distinguishing  friendly  from 
hostile  aeroplanes  at  any  height,  and  said  it  was  no  good 
shooting  at  interlopers — our  own  'planes  must  always  be 
up  and  ready  to  tackle  them. 

A  brief  encounter  with  a  French  gendarme  officer  was  less 


"  SUFFICIENT  UNTO  THE  DAY  "  201 

pleasant,  but  not  as  anxious  as  the  question  of  petrol. 
Thanks  to  a  kindly  doctor,  we  at  last  renewed  our  stock, 
and  went  north  into  the  villages  behind  the  battle  front, 
where  the  fainter  and  fainter  sound  of  the  cannon  pro- 
claimed the  continued  success  of  the  great  recoil.  How  the 
old  ghosts  from  all  past  sieges  of  Soissons — they  go  back 
to  Caesar's  day — will  walk  to-night;  and  with  what  blazing 
lights  and  horrid  shadows  the  elder  Dumas,  whose  birth- 
place has  rung  to-day  to  the  sound  of  combat,  would  have 
glorified  the  story!  Sir  John  French  himself,  happy  and 
fit-looking,  was  in  these  villages  only  yesterday,  saying  a 
bracing  word  to  his  men. 

But,  for  me,  with  the  fresh  mounds  of  earth,  and  the 
long  train  of  British  wounded  going  south,  blinding  my 
eyes,  the  only  words  that  I  can  add — and  they  are  as  true 
in  the  hours  of  victory  as  of  defeat — are  the  words  of  the 
schoolmaster  who  wrote,  on  breaking-up  day,  upon  the 
blackboard  in  the  ruined  village  of  Courtagon — unconscious 
instrument  of  the  omnipotent  and  eternal  Irony — "  Sufficient 
unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof." 


CHAPTER  XV 
ON  THE  OURCQ  BATTLEFIELD 

Paris,  September  14. 

I  have  only  now  been  able  to  run  out  to  Meaux,  and 
obtain  a  clear  impression  of  the  battlefield  of  the  Ourcq. 
These  motor-trips  behind  the  lines,  involving  long  detours, 
because  passes  are  given  only  for  some  place  beyond  the 
zone  of  operations,  are  something  of  an  adventure — not  that 
an  arrest  can  involve  any  great  discomfort,  but  because,  for 
a  journalist,  the  heaviest  penalty  is  simply  to  be  shut  out 
of  the  field  of  action.  I  hear  that  three  British  and  two 
American  pressmen  have  just  been  stopped  on  the  Marne, 
and  politely  conducted  south  to  Tours.  Naturally,  the 
pickets  posted  behind  their  barricades  of  logs,  stone,  and 
wire,  along  the  main  road  running  due  east  out  of  Paris, 
are  particularly  exacting.  British  officers  have,  apparently, 
received  still  stiffer  orders — in  fact,  if  all  orders  were  liter- 
ally interpreted,  there  could  be  no  public  record  of  the  war 
beyond  the  meager  official  bulletins ;  and,  within  the  British 
lines,  the  scrap  of  pink  paper  issued,  after  interminable 
formalities,  by  the  Prefect  of  Police  and  the  Military  Gov- 
ernor of  Paris  has  no  value.  When  these  difficulties  have 
been  overcome,  there  always  remains  the  possibility  of  being 
held  up  by  some  excited  subordinate  as  a  spy. 

We  were  pelting  homeward  along  a  narrow  lane  between 
Villers-Cotterets  and  La  Ferte-Milon.  It  was  near  night- 
fall, and  we  had  to  get  to  the  gates  of  Paris  by  7.30  p.m., 
on  pain  of  being  shut  out.  Suddenly  a  couple  of  men  in 
khaki,  with  fixed  bayonets,  loomed  before  us,  with  a  sharp 
summons  to  halt.     Lengthy  explanations  were  received  with 

202 


ON  THE  OURCQ  BATTLEFIELD  203 

stolid  incredulity,  perhaps  because  my  companion  and 
chauffeur  were  manifestly  not  Britons.  We  were  taken  a 
few  yards  back  to  a  large  motor- wagon,  in  which  we  were 
surprised  to  see  half-a-dozen  wounded  men  lying.  One  of 
them  was  the  sergeant ;  and  to  him — though  he  was  evidently 
out  of  action — the  matter  was  loyally  referred,  the  Tom- 
mies standing  around  while  I  repeated  my  explanations. 
He  replied  that  we  could  not  go  on,  as  they  were  hunting 
German  fugitives  out  of  the  woods  just  beyond,  and  it  would 
not  be  safe  for  us  to  pass.  No,  we  could  not  go  backward, 
either.  The  man-hunt  was,  then,  a  pretext  for  delay.  But 
they  were  very  good  fellows ;  and  I  was  presently  busy  writ- 
ing postcards  for  the  wounded  men,  to  assure  Mrs.  Atkins 
at  home  that  all  was  well  with  them.  Then  they  let  us  go, 
by  an  eastward  side-road. 

Between  Meaux  and  Changis,  the  Marne  makes  a  north- 
ward loop,  and  at  the  head  of  this  loop  it  is  joined  by  the 
Ourcq,  which  has  flowed  from  the  western  spurs  of  the 
Mountain  of  Rheims,  through  La  Ferte-Milon.  This  little 
country  town,  the  birthplace  of  Racine,  has  two  fine  ancient 
churches,  and  is  overshadowed  (we  can  no  longer  say  "  domi- 
nated "  in  these  days  of  big  guns)  by  the  immense  rectangu- 
lar walls  and  flanking  towers  of  the  donjon  of  Duke  Henry 
of  Orleans.  Two  months  ago,  these  things  would  have  taken 
all  our  interest.  Now  we  are  absorbed  in  examining  the 
wreckage  of  a  small  general  shop — the  only  one  open  in  the 
place — and  in  hearing  the  story  of  its  miserable  owner.  No ! 
he  had  no  food  to  sell  us.  He  had  a  single  bottle  of  country 
wine  hidden ;  but  he  dare  not  give  us  that,  lest  the  soldiers, 
who  had  taken  everything,  should  charge  him  with  con- 
cealing provisions.  Some  infantrymen  were  watching  us 
as  we  spoke;  so,  to  save  the  man  from  suspicion,  we  moved 
away. 

From  Ferte-Milon,  the  Ourcq  flows  southward  to  the  Marne 
through  a  narrow,  wooded  ravine.  On  both  sides  stretch 
rolling  wheat-fields,  broken  by  small  woods  and  orchards, 


204  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

and  farmsteads  and  villages  that  have  bought  with  their 
modest  substance  a  fame  like  that  of  Hougomont  and  Mont 
St.  Jean.  The  French  army  covering  Paris  stretched  from 
the  Marne  toward  Senlis ;  and  the  outposts  of  Von  Kluck's 
army  were  also  on  the  west  side  of  the  Ourcq  when  the 
battle  began,  his  main  columns  being  on  the  east  bank,  along 
the  roads  between  Villers-Cotterets  and  Chateau-Thierry. 
The  plateau  slopes  down  southward  to  the  Marne  Valley, 
the  descent  into  Meaux  being  rather  sharp.  Meaux  is  a 
quiet  little  town  of  14,000  inhabitants,  twenty-seven  miles 
east  of  Paris,  on  the  main  road  and  the  railway  to  Chalons. 
It  is  a  market-town  for  Brie  cheese  and  other  country  pro- 
duce; it  is  also  the  meeting-place  of  main  roads  from  Senlis, 
Compiegne,  and  Soissons.  Immediately  to  the  east,  there  is 
a  tangle  of  water-ways ;  and  it  is  difficult  to  understand  how 
the  invaders  could  allow  themselves  to  get  involved  in  such 
a  region.  Thus,  the  Paris-Chalons  road  crosses  the  Ourcq 
Canal  before  entering  the  town  of  Meaux.  On  leaving  it, 
it  crosses  the  canal  twice,  and  the  Marne  once,  before  reach- 
ing Trilport.  It  then  runs  south  of  the  river  to  La  Feite"- 
sous-Jouarre,  where  it  crosses  the  Petit  Morin;  while  a 
north-east  road  there  crosses  the  Marne  to  reach  Chateau- 
Thierry.  You  get  from  the  north  to  Coulommiers  either  by 
a  road  through  Meaux,  crossing  the  Ourcq  Canal  and  the 
Marne,  or  by  roads  from  Trilport  and  La  Ferte\  We  found 
all  Meaux  shuttered  up,  and  practically  depopulated.  But 
no  harm  was  done  in  the  town;  some  Germans  entered  it, 
but  it  was  not  occupied. 

The  chief  stress  of  the  battle  fell  among  the  villages  in 
the  angle  between  the  Marne  and  the  west  bank  of  the 
Ourcq,  beyond  the  shoulder  of  the  rise  from  Meaux.  Five 
days  have  passed,  but  the  scene  is  still  painful  beyond 
description.  We  went  up  the  road  which  strikes  north  be- 
tween Meaux  and  Trilport,  leaving  Varecldes  and  Lizy  on 
our  right,  Penchard,  Chambry,  Barcy,  Etrepilly,  and  Acy  on 
our  left.     The  road  is  bordered  by  a  fine  avenue  of  Lombardy 


ON  THE  OURCQ  BATTLEFIELD  205 

poplars.  Many  of  the  tree-trunks  have  been  completely 
severed;  others  have  great  branches  lopped  off,  which  lie 
about  the  road ;  yet  others  show  gaping  wounds  where  shells 
have  struck  them.  We  wandered  about  the  orchards  and 
coppices,  the  patches  of  potatoes  and  maize,  beside  the  high- 
way, and  beyond  these  into  the  fields  of  stubble  aud  grass. 
Everywhere  are  to  be  seen  the  ruts  of  gun-carriage  wheels, 
and  wide  holes  torn  out  by  shrapnel  or  shell  fire,  metallic 
patches  in  the  red  earth  showing  how  the  soil  has  been 
fused  by  the  explosion.  Everywhere  scraps  of  clothing,  old 
letters  and  unwritten  postcards,  presumably  thrown  out 
when  the  dead  were  being  buried ;  masses  of  used  cartridges 
in  abandoned  trenches,  scraps  of  French  "  75  "  shells,  a  long 
lint  bandage,  a  broken  spectacle-case — the  most  trifling 
things  eloquent  of  overwhelming  horror.  Where  the  Ger- 
man guns  have  made  a  rear-guard  stand,  there  is  a  pile  of 
live  projectiles,  and  the  elaborate  wicker  baskets  in  which 
they  are  carried,  left  in  the  hurry  of  retreat.  Nearly  all  the 
human  remains  in  this  district  have  now  been  buried,  the 
trenches  being  used  for  common  graves;  but  dead  bodies 
of  horses  lie  along  the  road  and  over  the  fields,  poisoning 
the  air  for  miles  around.  As  we  came  home,  the  gloom 
was  broken  by  dozens  of  fires  b}'  which  these  carcasses  are 
being  incinerated. 

Shattered  and  still  burning  farm  buildings,  gutted  houses 
in  the  villages  from  Chauconin  northward,  torn  and  charred 
hayricks,  broken  motor-carts,  and  all  sorts  of  litter  mark 
the  track  of  the  storm.  The  hardest  fighting  seems  to  have 
occurred  between  Penchard,  Barcy,  and  Vareddes,  during 
the  earlier  part  of  the  battle,  and  between  Acy  and  Betz 
when  the  Germans  tried  to  turn  the  French  flank  by  the 
north.  At  Penchard  and  Vareddes,  there  were  terrible  bayo- 
net charges,  under  the  unceasing  blaze  of  artillery.  At  the 
entrance  to  Acy  village,  Frenchmen  and  Germans  fell  in 
hundreds  together.  At  Chauconin,  Congis,  Penchard,  and 
Barcy,  the  German  soldiers  deliberately  set  tire  to  a  number 


206  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

of  houses,  without  any  known  excuse.  French  engineers 
are  now  busy  patching  up  the  broken  bridges.  Convoys  of 
prisoners  and  wounded  pass  south;  re-enforcements  and  sup- 
plies go  north.  Otherwise,  the  countryside  between  Meaux 
and  Soissons  is  almost  uninhabited,  and  almost  uninhabit- 
able. 

No  food  or  lodging  is  to  be  obtained,  so  far  as  we  could 
find,  except  at  Villers-Cotterets ;  and  this  pretty  little  town 
has  the  disadvantage  of  being  full  of  troops.  After  nearly 
tumbling  into  the  midst  of  the  Quartier-General,  naturally 
established  in  the  best  hotel,  we  turned  about  quickly,  and 
found  refuge  in  a  third-class  inn.  This  place,  also,  was 
overflowing  with  soldiers,  including  a  number  of  sub-officers 
who  were  discussing,  in  a  very  calm  and  intelligent  way, 
the  massacre  at  Senlis.  There  is  no  longer  any  doubt  of  the 
barbarities  of  the  invasion.  The  Germans  have  pillaged 
Crepy-en-Valois ;  they  have  burned  down  a  large  part  of 
Choisy-en-Bac ;  they  have  committed  wholesale  robbery  in 
Creil  and  Compiegne,  and  many  personal  outrages.  But  the 
case  of  Senlis  calls  for  a  special  judgment.  When  General 
von  Kluck's  men  entered  the  town,  on  September  2,  they 
were  fired  upon,  as  the  natives  say,  by  retiring  Zouaves;  as 
the  Germans  aver,  by  some  of  the  inhabitants.  That  night, 
the  town  was  set  on  fire  by  means  of  hand-grenades  and 
other  incendiary  apparatus,  over  a  hundred  houses  being 
burned  down.  Other  houses  were  sacked.  A  number  of 
hostages  were  then  taken,  among  them  the  Mayor,  M.  Odent, 
who  seems  to  have  shown  great  dignity  under  cruel  treat- 
ment. After  a  mock  trial,  M.  Odent  and  six  other  citizens 
were  shot.  A  dozen  other  inhabitants,  or  more,  were  mur- 
dered in  the  streets.  How  much  the  French  officers  to 
whom  I  was  listening  knew  of  these  facts  did  not  appear. 
The  question  had  been  raised  whether  civilians  were  in  any 
case  justified  in  resisting  invaders  entering  a  town ;  and  no 
lawyer  could  have  been  clearer  than  those  French  patriots 
that  they  are  not.     Needless  to  say,  they  would  not  have 


ON  THE  OURCQ  BATTLEFIELD  207 

justified  so  barbarous  a  revenge,  even  if  it  were  proved  that 
some  of  the  inhabitants  of  Senlis  were  francs-tircurs. 

An  officer  of  a  Highland  regiment,  a  veteran  of  the  Boer 
War,  now  lying  wounded  in  Paris,  told  a  French  relative 
that  if  the  British  army,  comparatively  few  in  numbers, 
had  been  able  to  give  very  important  aid  in  the  crises  of 
this  war,  it  was  because  they  had  learned  a  lesson  from 
the  Boers.  "  Formerly,"  he  said,  "  we  did  not  know 
how  to  use  either  artificial  protection  or  the  lie  of  the  land 
to  get  shelter  from  the  enemy's  fire,  and  we  charged  in  close 
formation  against  the  best  marksmen  in  the  world.  The 
Boers  were  our  teachers;  and  now  there  are  no  soldiers  in 
Europe  who  know  as  we  do  how  to  find  cover.  This  time, 
we  have  to  meet  only  mediocre,  not  to  say  bad  marksmen, 
and  they  employ  mass  tactics.  So,  if  the  numbers  are  equal, 
we  beat  them ;  and  if  they  have  the  larger  force  we  can 
hold  our  own  with  small  loss.  Also,  before  charging,  our 
men  watch  the  effects  of  the  artillery  fire.  These,  briefly, 
are  the  secrets  of  our  success." 

The  following  notes  by  a  French  writer,  M.  Andr6  Pai- 
sant,  written  on  Saturday  at  Nanteuil-le-Haudouin,  thirty- 
five  miles  north-east  of  Paris,  may  be  read  as  a  pendant 
to  my  last  messages :  "  They  were  fighting  here  on  Thurs- 
day night.  On  the  railway,  we  found  the  body  of  a  little 
Frenchman.  The  telegraph-lines  are  all  down,  and  the 
houses  show  gaping  holes.  On  the  avenue  between  the  sta- 
tion and  the  town,  a  sickening  odor  of  dead  horses  and 
food  left  by  the  flying  Germans  strikes  us.  The  lampless 
streets  were  full  of  troops  till  early  this  morning.  Dogs 
wander  disconsolate  about  the  empty  houses.  Inside,  chests 
of  drawers  have  been  upset,  cupboards  broken  open,  cur- 
tains and  cloths  cut  to  pieces,  and  all  sorts  of  refuse  left 
about.  At  Boissy  Levignon,  only  four  walls  of  the  rail- 
way station  were  left.  I  found  here  a  circle  of  litters  on 
which  lay  the  bodies  of  five  dead  Uhlans,  stiff,  bare-chested, 
and    their    wounds    clotted    with    blood.     They    had    been 


208  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

brought  here  alive,  and  were  then  abandoned  during  the 
fight.  One  of  them,  with  fine  hands  and  a  face  still  speak- 
ing of  energy,  was  strikingly  handsome.  Some  soldiers  stood 
at  a  tap  between  the  corpses,  drawing  water.  In  a  shed 
nest  door,  with  shattered  roof,  there  were  more  bodies. 
One  of  the  dead  men  was  sitting  upright,  with  open  eyes 
and  outstretched  hand,  like  a  figure  at  Mine.  Tussaud's; 
but  a  figure  of  flesh,  not  wax.  The  railway-crossing  keeper 
told  me  how  the  Germans  suddenly  stopped  their  advance, 
then  turned  and  fled,  abandoning  everything.  At  Peroy- 
les-Gonibries,  little  mounds  with  crosses  show  where  most 
of  the  dead  were  buried.  At  the  entrance  to  the  village, 
three  Germans  were  sitting  in  a  ditch,  with  French  maps 
in  their  hands.  A  shell  interrupted  their  studies.  I  re- 
turned with  some  prisoners.  They  were  very  much  afraid; 
but  the  captain  said,  '  The  French  are  kind ;  you  are  safe,' 
and  I  saw  their  lips  quiver.  Some  soldiers  brought  them 
water  to  drink.  War  is  a  horrible  thing,  yet  the  heart  ex- 
pands to  see  such  acts  as  this." 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  Germans  have  not  attempted  to 
defend  the  line  of  the  Marne  south-east  of  Rheims,  or  to 
hold  that  city.  We  shall  now  be  able  to  learn  what  has 
been  happening  there  during  the  past  fortnight.  To  the 
west,  Amiens  has  been  abandoned ;  and  we  may  hope  for  a 
resumption  of  the  Boulogne  and  Calais  boat  services  to 
England.  At  many  places,  including  Montmirail,  the  re- 
treat was  so  sudden  that  the  papers  of  the  general  staff,  as 
well  as  all  sorts  of  munitions,  were  captured.  At  the  vil- 
lage of  Fromentieres  in  particular,  ten  miles  north  of 
Sezanne,  whole  batteries  of  guns  were  taken.  Both  prison- 
ers and  horses  seemed  utterly  worn  out.  The  campaign  of 
"  smashing  blows "  has,  in  fact,  smashed  its  authors,  and 
this  kind  of  offensive,  which  was  much  in  favor  recently 
among  soldiers  who  had  learned  in  the  Prussian  school, 
must  be  regarded  as  correspondingly  discounted.  The 
center  is  always  a  very  difficult  situation,  and  here,  around 


ON  THE  OURCQ  BATTLEFIELD  209 

Vitiy-le-Frangois,  some  of  the  most  desperate  of  the  fighting 
has  taken  place.  All  along  the  line  the  heavy  rain  of  Fri- 
days helps  to  account  for  much  of  the  German  artillery 
losses. 

Best  of  all,  perhaps,  is  the  news  of  the  German  aban- 
donment of  the  Nancy  region  and  the  French  reoccupation 
of  Lune'ville,  to  which  it  is  added  this  afternoon  that  beyond 
Luneville  and  St.  Die"  a  number  of  points  have  been  re- 
covered on  the  Alsatian  frontier,  including  Pont-a-Mousson, 
Nomeny,  Baccarat,  and  Raon-1'Etape.  It  is  over  a  fortnight 
since  Lune'ville  was  occupied,  and  considerable  anxiety  has 
been  felt  for  the  Nancy  forces.  When  the  Kaiser  went  to 
the  battlefield  before  Nancy  the  other  day,  it  may  be  pre- 
sumed that  he  still  entertained  certain  expectations  now 
destined  to  remain  unfulfilled.  This  is  not  the  moment  to 
think  of  that  strange  life,  so  often  covered  with  flattery, 
so  hard  to  understand,  the  victim  of  an  evil  heritage,  now 
faced  with  a  prospect  of  disgrace  and  ruin.  Let  me  rather 
say  a  word  in  praise  of  the  admirable  calm  with  which, 
after  the  long  news  of  misfortune,  the  people  of  Paris  have 
heard  the  news  of  victory.  The  sober-sided  Journal  des 
Debuts  says :  "  This  calm  is  not  in  our  French  tempera- 
ment ;  it  is  the  fruit  of  experience."  No  doubt  this  is  true, 
and  let  us  not  forget  that  this  experience  includes  a  mass 
of  sorrow  beside  which  the  whole  of  the  battles  of  1870 
were  a  small  matter.  The  song  of  triumph  is  stilled  by  the 
thought  of  those  nameless  graves  all  over  the  plains  and 
hillsides  of  the  north. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
IN  THE  RUINED  VILLAGES 

Paris,  December  10. 

Since  I  followed  in  the  wake  of  the  battle  of  the  Marne, 
and  saw  the  havoc  wrought  among  the  thriving  little  com- 
munities on  the  Brie  plateau  and  from  there  to  Soissons,  I 
have  seen  much  of  what  General  Sherman  called  "  the  hell 
of  war,"  but  nothing  quite  like  the  ravaged  region  in  south- 
ern Champagne. 

It  is  difficult  to  maintain  anything  like  a  judicial  temper 
when  face  to  face  with  wrong  of  this  character  and  extent. 
Our  law-courts  are  conducted  upon  the  supposition,  prob- 
ably justified,  that  very  few  men  make  good  witnesses.  If 
it  be  so  in  normal  times,  how  much  more  so  amid  this  great 
unloosing  of  passions,  this  agony  of  sufferings  immeasur- 
able. The  observer  coming  from  a  distant  isle,  which  has 
not  known  for  centuries  what  invasion  means,  may  easily 
discern  that  there  are  here  all  kinds  and  degrees  of  wicked- 
ness; and — still  believing,  as  we  did  a  few  months  ago, 
that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  nation  of  criminals — he 
may  seek  for  those  instances  of  generosity  and  pity  which, 
however  exceptional,  would  allow  him  to  maintain  his  faith 
in  human  nature,  with  all  its  tangle  of  good  and  ill.  There 
must  be  German  soldiers  and  officers  who  are  ashamed  of 
what  has  been  done  in  Belgium  and  France,  as  Frenchmen 
and  British  and  Belgians  would  be  ashamed  if  any  such 
devil's  work  were  to  be  wrought  in  Germany.  But  it  is 
useless  to  search  for  evidence  of  such  scruples  amid  the 
ruins  of  beloved  homes ;  and  it  is  asking  too  much  of  human 

210 


IN  THE  RUINED  VILLAGES  211 

nature,  when  it  has  lost  all  that  made  life  tolerable,  if  not 
happy,  to  rise  to  the  height  of  impartiality  which  is  the 
ideal  of  the  Courts  of  Justice. 

The  peasants,  many  of  whom  we  have  examined  and 
cross-examined,  speak  with  manifest  sincerity.  But  what 
they  have  heard  has  become  a  part  of  what  they  have  seen; 
and  how  (for  instance)  is  a  simple  civilian  to  distinguish 
what  report  calls  "  incendiary  pastilles "  from  the  little 
squares  of  modern  gunpowder  a  packet  of  which  lies  be- 
fore me,  picked  up  in  the  trenches  on  the  Ourcq?  No  com- 
plete and  trustworthy  account  of  these  things  can  be  made 
at  present;  I  doubt  if  it  will  ever  be  possible  to  make  one. 
But  some  general  facts  are  beyond  doubt;  and  they  are 
sufficient  to  justify  us  in  saying  that  the  normal  cruelty  of 
war  has,  in  considerable  portions  of  the  present  campaign, 
been  so  far  exceeded  as  to  doubly  damn  the  original  Ger- 
man aggression,  and  eclipse  all  the  previous  evil  of  Prus- 
sian militarism.  There  is  nothing,  so  far,  in  French  experi- 
ence to  equal  the  fire  and  sack  of  Louvain,  the  massacres  of 
Aerschot,  Tamines,  and  Dinant,  and  the  retail  butchery  in 
many  Belgian  villages.  But  there  have  been  foul  deeds 
the  memory  of  which  will  live,  to  the  shame  of  the  German 
army,  for  generations  to  come. 

From  Chalons  to  Verdun,  it  is  chiefly  the  Crown  Prince 
and  his  men  who  must  bear  this  burden.  But  rumor  at- 
tributed to  this  unfortunate  youth  an  impossible  ubiquity, 
sometimes  evidently  confusing  him  with  his  brothers. 
There  is  no  doubt  about  the  pillage  of  the  Chateau  of  Baye, 
on  the  eve  of  the  Prussian  disaster  in  the  neighboring 
marshes  of  St.  Gond.  The  Baron  de  Baye  is  an  explorer 
and  collector  of  historical  and  artistic  objects;  the  chateau 
is  known  to  the  guide-books  for  his  rich  collections,  as  well 
as  for  remains  of  a  twelfth-century  Cistercian  monastery, 
hard  by.  "  Breaking  all  the  numerous  glass-cases  in  a 
gallery  forty-five  yards  long,"  says  the  Baroness  de  Baye, 


212  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

'  he ' — the  Crown  Prince — "  has  stolen  the  arms,  medals, 
precious  vases,  carved  gold  cups,  all  the  splendid  presents 
given  by  the  Tsar  to  M.  de  Baye  as  souvenirs  of  his  journeys 
to  Russia.  In  the  Museum  of  1812,  he  has  stolen  jewels, 
icons,  tapestries,  miniatures  .  .  .  furniture,  priceless 
pictures.  But  he  had  to  abandon  the  last  boxes  in  the  pre- 
cipitation of  the  retreat.  Our  faithful  old  servants  wept." 
(Matin,  September  29.)  When  this  letter  was  published, 
a  vague  denial  was  issued  by  the  German  Embassy  in  Rome. 
The  Baroness  de  Baye  then  added  some  details :  the  thieves 
had  compelled  the  village  locksmith  to  help  them  in  packing 
their  loot,  and  in  driving  the  wagons  to  Rethel.  Some  high 
officers  must  be  held  accountable  for  this  deed;  but  there 
is  no  trustworthy  evidence  identifying  the  Crown  Prince.1 
In  the  same  district,  the  Chateau  of  Montmort,  a  remark- 
able square  building  flanked  by  pepper-box  towers,  dating 
from  1580,  and  the  Chateau  of  Beaumont,  near  Montmirail, 
belonging  to  the  Comte  de  la  Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville, 
were  both  pillaged.  In  the  latter  case,  a  door  was  chalk- 
marked  for  a  Count  Waldersee. 

Responsibilities  in  Champagne  are  divided.  In  the  Ar- 
gonne,  the  Crown  Prince's  troops  had  their  own  way,  which 
is  graphically  illustrated  by  the  blackened  skeletons  of 
brickwork  that  tower  above  the  site  of  the  thriving  holiday 

1  The  French  Commission  of  Inquiry  says:  "Baron  de  Baye's  room 
must  have  been  occupied  by  a  person  of  very  high  rank,  for  on  the 
door  there  still  remains  a  chalk  inscription,  'J.  K.,  Hoheit.'  No  one 
could  give  us  exact  information  as  to  the  identity  of  this  '  Highness ' ; 
however,  a  General  who  lodged  in  the  house  of  M.  Houllier,  town  coun- 
cilor, told  his  host  that  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  and  the  Staff  of  the 
10th  Corps  had  occupied  the  chateau."  This  Commission  of  Inquiry 
consisted  of  MM.  Georges  Payelle,  First-President  of  the  Cour  des 
Comptes;  A.  Mollard,  Minister  Plenipotentiary;  G.  Maringer,  Coun- 
cilor of  State,  and  E.  Paillot,  Councilor  in  the  Court  of  Appeal.  Its 
report,  presented  to  the  French  Government  on  December  17,  1914, 
contains  many  specific  allegations  of  outrages  upon  women.  This  is 
a  class  of  crime  as  to  which  I  should  require  particularly  convincing 
evidence.  For  this  and  other  reasons,  it  is  hardly  mentioned  in  the 
present  volume. 


IN  THE  RUINED  VILLAGES  213 

center,  Clermont.1  This  picturesque  little  town,  of  1,200 
inhabitants,  set  upon  a  hill  overlooking  the  Aire  Valley,  at 
the  junction  of  the  Paris-Verdun  and  Bar-le-Duc  roads,  was 
occupied  by  the  Germans  early  on  the  morning  of  Septem- 
ber 5,  after  hard  fighting  on  the  Verdun  side.  The  Sister 
Superior  of  the  hospital  had  evacuated  the  wounded  soldiers 
by  train  the  day  before,  but  had  herself  refused  to  leave  be- 
cause some  forty  old  and  infirm  civil  patients  remained. 
At  5  a.m.  three  officers  forced  an  entry  into  the  hospital, 
but  this  brave  woman  withstood  them  till  they  had  prom- 
ised to  do  no  harm.  On  the  morrow,  some  houses  were  fired, 
and,  the  hospital  being  threatened,  she  asked  that  some 
firemen  should  be  sent  to  protect  it.  This  was  done.  A 
large  part  of  the  town  was  burned  down,  including  the 
church ;  and  the  remainder  was  sacked. 

Chalons,  as  I  have  already  shown,  came  off  very  lightly. 
The  Germans  were  there  just  a  week,  from  September  4. 
The  city  was  not  bombarded.  A  ransom  of  £20,000  was  de- 
manded and  paid;  and  the  officers  and  men  freely  looted 
wines,  liquors,  jewelry,  and  clothing,  especially  from  closed 
houses.  A  few  miles  eastward,  we  came  to  L'Epine,  the 
two  striking  towers  of  its  church  rising  prominently  on  the 
road.  Here,  one  side  of  the  main  street  was  burned  out, 
only  a  few  broken  walls  still  standing.  On  September  5,  a 
Prussian  brigade  took  possession  of  the  village.  Most  of  the 
inhabitants  had  fled;  their  houses  were  ransacked,  and  then 
set  on  fire  with  petrol,  torches,  and  grenades — except  those 
in  which  the  officers  were  billeted.  The  church,  which  is  a 
place  of  pilgrimage,  owes  its  immunity  to  the  fact  that  300 
wounded  German  soldiers  were  sheltered  there.  On  one 
of  the  shattered  walls  at  the  entry  to  the  village,  there  still 
hangs  the  French  Touring  Club's  warning  to  motorists — 

'  The  French  Commission  of  Inquiry  states  that  Clermont-en-Argonne 
was  occupied  by  the  13th  Wiirtemberg  Corps,  under  the  command  of 
General  von  Durach,  and  by  a  troop  of  Uhlans  commanded  by  Prince 
von  Wittcnstein. 


214  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

another  note  of  irony — "  Think  of  the  children.  Thanks." 
The  worst  lies  in  the  triangle  between  this  village,  Vitry- 
le-Frangois,  and  Bar-le-Duc,  and  especially  between  the  last 
two.  Proceeding  from  Bar  to  Vitry,  we  had  already  passed 
through  several  villages  of  which  only  piles  of  bricks  and 
plaster  remained,  through  fields  marked  by  huge  holes  where 
shells  had  exploded,  and  by  wayside  graves  bearing  thin 
wooden  crosses,  with  the  soldier's  cap  or  a  few  faded  flowers 
hanging  on  them.  Perhaps  these  communities  were  victims 
of  "  legitimate "  warfare ;  at  any  rate,  our  guides  passed 
them  by. 

Villers-aux-Vents,  lately  a  jolly  hamlet,  sheltered  behind 
trees  on  the  southern  edge  of  one  of  the  rolling  plateaux 
of  the  region,  is  a  spectacle  no  man  could  lightly  pass  by. 
Its  name  is  now  tragically  appropriate.  It  is,  indeed, 
open  to  all  the  winds.  It  is  destroyed  from  end  to  end. 
Out  of  about  a  hundred  houses — recently  built,  by  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  bricks — only  one  remains  partially  habit- 
able. Within  a  few  crazy,  charred  fragments  of  wall,  or 
areas  that  had  been  walled,  I  climbed  about  the  piles  of 
broken  stone  and  brick,  examined  protruding  pieces  of 
twisted  iron,  bedsteads,  tools,  kitchen  things,  and  shattered 
fragments  of  pottery.  The  woodwork  had  disappeared,  save 
a  few  black  bones  of  rafters,  tables,  and  chairs.  The  inhab- 
itants were  told  to  leave  their  houses  before  they  were  set 
on  fire.  The  only  reason  I  can  find  alleged  is  that  several 
French  soldiers  had  disguised  themselves  in  civilian  clothes, 
or  that  (alternatively)  there  was  a  "wireless"  installation 
in  the  village.  The  beautiful  church  has  better  borne  the 
torture  by  fire.  The  spire  is  broken,  the  timbers  of  the  roof 
have  gone,  the  two  big  bells  lie  upon  a  heap  of  de'bris,  and 
a  hole  in  one  of  the  walls  shows  where  a  shell  broke  through 
during  the  battle  outside  the  village.  A  dozen  human  beings 
are  still  living  in  this  wilderness,  most  of  them  in  yawning 
holes  which  were  once  the  cellars  of  their  homes.  Just  out- 
side the  hamlet,  they  show  the  deep,  covered  trench  from 


IN  THE  RUINED  VILLAGES  £15 

which  the  Crown  Prince  is  supposed  to  have  watched  the 
battle. 

After  Villers,  we  visited  Brabant-le-Roi,  a  rather  larger 
place.  It  has  suffered  less;  but  we  heard  grievous  tales  of 
old  folk  taken  hostage  (including  a  woman  of  sixty-five, 
now  supposed  to  be  kept  prisoner  at  Sedan),  and  of  the 
heartless  theft  of  the  peasants'  few  pieces  of  silver  plate 
and  jewelry.  A  woman  and  her  three  children  are  said  to 
have  been  killed  at  the  near-by  hamlet  of  Soniineilles,  burned 
down  by  the  51st  Infantry  Regiment,  as  it  is  supposed  be- 
cause they  did  not  give  pleasing  answers  to  some  of  the  sol- 
diers' questions. 

The  market  town  of  Revigny,  on  the  other  hand,  seems 
to  have  been  scientifically  destroyed.  One  wonders  how  so 
many  solid  stone  houses  could  be  broken  up;  but  it  is 
clearly  evident  here,  as  at  Villers  and  other  places,  that  it 
is  the  result  not  of  bombardment,  but  of  systematic  incen- 
diarism. The  central  street  presents  an  extraordinary 
scene  of  devastation.  Nothing  remains  except  parts  of  the 
lower  walls,  and,  within,  deep  masses  of  stone,  brick,  and 
mortar,  broken  small,  with  scraps  of  iron  and  charred  wood. 
The  town  hall,  a  graceful  building  in  French  classic  style, 
has  about  a  half  of  its  outer  fabric  standing.  The  church, 
which  is  of  historical  interest,  is  roofless  and  much  injured 
within.  The  Germans  entered  the  town  on  September  6, 
and  remained  for  six  days.  The  few  inhabitants  who  re- 
main of  the  original  2,000  say  that  they  used  two  kinds  of 
incendiary  stuff,  one  being  explosive.  The  town  was  first 
pillaged,  then  fired.  At  once  the  streets  became  a  flaming 
furnace.  Some  German  officers  angrily  declared  that  the 
people  themselves  had  set  it  on  fire.  The  Mayor,  M.  Gaxotte, 
on  the  other  hand,  says  that  motor-cars  brought  up  tins  of 
petrol  and  packets  of  inflammable  substance,  that  the  Ger- 
man soldiers  placed  this  stuff  along  the  houses,  and,  at  a 
signal,  threw  in  hand-grenades.  "  The  cellars,"  he  says, 
"  had  already  been  emptied,  and  pianos  and  valuable  fur- 


216  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

niture  had  been  piled  on  motor-wagons  to  be  taken  to  Ger- 
many." A  boy  of  fifteen  was  shot  on  suspicion  of  having 
communicated  information  to  the  French.  Three  elder 
citizens  were  taken  away  as  hostages,  and  nothing  is  known 
of  their  fate.  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  what  Gen- 
eral von  Ethel  (commanding  the  3rd  Brigade  of  Cavalry) 
has  to  say  about  these  proceedings.  The  Crown  Prince 
entered  the  town,  but  was  not  content  with  the  rooms  pre- 
pared, and  went  to  a  neighboring  country  house.  Possibly 
the  exploit  of  a  French  aviator,  who  dropped  a  bomb  on 
Eevigny  on  the  second  day  of  the  German  occupation,  kill- 
ing eleven  soldiers  and  thirty-five  horses,  may  have  had 
something  to  do  with  this  barbarity. 

Usually,  one  finds  traces  of  a  general  policy,  and  two 
particular  pretexts,  in  the  ravaged  villages.  The  policy  is 
that  of  terrorism  which  heads  of  the  Prussian  State  have 
more  than  once  openly  stated ;  the  pretexts  are  that  inhab- 
itants have  fired  upon  the  German  troops,  or  have  given 
information  to  the  French.  But  I  suspect  another  partial 
explanation  of  the  peculiar  ferocity  of  the  Crown  Prince's 
army.  It  had  advanced  from  the  north-eastern  frontier,  by 
the  line  Ste.  Menehould-Revigny,  and,  on  September  6, 
reached  the  villages  just  west  of  Bar-le-Duc.  So  far,  the 
French  had  steadily  fallen  back.  The  Crown  Prince  began 
to  see  himself  as  an  irresistible  conqueror  entering  Paris  at 
the  head  of  an  invincible  army.  The  awakening  from  this 
dream  was  so  sharp  and  sudden  that  it  may  well  have  pro- 
duced a  fit  of  murderous  temper.  On  that  Sunday  of  the 
beginning  of  the  great  recoil,  the  French  guns  worked  a 
slaughter,  the  exact  extent  of  which  will,  perhaps,  never  be 
known.  The  precipitate  retreat  has  also  been  attributed 
to  a  breakdown  of  transport,  involving  a  shortage  of  ammu- 
nition. It  went  fast  and  far.  It  was  the  downfall  of  Ger- 
man hopes  and  the  ambitions  of  the  Kaiser's  heir.  The 
battle  between  Vassincourt  and  Mogneville,  on  the  10th, 
was  one  of  its  episodes.     The  demolition  of  these  villages, 


IN  THE  RUINED  VILLAGES  217 

of  Laimont  and  Neuville-sur-Ornain,  of  Andernay  and 
Sermaize,  of  Huiron  and  Hassimont,  of  Sommesous  and 
Sompuis,  was  their  revenge — at  least,  this  seems  the  most 
reasonable  explanation  of  the  facts,  if  there  can  be  said  to 
be  any  reason  in  them.  And  this  would  explain  how  Vitry- 
le-Francois  and  Chalons  escaped  the  fate  of  Revigny  and 
Rheims.  The  routed  troops  destroyed  on  the  line  of  their 
flight;  but  sometimes  they  had  no  time  to  give  themselves 
this  pleasure,  or  to  do  the  work  thoroughly. 

At  Vassincourt,  I  wandered  about  in  the  debris  of 
farmers'  houses  whose  big  blocks  of  limestone  seemed  strong 
enough  to  have  borne  a  siege.  The  quaint  old  chimney 
corners  gaped  over  remains  of  irons  and  kitchen  ware  pol- 
ished by  many  generations  of  faithful  housewives.  An 
ancient  cupboard-bed,  finely  carved,  was  broken  and  cov- 
ered with  filth  and  empty  bottles.  The  half-dozen  villagers 
remaining  gathered  round  us,  and  told  the  story  of  a  woman 
who  had  dared  to  hide  two  silver  dishes  when  the  officers 
she  had  had  to  entertain  were  preparing  to  depart.  One 
of  them  missed  the  dishes;  at  first  the  old  woman  denied 
that  she  was  the  owner  of  any  such  wealth.  But,  when  she 
and  her  husband  were  tied  by  the  hands  and  put  against  a 
wall,  she  confessed,  and,  on  producing  the  treasured  heir- 
looms, was  spared.  There  is  a  story  of  another  kind  of 
officer  who,  catching  three  drunken  soldiers  threatening  an 
innkeeper,  made  them  kneel  down  in  the  bar  in  an  attitude 
of  supplication,  and  kept  them  thus  for  an  hour.  It  sounds 
like  Prussian  army  discipline;  but  even  Prussian  officers — 
if  they  entertained  such  unusual  ideas  of  honor — would 
rarely  dare  to  impose  them  in  face  of  a  general  policy  of 
terrorism  dictated  from  above. 

One  scene  stands  out  in  my  memory.  Sermaize-les-Bains 
was  a  pleasant  town  of  4,000  inhabitants,  on  the  Saulx, 
with  a  mineral  spring,  a  large  sugar  refinery,  and  a  hand- 
some old  church.  It  had  been  demolished  from  end  to  end 
by  fire.    Of  500  houses,  only  two  or  three  are  now  standing. 


218  THE  ONSLAUGHT 

Except  a  few  chimneys  and  pieces  of  wall,  the  rest  is  a 
rubbish  heap.  In  the  middle  of  the  town,  there  is  rather  a 
fine  fountain;  from  this  crossways  you  look  down  four 
streets — a  perspective  extraordinarily  like  Pompeii  before  it 
was  cleared  up  by  the  antiquaries.  There  was  an  iron- 
monger's shop;  you  can  trace  it  by  the  masses  of  molten 
metal  and  what  I  can  best  call  clotted  nails.  There  was  a 
glass-and-china  shop;  you  can  trace  it  by  the  lumps  of 
milky  coagulate  that  stick  out  among  the  brick  litter.  Most 
of  the  townsfolk  had  fled;  a  number  were  taken  prisoner, 
and  carried  away;  a  few  still  inhabit  their  cellars;  you 
see  them — women,  children,  and  old  men — carrying  home 
large,  rough  loaves  of  bread,  or  wheeling  barrows  of  fire- 
wood. Two  enterprising  tradesmen  have  built  shanties 
where  they  sell  a  few  necessaries  of  life.  The  church  is  roof- 
less, gutted,  and  littered  with  fragments  of  stone. 

A  little  way  from  it  is  the  Presbytery,  or  Curb's  house, 
also  burned  out.  Behind  this  lies  a  garden,  unusually 
pretty  for  France,  with  a  tiny  fishpond  and  fountain  in  the 
center,  and  statues  of  the  saints,  turned  a  rusty  brown  by 
the  smoke  of  the  great  conflagration,  along  the  paths.  And 
in  the  middle  of  the  grass  plot  stands  a  white  statue  of  the 
Virgin,  turning  clasped  hands  towards  the  ruins  of  this 
house  of  peace  and  charity. 


BOOK  III 
TOWARD  DEADLOCK 


CHAPTER  XVII 
BACK  TO  THE  AISNE 

Chateau-Thierry,  Sunday,  September  13. 

The  ever  fainter  boom  of  the  big  guns  over  the  fields  and 
woods  to  the  north  tells  me  in  most  emphatic  language  that 
the  grand  debacle  has  begun.  Most  of  the  Kaiser's  armies 
in  France  are  in  full  retreat.  Many  prisoners,  guns,  and 
quantities  of  impedimenta  are  being  captured  daily.  The 
French  re-entered  Soissons  at  6  p.m.  yesterdaj-. 

Since  the  retreat  has  now  continued  for  four  days,  the 
rejoicing  which  fills  the  French  and  British  armies  can 
hardly  be  called  premature.  On  the  other  hand,  it  would 
be  dangerous,  as  well  as  foolish,  to  encourage  extravagant 
hopes.  A  lightning  withdrawal  may,  in  certain  situations, 
be  the  best  strategy.  True,  this  retreat  has  been  marked 
by  heavy  losses;  but,  again,  the  German  Great  Staff  has 
never  shown  itself  tender  toward  its  own  men.  If  there  is 
a  plain  object  in  view,  it  hurls  its  forces  forward,  indiffer- 
ent to  the  death-roll.  The  retreat  means  the  abandonment 
of  the  hope  of  attacking  Paris,  at  any  rate  in  the  near 
future.  But  it  does  not  mean  that  the  flight  is  altogether 
hopeless  and  useless.  From  Courchamp,  which  was  set  on 
fire  by  a  party  of  angry  Uhlans  on  Sunday  last,  to  Soissons, 
is  fifty-three  miles  as  the  aeroplane  might  fly.  In  such  a 
retreat,  it  is  natural  that  there  should  be  many  stragglers. 
They  give  themselves  up  in  a  starving  condition  in  parties 
of  fifty  or  a  hundred ;  and,  all  over  the  route  of  this  central 
advance,  in  the  woods  that  cover  the  Brie  tableland  and  the 
rolling  country  north  of  the  Marne,  groups  are  still  known 
to  be  hiding.    Sometimes  they  snipe  at  passers-by — we  were 

221 


222  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

repeatedly  told  that  it  was  unsafe  to  pass  through  such  or 
such  a  wood— or  attempt  a  feeble  resistance;  but  most 
often  they  give  themselves  up,  half-dead  from  lack  of  rest 
and  food,  to  the  rear-guards  who  are  inexorably  waiting 
for  their  surrender.  Generally  speaking,  along  this  fifty 
miles  of  almost  continuous  battlefield,  all  you  can  find  of 
the  dead,  except  the  horses,  on  the  day  after  the  fighting,  is 
a  line  of  mounds  of  fresh  brown  earth.  There  are  reports 
that,  near  Montmirail,  the  Germans  simply  piled  their  dead 
in  great  heaps  and  turned  them  to  ashes.  Usually  each 
army  buries  its  fallen  at  once;  but  I  am  told  there  are 
many  Germans  dead  of  hunger,  wounds,  and  fatigue  in  the 
woods  to  the  south,  and  that  some  days  must  pass  before 
the  country  is  completely  cleared. 

It  is  useless  to  exaggerate  the  loss  of  oddments  when 
it  is  evident  that  the  main  armies  have  saved  themselves. 
Nevertheless,  there  is  evidence  of  exhaustion,  and  of  some- 
thing more  than  physical  weariness.  Many  of  the  British 
and  French  troops  were  exhausted  at  the  end  of  the  fort- 
night's retreat  from  Belgium.  Two  Englishmen  I  have  just 
seen  may  be  taken  as  typical  specimens.  One  was  a  young 
Lancer,  whom  we  met  at  La  Ferte',  while  we  were  hunting 
vainly  for  a  meal.  He  had  lost  his  horse  and  his  sole  griev- 
ance was  that  he  must  go  back  to  a  depot  for  another,  and 
would  then  have  some  difficulty  in  finding  his  regiment.  He 
looked  thin  and  frail,  after  a  touch  of  fever;  but  there 
might  never  have  been  anything  but  victory  so  far  as  his 
spirits  were  concerned.  The  other  fellow,  a  Cockney  infan- 
tryman, was  lying  along  a  bench  in  the  shade  of  the  Mairie 
of  the  little  town  of  Montreuil-aux-Lions,  a  modest  build- 
ing, which  has  been  transformed  into  a  British  field  hos- 
pital. Two  other  boys  in  khaki  sat  beside  him,  and,  think- 
ing him  ill  or  wounded,  I  came  up  to  inquire.  The  odor 
of  an  English  cigarette  brought  him  promptly  to  a  sitting 
posture.  He  was  played  out,  but  perfectly  happy,  with  never 
a  shadow  of  doubt  about  the  justice  or  success  of  his  job, 


BACK  TO  THE  AISNE  223 

nnd  he  possessed  more  confidence  than  ever,  now  that  he  has 
seen  them  through  days  of  trial,  in  the  competence  of  his 
chiefs. 

To  come  to  the  crucial  spot  at  the  crucial  moment,  and 
to  carry  all  before  you,  is  what  raises  good  men  to  their 
best.  Contrast  this  condition  with  that  of  the  wretched 
gangs  of  prisoners  whom  one  meets  in  the  rear  camps,  or 
sees  lying  in  the  straw  in  the  darkness  of  the  railway  vans. 
Prussian  pride  is  obstinate  enough ;  but  the  pride  of  infatu- 
ated militarism  is  no  match  for  the  quiet  confidence  of  men 
who  are  defending  a  people  from  outrage.  An  imprisoned 
aviator,  guarded  by  two  Tommies,  cheekily  offered  one  of 
them  two  marks  for  a  coat-button,  as  a  souvenir.  The 
Briton  did  not  smack  him  across  the  face — so  far  as  I  can 
find,  the  prisoners  are  treated  well,  and  often  very  kindly — 
but  simply  declined  the  transaction.  "  You  are  as  proud 
as  a  Frenchman,"  said  the  prisoner,  evidently  a  man  of 
certain  education.  "  Right  you  are,"  was  the  smiling  reply ; 
"  we  are  all  Frenchmen  while  we're  here." 

As  you  move  along  these  grievous  roads,  where  the  ditches 
have  been  deepened  for  trenches,  and  a  litter  of  straw  and 
empty  tins  marks  last  night's  encampment,  or  a  malodorous 
mound  speaks  of  yesterday's  battlefield,  one  thing  that 
strikes  you  is  the  monstrous  silly  malice  of  some  of  the 
damage  done  by  the  retreating  enemy,  and  especially  his 
cavalry  wings.  In  general,  the  northern  campaign  of  intimi- 
dation by  outrage  has  not  been  repeated  in  the  center  of 
France.  But  when  they  found  themselves  suddenly  blocked 
by  the  British  on  the  Brie  plateau,  the  anger  of  the  enemy 
knew  no  bounds;  and  villagers  suspected  of  giving  informa- 
tion were  first  compelled  to  set  fire  to  their  own  houses, 
aud  were  then  shot.  War  must  always  be  outrageous.  The 
Marne  and  other  bridges  were  necessarily  destroyed  by  the 
Allies  in  their  retreat,  and  one's  own  towns  must  be  bom- 
barded if  the  enemy  occupies  them.  But  there  are  much 
smaller  injuries  than  these  that  horrify  by  their  positive 


224  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

indecency.  When  one  sees  the  traces  of  such  crimes,  when 
one  recalls  the  spectacle  of  the  famishing  prisoners,  seem- 
ingly astonished  to  find  themselves  in  British  instead  of 
French  hands,  and  hears  them  tell  of  the  frightful  losses 
on  their  southern  march,  one  realizes  what  a  gulf  separates 
demoralization  from  exhaustion  and  the  defeat  that  yet 
leaves  hope  in  the  heart  and  light  in  the  mind. 

They  are  by  nature  more  docile  and  enduring  than  the 
British  and  French;  but  now  the  iron  has  entered  their 
souls.  I  never  heard  a  profounder  truth  than  that  which 
one  of  the  Tommies  put  to  me  this  morning,  in  these  simple 
words :  "  I'm  sorry  for  the  poor  devils.  They  had  to 
march.  It  wasn't  their  fault."  Such  a  campaign  could 
not  last.  For  the  common  soldiers,  the  light  of  despair 
broke  upon  them  when  they  found  themselves  within  a 
single  march  of  Paris,  and  then  suddenly,  without  explana- 
tion, diverted  to  another  objective.  But,  to  anyone  of 
greater  intelligence  and  education,  it  was  precisely  this 
other  objective  which  must  have  completed  their  disillusion- 
ment. For  I  cannot  believe  that  Von  Kluck  and  Von 
Biilow  had  any  hope  of  getting  round  for  an  effective  attack 
on  Paris  by  the  east  and  south.  If  they  had,  their  intelli- 
gence department  must  have  been  badly  lacking.  Every 
instructed  German  officer  and  private  must  have  felt  the 
cold  hand  of  Fate  upon  him  last  Sunday  when  this  prospect 
was  first  revealed.  We  know  the  result.  There  is  no  more 
"  Battle  of  the  Marne."  The  river  lies  peaceful  under  the 
sunshine,  and  the  washerwomen  are  busy  on  its  banks.  The 
tide  of  war  has  ebbed  over  the  northern  hills,  and  the  boom 
of  cannon  can  now  hardly  be  heard. 

A  long  hospital  train  has  just  passed  after  it,  and  Mr. 
Atkins,  in  the  market-place  at  the  head  of  an  incalculable 
line  of  motor-wagons,  is  examining  his  plugs  and  petrol- 
tins.  In  fact,  the  countryside  is  emptied  of  petrol,  and 
almost  of  food.  For  the  moment,  the  plight  of  the  good 
folk  of  these  little  towns  which  have  had  two  armies  quar- 


BACK  TO  THE  AISNE  225 

tered  upon  them  for  a  week  is  not  a  happy  one.  But  they 
take  it  with  true  French  gallantry;  and  you  have  only  to  be 
an  Englishman  to  know  that  a  bond  has  been  sealed  between 
the  two  nations  stronger  than  any  parchment  treaties.  Only 
those  who  have  seen  the  British  divisions  in  the  field — not 
only  the  gunners,  cavalry,  and  infantry,  but  the  supply  serv- 
ices and  columns  of  communication  with  the  base  camps, 
the  flying  corps,  the  pontoon  outfit,  the  field  telegraph,  and 
the  rest — can  appreciate  how  much  their  complete  prepara- 
tion and  clockwork  order  contributed  to  the  general  result. 

Before  Soissons,  Tuesday,  September  15. 

For  three  hours,  I  have  been  watching,  from  the  hills  to 
the  south  of  the  town,  that  part  of  the  unending  and  ter- 
rific struggle  which  may  be  isolated  in  histoiw  as  the  Battle 
of  Soissons.  It  has  lasted  for  four  days ;  and  only  now  can 
it  be  said  that  victory  is  turning  to  the  side  of  the  Allies. 
The  town  itself  cannot  be  entered,  for  it  is  still  being  raked 
both  by  artillery  and  rifle  fire;  and  great  columns  of  smoke 
mark  several  points  at  which  the  houses  are  burning. 

The  center  of  the  fighting  lies  where  the  British  and 
FreDch  pontoon  corps  are  trying  to  keep  the  bridges  they 
have  succeeded  in  throwing  across  the  river — for,  of  course, 
the  old  bridges  in  the  town  and  up  and  down  stream  were 
destroyed  by  the  French  on  their  retreat  southward  a  fort- 
night ago.  This  Golgotha,  for  it  deserves  the  name,  is  out 
of  sight  below  the  end  of  the  plateau  on  which  I  am  stand- 
ing; but  men  who  have  come  from  the  front  line  tell  me 
that  the  combat  there  has  been  a  positive  slaughter,  putting 
anything  in  the  South  African  War,  or  anything  else  in 
modern  warfare  that  they  have  heard  of,  altogether  into  the 
shade.  The  river-crossings  are  the  great  objective — on  the 
one  side  to  make  and  keep,  on  the  other  to  destroy,  and 
again  to  destroy.  Several  British  regiments,  some  detach- 
ments of  which  were  the  first  to  get  to  the  north  banks  of 
the  Aisne,  have  suffered  severely. 


226  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

The  first  crossings  were  effected  on  Sunday ;  but  the  Ger- 
man big  guns  got  the  range,  and  yesterday  it  became  neces- 
sary to  withdraw.  Last  night,  however,  the  Allies  were 
able  to  bring  up  some  heavier  cannon;  and  these  were  set 
to  work  at  an  early  hour  this  morning,  when  the  prospect 
began  to  change.  Several  German  batteries  were  soon 
moved  backward ;  but  one  or  two  others,  hidden  in  the  woods 
that  cap  nearly  all  these  hills,  could  not  be  exactly  located 
until  an  incident  of  this  morning's  duel  revealed  them.  The 
British  had  managed  again  to  get  a  battery  across  the 
river,  and  into  position.  Apparently,  the  German  artillery 
could  not  reach  it  from  their  hiding-place;  and  they  there- 
fore moved  to  a  better  pitch.  Under  heavy  fire,  the  British 
had  to  retire,  leaving  six  guns  behind.  But  their  assailants 
were  now  discovered.  Covered  by  a  heavy  bombardment, 
two  British  batteries  were  got  over,  and  were  planted  at  the 
bridge-head.  Very  soon  the  six  guns  had  been  recovered, 
and  two  German  batteries  captured. 

On  the  western  side,  the  French  succeeded  in  getting 
three  batteries  and  a  regiment  of  infantry  over  the  water. 
About  1,500  prisoners  have  already  been  taken  to-day.  I 
can  clearly  trace  the  abandonment  during  the  last  three 
hours  of  a  number  of  German  positions,  for  the  smoke  from 
their  guns — great  white  bubbles  which  fade  away  in  less 
than  a  minute — is  moving  further  and  further  away  over 
the  northern  hills,  and  the  dull  boom  and  sharp  bang  grow 
slowly  fainter.  But  even  the  aviators  flying  like  great 
hawks  overhead — a  British  biplane  and  a  French  mono- 
plane— cannot  see  more  than  a  part,  and  that  uncertainly, 
of  a  modern  battlefield.  From  Vic-sur-Aisne  on  the  west 
to  Rkeims  on  the  east  is  nearly  fifty  miles;  and  that  is 
only  a  part  of  the  line  that  is  now  being  contested. 

The  lie  of  the  land,  which  makes  Soissons  so  important 
a  place,  also  circumscribes  any  individual  view.  The  town 
lies  across  the  Paris-Laon  road,  mainly  on  the  south  side 
of  the  river  Aisne,  in  a  cup  formed  by  the  breaks  of  several 


BACK  TO  THE  AISNE  227 

ranges  of  southern  hills;  while  the  line  of  hills  bounding 
it  on  the  north  appears  to  be  more  continuous.  The  French 
occupy  the  left,  and  the  British  the  right,  wings  of  the  pur- 
suit. I  came  up  a  more  westerly  road  from  Paris,  and  then 
moved,  up  hill  and  down  dale,  to  the  high  plateau  above 
the  village  of  Belleu.  All  these  villages  are  classic  ground; 
they  have  wonderful  old  churches  and  chateaux,  and  the 
region  is  full  of  forgotten  battlefields.  The  curious  twelfth- 
century  cathedral  of  Soissons,  with  its  odd  tower,  and  the 
still  more  ancient  church  of  St.  Jean-de-Vignes  have  not 
yet  been  damaged  by  the  bombardment  of  the  town. 

A  little  geography  may  be  a  dangerous  thing,  but  it  is 
sometimes  an  incomparable  help  toward  the  solution  of  a 
military  puzzle.  Perhaps  we  do  not  yet  know  all  the  rea- 
sons for  the  sudden  German  debacle,  and  even  this  local 
situation  was  very  obscure  yesterday.  During  the  after- 
noon, the  French  War  Office  announced  that  the  Germans 
had  not  been  able  to  hold  the  defensive  lines  they  had  pre- 
pared to  the  north  of  the  Aisne,  between  Compiegne  and 
Soissons,  and  also  above  Eheims.  At  night,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  official  communique  admitted  that  they  were  still 
holding  out  in  these  positions.  The  general  fact  that  the 
Germans  were  resisting  firmly  this  morning,  and  are  now 
giving  way,  is  beyond  doubt.  Now  that  I  have  seen  the 
landscape,  the  whole  affair  is  much  more  comprehensible. 

The  hillside  closing  on  the  north  the  Soissons  gap,  into 
which  several  southern  valleys  lead,  was  evidently  a  post 
to  seize  and  hold,  if  possible.  It  is  said,  with  great  prob- 
ability, that,  in  their  march  south,  the  Germans  started 
intrenching  a  foothold  here,  and  that  the  big  siege  guns 
destined  for  Paris  got  thus  far  and  no  further.  There  were 
two  places  of  considerable  natural  strength  on  the  course 
of  their  fifty-mile  retreat.  The  first  was  above  Meaux,  the 
other  above  Soissons.  At  both  points,  it  is  now  evident  that 
they  have  fought  very  hard,  despite  a  crushing  discourage 
ment.     At  the  risk  of  being  blamed  for  reiteration,  I  may 


228  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

express  the  belief  that  they  never  entertained  the  hope  of 
getting  back  to  Paris,  but  that  their  aim  was  to  effect  an 
easterly  concentration  and  reconstitution  of  their  armies, 
and,  to  this  end,  to  delay  the  main  advance  of  the  Allies. 
The  first  object  of  the  arrest  at  Soissons,  therefore,  was 
to  cover  the  line  of  the  retreat;  and,  as  it  has  been  to  a 
large  extent,  so  far,  an  affair  of  artillery,  no  doubt  it  has 
given  some  at  least  of  the  harried  German  cavalry  and  in- 
fantry a  short  breathing-time. 

Let  me  repeat  just  one  other  word  for  the  last  time. 
There  is  an  attempt  to  attribute  the  German  collapse  on 
the  Marne  to  a  withdrawal  and  transfer  of  troops  in  order 
to  check  the  Russian  advance.  This  was,  no  doubt,  a  factor. 
But  the  very  character  of  the  victorious  Teutonic  rush 
southward  contributed  to  its  sudden  end  and  failure.  It 
exhausted  itself.  It  burst.  It  was  a  case  of  heart-break — 
as  though  a  runner  who  has  to  cover  ten  miles  should  put 
all  his  strength  into  the  first  three.  It  is  important  to 
realize  that  the  Allies  are  winning  because  a  rational, 
steady,  and  persistent  spirit  possesses  them;  that  the  in- 
vaders are  failing  because  they  were  governed  by  the  mad- 
bull  infatuation  of  Prussian  militarism,  aided  up  to  a  point 
by  technical  skill  and  the  endurance  of  the  German  rank 
and  file. 

Many  British  wounded  are  being  sent  to-day  to  Paris. 
Several  whom  I  have  seen  have  their  hands  and  faces  stained 
a  horrid  yellow.  At  first  I  thought  it  a  peculiar  form  of 
jaundice;  actually,  it  is  the  effect  of  the  fumes  of  the  lyd- 
dite shells  which  the  Germans  are  using. 

The  Army  Service  Corps  has  done  wonders  in  the  rapid 
and  fearfully  trying  northern  pursuit.  When  they  started 
out  from  home,  there  was  more  than  a  little  doubt  whether 
the  petrol  engine  would  be  equal  to  this  its  first  crucial 
test.  There  is  no  doubt  now.  Within  the  zone  of  fire, 
horse  transport  is  still  used,  however,  I  suppose  because 
the  motor-wagons  are  too  precious  to  be  endangered  unnec- 


BACK  TO  THE  AISNE  229 

essarily,  as  well  as  because  they  are  too  heavy,  for  instance, 
for  rough  pontoon  bridges.  As  to  the  British  Flying  Corps, 
nothing  need  be  added  to  General  Joffre's  handsome  recog- 
nition of  the  "  precision,  exactitude,  and  regularity "  of 
their  information. 

My  map  marks  the  road  to  Soissons  through  the  Forest 
of  Villers  Cotterets  as  "  impassable  for  autos."  So,  indeed, 
it  proved  for  the  German  army  on  its  breakneck  flight  to 
the  Aisne.  At  least,  there  are  dozens  of  broken  cars  and 
wagons  abandoned  in  the  broad  quagmires  that  bound  the 
narrow  cobbled  causeway.  There  are  still  many  fugitives 
in  the  woods;  parties  of  them  are  brought  in  daily.  At 
Berzy-le-Sec  we  witnessed  one  of  these  man-hunts.  It  was 
exactly  like  an  October  battue  in  the  shires.  Deep  on  the 
hillside  below  our  road  stretched  fields  broken  by  clumps 
of  covert.  On  the  other  side  of  these  thickets,  a  line  of 
eight  or  ten  men  in  civilian  dress,  looking  exactly  like  game- 
keepers, slowly  advanced  into  and  through  the  trees;  while, 
on  our  road  above,  a  score  of  soldiers  watched  the  other 
side,  with  rifles  ready.  They  did  not  interfere  with  us ;  but 
I  could  not  bear  to  wait  for  the  final  "  Hands  up !  " 

Paris,  September  16. 

I  have  returned  from  a  run  of  seventy  miles  through 
the  country  north  of  the  Maine,  by  foul  roads  and  over 
rickety  plank  bridges,  to  find  that  Paris  has  no  exact  news 
of  the  battle  of  the  Aisne.  The  official  communique"  of  this 
afternoon  does,  however,  give  an  important  indication  of 
the  direction,  and  so  it  gives  the  character,  of  the  German 
retirement  as  a  whole. 

The  chief  links  of  the  chain  from  west  to  east  are  as  fol- 
lows: Noyon,  Vic-sur-Aisne,  Soissons,  Rheims,  Ville-sur- 
Tourbe,  Varennes,  and  Forges,  on  the  Meuse  north  of  Ver- 
dun. The  Germans  are  at,  or  to  the  north  of,  these  points, 
and,  despite  the  strain  of  a  pursuit  unprecedented  in  its 
speed  and  extent,  the  Allies  are  everywhere  in  close  con- 


230  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

tact  with  them.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  German  positions 
form  two  groups,  which,  abandoning  old  definitions,  we 
may  call  the  German  right  and  left.  The  former  makes  a 
double  curve  from  Noyon,  where  the  force  recently  in 
Amiens  has  arrived,  round  south  to  the  heights  above  the 
Aisne,  then  up  to  the  hills  around  Laon,  and  then  south 
again  to  the  hills  around  Rheims.  This  right  wing  gathers 
many,  if  not  all,  of  the  fragments  recently  scattered  about 
the  north-west  of  France  into  connection  with  the  armies 
retreating  from  Paris  and  the  Marne.  The  second,  or  Ger- 
man left  wing,  stretches  in  an  almost  straight  line  from 
Rheims  eastward  toward  Metz,  passing  through  the  north 
of  the  Argonne  and  to  the  north  of  Verdun.  A  glance  at 
the  symmetry  of  these  lines  appears  to  me  to  dispose  of  the 
idea  that  the  German  armies  are  so  much  broken  as  to 
have  no  word  in  the  choice  of  where  they  shall  fight.  They 
seem  to  have  been  as  rapid  in  retreat  as  in  advance;  and 
it  would  be  a  mistake  prematurely  to  call  this,  taking  the 
vast  field  as  a  whole,  a  breakneck  flight.  They  have  got  out 
of  the  barren  plains  of  Champagne;  their  forces  are  no 
longer  divided  by  the  mazes  of  the  Argonne  Forest;  and 
they  now  seem  to  be  advantageously  ranged  along  a  series 
of  railway  lines  interrupted  only  at  a  few  points. 

The  armies  of  General  von  Kluck  and  General  von  Bulow 
have  two,  if  not  three,  lines  from  Noyon  round  to  Laon 
and  Liege,  as  well  as  the  line  from  Rheims  to  the  Luxem- 
burg frontier  and  north  Lorraine.  The  eastern  force,  in- 
cluding the  armies  of  the  Duke  of  Wiirtemberg,  and  the 
Crown  Prince,  are  less  well  served,  the  Verdun  line  being 
cut  off;  but  they  also  can  get  north  to  Rethel  by  rail  and 
river  as  well  as  road.  How  far  these  lines  are  now  service- 
able we  do  not  know,  but,  until  we  know,  General  Cherfils 
is,  perhaps,  a  little  too  positive  in  his  view  of  the  serious 
incumbrance  the  German  heavy  guns  may  be. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
RHEIMS  BOMBARDED 

Epernay,  September  18. 

The  news  that  the  Cathedral  of  Rheinis  has  been  struck 
and  damaged  during  a  bombardment  of  the  city  will  be 
received,  not  only  throughout  Fiance,  but  throughout  the 
educated  world,  with  a  thrill  of  disgust  and  indignation. 
This  vast  edifice  is  one  of  the  first  glories  of  European 
architecture.  The  wonderful  west  fagade,  dating  from  the 
thirteenth  century,  with  its  three  deeply  recessed  portals, 
containing  more  than  five  hundred  statues  of  Scriptural 
personages  and  the  kings  of  France,  and  its  great  rose 
window,  has  been  described  as  perhaps  the  most  beautiful 
structure  produced  in  the  Middle  Ages.  The  church,  which 
has  almost  completely  escaped  the  hands  of  the  enterpris- 
ing restorer,  contains  or  contained  much  splendid  wood- 
work, valuable  tapestries,  reliquaries,  and  church  plate,  and 
several  pictures,  besides  its  superb  old  windows.  It  is  the 
cathedral  of  the  Capetian  and  later  kings,  an  unequaled 
shrine  of  the  faith,  culture,  and  history  of  the  French  people. 
With  but  a  little  pardonable  exaggeration,  it  has  been  called 
"  the  Acropolis  of  France."  The  greatness  of  Rheims  be- 
gan fourteen  centuries  ago,  after  the  Vandals  and  Huns 
had  gone.  A  general  instinct  recalls  to-day  the  fear- 
some name  of  those  olden  practitioners  of  "  frightful- 
ness." 

Although  Rheims  is  firmly  held  by  the  French,  it  was 
still  being  cannonaded  by  the  Germans  this  morning,  and 
civilians  cannot  enter.     I    have  got  thus  far,  but  cannot 

231 


TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

get  further.  Nor  do  the  good  folk  of  Epernay  know  much 
of  what  is  occurring  fifteen  miles  to  the  north.  Rheiins  has 
suffered  three  separate  bombardments — the  first  on  the 
southward  march  of  the  Germans  at  the  beginning  of  the 
month,  the  second  when  the  French  returned,  and  the  third 
when  the  Germans  had  fixed  upon  the  positions  of  the  old 
French  forts  on  the  north,  and  intrenched  themselves  above 
the  Vesle  Valley.  The  French  retirement  from  the  town 
began  on  September  2,  and  was  completed  on  the  following 
day.  The  army  returned  at  noon  on  the  11th;  and,  since 
then,  they  have  been  engaged  in  holding  their  ground,  and 
in  attempting  to  recover  the  fortified  hills  which  had  been 
lost.  In  the  first  bombardment,  the  destruction  within 
Rheims  was  not  large;  and  this  is  not  surprising,  for  the 
forts,  which  lie  in  a  semicircle  from  north-west  to  south- 
east at  a  distance  of  about  four  miles,  were  the  chief  objec- 
tive of  the  German  attack.  The  civil  population  was  fore- 
warned ;  and  most  of  the  houses  and  practically  all  business 
places  were  closed.  Since  the  return  of  the  French  army, 
and  the  more  desperate  development  of  the  struggle,  how- 
ever, there  has  been  a  great  deal  of  damage,  chiefly  by  shell- 
fire. 

A  leading  citizen  of  Epernay,  to  whose  private  diary  I 
am  indebted  for  many  details,  believes  that,  on  the  first 
German  attack,  the  forts  did  not  offer  any  substantial  re- 
sistance ;  and  he  says  that  some  of  the  big  guns  were  brought 
away  and  taken  to  Paris,  while  others,  too  large  to  be  trans- 
ported, were  destroyed.  He  adds  that  the  Vitry-le-Rheims 
fort,  on  the  north  end  of  Mount  Berru,  and  another  were 
mined,  and  may,  perhaps,  have  been  blown  up.  The  whole 
question  of  the  fortresses — and  Rheims,  perhaps,  chiefly — 
is  so  grave  that  sooner  or  later  an  inquiry  is  inevitable. 
This  "  intrenched  camp,"  with  its  girdle  of  permanent 
works,  was  supposed  to  be  one  of  the  strong  links  in  France's 
second  line  of  defense.  It  was  designed  to  block  an  invader 
coming  either  from  the  Ardennes  or  the  Argonne,  and  to 


RHEIMS  BOMBARDED  233 

command  the  system  of  roads  and  railways  that  here  find 
their  center.  If  it  was  not  immediately  captured,  it  was 
immediately  turned;  for  the  Germans  entered  Epernay  on 
September  4,  and  continued  their  advance  the  next  day. 
Had  Rheiins  been  able  to  offer  an  effective  and  prolonged 
resistance,  the  southern  march,  both  here  and  nearer  Paris, 
if  not  impossible,  would  have  been  so  dangerous  that  it 
might  never  have  been  attempted.  That  the  Germans  should 
now  be  defending  positions  the  French  abandoned  is  a  fact 
that  calls  for  explanation.  Also,  if  forts  do  not  serve  their 
designed  purpose,  they  are  worse  than  useless,  for  they 
bring  a  terrible  penalty  upon  the  civil  population. 

The  fate  of  Epernay  offers  a  singular  contrast.  This 
pretty  and  almost  completely  modern  industrial  center  of 
Champagne,  with  its  great  mansions  and  many  signs  of 
wealth,  has  suffered  all  the  anxieties  of  the  double  invasion 
— it  is  only  to-day  that  the  good  citizens  begin  to  breathe 
freely — but  very  little  material  damage.  On  September  2, 
the  first  French  troops  came  into  the  town  on  the  retreat 
from  Rheims.  On  the  morning  of  September  4,  the  redoubt- 
able enemy  appeared,  and,  overtaking  the  French  rear-guard 
in  the  hilly  and  thickly  wooded  district  to  the  south  of 
Epernay,  between  Pierry  and  Brugny,  opened  fire  upon 
them.  A  running  fight  followed,  without  great  effect,  ex- 
cept that  several  farms  and  country  houses  were  destroyed. 
During  the  same  afternoon,  a  large  body  of  Germans  who 
had  crossed  the  Marne  at  Mareuil  (eight  miles  east  of 
Epernay)  marched  on  the  town  by  the  Paris  road.  On 
this  occasion,  again,  the  first  German  cavalry  patrols  are 
said  to  have  pretended  to  be  British  soldiers. 

Some  leading  citizens  went  out  to  treat  for  the  safety 
of  the  town,  no  doubt  having  in  mind  what  a  general  sack 
of  the  world-famous  wine  cellars  would  mean.  The  com- 
mandant was  brought  to  the  Mayor,  and  at  once  demanded 
supplies  of  tobacco  and  champagne  for  the  troops,  and 
40,000  rations.     This  was  an  impossible  requirement;  and 


234  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

a  curious  bargain  was  struck.  The  amount  of  requisitions 
not  yielded  was  estimated  by  Count  von  Moltke  at  165,- 
550  fr.  (£7,102).  This  amount  was  demanded  in  gold,  and 
was  actually  paid  over  by  the  Mayor,  and  five  municipal 
councilors  (one  of  them,  the  editor  of  the  Reveil  de  la 
Marn-e,  told  me  the  story),  who  were  being  held  as  hostages. 
But  the  great  wine-grower,  M.  Chandon  (Moet  and  Chandon 
have  over  twenty  miles  of  cellars  here),  happened  to  have 
a  German  general  billeted  upon  him,  and  complained  of 
the  unfairness  of  this  exaction.  The  general  agreed.  An- 
other influence  was  even  more  valuable. 

One  considerate  doctor  remained  in  the  town.  The  Ger- 
mans had  many  wounded,  and  were  anxious  that  they  should 
be  cared  for.  Dr.  Veron  undertook  that  this  should  be  done, 
on  condition  that  no  damage  should  be  done  to  the  town. 
Between  the  general  and  the  doctor  it  came  about  that, 
on  their  return,  finding  their  wounded  in  good  hands,  the 
German  commander  returned  the  money  that  had  been 
taken.1 

This  episode  would  be  more  pleasant  to  contemplate  were 
it  not  that  the  supplies  actually  provided  were  not  paid  for, 
and  tobacco  stores  and  closed  shops  and  houses  were  freely 
pillaged.  The  commandant  warned  the  hostages  he  had 
taken  that  any  inhabitants  who  attacked  his  soldiers  in  any 
way  would  be  at  once  shot.  With  the  German  flag  flying 
over  the  town  hall  and  the  railway  station,  the  soldiers 
ransacked  the  food  shops,  giving  receipts  for  what  they 
took.  In  the  evening,  a  fire  broke  out  in  a  granary,  where 
several  of  them  were  stationed.  Probably  it  had  been  caused 
by  their  own  carelessness ;  but  an  officer  informed  the  Mayor 
that,  if  there  were  another  fire,  no  matter  who  caused  it, 
he  and  the  other  hostages  would  be  shot. 

At  6  a.m.  on  September  5,  these  troops  left  for  Mont- 

1  Some  later  newspaper  reports  stated  that  one  of  the  wounded  soldiers 
was  a  nephew  of  the  Duke  of  Mecklenburg.  But  see  the  later  reference 
to  this  matter,  Chapter  XXVII. 


RHEIMS  BOMBARDED  235 

niirail;  and  three  hours  later  many  new  regiments,  headed 
by  bands,  began  to  pass  through  the  town.  Some  officers 
wished  to  have  a  German  flag  made,  and  sought  out  the 
daughter  of  the  concierge  of  the  town  hall  for  the  purpose. 
The  girl  was  so  much  alarmed  that  she  became  insane,  and 
is  now  in  an  asylum.  With  the  second  column  were  brought 
a  score  of  French  prisoners.  After  having  been  exhibited 
for  some  hours  in  the  chief  square  of  the  town,  they  were 
lodged  in  a  house  under  strong  guard.  They  remained  there 
till  the  first  day  of  the  evacuation  of  Epernay,  and  followed 
the  Germans  in  their  retreat. 

A  notable  incident  was  the  visit  of  the  German  Staff, 
including  a  son  of  the  Kaiser  (my  informant  believed  him 
to  be  a  younger  son,  not  the  Crown  Prince)  who  stayed 
with  other  officers  in  the  splendid  mansion  of  M.  Claude 
Chandon.  On  the  day  of  their  arrival,  the  Prince  enter- 
tained seventy  persons,  including  the  Staff,  to  a  grand  ban- 
quet. He  took  several  walks  in  the  town,  and  was  enthusi- 
astically acclaimed  by  the  soldiers. 

One  of  my  informants  showed  me  a  copy  of  the  follow- 
ing proclamation,  signed  by  Count  von  Moltke,  and  printed 
in  French,  which  appears  to  have  been  intended  for  general 
use  during  the  invasion: 

"  All  the  authorities  and  the  municipality  are  informed 
that  every  peaceful  inhabitant  can  follow  his  regular  occu- 
pation in  full  security.  Private  property  will  be  absolutely 
respected,  and  provisions  paid  for. 

"  If,  on  the  contrary,  the  population  dare,  under  any  form 
whatever,  open  or  bidden,  to  take  part  in  the  hostilities 
against  our  troops,  the  severest  punishment  will  be  inflicted 
on  the  refractory. 

"  The  people  must  give  up  their  arms.  Every  armed 
individual  will  be  put  to  death. 

"  Whoever  cuts  telegraph  wires,  destroys  railway  bridges 
or  roads,  or  commits  any  ad  ion  whatever  to  the  detriment 
of  the  German  troops,  will  be  shot  on  the  spot. 

"  Towns  and  villages  whose  inhabitants  have  taken  part 


236  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

in  the  combat,  or  fire  upon  us  from  ambush,  will  be  burned 
down,  and  the  guilty  shot  at  once.  The  civil  authorities  will 
be  held  responsible. 

"  The  Chief  of  Staff  of  the  German  Army, 

"  Von  Moltke." 

It  is  certain  that  the  promise  to  respect  private  property 
was  not  taken  seriously. 

At  dawn  on  Sunday,  the  7th,  the  population  was  wakened 
by  a  violent  cannonade  from  the  south,  and  this  continued 
till  nightfall.  During  that  day,  the  Germans  were  very 
busy  organizing  ambulances  for  the  wounded,  who  were 
brought  in  by  hundreds.  The  artillery  duel  seemed  to  be 
redoubled  on  the  morning  of  the  8th,  twelve  batteries  firing 
together  and  almost  without  interruption.  Soon  the  ambu- 
lances were  all  full,  and  were  sent  off  to  the  north.  A 
French  Alsatian  nun  has  since  reported  a  saying  of  a 
wounded  German  officer  whom  she  was  nursing  in  one  of 
the  hospitals  of  the  town.  Speaking  of  the  battle  in  which 
he  was  wounded,  he  said,  in  accents  of  deep  sadness :  "  It 
is  the  end  of  the  world  for  us." 

On  the  afternoon  of  September  9,  the  retreat  of  the  Ger- 
mans from  Epernay  began.  The  inhabitants  were  ordered 
to  stay  at  home,  doubtless  that  they  should  not  witness  the 
extent  of  the  movement.  At  first,  great  convoys  of  ammu- 
nition came  in  by  all  the  southern  roads,  and  went  on  to- 
ward Rheims.  All  through  that  night  the  mixed  procession 
of  troops,  wounded,  and  supplies  continued.  On  the  10th, 
further  regiments  passed,  singing  dolefully.  The  retreat 
became  more  and  more  like  a  rout.  All  the  vehicles  that 
could  be  got  in  the  town  were  taken ;  and  still  some  wounded 
had  to  be  placed  on  gun-carriages — the  gunners  tramping 
beside  them.  They  all  seemed  exhausted,  and  some  could  be 
seen  hungrily  devouring  chunks  of  bread.  On  Friday  morn- 
ing, September  11,  the  last  detachment  crossed  the  Marne, 
and  blew  up  the  road  and  railway  bridges.  A  piece  of  stone 
thrown  up  by  the  explosion  killed  a  child  of  fourteen.     In 


RHEIMS  BOMBARDED  237 

their  precipitancy,  they  had  forgotten  a  convoy  of  300 
wounded,  which  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  French. 

Three  hours  after  the  Germans  had  passed  the  river,  a 
body  of  French  Chasseurs  entered  Epernay,  and  they  were 
speedily  followed  by  cavalry  and  infantry  regiments.  The 
inhabitants  cheered  them  loudly,  and  brought  bunches  of 
flowers  to  show  their  delight.  In  a  very  short  time,  a  bridge 
was  thrown  over  the  river,  and  the  fighting  on  the  road  to 
Rheims  began.  But  the  Germans  had  already  fixed  their 
batteries  on  the  hills,  which  rise  sharply  to  the  north  of  the 
town,  and  a  long  and  costly  effort  has  been  required  to 
drive  them  back. 

During  the  ride  of  about  ninety  miles  from  Paris  to 
Epernay,  I  saw  something  of  the  battlefields  from  Mont- 
mirail  northward.  In  some  places,  the  Germans  had  made 
strong  positions,  the  trenches  being  deep  and  solidly  cov- 
ered, with  resting-places  and  lateral  approaches.  A  good 
many  houses  on  the  route  showed  holes  and  rents  due  to 
shell-fire,  and  a  few  had  holes  pierced  in  the  walls  for  the 
use  of  riflemen.  Several  very  large  farmhouses  had  been 
burned  down,  evidently  as  punishment  or  revenge.  A 
French  sergeant  tells  me  that  3,000,000  cartridges  and  sev- 
eral thousand  shells  were  abandoned  in  the  retreat  to  the 
south  of  Epernay. 

Some  bodies  of  the  Allied  troops  were  able  to  enter  Sois- 
sons  on  Wednesday;  but  only  at  noon  yesterday  was  the 
town  completely  held,  the  Germans  falling  back  to  the  crest 
of  the  hills.  Together  with  the  reoccupation  of  Rheims, 
this  success  will  be  a  great  encouragement.  Soissons  is  a 
point  of  concentration  of  the  railways  and  roads  of  the 
Picardy  and  Champagne  borderland.  Rheims  is  of  even 
greater  importance  for  the  immediate  future;  and  these  two 
towns  make  natural  bases  for  the  conduct  of  the  struggle 
between  the  Forest  of  Laigle  and  the  Craonne  plateau.  The 
question  of  the  German  lines  of  communication  will  assume 
increasing  interest.     Obsessed,  as   it  always  has  been,  by 


238  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

the  value  of  turning  movements,  the  German  Grand  Staff 
must  be  nearly  as  nervous  just  now  about  its  west,  north, 
and  east  flanks  as  about  the  host  that  is  relentlessly  press- 
ing upon  it  from  the  south.  But  this  does  not  mean,  unhap- 
pily, that  any  early  conclusion  of  the  war  is  to  be  looked 
for.  New  slaughter  will  be  sown  about  the  old  battlefields ; 
and  if  the  German  generals  continue  to  show  the  agility 
in  escape  that  they  have  so  far  exhibited,  they  may  yet  get 
the  larger  number  of  their  men  back  to  the  line  of  their 
own  fortresses.  Perhaps,  after  all,  it  will  be  General  Hiver 
and  the  gathering  storm  of  economic  ruin  at  home  that  will 
determine  the  issue. 

A  French  cavalry  officer  says  that  the  German  cavalry 
has  never  dared  to  test  on  the  battlefield  the  reputation  it 
had  gained  in  maneuvers  at  home.  "  When  it  has  shown 
itself,"  he  says,  "  it  was  merely  to  unmask  our  guns  or  to 
follow  up  a  pursuit.  The  chivalry  of  the  charge  does  not 
accord  with  the  character  of  troops  who  even  in  their  public 
proclamations  put  '  honor '  after  '  well-being.'  In  material 
preparation  the  Germans  are  very  good.  The  officers  are 
brave,  but  reckless  in  spending  their  men.  The  subaltern 
grades  are  competent.  The  rank  and  file  are  sheep,  knowing 
neither  why  nor  against  whom  they  are  fighting.  The  only 
strength  they  have  had — and  it  is  formidable — is  that  of 
numbers.  Each  in  proportion  to  his  rank,  these  officers 
follow  the  Kaiser's  example  and  think  themselves  '  super- 
men.' Now  that  they  have  become  more  prudent — especially 
the  African  troops — our  men  are  splendid.  The  lesson  is 
learned,  and  now,  with  smaller  losses,  they  do  more  work. 
As  our  75-pieces  (3-in.  guns)  can  rake  the  trenches,  and 
upset  the  enemy's  field-guns,  it  is  useless  to  throw  the  in- 
fantry forward  till  the  way  has  been  properly  prepared." 

I  am  informed,  in  fact,  that  the  rules  for  opening  action 
which  were  in  effect  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  have  just 
been  amended  by  General  Joffre  in  an  important  particular. 
Instead  of  the  infantry  going  in  first,  and  being  supported 


RHEIMS  BOMBARDED  239 

by  the  artillery,  it  will  now  be  usual  for  the  guns  to  make 
an  opening,  and  the  infantry  attack  to  follow.  This  is  evi- 
dently a  result  of  experience  of  the  effective  quality  of  the 
famous  French  field-pieces. 

Among  the  stories  of  the  double  bombardment  of  Sois- 
sons,  not  the  least  inspiriting  is  that  of  Mme.  Marcherez. 
When  the  Germans,  on  their  southern  advance,  came  into 
the  town,  it  was  found  that  the  Mayor  had  fled,  along  with 
nearly  the  whole  of  his  fellow-citizens.  But  this  plucky 
woman  remained,  and  it  was  with  her  that  the  invaders 
talked  as  representative  of  the  municipality.  If  they  did 
not,  for  her  sake,  abandon  their  habit  of  breaking  into  and 
looting  all  closed  houses,  they  seem  not  to  have  molested 
the  remaining  inhabitants. 

Yet  another  type  of  heroine:  The  good  folk  of  a  little 
town  on  the  Grand  Morin  were  preparing  for  flight  on  the 
approach  of  the  enemy.  What  to  do  with  a  swarm  of  cats 
and  dogs  and  other  small  domestic  animals?  An  old  lady 
sent  round  the  drummer,  who,  in  French  villages,  takes  the 
place  of  the  English  bellman,  to  say  that  she  would  look 
after  the  cats  and  dogs  till  their  owners  returned.  And 
the  others  left  her  to  keep  this  menagerie  while  the  Ger- 
mans came  and  went.  It  is  often  said  that  French  people 
are  less  sensitive  than  we  to  the  sufferings  of  animals.  At 
a  time  which  is  as  evil  for  the  brute  world  as  for  its  proud 
masters,  let  us  remember  this  example  to  the  contrary. 

Paris,  September  21. 

The  bombardment  of  Rheims  continues.  The  Cathedral 
and  public  buildings  have  suffered  further  damage;  and 
several  hundred  civilians  have  been  killed.  The  town  is 
now  closed  to  any  but  military  and  official  persons;  but 
the  following  further  details  of  what  has  occurred  have  been 
obtained  from  soldiers  and  refugees. 

German  troops  first  arrived  before  Rheims  on  Wednes- 
day, September  2.     The  neighboring  forts  being  incapable 


240  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

of  resisting  the  weight  of  the  newest  explosives,  they  were 
disabled  and  abandoned.  Thus  there  was  only  a  short  resist- 
ance. Four  thousand  Saxon  troops  entered  the  city,  on 
the  afternoon  of  the  4th,  at  parade  step,  singing  the  Wacht 
am  Rliein,  and  lined  up  before  the  town  hall.  Some  of  the 
officers  were  actually  there  when  the  first  bombardment  be- 
gan on  September  5,  and  a  hundred  shells  had  been  thrown 
in  before  the  firing  could  be  stopped.  Regiments  then  took 
possession  of  the  town;  but  the  main  body  passed  round  it 
and  went  on  to  Epernay  and  Montmirail.  In  Rheims  the 
German  troops  do  not  seem  at  first  to  have  acted  badly. 
The  inhabitants  say  that  they  then  gave  either  receipts  or 
money  to  the  shopkeepers  for  the  goods  they  took,  and 
they  gave  a  receipt  for  a  million  francs  (£40,000),  which 
they  seized  as  a  guarantee  for  the  delivery  of  army  requi- 
sitions of  bread  and  other  supplies.  Dr.  Langlet,  the  Mayor, 
a  fine  and  courageous  old  gentleman  of  seventy-six  years, 
and  other  leading  citizens  were  held  as  hostages.  Those  of 
the  inhabitants  who  remained  were  warned  that  any  of  them 
resisting  the  troops  would  be  shot  and  the  city  wholly  or 
partially  burned. 

It  was  on  Friday,  the  11th,  that  the  Germans  came  pour- 
ing back,  with  the  French  cavalry  hard  upon  their  heels. 
The  town  was  reoccupied  on  the  following  day.  The  fol- 
lowing narrative  of  its  recapture  was  given  to  me  by  a 
young  infantryman  of  Picardy  who  was  wounded  on  Sep- 
tember 15 :  "  The  German  rear-guard  were  still  in  Rheims 
on  that  Saturday  evening  when  we  decided  to  make  a  gen- 
eral assault  on  the  town.  We  were  in  all  about  twelve  regi- 
ments of  infantry  and  a  strong  force  of  cavalry.  We  sur- 
rounded the  town,  and  went  in  by  all  the  roads  that  led 
into  it.  The  Germans,  who  were  in  force,  at  first  made 
some  resistance ;  and  for  an  hour  or  two  sharp  fighting  took 
place  in  the  streets.  But  soon  the  enemy  abandoned  their 
hurriedly  built  barricades,  and  took  refuge  in  the  houses 
and  cellars.    A  number  of  their  men  were  drunk,  and  were 


RHEIMS  BOMBARDED  241 

not  in  a  condition  to  fight.  We  then  started  hunting  for 
them.  There  was  not  a  house  or  a  wine-cellar  in  which  we 
did  not  discover  German  soldiers  or  officers  hidden.  The 
chase  was  a  most  extraordinary  sight,  especially  at  night- 
time. In  a  huge  cellar  I  went  to,  I  found  a  German  hidden 
in  a  corner  hehind  two  big  boxes.  I  thought  my  last  minute 
had  come,  for  he  had  a  revolver  in  his  hand  and  aimed  at 
me.  I  was  holding  my  rifle  by  the  barrel,  the  bayonet  be- 
hind me.  I  shouted  to  him,  l  Surrender,  or  I  will  shoot 
you.'  He  fired,  but  I  had  fortunately  jumped  aside  and  he 
missed  me.  Then  I  struck  him  with  the  butt-end  of  my 
rifle  right  on  the  mouth  and  nose.  He  dropped  his  revolver, 
and  put  his  hand  to  his  face.  I  had  broken  most  of  his 
front  teeth.  I  did  not  want  to  kill  him,  so  I  took  him  up 
from  the  cellar  and  handed  him  to  an  officer.  All  the  other 
soldiers  who  had  been  hunting  in  the  houses  came  out  sim- 
ilarly with  one  or  two  prisoners  apiece.  Some  of  them 
tried  to  escape  and  ran  out  into  the  streets,  where  they 
were  pursued  or  shot  by  our  men.  The  hunt  lasted  all 
night.  Counting  dead  and  wounded,  we  captured  5,000  Ger- 
mans in  all." 

Perhaps  it  was  the  punishment  the  Germans  had  received 
that  turned  their  obstinate  pride  into  a  wild  savagery. 
Rheims  is  an  open  town,  and  cannot  itself  be  defended; 
but  the  hills  to  the  north  and  east,  some  of  them  the  site 
of  the  dismantled  French  forts  and  batteries  of  Brimont, 
Fresnes,  St.  Thierry,  and  Nogent  l'Abbesse,  make  a  strong 
position,  though  not  as  strong  as  the  hills  above  Soissons. 
It  was  absolutely  essential  that  these  hills  should  be  held  if 
the  whole  line  of  the  Aisne  was  not  to  be  turned.  Here  the 
beaten  German  army  pulled  itself  together,  and  rapidly  in- 
trenched; and  here,  except  for  a  few  points  which  have 
been  captured,  it  is  still  holding  out.  Rheims  was  evacu- 
ated at  4  p.m.  on  Saturday,  September  12.  The  fact  that 
at  least  150  German  wounded  were  left  lying  in  heaps  of 
straw  in  the  nave  of  the  Cathedral  would  suggest  that  up 


24$  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

to  this  time  another  bombardment  was  not  contemplated. 
When  the  French  entered  the  town,  the  long  artillery  duel, 
which  is  still  proceeding,  began.  For  the  first  few  days  it 
was  rather  of  a  preparatory  nature — at  least,  its  present 
intensity  was  not  reached  till  the  end  of  the  week,  when 
repeated  attacks  and  counter-attacks  had  been  delivered  in 
the  hills  around.  From  time  to  time  shells  fell  into  the 
town,  and  brought  down  a  house  like  a  pack  of  cards.  All 
the  time,  the  Red  Cross  flag  flew  from  the  Cathedral. 

The  serious  and  deliberate  bombardment  of  the  town  be- 
gan on  Friday  and  continued  on  Saturday,  being  chiefly 
directed  from  the  German  batteries  placed  on  the  site  of 
the  old  French  fort  on  the  hill  of  Nogent  l'Abbesse.  This 
position  stands  barely  six  miles  from  the  center  of  the  city 
to  the  east ;  and  the  chief  buildings  would  be  clearly  visible 
through  field-glasses,  so  that  there  can  be  no  question  of 
accident.  Either  on  Friday  afternoon  or  early  on  Satur- 
day morning,  it  had  been  the  scene  of  severe  fighting,  the 
French  making  persistent  attacks,  and  at  last  capturing 
the  site  of  their  old  Pompelle  battery,  a  couple  of  miles 
short  of  the  main  position  at  Nogent.  Was  it  in  revenge  for 
this  audacity  that  shells  were  deliberately  aimed  at  the 
wondrous  fabric  in  which  the  artists  of  the  Middle  Ages 
enshrined  their  noblest  conceptions  of  beauty  and  faith? 
Hundreds  of  shells  were  thrown  into  the  city — one  person 
says  1,500  in  the  two  days.  A  whole  block  of  buildings  to 
the  north  of  the  Cathedral  was  gutted.  The  northern 
(Laon)  and  eastern  (Ceres)  quarters  show  great  piles  of 
smoking  ruins.  During  Saturday  morning  the  city  was  on 
fire  in  several  places,  columns  of  smoke  and  tongues  of 
flame  leaping  to  the  gloomy  sky.  A  few  firemen  vainly 
tried  to  stay  the  conflagration.  Most  of  the  inhabitants 
had  taken  refuge  in  their  cellars. 

Several  shells  struck  the  Cathedral,  and  some  scaffolding 
around  the  left  (north)  tower,  where  repairs  were  being 
made,  took  fire,  falling  upon  the  roof,  which  was  soon  ablaze. 


RHEIMS  BOMBARDED  243 

This  would  be  at  about  4  o'clock  on  Saturday  afternoon. 
The  flames  quickly  spread  to  the  rafters  of  the  nave  and 
transepts;  and  burning  timber,  falling  upon  the  straw  lit- 
tered about  the  floors,  the  chairs,  and  choir-stalls,  turned 
the  shadowy  interior  into  a  furnace.  An  eye-witness  tells 
me  that  most  of  the  magnificent  and  irreplaceable  windows 
were  shattered  and  lay  about  in  many-colored  fragments. 
The  ancient  Archiepiscopal  Palace  is  burned  down,  with 
its  prehistoric  and  ethnographic  collections,  its  library,  its 
tapestries,  and  its  splendid  "  Hall  of  Kings,"  only  the 
charred  walls  standing.  The  exact  damage  cannot  be  ascer- 
tained, for  Rheims  is  now  cut  off  from  the  remainder  of 
the  country,  the  roads  of  approach  being  forbidden  except 
to  the  army. 

The  bombardment  was  resumed  early  on  Sunday  morn- 
ing, apparently  with  the  aim  of  completing  the  destruction 
of  the  city  and  its  historical  monuments.  Of  these  the 
Abbey  Church  of  Saint-Remi  is  a  century  older  than  the 
Cathedral  itself,  and  contained  splendid  stained-glass  win- 
dows, marble  statues,  and  other  treasures. 

The  Town  Hall,  a  fine  building  in  Louis  XIII  style, 
dating  from  1630,  in  which  were  also  situated  the  Town 
Library  and  Museum,  is  damaged,  and  the  Protestant 
Church,  the  Hotel  Dieu,  or  hospital,  the  sub-prefecture,  and 
some  of  the  ancient  houses  of  the  town  are  destroyed.  Many 
sick  and  wounded  have  been  removed  to  the  wine-cellars, 
the  ambulances  having  been  fired  upon,  and  five  nurses 
killed. 

I  will  only  add  one  comment  to  this  grievous  story.  It 
is  that  of  M.  Maurice  Barres,  the  eminent  reactionary.  "  At 
least,"  he  says,  "  these  shells  have  not  fallen  on  our  bat- 
talions, our  brothers  and  sons,  our  defenders.  Perish  the 
marvels  of  the  French  genius  rather  than  that  genius  itself. 
Let  the  most  beautiful  of  stone  be  destroyed  rather  than 
the  blood  of  my  race.  At  this  moment  I  prefer  the  humblest, 
weakest  infantryman  of  France  to  our  worthiest  works  of 


244  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

art.  These  we  will  recreate.  The  essential  thing  is  that  our 
nation  remains.  Vive  la  France!  This  is  the  only  reply 
of  believers,  artists,  and  patriots  to  this  deed." 

I  may  mention  that,  at  the  height  of  the  conflagration, 
the  French  army  doctors,  remembering  that  some  German 
wounded  remained  in  the  Cathedral,  went  in  and  brought 
them  away  to  safety.  It  appears  to  me  that  in  that  act 
lies  the  finest  revenge  for  this  pitiless  barbarism.  Long 
after  our  little  angers  are  spent  and  forgotten,  it  will  be 
recalled  in  history  that  these  wounded  Germans  were  res- 
cued from  flames  which  their  own  brethren  had  kindled. 


CHAPTER  XIX 
THE  EASTERN  BARRIER 

It  has  been  repeatedly  pointed  out  that  the  whole  plan 
of  campaign  of  the  Allies  depended  upon  the  maintenance 
of  a  successful  defense  on  the  east,  from  Verdun  to  Bel- 
fort.  The  efforts  of  the  armies  of  Generals  Sarrail,  De 
Castelnau,  and  Dubail  were  not  absolutely  limited  to  the 
defensive,  for  they  had  to  endeavor  to  win  back  ground, 
especially  in  the  Woevre  and  Lorraine,  that  had  been  lost, 
and  they  had  to  hold  as  many  German  corps  as  possible 
on  this  front,  in  order  to  relieve  the  pressure  elsewhere. 
But  the  first  and  supreme  order  was  to  stand  firm.  There 
must  be  no  more  blundering,  and  no  further  retreat.  It  is 
not  the  role  that  the  French  soldier  of  tradition  favors; 
it  may,  however,  be  doubted  whether  men  of  any  race  could 
have  fulfilled  this  hard  service  with  greater  courage,  stouter 
endurance,  or  more  persistent  energy.  Their  success  has 
not  loomed  so  large  in  the  world's  eye,  but  it  was  as  solid 
and  important  as  that  of  the  western  armies.  The  defense 
of  Verdun  and  the  neighboring  region  will  be  the  subject 
of  a  later  chapter;  here  we  shall  notice  the  outstanding 
events  southward  along  the  Heights  of  the  Meuse,  and  in  the 
gap  between  the  fortresses  of  Toul  and  Epinal. 

The  chief  attempt  to  break  through  the  eastern  barrier 
was  made  south  of  the  Moselle,  and  centered  upon  the 
Grande  Couronne  of  Nancy.  At  the  height  of  this  major 
attack,  when  General  SarraiTs  forces  were  engaged  against 
the  Crown  Prince  to  the  south  of  the  Argonne,  the  army 
of  Metz  delivered  a  lesser  assault  upon  the  line  of  the 
Meuse,  eighteen  miles  south  of  Verdun,  where  the  Spada 

245 


246  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

road  is  covered  only  by  the  small  fort  of  Troyon,  on  the 
hills  which  bound  the  river  on  the  east.  On  September  7, 
the  gallant  commander  of  Troyon,  Captain  Xavier  Heym, 
had  been  out  shooting  partridges.  Before  another  day  was 
over,  400  large  shells  had  been  thrown  upon  the  fort,  seven 
guns  being  put  out  of  action,  and  large  parts  of  the  building 
demolished.  Nevertheless,  resistance  was  maintained  till 
September  13;  and,  in  these  five  days,  of  454  men,  only  4 
were  killed  and  45  wounded.  Two  infantry  assaults  were 
made  on  the  nights  of  the  8th  and  9th.  They  were  discov- 
ered by  the  flashlights  of  the  fort,  and  repelled  by  the  fire 
of  rifles  and  the  remaining  guns.  The  besiegers  were  hidden 
in  the  wooded  hills,  and  their  positions  could  not  be  found : 
it  was  Liege  over  again  on  a  smaller  scale,  but  with  hardly 
less  at  stake,  for  if  Troyon  had  fallen,  the  German  armies 
retreating  from  the  battle  of  the  Marne  could  have  been 
re-enforced,  Verdun  invested,  and  a  permanent  road  opened 
to  Metz.  Two  German  officers  and  a  trumpeter  rode  up  to 
the  fort,  and  demanded  its  surrender.  "  Never ! "  replied 
the  commander ;  "  I  shall  blow  it  up  sooner."  And  finally : 
"Get  out,  I've  seen  enough  of  you.  A  bientot,  a  Metz!" 
At  length,  on  the  13th,  the  2nd  Cavalry  Division  brought 
relief  from  Toul.  The  men  were  exhausted  from  lack  of 
sleep;  the  fort  showed  ruins  on  every  hand  (largely  the 
work  of  shells  3  feet  long,  of  305-mm.  caliber) .  But  Troyon 
had  fulfilled  its  task. 

A  few  days  later,  the  effort  to  break  the  Meuse  line  was 
repeated  a  little  further  south,  at  a  point  where  the  Fort 
du  Camp  des  Romains  overlooks  from  the  forest-clad  hills 
the  ancient  town  of  St.  Mihiel,  on  the  left  bank  in  a  loop 
of  the  river.  St.  Mihiel  is  the  converging  point  of  roads 
from  Pont-a-Mousson,  Vigneulles,  Heudicourt,  and  Woin- 
ville.  It  had  a  considerable  garrison,  whose  barracks  were 
situated  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  in  the  suburb  of 
Chauvoncourt.  Along  this  west  bank  of  the  Meuse  runs  the 
railway  from  Verdun  to  Toul — of  less  importance  since  the 


THE  EASTERN  BARRIER  247 

Ste.  Menehonld  line  was  recovered,  but  not  lightly  to  be 
lost.  Four  German  army  corps,  with  heavy  siege  guns, 
under  General  von  Strantz,  were  engaged  in  these  opera- 
tions; and,  after  a  most  hardy  resistance,  the  fort  of  the 
Camp  des  Romains  fell  on  September  22.  The  survivors  of 
the  garrison,  300  in  number,  were,  said  an  American  cor- 
respondent with  the  German  army,  accorded  the  most  hon- 
orable conditions.  On  the  following  day,  St.  Mihiel  was 
occupied,  and  a  long  foot-to-foot  struggle,  first  on  the  west, 
then  on  the  east  of  the  Meuse.  During  October,  the  Verdun 
army  was  able  to  reach  further  to  the  south-east,  and  the 
Toul  troops  to  the  north-east,  but  with  no  more  success 
than  to  stop  the  German  advance,  and  to  restrict  and 
threaten  constantly  the  German  force  pushed  forward,  like 
a  spear-head,  from  Pont-k-Mousson  and  Thiaucourt  to  St.- 
Mihiel.  From  its  fastness  on  the  Camp  des  Romains,  neigh- 
boring villages  were  bombarded,  including  Sampigny,  and 
President  Poincare's  villa  therein.  On  November  17,  the 
French  troops  silenced  some  German  mortars  which  had 
been  placed  on  the  hills  at  Parodies,  and  seized  the  western 
part  of  Chauvoncourt.  They  then  found  that  parts  of  the 
town  had  been  mined.  On  the  morning  of  the  18th,  the 
mines  were  exploded;  the  French  lost  about  2,000  men, 
killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners,  on  this  occasion.  The  Metz 
army  retained  a  bare  foothold  upon  the  Meuse  at  St.  Mihiel, 
the  only  substantial  piece  of  ground  won  since  the  battle 
of  the  Ma  me. 

After  its  defeat  at  Morhange  and  Sarreburg,  on  August 
20,  General  de  Castelnau  brought  his  army  back  to  its  pre- 
pared positions  along  the  circle  of  low  hills  to  the  north- 
east of  the  picturesque  town  of  Nancy,  with  the  fortress 
of  Toul  behind.  The  retreat  was  so  hard-pressed  that  it 
would  appear  extravagant  to  attribute  its  direction  to  a 
cool,  strategic  design.  Nevertheless,  important  strategic 
consequences  followed.  The  gap  of  Charmes-Mirecourt,  be- 
tween the  fortresses  of  Toul  and  Epinal,  was  left  open,  save 


248 


TOWARD  DEADLOCK 


for  minor  forces  which  Castelnau  and  Dubail  could  spare 
for  the  work  of  obstruction  and  harassment  in  that  direc- 
tion. It  was  a  temptation;  and  the  German  commanders 
never  seem  to  have  been  quite  certain  what  to  do  about  it. 
The  main  French  army  was  drawn  up  in  a  semicircle  from 
near  Pont-a-Mousson,  through  the  plateau  of  Amance,  rising 
to  1,000  feet  over  the  forest  of  Champenoux,  to  Dombasle 
and  the  forest  of  Vitremont.  It  was  outnumbered,  prob- 
ably by  two 
ToVerounWE*vth<»y°n /    i      ^       ^-n^        lor    three   to 

one;  but  it 
held  strong 
natural  p  o  s  i  - 
tions,  improved 
by  in trench- 
men  t.  The 
Crown  Prince 
of  Bavaria,  in 
command  of  the 
Bavarian  army 
and  certain 
troops  from 
Metz,  could 
probably  have 
penetrated  from 
Luneville  and 
Baccarat  to 
Mir^court, 
and  thence  to 
Chalons,  had 
he  concentrated 
upon  this  ob- 
jective. But  he 
would  then 
have  had  not 
The  Defense  of  Nancy.  only    two    fort- 


THE  EASTERN  BARRIER  249 

resses  upon  his  flanks,  but  a  great  army  behind.  Lune>ille, 
as  we  have  seen,  was  occupied  on  August  22.  Thence,  the 
German  left  crossed  the  rivers  Meurthe  and  Mortagne,  and 
advanced  to  the  Moselle.  They  were  received  by  a  heavy 
artillery  fire  from  the  hills  above  Bayon  on  August  24 ; 
but  their  progress  was  more  effectually  arrested  by  the  news 
that  Castelnau  was  taking  the  offensive  eastward  of  Nancy. 
Part  of  the  force  was  brought  back  just  in  time  to  recapture 
the  wood  of  Cre'vic. 

The  59th  and  68th  French  Reserve  Divisions  on  the  left, 
and  the  36th  Brigade  on  the  right,  now  marched  eastward 
along  the  roads  from  Nancy  to  Delme  and  Ch&teau-Salins, 
toward  Amance  and  Champenoux.  For  several  days,  only 
skirmishes  took  place.  The  object  was  not  to  cross  the 
frontier,  but  to  create  a  diversion,  and  to  take  up  and 
intrench  favorable  positions  which  would  make  even  a  dis- 
tant bombardment  of  Nancy  impossible.  By  September  3 
(they  do  not  seem  to  have  hurried — perhaps  they  were  syn- 
chronizing their  movements  with  Von  Kluck  and  Von 
Biilow),  German  re-enforcements  particularly  strong  in  ar- 
tillery began  to  arrive.  The  great  crisis  was  being  reached 
in  the  west,  and  General  Joffre  did  not  want  the  added  risk 
of  adventures  in  Lorraine.  De  Castelnau  was  ordered,  there- 
fore, to  hold  himself  on  the  defensive. 

By  this  time,  the  German  commanders  had  come  to  ac- 
cept the  necessity  of  a  frontal  attack  upon  the  line  of  the 
army  of  Nancy.  It  began  in  force  on  September  4;  and  it 
is  said  to  have  been  supported  by  no  less  than  four  hundred 
heavy  guns,  many  of  them  borrowed  from  the  forts  of  Metz 
and  Strassburg.  For  a  week,  with  hardly  any  cessation, 
the  French  positions  on  the  Amance  plateau  were  bom- 
barded from  behind  and  within  the  forest  of  Champenoux, 
and  the  positions  further  north,  at  Mont  Ste.  Genevieve, 
from  the  forest  of  Facq.  On  the  latter  wing,  Pont-;\-Mous- 
son  was  occupied  by  the  enemy,  12,000  strong,  on  Septem- 
ber 5,  the  French  soldiers  blowing  up  the  Moselle  bridge 


250  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

behind  them.  The  town  was  retaken  on  the  10th ;  and  there- 
after the  French  held  the  left,  the  Germans  the  right  bank 
of  the  river.  At  the  neighboring  village  of  Loisy,  a  single 
company  of  infantry  posted  itself  in  the  cemetery,  and, 
waiting  till  the  Saxon  attackers  were  quite  near,  opened 
a  deadly  fire  upon  them.  A  night  assault  to  the  left,  at 
Ste.  Genevieve,  held  by  a  battalion  of  the  314th  Infantry, 
with  two  batteries,  was  no  more  successful.  The  French 
claim  to  have  found  933  dead  at  these  points.  But  the 
brunt  of  the  struggle  occurred  on  the  slopes  of  the  Grand 
Mont  d'Amance,  a  position  of  peculiar  advantage  for  the 
defense.  Their  way  prepared  by  a  rain  of  shells,  the  Ba- 
varian troops  marched  in  massed  columns  upon  Erbe'ville, 
defended  by  the  French  344th  Regiment,  and  on  the  village 
of  Champenoux,  held  by  the  212th.  The  battle  continued 
through  September  5  and  6.  On  the  7th,  the  French  coun- 
ter-attacked, but  Champenoux  was  lost,  the  206th  Infantry 
suffering  very  heavily.  On  the  8th,  a  new  attack  was  at- 
tempted—a single  division  against  three  army  corps.  Ap- 
parently, the  Germans  were  as  much  exhausted  as  the 
French,  for  the  9th  passed  quietly,  an  armistice  being 
granted  for  the  burial  of  the  dead.  A  mixed  regiment  was 
brought  up  from  Toul  to  re-enforce  the  line;  but,  says  a 
French  writer,  "  our  soldiers,  hungry,  harassed,  haggard, 
could  hardly  stand  upright,  and  marched  like  specters. 
Visibly,  we  were  at  the  last  breath,  crushed  by  infinitely 
superior  numbers.  We  could  hold  out  only  a  few  hours 
more.  And  then,  O  prodigy,  calm  fell,  on  the  12th,  upon 
the  whole  of  the  stricken  field.  The  enemy  gave  up,  re- 
treated for  good,  abandoned  everything,  Champenoux,  so 
frantically  contested,  and  the  entire  front  he  had  occupied. 
He  fell  back  in  dense  columns,  without  even  a  pretense 
of  further  resistance." 

One  by  one,  Saint-Die,  Luneville,  Baccarat,  and  Raon- 
l'Etape  were  evacuated,  and  reoccupied  by  the  French. 
Three  divisions  had  defended  against  three  times  as  many, 


THE  EASTERN  BARRIER  251 

for  a  fortnight,  the  whole  crescent  from  Pont-a-Mousson  to 
Dombasle.  At  the  south  end  of  this  line,  about  the  villages 
of  Reniere'ville,  Courbessaux,  and  Drouville,  and  the  Wood 
of  Cre>ic,  the  ground  is  lower;  and  here  the  fighting  was 
of  a  dreadful  stubborn  fierceness,  every  farm  and  hamlet 
being  contested  to  the  last.  Re'mereville  was  captured,  the 
French  detachment  of  only  a  battalion  and  a  half  which 
held  it  being  wiped  out.  A  few  shells  were  thrown  into 
Nancy  from  this  point — the  only  time  it  was  reached  by 
the  enemy.  The  Crevic  plateau  was  repeatedly  lost  and  won, 
at  a  cost  of  thousands  of  lives.  The  general  result  may  be 
attributed  to  (1)  De  Castelnau's  success  in  holding  out  in 
the  hill  trenches  of  Amance  and  Chainpenoux,  which  made 
any  advance  into  the  gap  of  Mire"court  highly  dangerous; 
(2)  exhaustion  and  heavy  losses — the  French  claim  to  have 
found  40,000  German  dead;  (3)  the  fact  that  the  retreat 
of  the  German  western  armies  from  the  Marne  deprived  the 
Crown  Prince  of  Bavaria  of  his  objective.  That  great  hopes 
were  placed  in  this  part  of  the  campaign  seems  to  be  indi- 
cated by  the  presence  with  the  Bavarian  army,  for  two  or 
three  days,  of  the  Emperor  William,  to  whom  report  attrib- 
uted the  expectation  of  entering  as  conqueror  the  capital 
of  French  Lorraine. 

It  has  been  said  on  an  earlier  page  that  the  cruel  treat- 
ment of  the  civil  population  which  nearly  everywhere 
marked  the  progress  of  the  German  armies  did  not  in 
France  reach  the  extent  or  depth  of  iniquity  shown  at 
Tamines,  Aerschot,  Louvain,  and  other  towns  and  villages 
in  Belgium.  It  is  only  with  hesitation  that  this  statement 
can  be  maintained  in  face  of  the  report  of  the  French  Com- 
mission of  Inquiry  upon  the  devastation  and  barbarities 
wrought  in  the  Department  of  Meurthe  and  Moselle.  As 
though  the  destruction  of  hundreds  of  farmsteads  and  parts 
of  scores  of  villages  in  course  of  the  fighting  were  not  suf- 
ficient penalty  for  this  unfortunate  countryside,  the  Ba- 
varian   infantry,  in    particular,  are   proved    to    have   been 


252  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

guilty  at  many  places  of  almost  incredible  acts  of  ferocity. 
In  the  village  of  Nomeny,  between  Nancy  and  the  frontier, 
the  2nd  and  3rd  Bavarian  regiments  seem  to  have  sunk  to 
the  level  of  Abdul  Hamid's  Bashi-Bazouks.  The  place  was 
first  sacked,  then  burned;  and,  as  the  villagers  fled  from 
their  cellars,  they  were  shot  down — old  men,  women,  and 
children — fifty  being  killed  and  many  more  wounded.  Gen- 
erally speaking,  the  larger  the  place  the  less  extreme  was 
the  lawlessness.  But  at  Luneville,  during  the  three  weeks' 
occupation,  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  the  Synagogue,  and  about 
seventy  houses  were  burned  down,  with  torches,  petrol,  and 
other  incendiary  apparatus;  and  seventeen  men  and  women 
were  shot  in  cold  blood  in  the  streets.  A  notice  to  the  popu- 
lation, signed  "  Commander-in-Chief,  Von  Fosbender,"  was 
posted  on  September  3,  announcing  that  a  "  contribution  " 
of  650,000  francs  (i26,000)  must  be  paid  in  three  days,  or 
"  all  the  goods  which  are  available  will  be  seized,"  and 
"  anyone  who  shall  have  deliberately  hidden  money,  or  shall 
have  attempted  to  hide  his  goods,  or  who  seeks  to  leave  the 
town,  will  be  shot."  The  money  was  actually  found  and 
paid.  In  the  neighboring  village  of  Chanteheux,  the  Ba- 
varians fired  twenty  houses,  and  shot  eight  civilians,  on 
August  25.  A  day  earlier,  practically  the  whole  of  the  little 
town  of  Gerbeviller  was  destroyed  by  fire  (more  than  400 
houses),  and  at  least  thirty-six  civilians,  men  and  women, 
were  slaughtered.  The  Bavarian  troops  were  here  under 
the  command  of  General  Clauss.  At  Cre"vic,  seventy-six 
houses  were  burned  down;  at  Maixe,  thirty-six,  and  nine 
men  and  one  woman  were  murdered.  At  Baccarat,  no 
civilians  were  killed ;  but  112  houses  were  burned  down  after 
the  whole  place  had  been  pillaged,  under  the  supervision  of 
the  officers,  one  of  these  being  General  Fabricius,  command- 
ing the  artillery  of  the  14th  Baden  Corps. 

These  are  a  few  of  the  graver  cases;  many  other  well- 
attested  instances  of  wholesale  and  retail  vengeance  could 
be  cited.     No  attempt  to  chronicle  the  outstanding  facts 


THE  EASTERN  BARRIER  253 

of  the  great  war  can  ignore  this  part  of  it.  But  I  would 
add  that  I  have  touched  upon  it,  even  so  briefly,  with  ex- 
treme reluctance.  War  itself  is  the  uttermost  barbarism, 
the  all-inclusive  atrocity  beside  which  the  most  damnable 
of  retail  crimes  sink  into  insignificance.  Despite  the  long 
and  earnest  efforts  of  lawyers  and  humanitarians,  we  now 
know  that  its  most  dire  penalties  cannot  be  limited  to  the 
armies  in  the  field.  That  the  German  Government  and  its 
captains  entered  upon  their  aggression,  and  maintained  it, 
in  the  resolve  that  no  gentle  scruple  should  stand  in  their 
way,  they  have  abundantly  proved  on  the  sea  and  in  the 
air,  as  well  as  on  the  land.  But  that  this  diabolical  spirit 
was  shared  by  the  common  German  soldier,  or  even  the 
average  German  officer,  would  have  been  an  implication  as 
revolting  to  every  fair-minded  Frenchman,  Englishman,  or 
Belgian,  as  to  find  their  own  defenders  playing  the  Apache 
or  the  Kurd  in  the  beautiful  cities  and  villages  of  the  Rhine- 
land.  Let  us  suggest  no  ideal  tests  in  a  field  where  the 
ideal  is  so  discounted.  Murder,  arson,  and  rape  are  (if 
such  things  can  be  assessed)  a  small  part  of  the  evil  that 
war  unlooses.  But  the  German  armies  boast  of  an  iron 
organization  and  discipline;  and  with  all  their  unquestioned 
courage  and  varied  powers,  it  must  be  said  that  these  sav- 
ageries deeply  and  unforgettably  dishonor  them. 


CHAPTER  XX 
THE  BATTLES  OF  THE  AISNE 

One  of  the  surprises  of  the  campaign  of  1914  was  the 
power  of  mass  retreat  and  recovery  after  severe  reverses 
given  by  modern  organization  (based,  it  is  well  to  remem- 
ber, upon  civil  education,  as  well  as  upon  specific  military 
training).  Von  Kluck  and  Von  Biilow  had  no  such  task 
after  the  battle  of  the  Marne  as  faced  Sir  John  French 
after  Mons.  The  re-establishment  of  a  solid  German  line 
extending  from  the  Oise  across  the  Laon  plateau,  dipping 
toward  Rheims,  and  then  reaching  over  Champagne,  through 
the  Argonne,  and  around  Verdun,  to  Metz  was,  neverthe- 
less, one  of  the  great  achievements  of  the  war,  a  success 
which  the  Allies  had  soon  to  admit  their  inability  to  do 
more  than  limit  until  time  should  give  them  a  heavy  suprem- 
acy of  numbers  and  artillery  power. 

The  bulwark  of  this  unprecedented  line  was  its  western 
third,  the  crests  of  the  hills  above  the  lower  Aisne;  and 
the  reckless  waste  of  life  in  German  charges  which  marked 
the  height  of  the  combat  may  have  been  supported  by  the 
feeling  that  they  would  never  again  have  such  good  posi- 
tions to  defend.  The  Allies  also  sustained  very  heavy  losses, 
the  small  British  army  alone  having  13,541  killed,  wounded, 
and  missing  on  the  Aisne  in  less  than  four  weeks,  bringing 
their  total  casualties  to  the  second  week  of  October  up  to 
33,000.  It  may  be  asked  whether  the  end  actually  attained 
would  not  have  been  as  well  or  better  served  by  holding  the 
hills  of  the  south  bank  of  the  river  defensively,  and  throw- 
ing more  force  into  the  parts  of  the  field  which  offered  less 
natural  difficulties.    It  is  sufficient  here  to  reply  that,  when 

864 


THE  BATTLES  OF  THE  AISNE 


255 


the  5th  and  6th  French  and  the  British  armies  crossed  the 
Aisne,  it  was  not  known  whether  they  had  to  deal  with  a 
mere  halt,  or  a  definite  arrest.  A  fortnight's  hard  fight- 
ing showed  that  the  plateau  was  held  resolutely,  and  with 
large  re-enforcements;  and  a  new  plan  of  campaign  was 
then  adopted. 

Leaving  till  we  come  to  that  plan  other  features  of  the 
region,  especially  that  of  the  northern  railway  communica- 
tions, we  may  briefly  note  the  physical  conformation  which 


ROADS  RAILWAYS  CANALS  MILES 

Triangle  of  the  Laon  Mountains. 

makes  the  Laon  plateau  a  natural  fortress.  It  may  be 
broadly  described  as  a  triangle  of  hilly  and  wooded  coun- 
try, sloping  up  gently  from  the  north  (a  great  advantage 
for  the  German  supplies),  reaching  a  height  of  between  600 
and  700  feet,  and  breaking  down  to  its  base  on  the  Aisne 
in  a  series  of  spurs  and  ravines,  every  roadway  of  which 
may  be  easily  covered  by  cross-fires  from  above.  The  pla- 
teau is  about  thirty-five  miles  long  from  a  line  between 
Attichy  and  Noyon,  on  the  west,  where  it  falls  gently  to  the 
Oise  Valley,  and  Craonne  on  the  east,  where  it  drops  ab- 
ruptly into  the  plain.  The  triangle  is  bounded  by  roads 
and  railways  of  which  the  angles  are  at  Compiegne,  La 
Fere,  and  Cormicy  (north  of  Rheims).  It  is  cut  from  south 
to  north  by  the  roads  and  railways  from  Soissons,  in  the 
middle  of  the  base,  to  Chauny  and  Laon ;  and  it  is  cut  from 
north-west  to  south-east  by  a  valley  by  which  a  canal  is 


256  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

brought  from  the  Oise  to  the  Aisne.  The  small  towns  and 
villages  within  the  triangle  are  full  of  historical  and  archae- 
ological interest,  containing  many  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
century  churches,  ruined  abbeys,  donjons,  and  chateaux. 
Beside  the  main  road  through  the  Aisne  Valley,  there  is 
a  highway  along  the  edge  of  the  plateau,  from  the  Soissons- 
Laon  road  to  Craonne,  which  was  to  be  for  long  months 
the  line  dividing  the  Allied  from  the  German  trenches. 
Originally  built  for  the  benefit  of  certain  Bourbon  prin- 
cesses, and  ending  at  Vauclere  and  the  farm  of  Heurtebise 
on  the  scene  of  a  famous  victory  of  Napoleon  over  the  Allies 
of  1814,  the  Chemin  des  Dames  now  takes  a  larger  place  in 
history  in  connection  with  a  series  of  struggles  yet  more 
bloody  and  momentous.  Finally,  there  is  a  feature  of  the 
river-bed  which  considerably  affected  the  course  of  the 
fighting.  It  lies  here  only  about  140  feet  above  the  sea; 
and  the  Aisne  pursues  a  slow  and  winding  course  through 
meadows  having  a  width  of  from  half  a  mile  to  two  miles 
between  the  two  hillsides,  rising  quickly  by  400  feet.  At 
some  points,  the  river  nearly  approaches  the  northern  spurs ; 
here  the  crossings  were  of  particular  difficulty,  the  river 
not  being  fordable,  because  the  bridge-heads  and  camps  were 
under  fire  from  the  heights  immediately  above.  Where  there 
is  flat  land  on  the  north,  the  passage  and  the  first  stages 
of  advance  were  made  with  comparative  ease. 

The  Allied  armies  were  thus  divided :  the  6th  French  Army 
(Maunoury),  after  driving  Von  Kluck's  flank-guard  back 
from  the  west  of  the  Ourcq,  pursued  it  northward  to  the 
Aisne  between  Compiegne  and  Soissons.  The  British  army 
swept  up  the  east  of  the  Ourcq,  touching  Soissons  on  its 
left,  and  clearing  the  ground  between  the  Vesle  and  the 
Aisne.  To  its  right,  the  5th  French  Army  (D'Esperey)  held 
the  line  eastward  of  Bourg,  through  Rheims,  to  its  junc- 
tion with  the  7th  Army  (Foch)  in  Champagne.  Of  the  Ger- 
man armies,  Von  Kluck  was  in  the  west,  Von  Biilow  from 
about  Craonne  across  the  north  of  Rheims;  and  between 


THE  BATTLES  OF  THE  AISNE  257 

these  lay  a  force  brought  round  from  Lorraine  under  Gen- 
eral von  Heeringen,  based  upon  Laon.  The  last  named  con- 
sisted of  three,  later  on  of  four,  army  corps — 12th  (Saxon), 
10th,  and  7th  and  10th  Reserve. 

Maunoury  quickly  cleared  the  Compiegne  district,  and 
crossed  the  Aisne  by  pontoons  at  Vic  on  Sunday,  Septem- 
ber 13,  and  at  Fontenoy  on  the  following  day;  while  at  Sois- 
sons,  with  the  help  of  the  British  4th  Division,  he  drove  the 
enemy  across  the  river  and  occupied  the  southern  part  of 
the  town.  At  the  west  end  of  this  advance,  progress  was 
made  through  the  Forest  of  Laigle  toward  Noyon,  on  the 
Oise;  and,  at  the  same  time,  with  the  French  recovery  of 
Amiens,  the  reorganization  of  resistance  on  the  north-west 
began.  In  their  advance  northward  from  Vic  toward  Namp- 
cel,  Morsain,  and  Nouvron,  Maunoury 's  columns  felt  se- 
verely the  German  superiority  in  heavy  field-guns  and  in 
positions  on  the  western  spurs  of  the  Laon  hills.  A  daring 
attempt  was  made  along  this  narrow  valley  to  cut  off  some 
outlying  forces;  but  numbers  of  men  and  guns  prevailed, 
and  a  retirement  to  the  river  was  effected  with  difficulty. 
At  Soissons,  the  bridge  was  destroyed  by  the  retiring  Ger- 
mans, who,  from  the  quarries  of  Pasly  and  neighboring 
heights,  not  only  made  a  pontoon  passage  impracticable,  but 
subjected  the  town  to  a  continuous  bombardment.  At  this 
point,  the  battle  of  the  Aisne  immediately  reached  the  posi- 
tion of  deadlock. 

The  British  were  more  fortunate,  partly  because  of  the 
physical  characteristic  already  indicated,  partly  because 
the  section  of  the  line  at  which  they  struck  was  less  vital 
to  the  Germans  than  the  Soissons-Laon  road.  From  west 
to  east,  the  three  army  corps  under  Sir  John  French  (of 
which  the  3rd  consisted  only  of  the  4th  Division  plus  the 
19th  Brigade)  made  the  crossing  at  the  following  points: 
the  3rd,  immediately  east  of  Soissons,  at  Billy,  Bucy,  and 
Venizel ;  the  2nd,  at  Missy  and  Conde';  the  1st,  at  Chavonne, 
Pont-Arcy,  and  Bourg.     The  usual  way  was  to  raft  over  a 


258 


TOWARD  DEADLOCK 


covering  detachment,  and  then  construct  a  pontoon  bridge; 
but  the  Germans  probably  found  the  Chauny-Rheinis  Canal 
too  useful  to  allow  of  the  aqueduct  which  leads  it  over  the 
Aisne  at  Bourg  being  destroyed.  The  5th  Infantry  Bri- 
gade crept  over  a  remaining  girder  of  the  Pont-Arcy  bridge 
in  Indian  file,  under  heavy  gunfire.  The  repairing  and 
building  of  bridges  was  immediately  begun;  and,  within 
three  or  four  days,  the  engineers  had  thirteen  passages 
made  between  Soissons  and  Villers.     Of  the  three  positions, 


MJL£,S 

The  British  Right  Above  the  Aisne. 

the  two  extremes,  at  Venizel  and  Pont-Arcy,  are  favored  by 
flat  land  on  the  north  of  the  river;  while  the  center,  from 
Conde"  to  Vailly,  immediately  faces  a  crescent  of  hills  whose 
defenders,  already  intrenched  and  hidden  by  thick  woods, 
could  make  an  approach  almost  impossible.  Not  only  is 
the  river-crossing  easier  at  Pont-Arcy,  but  there  opens  here 
what  we  may  call  the  valley  of  the  canal,  leading  almost  up 
to  the  Chemin  des  Dames  at  the  villages  of  Braye,  Chivy, 
and  Troyon.  This  was  evidently  the  most  favorable  line  of 
advance,  particularly  as  it  was  not  served  on  the  German 


THE  BATTLES  OF  THE  AISNE  259 

side  by  any   line  of   railway    (as   were  the  heights  near 
Soissons). 

Crossing  here,  then,  the  1st  Corps  under  Sir  Douglas  Haig 
and  the  Cavalry  Division  under  General  Allenby  at  once 
struck  north.  By  nightfall  on  the  13th,  the  1st  Division  had 
established  itself  in  the  villages  of  Moulins,  Paissy,  and 
Geny,  with  outposts  in  Vendresse.  With  more  difficulty,  the 
3rd  Corps,  under  Lieutenant-General  Pulteney,  reached  the 
lower  spurs  of  the  Crouy  and  Vregnay  hills  on  the  same 
day.  The  2nd  Corps  was  hard  put  to  it  to  maintain  its 
river  crossing;  the  British  force,  indeed,  never  succeeded 
in  driving  the  German  troops  from  the  promontory  above 
Conde",  which  is  the  site  of  a  former  French  fort.  Else- 
where, there  was,  on  the  night  of  the  13th,  a  withdrawal 
of  the  German  main  positions  to  the  line  of  the  Chemin 
des  Dames,  skillfully  hidden  batteries  and  intrenched  rifle 
detachments  being  left  at  lower  points  of  vantage.  The 
deluge  of  fire  that  now  broke,  day  and  night,  over  the  north- 
ern slopes  of  the  Aisne  Valley  was  such  as  utterly  to 
eclipse  the  worst  experience  of  the  oldest  soldiers  in  the 
field.  Apparently,  the  German  commanders  had  recovered 
their  lines  of  supply;  they  had  all  the  advantages  of  posi- 
tion ;  and  they  had  been  able  carefully  to  measure  the  chief 
gun-ranges.  Including  the  8-in.  siege  howitzers  brought 
up  from  Maubeuge,  which  came  into  use  on  the  15th,  they 
had  a  considerably  greater  weight  of  artillery;  heavy  rains 
aggravated  the  difficulty  of  getting  the  Allies'  guns  through 
the  valley  and  into  the  hills.  The  work  of  the  engineer, 
supply,  and  other  subsidiary  services  in  these  trying  circum- 
stances is  not  less  deserving  of  praise  than  the  heroism  of 
the  actual  combatants. 

"  On  the  evening  of  the  14th,"  says  Sir  John  French,  "  it 
was  still  impossible  to  decide  whether  the  enemy  was  only 
making  a  temporary  halt,  covered  by  rear-guards,  or  whether 
he  intended  to  stand  and  defend  the  position.  With  a  view 
to  clearing  up  the  situation,  I  ordered  a  general  advance. 


260  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

The  action  of  the  1st  Corps  on  this  day  under  the  direction 
and  command  of  Sir  Douglas  Haig  was  of  so  skillful,  bold, 
and  decisive  a  character  that  he  gained  positions  which 
alone  have  enabled  me  to  maintain  my  stand  for  more  than 
three  weeks  of  very  severe  fighting  on  the  north  bank  of 
the  river."  This  action  consisted  of  an  advance  up  the 
valley  of  the  canal,  and  over  the  neighboring  hills  about 
Moussy  and  Moulins.  On  the  right,  held  by  the  1st  Division 
( Major-General  Lomax),  the  2nd  Infantry  Brigade  and 
the  25th  Artillery  Brigade,  under  General  Bulfin,  moved  at 
daybreak  through  Vendresse,  and  attacked  a  considerable 
German  force  intrenched  in  and  around  a  sugar  factory 
north  of  Troyon,  on  the  Chemin  des  Dames.  This,  it  may 
be  noted,  was  for  the  moment  the  most  northerly  point  of 
the  Allied  front  (twenty-six  miles  north-west  of  Rheims), 
there  being  as  yet  no  western  wing  beyond  the  Oise.  The 
King's  Royal  Rifles  and  the  Royal  Sussex  regiment  led  the 
attack,  supported  by  the  North  Lancashires;  and,  these 
being  insufficient,  the  Coldstream  Guards  were  brought  up 
to  the  right,  and  the  remainder  of  the  1st  Brigade  (1st 
Royal  Highlanders,  1st  Scots  Guards,  and  the  Munsters)  to 
the  left.  By  noon,  the  North  Lanoashires  had  seized  the 
factory,  and  the  two  brigades,  with  the  3rd  Brigade  in 
support,  were  holding  a  line  to  the  south  of  the  Chemin  des 
Dames,  that  is,  along  the  southern  crest  of  the  plateau. 

This  was  a  threat  the  German  commanders  could  not 
ignore.  Moreover,  D'Espe'rey's  army  was  simultaneously 
assaulting  Von  Biilow's  at  Craonne,  a  few  miles  further 
east;  while,  on  Haig's  left,  the  4th  Guards  Brigade  had 
reached  the  south  of  the  Ostel  ridge,  and  the  6th  Infantry 
Brigade  was  moving  up  the  valley  toward  Braye,  both  with 
strong  artillery  supports.  There  was,  however,  a  weakness 
in  the  line,  a  break  in  the  attack  due  to  the  strength  of  the 
German  hill  intrenchments  between  Conde  and  Vailly,  the 
British  center.  "  At  this  period  of  the  action,"  said  Sir 
John  French,  "  the  enemy  obtained  a  footing  between  the 


THE  BATTLES  OF  THE  AISNE  261 

1st  and  2nd  Corps  and  threatened  to  cut  the  communica- 
tions of  the  latter.  Sir  Douglas  Haig  was  very  hard 
pressed,  and  had  no  reserve  in  hand.  I  placed  the  Cavalry 
Division  at  his  disposal,  part  of  which  he  skillfully  used  to 
prolong  and  secure  the  left  flank  of  the  Guards  Brigade. 
Some  heavy  fighting  ensued,  which  resulted  in  the  enemy 
being  driven  back  with  heavy  loss.  About  4  o'clock  the 
weakening  of  the  counter-attacks  and  other  indications 
tended  to  show  that  his  resistance  was  decreasing;  and  a 
general  advance  was  ordered.  Although  meeting  with  con- 
siderable opposition,  and  coming  under  very  heavy  artillery 
and  rifle  fire,  the  position  of  the  (1st)  Corps  at  the  end  of 
the  day's  operations  extended  from  the  Chemin  des  Dames 
on  the  right,  through  Chivy,  to  Le  Cour  de  Soupir,  with 
the  1st  Cavalry  Brigade  extending  to  the  Chavonne-Soissons 
road.  On  the  right,  the  corps  was  in  close  touch  with  the 
French  Moroccan  troops  of  the  18th  Corps,  which  were  in- 
trenched in  e'chelon  to  its  right  rear.  Throughout  the  battle 
of  the  Aisne,  this  advanced  and  commanding  position  was 
maintained.  Day  after  day,  and  night  after  night,  the 
enemy's  infantry  has  been  hurled  against  the  1st  Corps  in 
violent  counter  attack,  which  has  never  on  any  one  occasion 
succeeded,  while  the  trenches  have  been  under  continuous 
heavy  artillery  fire." 

Every  part  of  the  line  was  tested  in  course  of  these  desper- 
ate assaults.  Of  one  of  the  most  serious,  the  British  Com- 
mander-in-Chief reported :  "  On  the  afternoon  of  the  17th, 
the  right  flank  of  the  1st  Division  was  seriously  threatened. 
A  counter-attack  was  made  by  the  Northamptonshire  Regi- 
ment in  combination  with  the  Queen's,  and  one  battalion 
of  the  Divisional  Reserve  was  moved  up  in  support.  The 
Northamptonshire  Regiment,  under  cover  of  mist,  crept  up 
to  within  a  hundred  yards  of  the  enemy's  trenches,  and 
charged  with  the  bayonet,  driving  them  out  of  the  trenches 
and  up  the  hill.  A  very  strong  force  of  hostile  infantry 
was  then  disclosed  on  the  crest  line.     This  new  line  was 


262  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

enfiladed  by  part  of  the  Queen's  and  the  King's  Royal  Rifles, 
which  wheeled  to  their  left  on  the  extreme  right  of  our 
infantry  line,  and  were  supported  by  a  squadron  of  cavalry 
on  their  outer  flank.  The  enemy's  attack  was  ultimately 
driven  back  with  heavy  loss."  In  course  of  the  day,  the 
Northamptons  lost  about  150  men  by  the  treachery  of  a  Ger- 
man company,  which  offered  to  surrender,  and  then  at- 
tacked its  captors. 

Between  September  26  and  28,  the  Germans  made  what 
Sir  John  French  calls  "  one  last  great  effort  to  establish 
ascendency."  This  may  be  regarded  as  the  end  of  the 
battles  of  the  Aisne,  for  on  the  Laon  plateau,  as  across 
Champagne  and  in  the  Argonne,  the  long  deadlock  of  trench 
warfare,  without  a  definite  ascendency  on  either  side,  had 
begun,  while  a  new  phase  of  the  struggle  had  been  opened 
in  the  north-west.  The  French  5th  Army  could  not  reach 
level  with  the  British  1st  Corps,  and  the  Chemin  des  Dames, 
therefore,  could  not  be  crossed.  Maunoury  made  better  prog- 
ress in  the  Forest  of  Laigle,  but  could  not  drive  the  Ger- 
man gunners  and  riflemen  from  their  stronghold  above 
Soissons.  For  a  few  days  it  looked  as  though  a  dangerous 
breach  might  be  made  in  the  hostile  lines  at  Berry-au-Bac, 
just  beyond  Craonne;  this  hope,  also,  soon  disappeared. 
General  von  Biilow  had  been  allowed  to  seize  and  strengthen 
the  positions  of  the  old  French  forts  around  Rheims,  espe- 
cially those  of  Nogent  l'Abbesse  and  Mount  Berru;  and, 
although  Brimont  changed  hands,  and  Pompelle  was  recov- 
ered, all  attempts  to  pierce  the  crescent  round  the  north- 
east of  the  city  failed.  So  in  the  plain  to  the  east,  between 
Souain  and  the  ridge  on  the  north  of  the  river  Suippes,  only 
slight  variations  occurred  in  the  opposed  lines,  and  the 
campaign  developed  into  a  kind  of  double  siege.  In  the 
Argonne,  the  closeness  of  the  woodland  and  the  scarcity 
of  roads  gave  the  fighting  a  special  character;  but,  after 
an  attempt  by  the  Crown  Prince  to  penetrate  southward 
had  been  repulsed  in  the  district  of  La  Gruerie,  on  the 


THE  BATTLES  OF  THE  AISNE  263 

road  from  Vienne-la-Ville  to  Varennes,  at  the  beginning 
of  October,  a  static  condition  was  reached.  By  the  middle 
of  the  month,  the  French  southern  army  had  recovered  the 
crests  and  passes  of  the  Vosges  as  far  north  as  the  Col  du 
Bonhomme,  and  the  Alsatian  slopes  as  far  as  Thann.  But 
the  Metz  field  force  still  held  the  valley  called  the  Rupt  du 
Mad,  with  its  railway  to  Thiaucourt,  and,  beyond,  a  narrow 
footing  on  the  Meuse  at  St.  Mihiel.  Why  they  should  main- 
tain this  spearhead  so  resolutely  without  further  attempt 
to  press  it  in  was  not  clear — perhaps,  as  a  future  oppor- 
tunity of  offense. 

There  were  many  indications  of  a  fatal  dispersal  of  Ger- 
man strength  over  too  many  objectives.  In  all  that  could 
be  done  by  long  scientific  preparation,  the  Imperial  Staff 
had  more  than  justified  its  reputation.  Despite  increasing 
pressure  on  the  Russian  frontier,  it  was  keeping  its  numeri- 
cal superiority  in  the  west  by  an  unexpected  power  of 
absorbing  into  the  combatant  ranks  vast  numbers  of  half- 
trained  levies,  who,  if  they  were  poor  marksmen,  repeatedly 
showed  that  they  could  meet  the  test  of  massed  attack  in 
close  formation  against  first-class  infantry.  The  German 
armies  displayed  courage,  energy,  and  endurance  of  a  high 
order;  their  organization,  supply,  and  transport  were  be- 
yond reproach;  and  in  some  respects  their  equipment  was 
still  better  than  that  of  the  Allies.  In  the  higher  region  of 
command,  they  were  now  as  signally  lacking  as  their  politi- 
cal chiefs  had  been  in  moral  sense  and  foresight.  The 
battles  of  the  Aisne  confirmed  the  result  of  the  battle  of 
the  Marne,  though  they  did  little  more.  The  idea  of  an 
early  conclusion  of  the  war  now  disappeared.  The  main 
body  of  the  new  British  armies  could  not  be  read}'  for  six 
months;  and  till  then  the  Allies  could  not  hope  to  assume 
a  general  offensive.  The  invasion,  however,  was  definitely 
contained;  and  in  this  fact  the  defenders  of  France  found 
encouragement  to  bear  the  terrible  trials  of  the  coming 
winter. 


264  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

All  the  time,  they  were  learning.  The  Boers  had  taught 
Mr.  Atkins  something  of  the  art  of  taking  cover  under  rifle- 
fire.  The  French  quickly  picked  up  this  lesson;  but  at  the 
outset,  both  French  and  British  showed  a  reluctance  or  in- 
capacity for  effective  intrenchment  against  heavy  artillery 
which,  though  it  may  be  usual  in  novices,  was  particularly 
deplorable  in  this  instance.  The  German  infantry  use  the 
bayonet  little,  and  their  mass  assaults  are  rarely  successful 
before  the  modern  magazine  rifle.  But  against  big  guns, 
there  is  nothing  for  it  but  deep  digging,  until  a  counter- 
bombardment  brings  relief.  The  art  of  intrenchment  was 
recreated  on  the  Aisne;  and,  with  the  elaboration  of  earth- 
works for  the  firing-line,  the  heavy  rains  of  mid-September 
dictated  an  unanticipated  provision  of  covered  shelters  and 
rest-places.  The  German  armies  had  learned,  however,  not 
only  to  intrench,  but  to  subordinate  this  skill  to  offensive 
action.  After  the  battle  of  the  Marne,  Sir  John  French  asked 
that  four  6-in.  howitzer  batteries  should  be  sent  out,  as  "  our 
experiences  in  this  campaign  seem  to  point  to  the  employ- 
ment of  more  heavy  guns  of  a  larger  caliber  in  great  battles 
which  last  for  several  days."  As  the  deadlock  extended 
and  hardened,  this  need  became  more  and  more  evident, 
especially  in  the  French  armies,  where  faith  had  been  placed 
almost  exclusively  in  the  remarkable  "  75  "  light  field-pieces. 
During  the  autumn,  the  balance  in  heavy  artillery  was 
gradually  rectified.  Meanwhile,  all  sorts  of  expedients,  old 
and  new,  were  tried  to  break  the  stalemate  of  the  buried 
lines — sapping  and  mining,  the  throwing  of  hand-grenades, 
sniping  from  trees  and  other  vantage  points,  the  control 
and  direction  of  massed  gunfire  by  telephone  from  the  ex- 
treme front,  or  by  aeroplane  signals. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
THE  NORTH-WEST  TURN 

I.     A  Flank  Blow  that  Failed 

Sir  John  French  says  that,  on  September  15,  his  own 
and  the  French  reports  made  it  clear  that  the  German 
armies  were  taking  up  "  a  determined  stand  "  above  the 
Aisne ;  and,  on  September  18,  "  information  reached  me 
from  General  Joffre  that  he  had  found  it  necessary  to  make 
a  new  plan,  and  to  attack  and  envelop  the  German  right 
flank." 

Four  considerations  united  to  draw  the  attention  both 
of  the  Allies  and  the  German  Staff  to  the  north-west,  as 
soon  as  the  heat  of  the  pursuit  from  the  Marne  was  over: 
(1)  There  lay  the  most  prolonged  and  the  only  vulnerable 
line  of  German  communications;  (2)  there  lay  large,  rich 
districts  of  France  not  yet  effectively  occupied  by  either 
party;  (3)  there,  in  the  extreme  north,  at  Antwerp,  lay  the 
still  unconquered  Belgian  army;  and  (4)  there  lay  the  roads 
to  the  Channel  ports,  the  only  way  by  which  England  could 
be  directly  threatened,  and  the  only  remaining  possibility 
of  envelopment.  The  first  two  considerations  gave  birth  to, 
and  the  third  affected,  General  Joffre's  "  new  plan,"  and  the 
events  dealt  with  in  the  present  chapter;  the  fourth  gov- 
erned the  development  of  the  plan,  and  the  events  narrated 
in  the  next  chapter.  Two  more  general  conditions  are  to  be 
borne  in  mind:  (a)  At  the  outset,  the  whole  aim  of  the  in- 
vasion had  been  to  obtain  a  rapid  result  in  the  west,  in 
order  to  turn  with  full  force  against  Russia.  Its  authors 
clung  obstinately  to  this  hope,  and  the  mass  of  German 

265 


266  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

troops  was  kept  in  the  west.  But  the  strength  of  the  Allies 
was  steadily,  though  very  slowly,  increasing.  Thus  dead- 
lock along  most  of  a  long,  thin  line,  with  violent  attacks  at 
promising  points,  became  the  only  alternative  to  the  aban- 
donment of  a  large  part  of  the  occupied  territory.  The 
very  success  of  the  invasion  now  began  to  bring  its  punish- 
ment. All  the  monetary  exactions  from  Belgian  and  French 
towns  could  not  meet  the  cost  of  maintaining  a  front  meas- 
uring, from  Ostend  to  Basle,  about  360  miles ;  and  the  mili- 
tary expense  of  holding  this  front  effectually  prevented  an 
overwhelming  attack  upon  Russia.  We  can  now  see  that, 
in  a  defensive  campaign — with  a  western  front  of  only  170 
miles — the  German  armies  would  have  been  invincible.  It 
may  be  locally  true  that  the  best  defense  is  by  offense;  in 
the  larger  picture,  Germany  appears  from  this  time  as 
doomed  by  the  weight  of  her  original  aggression.  (6)  The 
Allies  had  reason  ultimately  to  fear  the  deadlock  of  the 
trenches,  if  the  territory  thus  held  were  to  be  recovered  by 
local  force.  Otherwise,  time  was  wholly  on  their  side ;  and, 
from  this  point,  the  prospect  of  an  exhaustion  of  the  internal 
resources  of  the  Germanic  lands  came  more  and  more  promi- 
nently into  consideration. 

We  have  seen  that,  of  the  two  main  lines  of  supply  and 
communication  of  the  German  western  armies,  the  chief 
ran  up  the  western  side  of  the  Laon  triangle — that  is,  up 
the  Oise  Valley — and  then  north-westward  through  St.  Quen- 
tin  and  Maubeuge  to  Brussels  and  Liege;  while  the  other 
ran  from  above  Rheims,  through  Rethel,  to  Mezieres,  and 
then  turned  eastward  to  Luxemburg  and  the  Rhineland. 
The  failure  of  the  French  attempt  to  break  through  at 
Craonne  and  Berry-au-Bac  left  the  latter  line  secure.  The 
former,  and  more  important,  was  at  once  threatened  by 
the  advance  of  General  Maunoury's  army  from  Compiegne 
through  the  Forest  of  Laigle,  on  the  east  of  the  Oise,  and 
along  the  Ribe'court  and  Lassigny  roads  on  the  west  of  the 
river.    While  this  advance  was  beginning  to  suffer  a  definite 


THE  NORTH-WEST  TURN  267 

check  around  Noyon,  a  new  army  was  being  constituted  on 
its  left  under  General  Castelnau.  Between  September  21 
and  2G,  this  new  force  established  itself  along  a  northward 
line  from  Lassigny,  through  Roye,  to  Peronne,  with  some 
Territorial  divisions,  under  General  Brugere,  extending 
across  the  Somme  north-westward  to  Albert.  A  glance  at 
the  map  (p.  284)  will  show  that  this  rapid  movement  threat- 
ened the  whole  flank  of  the  1st  and  2nd  German  armies,  and 
in  particular  the  vital  railway  junction  of  Tergnier,  where, 
before  the  war,  the  Nord  Company  kept  1,200  men  employed 
in  their  workshops.  Roye  and  Lassigny  are  about  twenty- 
five  miles  west  of  Tergnier;  Pe"ronne  and  Chaulnes  are  a 
little  nearer  to  St.  Quentin.  By  so  narrow  a  margin  were 
Brussels  and  Cologne  connected  with  the  Aisne.  On  the 
other  hand,  this  new  French  front  covered  the  great  city 
of  Amiens,  and  promised  the  re-establishment,  through  Ab- 
beville and  Boulogne,  of  the  most  convenient  line  of  com- 
munications with  England.  The  call  for  some  effort  to  re- 
store order  in  this  region  was  emphasized  by  the  revela- 
tion that  it  had  been  possible  for  a  band  of  German  engi- 
neers to  keep  an  armored  automobile  running  for  some  days 
across  Picardy  and  Normandy.  The  purpose  was  to  destroy 
railway  bridges ;  and  the  raiders,  who  worked  by  night  and 
slept  in  the  woods  by  day,  had  chosen  their  field  of  opera- 
tion to  include  a  part  of  the  French  railway  system  essen- 
tial to  the  Allied  movements.  They  were  at  last  recognized 
and  caught  on  the  Paris-Rouen  road,  after  an  encounter  in 
which  three  gendarmes  and  two  of  the  audacious  Germans 
were  mortally  wounded. 

The  promptitude  of  their  reply  suggests  that  the  German 
commanders  had  anticipated  this  French  movement,  and 
had  designed  a  westward  enveloping  movement  of  their  own. 
Whether  this  be  so,  or  fear  for  their  homeward  roads  was 
the  first  motive,  a  large  displacement  of  troops  at  once  took 
place.  French  Lorraine  was  almost  wholly  abandoned. 
The  forces  in  Alsace  were  reduced.     A  southward  advance 


268  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

from  Belgium  was  started ;  and  the  line  of  the  Aisne  was 
thinned  by  the  gradual  shifting  westward  of  Von  Biilow's, 
the  Duke  of  Wurtemberg's,  and  the  Crown  Prince  of  Ba- 
varia's commands.  From  September  21  to  the  end  of  the 
month,  efforts  to  break  through  between  Castelnau's  right 
and  Maunoury's  left,  just  west  of  Noyon,  led  to  fighting  of 
a  sustained  and  desperate  violence,  a  glimpse  of  which  will 
be  found  in  the  story  of  the  action  at  Tracy-le-Mont  quoted 
in  our  final  chapter.  On  September  29,  the  Germans  had 
seized  Lassigny  and  Chaulnes,  but  the  French  held  firm  at 
Roye — midway  between  these  towns — and  at  Ribe"court  on 
the  Oise.  The  blow  at  Tergnier  had  failed.  And  now  be- 
gan what  was  afterwards  called  "  the  race  for  the  sea  " — the 
reciprocal  extension  of  the  lines  toward  the  north  until,  on 
the  Belgian  coast,  no  possibility  of  envelopment  remained. 
By  September  30,  General  Joffre  had  constituted  a  new 
army  under  General  Maud'huy,  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
of  his  assistants.  This  occupied  the  region  of  Arras  and 
Lens,  maintaining  a  frail  connection  with  the  garrison  of 
Dunkirk  and  a  body  of  Territorials  still  holding  Lille.  On 
October  2,  fighting  was  reported  as  far  north  as  Arras;  on 
the  7th,  the  French  bulletin  noted  that  "  the  opposed  front 
extends  as  far  as  the  neighborhood  of  Lens — La  Bass6e,  pro- 
longed by  masses  of  cavalry  which  are  engaged  as  far  as 
the  district  of  Armentieres " ;  and  on  the  8th  that  "  the 
cavalry  operations  are  now  developing  almost  as  far  as  the 
North  Sea  coast." 

II.     From  Amiens  to  Lille 

Before  we  trace  further  this  great  displacement  of  the 
axis  and  center  of  gravity  of  the  campaign,  a  more  particu- 
lar reference  should  be  made  to  the  experience  of  the  larger 
town  of  north-west  France  between  the  retreat  to  the 
Marne  and  the  battles  of  Flanders.  It  will  be  remembered 
that,  during  the  retreat,  the  French  and  British  western 


THE  NORTH-WEST  TURN  269 

wing  stood  fast  for  a  moment  at  Cambrai,  then  again  on  the 
line  Bapaunie-Cornbles-Peronne.  Next,  the  invaders  were 
arrested  for  two  days  on  the  Somme  between  Amiens  and 
Peronne,  the  Allies  holding  a  strong  position  behind  the 
marshes  through  which  the  river  here  flows.  The  two  vil- 
lages of  Proyart  and  Framerville  were  the  centers  of  the 
subsequent  engagement,  and  were  reduced  to  ruins.  Pe- 
ronne was  reached  by  the  Germans,  victorious  at  Bapaume 
and  the  neighboring  village  of  Moislains,  on  the  afternoon 
of  August  25.  For  an  hour  or  so,  they  were  stopped  by  a 
body  of  Dragoons  and  Alpine  Chasseurs.  Their  batteries 
in  the  woods  of  Racogne,  overlooking  Peronne  on  the  east, 
on  the  left  bank  of  the  Somme,  bombarded  the  French 
positions  on  the  opposite  bank  and  in  the  suburb  of  Bretagne, 
where  many  houses  and  several  neighboring  farms  were  de- 
stroyed. As  the  German  troops  entered  the  town,  they 
fired  into  the  house-windows,  apparently  to  intimidate  the 
inhabitants.  The  civil  authorities  had  fled ;  the  Germans 
therefore  burned  down  the  town  hall  and  other  public  build- 
ings, using  petrol  sprays  and  grenades  for  the  purpose. 
The  whole  of  the  Grand  Place  would  have  been  destroyed 
but  for  the  intervention  of  a  courageous  priest,  Canon 
Caron,  who,  with  other  leading  citizens,  formed  an  adminis- 
trative committee.  Four  hostages  were  also  taken,  but  were 
released  a  few  days  later.  All  uninhabited  houses  and 
closed  shops  were  broken  open  and  sacked.  On  September 
5  the  major  directing  the  German  ambulance  ordered  the 
removal  to  Amiens  of  a  large  number  of  French  wounded 
remaining  in  Pe"ronne.  The  Red  Cross  accordingly  sent 
twenty  motor-cars  from  Amiens,  and  the  doctors  and  nurses 
were  preparing  to  return  with  their  convoy,  when  Colonel 
von  Kosser,  the  military  commandant,  ordered  their  arrest 
and  the  confiscation  of  the  cars.  For  two  days  they  were 
detained  in  the  Peronne  barracks;  they  were  then  released, 
after  another  four  hostages  had  been  taken  in  their  place, 
but  they  had  to  walk  to  Amiens.     From  the  7th  to  the  14th, 


270  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

the  hostages  remained  under  arrest.  On  the  latter  day, 
the  German  retirement  began.  A  German  ambulance  was 
left  behind ;  and  as  some  of  the  nurses  were  armed  with  re- 
volvers they  were  arrested  on  the  arrival  of  tbe  French 
troops.  On  and  after  the  15th,  the  Germans  tried  to  re- 
take the  town,  but  without  success. 

The  first  train  for  nearly  a  month  reached  Amiens  from 
Paris  on  September  26.  During  this  period  the  inhabit- 
ants had  been  practically  isolated,  hearing  no  news,  having 
no  postal  or  telegraphic  communications,  and  practically  no 
newspapers.  Those  who  had  fled  now  returned,  and  the 
city  began  to  resume  its  normal  aspect.  It  was  on  the  night 
of  August  30  that  the  approach  of  the  enemy  was  signaled — 
after  the  battles  of  Bapaume  and  Proyart.  On  the  31st, 
they  appeared;  but  the  German  Staff  and  most  of  the 
troops  were  left  on  the  hills  beyond  the  Somme,  at  the  end 
of  the  Beauville  boulevard.  A  lieutenant  with  fifty  men 
came  to  the  town  hall,  and  found  there  the  venerable 
Mayor,  Senator  Fiquet,  who  was  seventy-three  years  old. 
The  German  flag  having  been  hoisted,  M.  Fiquet  and  his  col- 
leagues were  taken  to  the  commandant  of  the  corps  of  occu- 
pation, Von  Stockhausen,  who  announced  that  the  ransom 
of  the  city  was  fixed  at  1,000,000  francs  (£40,000)  to  be  paid 
in  money  or  kind.  If  this  were  found  and  no  harm  were 
done  to  German  soldiers,  the  city  would  not  suffer  any  other 
penalty;  otherwise  it  would  be  bombarded.  The  requisi- 
tions in  kind  amounted  to  a  value  of  about  £34,000;  the 
rest  was  to  be  paid  in  money.  M.  Fiquet  found  the  money ; 
but  his  colleague,  M.  Francfort,  an  Amiens  merchant,  had 
great  difficulty  in  getting  together  the  various  goods  de- 
manded— cigars,  horses,  petrol,  bread,  wine,  etc.  He  asked 
for  a  short  delay.  Von  Stockhausen  then  demanded  twelve 
hostages — the  Mayor  and  eleven  town  councilors  and  the 
Procureur-General,  M.  Regnault,  volunteering,  was  added 
as  a  thirteenth.  By  way  of  stimulus,  40,000  troops  were 
brought  into  the  city,  only  3,000  of  whom,  however,  re- 


THE  NORTH-AVEST  TURN  271 

mained.  One  of  the  requisitions  that  could  not  be  met  was 
for  20,000  electric  pocket-lamps.  The  commandant  conde- 
scended to  receive  20,000  francs  instead.  The  hostages  were 
then  released ;  and  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  only  building 
in  the  city  that  was  damaged  was  the  post-office,  where  the 
telegraphic  and  telephonic  instruments  and  cables  were 
completely  destroyed.  But  one  morning  all  the  men  of  the 
town  liable  to  mobilization  were  summoned  to  the  military 
headquarters,  where  1,200  of  them  were  arrested  and  sent 
to  Cambrai.  Some  escaped  on  the  way;  but  most  of  them 
remained  prisoners  of  the  German  army.  A  regular  pro- 
cedure of  the  invasion  was  to  carry  off  able-bodied  civilians, 
and  set  them  to  digging  trenches,  mending  roads,  and  other 
hard  labor.  On  the  morning  of  September  11,  the  troops 
left  the  city,  and  others,  in  full  flight  from  the  battle  of  the 
Marne,  followed  them.  Then  the  French  arrived,  and  the 
citizens  who  remained  hailed  them  with  cries  of  joy. 

A  month  passed,  the  Germans  gradually  concentrating 
toward  the  east.  Then  the  northward  movement  of  the 
left  wing  of  the  French  began  from  Lassigny  and  Noyon, 
soon  extending  for  ninety  miles  due  north  from  Roye  to 
Armentieres.  There  followed  a  series  of  destructive 
struggles  in  which  the  little  towns  of  Albert  and  Pe'ronne 
and  many  villages  were  repeatedly  taken  and  lost.  Well 
named  Santerre — not  holy  land,  but  land  of  blood — this  flat 
region  about  the  middle  course  of  the  Somme  has  been  hor- 
ribly ravaged.  It  was  a  country  of  large  farms,  much  occu- 
pied with  the  growing  of  beetroot,  and  the  manufacture  of 
spirits  and  sugar.  Not  only  were  many  distilleries  and 
sugar  factories  destroyed  by  shell-fire ;  but  at  Roye,  Lihons, 
and  other  places  the  churches  and  public  buildings,  as  well 
as  many  houses,  were  bombarded,  with  grievous  results. 
Albert  is  important  as  a  junction  of  the  highroads  and 
railways  between  Amiens,  Arras,  and  Cambrai,  and  be- 
tween Doullens,  Peronne,  and  St.  Quentin,  as  well  as  be- 
cause it  covers  the  passages  of  the  Somme.     On  his  march 


m  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

toward  Paris  at  the  end  of  August,  Von  Kluck  had  sent  a 
column  as  far  as  Poix,  twenty  miles  to  the  south-west  of 
Amiens  on  the  Rouen  road.  On  September  13,  Amiens  was 
abandoned;  and  the  German  front  was  then  defined  by  the 
line  Roye-Lassigny-Albert.  These  three  places  were  soon 
little  more  than  names,  masses  of  smoking  ruins  showing 
where  busy  communities  lately  flourished. 

In  turn,  Arras  became  the  point  of  special  pressure.  It 
had  been  occupied  by  the  Germans  up  to  the  middle  of  Sep- 
tember and  then  evacuated,  not  very  much  damage  having 
been  done  to  the  quaint  old  city.  During  the  latter  part 
of  the  month  Douai,  which  cuts  the  Lille-Cambrai  railroad, 
was  occupied  by  a  French  Territorial  detachment,  and 
patrols  were  sent  out  as  far  as  Somain  and  Aniche,  eight 
miles  to  the  eastward,  to  attack  bodies  of  the  enemy.  This 
led  to  reprisals;  and,  on  September  30  and  October  1,  feel- 
ing their  lines  of  communication  threatened,  the  Germans, 
sending  forward  a  dirigible  and  two  aeroplanes  to  scout, 
attacked  Douai  with  infantry  and  artillery.  On  the  former 
day,  the  French  held  their  own  at  Lewarde  and  Auber- 
chicourt.  During  the  night  the  enemy  was  re-enforced ;  but 
still  the  French  stood  their  ground.  On  the  afternoon  of 
Thursday,  October  1,  however,  Douai  had  to  be  abandoned. 
Meanwhile,  feeling  themselves  threatened  toward  Cambrai, 
the  heart  of  their  western  line,  the  Germans  had  brought 
up  new  bodies  of  troops,  both  from  the  north-east  and  the 
south-west,  against  Arras.  The  town  was  already  occupied 
by  French  troops  of  all  arms,  and,  as  an  important  center  of 
roads  and  railways,  it  became  the  base  of  Maud'huy's  at- 
tempt to  hold  out  a  helping  hand  toward  Lille.  On  October 
1  the  German  artillery  came  up  from  Douai,  Vitry-en-Artois, 
and  Cambrai,  and  heavy  fire  was  exchanged  along  the  sur- 
rounding hills.  Evidently  the  enemy  was  in  much  stronger 
numbers ;  and  on  the  2nd  and  3rd,  although  re-enforcements 
had  arrived,  it  was  thought  well  to  retire  behind  the  town, 
men  liable  to  mobilization  being  first  warned  to  leave  lest 


THE  NORTH-WEST  TURN  273 

they  should  be  made  prisoners.  This  was  the  signal  for  a 
pitiful  exodus  to  the  coast.  On  the  6th  and  7th,  the  town 
was  bombarded  from  the  hills,  the  splendid  Hotel  de 
Ville,  dating  from  1501,  the  Cathedral,  and  many  houses 
being  much  damaged.  Arras  remained  to  the  French ;  but 
in  a  later  cannonade  the  town  hall,  with  its  superb  clock- 
tower,  was  destroyed,  and  a  large  part  of  the  town  reduced 
to  ruins.  On  October  31,  a  large  German  force,  including 
a  detachment  of  the  Prussian  Guard,  was  allowed  to  enter 
the  suburbs  of  the  town,  where  a  trap  had  been  prepared. 
A  Guard  battalion  surrendered,  and  a  military  train  con- 
taining one  of  the  famous  42-cm.  siege  mortars  was  captured. 
Already  this  second  phase  of  the  desperate  struggle  of  the 
Germans  to  release  themselves  from  the  western  grip  had 
become  merged— under  pressure  of  the  resolve  of  the  French 
to  move  onward — in  a  third  phase,  the  scene  of  which  lay 
still  further  north,  in  the  Black  Country  of  the  Franco- 
Belgian  frontier.  This  is  a  very  different  region,  a  flat, 
gloomy  land,  with  few  trees,  broken  by  coal-mines,  canals, 
and  a  thick  network  of  railways.  Midway  between  Lille, 
its  capital,  and  Arras  lies  Courrieres,  the  scene  of  one  of 
the  most  terrible  of  colliery  explosions,  the  suffering  of 
which,  it  is  odd  to  recall,  was  relieved  by  expert  aid  from 
Germany.  A  little  later,  in  190G,  Lens,  which  stands  just 
to  the  west,  was  the  scene  of  another  tragedy,  when  some 
strikers  were  shot  down  by  the  troops.  Strikers  and 
troops,  in  this  day  of  the  French-British-Belgian  alliance, 
were  the  best  of  friends.  La  Bassee,  to  the  north  of  Lens, 
is  a  pretty  town  on  the  Aire  Canal.  A  few  miles  further 
north,  again,  are  Armentieres  and  Lille.  On  Saturday,  Oc- 
tober 3,  German  patrols  were  reported  on  the  outskirts  of 
Lille,  which  had  so  far  suffered  but  little  from  the  invasion. 
The  Mayor,  M.  Delesalle,  at  once  distributed  a  notice  warn- 
ing the  inhabitants  to  keep  cool,  not  to  gather  in  numbers, 
and  to  give  no  provocation.  At  midday  on  the  4th,  rifle 
firing  was  heard  near  the  station  in  the  suburb  of  Fives;  and 


274  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

during  the  afternoon  some  shells  were  thrown  into  the 
town,  one  striking  the  Hotel  de  Ville.  They  came,  in  fact, 
from  a  new  German  force  advancing  southward  from  Bel- 
gium. It  turned  out  that,  during  tbe  morning,  an  armored 
train  bringing  300  Uhlans  had  entered  the  town.  But  an 
enterprising  railway  employee  had  switched  the  train  into  a 
siding,  and  here  the  French  attacked  it.  The  German  soldiers, 
thus  surprised,  took  refuge  in  neighboring  houses  and  work- 
shops. Most  of  them  were  captured  on  the  following  morn- 
ing. Another  attempt  to  seize  the  town,  made  by  about 
3,000  infantry,  entering  on  the  other  side  from  Tourcoing, 
was  repelled  by  the  French.  On  the  same  day,  a  body  of 
German  troops  attempting  to  cross  from  the  Belgian  to  the 
French  side  of  the  River  Lys,  between  Armentieres  and 
Warneton,  was  repelled,  and  retired  toward  Tournai.  The 
fighting  continued  on  the  5th,  when  large  numbers  of  Ger- 
man troops  passed  around  the  city  to  the  south. 

On  the  6th,  the  cannonade  continued  all  day  on  the  west 
of  Lille,  in  the  direction  of  La  Bassee.  A  regiment  of 
French  "  Terriers  "  captured  two  cannon,  after  killing  all 
the  soldiers  serving  them.  On  the  evening  of  Saturday, 
October  10,  a  company  of  Uhlans  entered  Lille.  They  were 
received  with  rifle  shots,  and  several  were  dismounted.  The 
others  went  to  the  town  hall  and,  in  a  furious  temper, 
arrested  the  Mayor,  M.  Delesalle,  and  several  other  citizens, 
whom  ,they  promised  to  hold  as  hostages.  In  the  nick  of 
time  some  French  Chasseurs  came  up,  set  the  prisoners  free, 
and  pursued  the  Uhlans  along  the  Rue  Nationale.  Directly 
afterward,  evidently  in  revenge  for  this  insult,  the  town 
was  bombarded  by  German  batteries  posted  near.  The  first 
shell  struck  the  roof  of  the  town  hall.  A  rain  of  shrapnel 
followed.  Early  on  the  morning  of  Sunday,  the  11th,  the 
bombardment  was  resumed;  it  continued  until  noon,  then 
ceased,  began  again  in  the  evening,  and  continued  all  that 
night.  At  several  parts  of  the  town  buildings  took  fire. 
There  was  a  further  bombardment  on  the  12th,  and  an  in- 


THE  NORTH-WEST  TURN  275 

fantry  attack  began  which  the  Territorials  resisted  for  a 
time.  Then  they  withdrew.  On  Tuesday,  the  13th,  to  save 
further  destruction,  the  city  was  surrendered ;  and  the  Ger- 
man troops,  some  of  whom  had  marched  over  100  miles  in 
five  days,  entered  with  bands  playing.  By  this  time,  a 
large  part  of  the  best  quarter  of  the  capital  of  French 
Flanders  was  in  ruins,  many  large  commercial  buildings  and 
private  houses  having  huge  rents  torn  in  their  fagades,  and 
being  then  gutted  by  the  flames.  The  Rue  Faidherbe,  Rue 
de  Paris,  Rue  de  Be'thune,  and  Rue  de  l'Hopital  Militaire 
were  particularly  damaged.  The  fire  was  quickly  arrested, 
and  the  normal  processes  of  German  rule  were  established. 
The  loss  of  life  had  been  very  small;  yet  this  last  week's 
resistance  of  Lille  had  vitally  aided  the  Allies.  It  helped 
to  conceal  the  western  movements,  and  by  diverting  a  con- 
siderable German  force  enabled  the  French  and  British 
troops  to  take  up,  just  in  time,  the  line  of  the  Yser. 

III.     The  Fall  op  Antwerp 

The  comparative  neglect  of  the  great  port,  city,  and  forti- 
fied position  of  Antwerp  both  by  the  German  high  command 
and  by  the  major  Allies  up  to  the  end  of  September,  and 
the  plans  for  the  attack  upon  and  defense  of  the  city,  have 
been  so  little  explained,  and  are  so  much  open  on  both  sides 
to  criticisms  which  may  be  quite  undeserved,  that  we  shall 
be  content  with  a  brief  narrative  of  these  events.  It  seems 
probable  that  the  French  and  British  commanders  hoped  to 
occupy  and  hold  north-western  Belgium;  that  the  assault 
upon  Antwerp  came  before  they  expected  it;  and  that,  in 
face  of  large  new  German  re-enforcements,  they  abandoned 
the  design;  while  the  German  Staff  deliberately  left  the 
towns  between  Antwerp  and  the  coast  open,  to  tempt  the 
Allies  into  a  dangerous  extension  of  their  already  very 
frail  lines.  General  von  Beseler  does  not  seem  to  have  had 
more  than  100,000  troops  available  against  Antwerp.  The 
slackness  with  which  he  completed  his  victory  is  in  very 


276 


TOWARD  DEADLOCK 


marked  contrast  with  the  speed  and  power  shown  in  the 
first  stages  of  the  war,  and  still  shown  by  Von  Kluck  and 
Von  Bulow  further  south.  To  this  slackness,  as  well  as 
their  own  energy  and  courage,  the  six  Belgian  divisions 
under  General  de  Guise  and  the  little  British  force  under 
General  Paris  owed  their  survival.     On  the  other  hand,  it 


, 12   3  4    5 

MILES 


roads        railways 

The  Siege  of  Antwerp. 


must  be  placed  to  the  credit  of  Von  Beseler — as  well  as  the 
vigilant  activity  of  the  representatives  of  the  United  States 
— that  the  beautiful  city  on  the  Scheldt  did  not  share  the 
fate  of  Louvain. 

The  first  German  approach  was  by  the  south-west;  but, 
after  repulses  at  Audeghem  and  Lebbekke,  villages  on  the 
south-west  and  south-east  of  Termonde,  on  September  26 
and  27,  the  western  roads  to  Antwerp  were  left  strangely 
free  for  movements  of  the  Allies.     On  the  following  day, 


THE  NORTH-WEST  TURN  277 

Malines  having  been  once  more  bombarded,  the  direct  ad- 
vance upon  the  Scheldt  from  the  south  and  south-east  be- 
gan. The  outer  defense  works  here  extended  at  a  distance 
of  about  nine  miles  from  the  city  along  a  crescent  formed 
by  the  rivers  Scheldt,  Ruppel,  and  Methe,  and  included 
eight  large  forts,  from  that  of  Bornem  on  the  west,  through 
Waelhem  and  Wavre  Ste.  Catherine  (covering  the  Malines 
road),  to  that  of  Lierre,  before  the  small  town  of  the  same 
name.  The  riversides  were  intrenched,  and  the  roads 
blocked.  There  was  an  inner  ring  of  forts,  two  or  three 
miles  outside  the  boundaries  of  Antwerp;  but  their  guns 
had  not  the  range  for  offense,  and  their  position  made  them 
useless  for  sustained  defense,  since  the  city  could  be  re- 
duced to  ashes  before  they  were  reached. 

The  Belgians  used  their  field-guns  well,  and  held  their  po- 
sitions in  the  villages  and  river  trenches  despite  a  terrific 
cannonade.  The  fort  of  Wavre  Ste.  Catherine  was  put  out 
of  action,  after  twenty-four  hours  of  continuous  shell-fire, 
however,  many  of  the  garrison  being  killed  by  the  explosion 
of  the  magazine;  and  on  the  night  of  October  1  that  of 
Waelhem  was  little  more  than  a  heap  of  debris.  No  less 
serious  than  the  loss  of  a  fort  (if  a  long  resistance  had 
been  contemplated)  was  the  destruction  by  shell-fire  of  a 
great  reservoir  giving  the  chief  water  supply  of  the  city. 
On  October  2,  the  defending  troops  were  withdrawn  behind 
the  Nethe;  and  the  flight  of  the  wealthier  inhabitants  of 
Antwerp,  including  the  British  and  French  colonies,  began. 
On  the  following  evening,  the  first  part  of  the  British  force, 
consisting  of  a  Marine  Brigade  of  2,200  men,  reached  Ant- 
werp. It  was  followed  on  the  afternoon  of  October  5  by 
two  Naval  brigades,  with  six  heavy  naval  guns,  two  of 
which  served  on  an  armored  train  and  were  afterward 
brought  south.  The  Belgian  Government  had  asked  for  Brit- 
ish aid;  and  rumor  so  multiplied  these  8,000  men  that  the 
Anversois  could  hardly  contain  themselves  for  joy  and  con- 
fidence.   General  de  Guise  knew  it  was  too  late.    Mr.  Win- 


278  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

ston  Churchill,  when  he  stood  with  Jack  Tar  in  the  trenches, 
knew  it,  as  he  probably  had  done  when  they  were  sent;  but 
he  knew,  also,  that  the  detention  of  a  German  army  on  the 
Scheldt  might  save  the  position  in  southern  Flanders,  while 
British  aid  would  greatly  fortify  the  morale  of  the  Belgian 
troops.  He  afterward  stated  that  "  the  Naval  Division  was 
sent  to  Antwerp  not  as  an  isolated  incident,  but  as  part  of 
a  large  operation  for  the  relief  of  the  city  which  more  pow- 
erful considerations  prevented  from  being  carried  through." 
The  First  Lord  explained  that  the  Naval  brigades— largely 
consisting  of  new  recruits,  imperfectly  equipped — were 
chosen  because  the  need  was  urgent  and  bitter;  because 
mobile  troops  could  not  be  spared  for  fortress  duties;  be- 
cause they  were  nearest,  and  could  be  embarked  the  quick- 
est ;  and  because  their  training,  although  incomplete,  was  as 
far  advanced  as  that  of  a  large  portion  not  only  of  the 
forces  defending  Antwerp,  but  of  the  enemy  forces  attack- 
ing." 

Repeated  attempts  to  make  the  river-crossing  at  Wael- 
hem  and  Lierre,  on  the  nights  of  October  3,  4,  and  5,  were 
defeated  with  heavy  loss;  but,  at  dawn  on  the  6th,  the  Bel- 
gian line  was  forced  by  a  concentration  of  artillery  and  in- 
fantry attack.  The  British  marines  about  Lierre  and  the 
whole  of  the  Belgian  troops  were  then  drawn  back  to  the 
inner  forts  for  a  final  stand,  in  order  to  cover  the  retreat, 
and  the  flight  of  the  civil  population.  That  night,  the  with- 
drawal of  the  army  commenced.  Admirably  covered  by 
cavalry,  armored  motor-cars,  and  cyclist  corps,  it  moved  out 
by  the  narrow  strip  of  territory  between  the  Scheldt  and 
Dutch  Zealand,  toward  Ghent  and  Ostend,  the  Belgian  and 
British  trenches  on  the  south  of  the  city  keeping  up  a  full 
show  of  resistance.  In  the  morning,  the  Government  and 
diplomatic  corps  left;  the  great  oil-tanks  on  the  Scheldt 
were  blown  up ;  and  the  machinery  of  many  ships  in  harbor 
was  disabled.  The  northern  and  western  roads  were 
now  black  with  scores  of  thousands  of  people  from  Ant- 


THE  NORTH-WEST  TURN  279 

werp  and  the  country  around,  flying  to  the  sea  and  the 
Dutch  frontier.  Von  Beseler's  left  wing  was  now  crossing 
the  Scheldt  between  Wetteren  and  Termonde;  it  would 
have  gone  very  ill  with  the  mingled  masses  of  retreating 
soldiers  and  civil  refugees  had  he  boldly  and  immediately 
thrown  his  left  wing  forward  to  St.  Nicholas  and  Lokeren. 
A  light  bombardment  of  Antwerp  began  late  at  night  on 
October  7.  It  is  thought  that  500,000  people  left  on  the 
following  day,  the  greater  part  to  cast  themselves  upon  the 
splendidly  generous  hospitality  of  the  Dutch,  many  thou- 
sands to  reach  England,  where  homes  were  found  for  them. 
Amid  this  confusion,  General  de  Guise's  troops  and  most 
of  the  British  contingent  abandoned  the  forts  and  trenches, 
cut  the  Scheldt  pontoon  bridge  behind  them,  and  passed 
westward,  successfully  beating  off  flank  and  rear  attacks. 
Unfortunately,  three  battalions  of  the  1st  British  Naval 
Brigade  did  not  receive  the  orders  to  retire;  and,  ultimately, 
finding  the  Germans  in  possession  of  Lokeren  and  reaching 
near  to  St.  Nicholas,  they  either  crossed  the  Dutch  frontier 
and  were  interned,  or  were  captured.  Beside  this  loss  of 
about  2,500  men,  a  considerably  larger  number  of  Belgian 
soldiers  gave  themselves  up  to  the  Dutch  frontier  guards. 

Antwerp  formally  surrendered  at  noon  on  October  9. 
Perhaps  the  German  troops  were  exhausted;  at  any  rate, 
not  until  the  12th  were  they  ready  to  occupy  Ghent,  the 
13th  Bruges,  and  the  15th  Ostend.  At  length,  they  saw  the 
narrow  sea  that  protects  perfidious  Albion.  The  Allies  had 
decided  to  defend  the  coast  along  the  course  of  the  Yser. 
Part  of  the  4th  British  Corps — the  7th  Infantry  Division 
and  the  3rd  Cavalry  Division — under  Sir  Henry  Rawlin- 
son,  had  been  landed  at  Ostend  and  Zeebrugge  without  inter- 
ference, and  had  advanced  eastward  to  cover  the  Belgian- 
British  retreat  to  the  south.  At  Ghent,  it  found  a  garrison 
of  eight  squadrons  of  cavalry,  a  mixed  brigade,  a  brigade 
of  volunteers,  and  two  line  regiments,  all  of  much  reduced 
effectives,  under  General  Clothen.     Here  also,  on  the  even- 


280  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

ing  of  October  8,  it  met  Admiral  Ronarc'h's  brigade  of 
French  Marine  Fusiliers,  6,000  strong,  which  had  been 
rushed  north  on  the  same  errand.  This  force,  which  was  to 
play  so  remarkable  a  part  in  the  next  stage  of  the  struggle, 
had  been  hurriedly  organized  in  Paris,  Creil,  and  Amiens, 
and  only  started  north  on  the  morning  of  October  7.  Con- 
sisting for  the  most  part  of  Breton  naval  reservists  and  re- 
cruits who  had  not  the  least  experience  of  land  warfare,  its 
employment  in  such  critical  circumstances  was  a  bold  ex- 
periment. But,  under  a  chief  who  was  to  prove  himself 
one  of  the  notable  figures  of  the  war — a  big,  broad-shoul- 
dered man,  cool  till  the  volcanic  moment  comes,  obstinate, 
yet  with  reflection  sitting  in  the  eyes  of  Celtic  blue — these 
sons  of  the  sea,  boys  and  gray-beards,  proved  themselves 
equal  to  the  best  soldiers  in  Europe.  "  The  girls  with  the 
red  pompon,"  the  Germans  called  them.  But  that  was  be- 
fore the  battle  of  Dixmude. 

The  retreat  from  Antwerp,  though  we  cannot  dwell  upon 
the  story,  is  not  unworthy  of  comparison,  except  that  it 
was  on  a  much  smaller  scale,  with  the  retreat  from  Mons 
and  Charleroi.  The  first  stand  was  made,  on  October  9, 
10,  and  11,  in  the  villages  around  the  east  and  south  of 
Ghent,  when  45,000  German  troops  were  held  at  bay,  the 
French  Marine  brigade  acting  under  Major-General  Capper, 
commanding  the  British  7th  Division.  It  was  then  decided 
to  retire  westward  to  Aeltre,  on  the  way  to  Bruges;  and 
the  twenty-six  miles'  march  was  done  during  the  night, 
under  a  wintry  moon,  the  British  force  covering  the  rear. 
After  a  short  rest,  a  south-east  turn  was  made,  and  Thielt 
was  reached  on  the  following  evening.  It  is  stated  that 
the  Mayor  of  one  of  the  neighboring  towns  misdirected  the 
pursuers;  the  bold  lie  cost  him  his  life,  but  gave  the  tired 
troops  the  first  good  night's  sleep  they  had  had  for  some 
days.  On  the  13th,  they  reached  Thourout.  Here  Sir  Henry 
Rawlinson's  division  passed  southward  for  Roulers  and 
Ypres;  while  Admiral  Ronarc'h's  men  and  the  Ghent  force 


THE  NORTH-WEST  TURN  281 

joined  the  main  body  of  Belgian  troops,  which  had  come 
southward  through  Bruges  to  the  Yser.  King  Albert  at 
once  rejoined  his  army,  helped  in  its  reorganization  between 
Calais  and  Nieuport,  and  thereafter  stayed  with  it,  Queen 
Elizabeth  giving  such  aid  as  a  woman  may. 


CHAPTER  XXII 
THE  BATTLES  OF  FLANDERS 

I.     The  "  Race  for  the  Sea  " 

During  this  time,  by  a  triumph,  of  transport  organiza- 
tion, the  main  British  army  was  taken  round  from  the  Aisne 
to  the  north-west.  The  convenience  of  such  a  movement  has 
already  been  indicated.  "  Early  in  October,"  says  Sir  John 
French,  "  a  study  of  the  general  situation  strongly  impressed 
me  with  the  necessity  of  bringing  the  greatest  possible  force 
to  bear  in  support  of  the  northern  flank  of  the  Allies  " ; 
and,  as  there  was  no  more  danger  on  the  Aisne,  General 
Joffre  readily  agreed  to  the  transfer.  Instead  of  British 
reliefs,  French  infantrymen  from  the  neighboring  armies 
crept  into  the  trenches  below  the  Chemin  des  Dames;  and, 
one  by  one,  the  three  British  corps,  the  cavalry,  and  their 
various  supports  left  the  hillsides  where  a  thousand  or  more 
of  their  bravest  fellows  lay  buried.  On  October  3,  General 
Gough's  cavalry  division  marched  for  Compiegne,  leading 
the  way;  and  by  the  19th,  by  train  and  motor-bus  and  taxi- 
cab,  the  whole  force  had  reached  the  Black  Country  near 
the  Belgian  border.  These  were,  indeed,  exciting  days  on 
the  great  north  road  that  passes  through  Amiens,  Doullens, 
St.  Pol,  and  Hazebrouck,  to  Calais,  Dunkirk,  and  Ypres, 
for  re-enforcements  were  being  brought  up  simultaneously 
for  the  armies  of  De  Castelnau  and  Maud'huy;  and  still 
another  French  army  was  gathering,  under  General  d'Urbal, 
which,  with  the  British  and  Belgians,  was  to  hold  the  pass 
from  Ypres  to  the  sea.  In  order  to  co-ordinate  the  move- 
ments of  this  large  tri-national  combination,  General  Joffre 

282 


THE  BATTLES  OF  FLANDERS  283 

sent  the  victor  of  the  center  in  the  battle  of  the  Marne, 
General  Foch,  who  as  Generalissimo  of  the  French  northern 
armies  established  his  headquarters,  on  October  3,  at  Doul- 
lens.  Here  he  was  visited  on  the  8th  by  Sir  John  French; 
and  the  two  commanders  "  arranged  joint  plans  of  opera- 
tions." 

Before  tracing  the  development  of  these  operations,  it 
will  be  well  to  obtain  a  clear  impression  of  the  alignment  of 
forces,  as  it  was  completed  during  October,  in  this  new 
field  between  the  Aisne  and  the  North  Sea.  They  fall  into 
four  zones : 

(1)  Compiegne-Peronne. — Here  we  have  seen  General 
Maunoury's  left  extended  into  the  angle  between  the  Aisne 
and  Oise,  connecting  with  General  de  Castelnau's  army. 
This  was  holding  the  first  northern  positions  from  Las- 
signy  to  Pe"ronne,  being  prolonged  by  General  Brugere's 
Territorial  units  as  far  as  Albert.  Early  in  October,  the 
French  offensive  directed  against  the  critical  point  of  the 
German  line  of  communications  at  Tergnier  Junction  and 
St.  Quentin  had  failed.  It  was  followed  by  a  German 
attempt  to  break  through  the  corner  of  the  French  line 
which,  in  turn,  failed  no  less  signally.  Here  an  intrenched 
deadlock  similar  to  that  of  the  Aisne  and  the  eastern  fron- 
tier was  now  being  reached. 

(2)  Arras-Armentieres. — The  main  body  of  General 
Maud'huy's  army  reached  from  Arras  toward  Lens  and  La 
Bassde,  with  the  hope  of  relieving  Lille.  This  offensive  had 
also  failed  of  its  immediate  object.  By  the  end  of  the  first 
week  in  October,  the  Germans  were  in  force  from  Cambrai 
northward,  through  Douai,  to  the  east  of  Lens,  and  were 
moving  up  the  right  bank  of  the  Lys  from  Tourcoing  to 
Armentieres.  We  have  seen  that  Lille  fell  to  them  on  Oc- 
tober 13.  The  joint  plan  of  General  Foch  and  Field-Marshal 
French  was  made,  on  the  8th,  in  the  hope  of  better  for- 
tune. The  British  2nd  Army  Corps,  with  the  British  and 
French  cavalry  on  its  northern  flank,  was  to  connect  with 


284 


TOWARD  DEADLOCK 


OSTENOg^ 


LENS 


Maud'huy's  left,  and  there  was  then  to  be  a  general  east- 
ward advance,  the  British  right  being  directed  on  Lille. 
When  the  3rd  and  1st  Corps  arrived  on  the  northern  front, 
they  were  to  co-operate  in  this  movement.  Sir  Henry  Raw- 
linson's  Division  was  for  the  present  to  support  the  Bel- 
gian army,  and  a  thin  line,  chiefly  of  cavalry,  was  to  act 

between    the    Yser 

and  the  Lys.  We 
shall  see  how,  in 
this  region,  the 
course  of  events 
converted  the  in- 
tended battle  of 
Lille  into  the  bat- 
tle of  the  Lys. 

(3)  Ypres. — The 
fall  of  Antwerp  on 
October  9,  followed 
by  the  German  oc- 
cupation of  Ghent 
on  the  12th,  Bruges 
on  the  13th,  and 
Ostend  on  the  15th, 
was  the  prelude  to 
a  swooping  attack 
of  immense  power 
upon  the  unpre- 
pared lines  of  the 
Allies  between 
Ypres  and  the  sea. 
"  The  German  Staff 
neglected  nothing 
to  turn  us.  On  the 
part  of  the  front 
extending  from  the 
Lys  to   the   sea,   it 


BRUCjSS 


■*?*>«"        GHEN' 
F  I      B^LeRS  .43, 
casseu  .      YP*ES  )  E  %*™mm 

8ethun&Bas4  ' 


The  Western  Aemies. 

O,  Belgian  Army.  F,  General  d'Urbal  (French 
"Army  of  Belgium").  E,  Field-Marshal  Sir 
John  French,  1st,  2nd,  and  3rd  Corps  (with 
French  Divisions  under  General  Bidon).  D, 
General  Maud'huy.  C,  General  Brugere.  B, 
General  de  Castelnau.    A,  General  Maunoury. 


THE  BATTLES  OF  FLANDERS  285 

threw,  from  the  beginning  of  October  to  the  beginning  of 
November,  four  corps  of  cavalry  and  four  armies  comprising 
altogether  fifteen  army  corps.  Their  heads,  the  Crown 
Prince  of  Bavaria,  General  von  Fabeck,  General  von  Deim- 
ling,  and  the  Duke  of  Wiirtemberg,  issued  to  their  troops 
appeals  and  exhortations  which  agree  in  announcing  '  a 
decisive  action  against  the  French  left.'  It  must  be  pierced 
at  Dunkirk,  or  at  Ypres.  .  .  .  Further,  the  Emperor  was 
there  to  encourage  his  soldiers  by  his  presence.  He  an- 
nounced that  he  wished  to  be  in  Ypres  on  November  1,  and 
everything  was  prepared  for  the  proclamation  on  that  date 
of  the  annexation  of  Belgium."  (Bulletin  des  Armees,  No- 
vember 25,  1914.)  The  main  weight  of  the  latter  attack  fell 
upon  the  left  wing  of  the  British  force;  and  we  shall  see,  in 
the  battle  of  Ypres,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  cases  re- 
corded in  history  of  successful  resistance  against  overwhelm- 
ing numbers. 

(4)  At  the  same  time,  the  remainder  of  the  line  of  the 
Yser  Canal  was  defended  by  the  Belgian  army  and  the  newly 
organized  French  "  Army  of  Belgium "  under  General 
d'Urbal,  which  included  Admiral  Ronarc'h's  Marine  Fu- 
siliers. The  attacks  upon  this  line  between  the  middle  of 
October  and  the  end  of  the  year  were  like  in  character  and 
aim,  and  they  may  be  collectively  regarded  as  the  Battle 
of  the  Yser. 

With  the  last  three  series  of  actions,  we  have  now  to  deal. 
They  began  with  the  Allied  armies  hastening  forward  in 
scattered  fragments  to  new  positions  that  had  for  long  lain 
behind  the  main  German  lines.  The  spirit  of  the  offensive 
in  which  this  new  front  was  taken  up  is  very  marked  in 
the  dispatches  of  Sir  John  French.  It  was  soon  checked ; 
but  as  much  ground  had  been  won  back  by  this  short  for- 
ward rush  as  by  the  battle  of  the  Marne,  and,  speaking 
broadly,  what  was  won  was  held.  At  Nieuport  and  Dix- 
mude,  at  La  Bassee,  and  at  the  outstanding  bastion  of  Ypres 
between,  the  German  aim  was  the  same:  to  cut  through  to 


286  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

the  English  Channel,  enveloping  or  piercing  and  routing 
the  Allies  on  the  way.  The  effort  made  was  gigantic.  From 
the  barracks  where  half-instructed  recruits  and  gray-headed 
reservists  were  drafted  into  the  active  line,  through  every 
stage  of  an  organization  that  still  maintained  much  of  its 
original  speed  and  exactitude,  to  the  battlefields  where, 
week  after  week,  through  failure  after  failure,  these  raw 
levies  sacrificed  themselves  in  massed  assault,  the  powers 
peculiar  to  the  Prussian  military  system  received  a  final 
demonstration.  There  is  much  to  question,  but  not  the 
bravery  of  these  thousands  of  victims.  Since  they  failed, 
however,  despite  the  advantage  of  superior — at  some  points, 
vastly  superior — numbers,  and  of  interior  lines  of  move- 
ment, we  must  conclude  that  the  Allies  possessed,  beside  a 
higher  general  inspiration,  either  greater  intelligence  in 
command  or  a  stouter  manhood  in  the  resistant  mass,  or 
both.  After  failure  on  such  a  scale,  what  hope  of  success 
could  remain  when  the  superiority  of  numbers  had  passed 
away? 

II.     The  Battle  op  the  Lys 

We  have  seen  that,  in  the  hope  of  relieving  Lille,  a  gen- 
eral advance  eastward  had  been  decided  upon,  the  British 
2nd  Corps,  under  Smith-Dorrien,  with  the  British  and 
French  Cavalry  Corps  of  Generals  Allenby  and  Conneau, 
moving  along  the  Lys  Valley,  and  the  French  forces  south- 
ward of  the  Be'thune-Lille  road.  Sir  John  French  speaks 
of  "  the  great  battle "  as  opening  with  a  cavalry  engage- 
ment amid  the  woods  to  the  north  of  the  Aire-Bethune 
Canal,  on  October  11.  But  a  party  of  forty  Bavarians  had 
made  a  raid  upon  the  station  at  Hazebrouck  (presently 
to  become  a  British  base)  on  the  8th,  killing  two  sentinels, 
a  train-driver,  two  women,  and  a  little  girl ;  and  on  the  10th, 
Conneau's  Dragoons,  having  crossed  the  Lys  from  the  north, 
between  Merville  and  Estaires,  had  dispersed  a  body  of 
Uhlans.    On  the  11th,  Smith-Dorrien's  infantry  crossed  the 


287 


288  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

Aire-Belhune  Canal,  eastward,  with  the  intention  of  pierc- 
ing the  line  of  the  Bavarian  army,  which  extended  from  the 
sharp  hill  called  the  Mont  des  Cats,  near  the  Belgian  fron- 
tier, through  Bailleul,  across  the  Lys  at  Estaires,  and  struck, 
between  Be"thune  and  La  Bassee,  southward  to  the  west  of 
Lens  and  the  east  of  Arras.  The  5th  and  3rd  Divisions  be- 
came engaged  east  of  Be'thune,  where  they  touched  General 
de  Maud'huy's  left;  and  despite  the  obstruction  of  the 
ground  with  mineheads,  factories,  and  streets  of  workmen's 
cottages,  and  its  flat  and  swampy  character,  some  progress 
was  made.  On  the  13th,  General  Smith-Dorrien  commenced 
an  attempt  to  get  astride  the  La  Basse'e-Lille  road,  and 
thence  to  strike  around  the  German  flank.  The  Dorset  regi- 
ment suffered  heavily  at  the  village  of  Pont  Fixe;  and  on 
the  following  day  the  3rd  Division  lost  its  commander,  Sir 
Hubert  Hamilton,  who  was  struck  by  a  shrapnel  bullet 
while  riding  along  the  lines.  On  the  15th,  the  Division, 
says  Sir  John  French,  "  fought  splendidly,  crossing  the  dykes 
with  which  this  country  is  intersected,  with  planks,  and 
driving  the  enemy  from  one  intrenched  position  to  another 
in  loop-holed  villages,  till  at  night  they  pushed  the  Ger- 
mans off  the  Estaires-La  Basse'e  road."  On  the  17th,  the 
villages  of  Aubers  and  Herlies  were  captured,  the  latter  at 
nightfall  by  a  bayonet  charge  of  the  Lincolns  and  the  Royal 
Fusiliers.  This  was  the  furthest  point  reached.  The  Ger- 
man 14th  Corps  and  parts  of  two  others,  with  four  Cavalry 
Divisions,  had  been  brought  north  to  protect  this  flank; 
and  for  ten  days  the  British  2nd  Corps  (re-enforced  on  the 
24th  by  the  Lahore  Division  of  Indian  troops,  and  by  the 
8th  Infantry  Brigade)  was  subjected  to  a  series  of  des- 
perate counter-attacks.  Once  the  Royal  Irish  were  cut  off 
and  surrounded  in  a  village  they  had  occupied,  losing  heav- 
ily. Once  the  Gordon  Highlanders  were  driven  out  of  their 
trenches;  these  were  recovered  by  the  Middlesex  regiment. 
On  the  21st,  the  left  wing  was  withdrawn  to  prepared  posi- 
tions; and,  thereafter,  a  line  from  Givenchy   (west  of  La 


THE  BATTLES  OF  FLANDERS  289 

Bass6e)  to  near  Laventie  was  resolutely  held.  "  This  posi- 
tion of  La  Bassee "  (as  Field-Marshal  French  wrote  six 
months  later)  "  has  throughout  the  hattle  defied  all  attempts 
at  capture  by  the  French  or  the  British." 

Further  north,  the  3rd  Army  Corps,  under  General  Pul- 
teney — Conneau's  cavalry  linking  it  with  the  2nd  Corps — 
had  advanced  down  the  roads  from  Cassel  and  Hazebrouck 
eastward,  with  the  aim  of  reaching  Wytschaete  (four  miles 
south  of  Ypres)  and  Armentieres  (where  it  would  threaten 
Lille).  The  German  4th  Cavalry  Corps  was  driven  back 
from  Meteren;  and  on  the  morning  of  the  14th,  Bailleul 
was  occupied.  Next  morning  "  in  the  face  of  considerable 
opposition  and  very  foggy  weather,"  the  left  bank  of  the 
Lys  from  Sailly  to  Armentieres  was  occupied;  and  on  the 
17th,  when  the  2nd  Corps  was  at  Aubers  and  Herlies,  the 
3rd  Corps  continued  the  line  northward  from  three  miles 
north  to  three  miles  south  of  Armentieres.  Unfortunately, 
the  2nd  Corps  could  get  no  further.  The  3rd  Corps  reached, 
on  the  18th,  through  Armentieres  into  the  western  suburbs 
of  Lille — Capinghem  and  Premesques;  then  it,  also,  had  to 
retire.  Heavy  German  re-enforcements,  delivering  a  series 
of  determined  attacks  in  which  lines  of  trenches  were  re- 
peatedly lost  and  recovered,  immediately  explain  this  fail- 
ure. The  two  corps  were  being  tried  beyond  human 
strength.  The  2nd  Corps  was  exhausted  by  very  heavy 
losses.  General  Allenby  had  taken  Warneton,  but  found 
the  lower  line  of  the  Lys  held  in  force,  and  had  been  unable 
to  establish  a  permanent  footing  on  the  east  bank.  Yet  the 
ranks  of  the  3rd  Corps  lay  across  the  river,  its  over-long 
front  of  a  dozen  miles  presenting  many  weak  spots.  "  It 
was  impossible,"  says  Sir  John  French,  "  to  provide  ade- 
quate reserves,  and  the  constant  work  in  the  trenches  tried 
the  endurance  of  officers  and  men  to  the  utmost.  That  the 
corps  was  invariably  successful  in  repulsing  the  constant 
attacks,  sometimes  in  great  strength,  made  against  them 
by  day  and  by  night,  is  due  entirely  to  the  skillful  manner 


290  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

in  which  the  corps  was  disposed.  .  .  .  The  courage,  tenac- 
ity, endurance,  and  cheerfulness  of  the  men  in  such  unpar- 
alleled circumstances  are  beyond  all  praise." 

The  conditions  had  greatly  changed  since  the  advance 
upon  Lille  was  planned.  Antwerp  had  surrendered.  The 
Belgian  army,  with  the  British  and  French  naval  brigades, 
had  drawn  back  to  the  Yser.  The  whole  of  the  German 
forces  in  Belgium  were  now  free  to  carry  out  the  programme 
of  their  Imperial  master.  Whether  the  main  blow  should 
fall  at  Dixmude  or  at  Ypres,  its  success  would  require  the 
immediate  abandonment  of  any  positions  gained  by  the  Al- 
lies across  the  Lys.  When  the  Field-Marshal  directed  General 
Rawlinson,  on  October  17,  to  march  the  7th  Division  east 
from  Ypres  to  Menin,  the  French  cavalry  to  go  north  toward 
Roulers — with  the  idea  of  cutting  the  German  communica- 
tions between  Courtrai  and  Lille — the  commander  of  the 
4th  Army  Corps  replied  that  the  whole  position  at  Ypres 
was  threatened  by  the  advance  of  large  hostile  forces  from 
the  east  and  north-east.  Sir  John  French  was  evidently  re- 
luctant to  abandon  the  Menin  passage  and  the  line  of  the 
Lys.  But  when  the  1st  Army  Corps  reached  Hazebrouck 
from  the  Aisne  on  October  19,  the  only  question  was  whether 
Ypres  or  the  east  of  the  Lys — unless,  indeed,  playing  for 
safety,  both — should  be  given  up.  The  decision  was  an  heroic 
one.  "  I  knew,"  says  the  Commander-in-Chief,  "  that  the 
enemy  were  by  this  time  in  greatly  superior  strength  on  the 
Lys,  and  that  the  2nd,  3rd,  Cavalry,  and  4th  Corps  were  hold- 
ing a  much  wider  front  than  their  numbers  and  strength  war- 
ranted. ...  To  throw  the  1st  Corps  in  to  strengthen  the 
line  would  have  left  the  country  north  and  east  of  Ypres 
and  the  Ypres  Canal  open  to  a  wide  turning  movement. 
.  .  .  After  the  hard  fighting  it  had  undergone,  the  Belgian 
army  was  in  no  condition  to  withstand,  unsupported,  such 
an  attack;  and,  unless  some  substantial  resistance  could  be 
offered  to  this  threatened  turning  movement,  the  Allied 
flank  must  be  turned,   and   the  Channel   ports   laid   bare 


THE  BATTLES  OF  FLANDERS      291 

to  the  enemy.  I  judged  that  a  successful  movement  of  this 
kind  would  be  fraught  with  such  disastrous  consequences 
that  the  risk  of  operating  on  so  extended  a  front  must  be 
undertaken ;  and  I  directed  Sir  Douglas  Haig  to  move  with 
the  1st  Corps  to  the  north  of  Ypres." 

The  withdrawal  of  the  2nd  and  3rd  Corps  to  defensive 
positions  followed  upon  this  decision;  and  the  battle  of  the 
Lys  resolved  itself,  on  the  part  of  the  Allies,  into  a  struggle 
to  hold  a  front  connecting  Ypres,  through  Armentieres,  with 
General  de  Maud'huy's  positions  before  La  Bassee  and  in 
Arras,  with  the  knowledge  that  no  considerable  re-enforce- 
ments were  possible,  and  that  failure  would  be  disastrous. 
At  the  end  of  October,  severe  attacks  were  made  all  along 
the  line  of  the  3rd  British  Corps.  During  the  night  of  the 
25th,  the  Leicestershire  regiment  was  driven  from  its 
trenches  by  shells  blowing  in  the  pit  in  which  they  were 
dug.  Four  days  later,  the  Middlesex  regiment  lost  its 
trenches  at  Croix  Marechale,  near  Fleurbaix,  in  a  midnight 
attack ;  but  they  were  recovered,  200  Germans  being  bay- 
oneted and  forty  made  prisoners.  On  the  30th,  the  line  of 
the  11th  Brigade  near  St.  Yves  (between  Neuve  Eglise  and 
Warneton)  was  broken.  It  was  restored  by  a  counter-attack 
by  the  Somerset  Light  Infantry.  The  Cavalry  Corps,  oper- 
ating further  north,  around  Messines  and  Hollebeke,  was 
incessantly  attacked.  Support  was  sent  to  Wulverghem 
from  the  7th  Indian  Infantry  Brigade ;  and  part  of  the  2nd 
Army  Corps  and  the  London  Scottish  Territorial  battalion 
were  moved  to  Neuve  Eglise.  For  forty-eight  hours,  the 
Cavalry  Corps  had  to  withstand  the  shock  of  two  nearly 
fresh  German  army  corps;  it  was  then  relieved  by  the 
French  10th  Army  Corps  and  General  Conneau's  cavalry. 
The  London  Scottish  had  particularly  distinguished  them- 
selves at  Messines  by  repeated  bayonet  charges  against 
greatly  superior  Bavarian  forces.  About  dawn  on  Sunday, 
November  1,  they  were  caught  in  a  cross-fire  of  rifles  and 
machine-guns,  and  retired  with  the  loss  of  nearly  a  third 


292  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

of  one  battalion  killed  and  wounded,  having,  as  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief afterward  said,  given  "  a  glorious  lead  and 
example "  to  other  Territorial  units.  The  Indian  troops 
also  proved  their  steadiness  in  the  strange  and  terrible 
conditions  of  western  warfare.  The  Lahore  Infantry  Divi- 
sion was  heavily  engaged  at  Neuve  Chapelle  (three  miles 
north  of  La  Bassee)  ;  Sir  John  French  mentions  particu- 
larly the  gallantry  of  the  47th  Sikhs  and  the  3rd  Sappers 
and  Miners.  After  the  arrival  of  the  Meerut  Division,  the 
Indian  Corps  took  over  the  line  previously  held  by  the 
British  2nd  Corps,  and  repelled  many  assaults. 

Throughout,  the  neighboring  French  forces  showed  the 
most  admirable  spirit  of  co-operation.  Both  the  French  and 
the  British  cavalry  learned  to  adapt  their  traditional  meth- 
ods to  the  new  circumstances,  and  many  a  mile  of  trenches 
was  held  for  periods  by  dismounted  horsemen.  When  the 
battle  of  the  Lys  was  beginning,  one  of  the  French  official 
bulletins  reported  "  very  confused  "  cavalry  fighting.  The 
term  referred  mainly,  but  perhaps  not  wholly,  to  the  nature 
of  the  country,  which  is  cut  up  in  parts  by  pitheads  and 
mining  villages,  and,  further  west,  by  canals  and  streams. 
Here  the  cavalry  regiment  would  go  out  attended  by  a  cart- 
load of  spades  and  picks  to  make  trenches.  Leaving  their 
horses  half  a  mile  behind,  half  of  the  men  formed  a  firing- 
line,  while  the  other  half  went  on  in  extended  order  to  pre- 
pare a  more  advanced  position.  They  might  be  for  twelve 
hours  in  the  trenches  before  they  were  relieved,  and  with 
only  such  cold  food  as  they  took  out  from  camp.  And,  at 
any  moment,  the  evil  thing  might  come  that  happened  to 
Lieutenant  Wallon,  a  brilliant  cavalry  officer  who  was 
known  outside  of  France,  before  the  war,  as  a  champion 
rider.  It  was  at  the  village  of  Sailly,  on  the  Lys,  near  Mer- 
ville.  The  day  had  broken  with  a  thick  mist  lying  over  the 
flat,  dull  country,  and  a  cold  wind  blowing.  The  French 
Dragoons  advanced  over  the  fields  to  seize  the  river  bridge, 
an  important  crossing.     Two  squadrons  took  their  places 


THE  BATTLES  OF  FLANDERS  293 

in  the  trenches  before  a  small  farmhouse — to  the  left  a  road, 
to  the  right  a  long  potato-field,  in  front  the  invisible  enemy, 
and  beyond  them  the  village.  The  lieutenant,  behind  the 
wall  of  the  farmyard,  rose  from  time  to  time  to  scan  tha 
front  through  his  field-glasses.  Several  times  small  bodies 
of  German  scouts  came  in  view;  thirty  of  them  were  shot 
down.  A  more  substantial  attack  was  made  and  repulsed. 
A  short  calm  followed.  Then,  eleven  men  in  peasants' 
dress,  with  picks  and  spades  over  their  shoulders,  were  seen 
to  be  advancing  toward  the  French  lines.  What  could  they 
be  doing  there?  No  one  fired.  At  40  yards'  distance,  as 
with  one  movement,  they  raised  each  a  hand,  and  a  volley 
of  revolver  shots  rang  out.  This  was  a  sign  for  general 
firing  from  the  enemy's  trenches.  A  sergeant  who  stood 
with  Lieutenant  Wallon  called  out  with  a  laugh,  as  a  bullet 
whistled  by,  that  another  "  Boche  "  had  missed  him.  But 
the  lieutenant  had  fallen,  with  the  ball  in  his  chest.  The 
sergeant  lifted  him  in  order  to  get  him  away  to  a  safe 
place.  "  See,  Rossa,"  said  the  wounded  officer,  "  leave  me. 
You  know  a  wounded  man  is  worthless.  Get  back  to  the 
trench;  they  want  you  there."  The  trusty  non-com.  would 
not  budge,  and  dragged  his  leader  to  the  rear.  Again  the 
lieutenant  begged  to  be  left,  saying  he  no  longer  needed  any- 
one. Three  Dragoons  found  a  little  cart,  and,  putting  the 
dying  man  upon  a  pile  of  straw,  they  took  him  away.  The 
eleven  disguised  Germans  were  all  shot.  They  were  soldiers. 
The  bridge  was  taken,  and  the  village  occupied.  In  the 
evening,  around  the  camp  fire,  the  men  spoke  of  the  good 
officer  who  had  fallen  before  a  neo-German  ambush. 

III.     The  Battle  op  Ypres 

When  the  so-called  4th  Corps,  consisting  of  the  3rd  Cav- 
alry Division  under  Major-General  the  Hon.  Julian  Byng, 
and  the  7th  Infantry  Division,  under  Major-General  Capper, 
reached  the  neighborhood  of  Ypres  from  Ghent,  on  October 


294  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

16,  Sir  John  French  was  still  bent  on  pressing  forward  to 
the  north-east.  On  that  day,  Capper's  force  was  posted  five 
miles  east  of  Ypres,  from  Zandvoorde  through  Gheluvelt  to 
Zonnebeke;  while  the  cavalry  lay  as  much  to  the  north  of 
the  beautiful  little  city,  about  Langemarck  and  Poelcapelle. 
Two  French  Territorial  Divisions  under  General  Bidon  were 
in  Ypres  and  Poperinghe;  and,  on  the  following  day,  four 
French  cavalry  divisions  under  General  de  Mitry  joined 
Byng's  troops  along  the  road  to  Dixmude,  and  drove  back 
some  German  scouts  beyond  the  Houthulst  woods.  When, 
on  the  evening  of  the  19th,  the  Field-Marshal  decided  to  send 
the  1st  Corps  to  Ypres,  he  thought  that  "  Sir  Douglas  Haig 
would  probably  not  be  opposed  by  much  more  than  the  3rd 
Reserve  Corps,  which  I  knew  to  have  suffered  consider- 
ably in  its  previous  operations,  and  perhaps  one  or  two 
Landwehr  divisions."  The  1st  Corps,  therefore,  was  to  ad- 
vance to  Thourout  and,  if  possible,  to  capture  Bruges  and 
threaten  Ghent. 

This  ambitious  programme  came  to  nothing.  On  the  21st, 
Sir  John  French  was  in  Ypres  consulting  with  Haig  and 
Rawlinson ;  and  he  then  concluded  that  "  the  utmost  we 
could  do,  owing  to  the  unexpected  re-enforcements  of  the 
enemy,"  was  to  hold  the  positions  round  Ypres  for  two  or 
three  days,  by  which  time  General  Joffre  had  promised  a 
relief  of  French  troops.  In  fact,  the  Allies  had  again  been 
taken  unawares  by  one  of  the  German  lightning  concentra- 
tions, so  that  they  found  themselves  outnumbered  by  three 
or  four  to  one  at  the  critical  point.  The  attempted  advance 
came  to  a  sudden  stop  early  on  the  afternoon  of  the  21st, 
when  the  French  Cavalry  Corps  was  forced  back  to  the 
west  of  the  Yser  Canal.  No  summary  can  do  justice  to  the 
frightful  series  of  struggles  that  ensued.  Day  after  day, 
with  an  apparently  inexhaustible  energy,  the  gray-coated 
German  columns  of  Generals  von  Deimling  and  von  Fabeck 
were  hurled  against  the  thin  lines  of  the  defense;  night 
after  night,  the  exhausted  survivors  crept  out  to  repair  the 


THE  BATTLES  OF  FLANDERS 


295 


The  Battle  of  Ypres. 


broken  parapets  of  their  trenches,  or  the  barbed-wire  net- 
work in  front.  Late  in  the  evening  of  the  22nd,  the  part 
of  the  line  held  by  the  Cameron  Highlanders  was  nil  ;  it 
required   hard   fighting   all   the   next  day   by   the   Queen's 


296  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

Northamptons,  and  King's  Rifles,  to  recover  the  lost  ground. 
At  Langemarck,  on  the  same  day,  after  an  attack  upon  the 
3rd  Infantry  Brigade,  the  bodies  of  1,500  dead  Germans 
were  counted  on  the  field.  A  French  line  division  and  some 
Territorials  were  brought  up ;  and  on  the  25th,  an  advance 
was  made  to  the  north-east.  During  a  lull  before  the  next 
grand  attack,  what  was  left  of  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson's  com- 
mand was  absorbed  in  the  1st  Corps. 

The  tide  of  battle  ebbed  and  flowed,  but  the  line  was  still 
held  with  little  change.  On  October  29,  a  mass  assault  by 
the  German  24th  and  15th  Corps  was  delivered  on  the 
Menin  road  east  of  Gheluvelt ;  by  dusk  it  had  been  repelled. 
This  attempt  to  drive  through  to  the  south  of  Ypres  was 
repeated  on  the  following  day,  with  more  serious  results. 
A  slight  ridge  at  Zandvoorde  was  seized,  and  the  3rd  Cav- 
alry and  7th  Divisions  had  to  withdraw  to  Klein  Zillebeke, 
only  three  miles  outside  Ypres.  Some  French  and  British 
detachments  were  ordered  round  to  the  weak  spot,  with 
instructions  to  hold  out  at  all  costs.  "  An  order  taken 
from  a  prisoner  captured  on  this  day,"  says  Sir  John 
French,  "  purported  to  emanate  from  General  von  Deim- 
ling,  and  said  that  the  15th  German  Corps,  together  with 
the  2nd  Bavarian  and  13th  Corps,  were  intrusted  with  the 
task  of  breaking  through  the  line  to  Ypres,  and  that  the 
Emperor  himself  considered  the  success  of  this  attack  to 
be  one  of  vital  importance  to  the  issue  of  the  war." 

When  the  crisis  was  reached,  on  the  31st,  therefore,  the 
two  British  and  one  French  divisions  posted  across  Klein 
Zillebeke,  between  the  Menin  road  and  the  Yser  Canal, 
were  not  quite  unprepared  in  mind  and  will,  though  griev- 
ously inadequate  in  numbers  of  men  and  guns.  Before 
noon,  the  line  of  the  British  1st  Division,  assailed  by  a  force 
six  or  eight  times  stronger,  was  broken.  Its  retirement 
"exposed  the  left  flank  of  the  7th  Division;  and,  owing  to 
this,  the  Royal  Scots  Fusiliers,  who  remained  in  their 
trenches,  were  cut  off  and  surrounded."     Another  disaster 


THE  BATTLES  OF  FLANDERS  297 

of  a  very  exceptional  character  followed.  Early  in  the  after- 
noon, the  house  in  which  the  1st  and  2nd  Divisions  Staffs 
had  made  their  headquarters  was  discovered  and  shelled, 
General  Loniax,  Commander  of  the  1st  Division,  being 
wounded  and  three  of  his  Staff  officers,  and  three  of  the  2nd 
Division,  being  killed.  Fortunately,  the  Commander-in- 
Chief  and  his  Staff  were  near,  and  joined  General  Haig 
within  an  hour.  Such  a  loss  in  such  an  emergency  would 
have  damped  any  but  the  most  tried  spirits.  Moreover, 
the  22nd  Brigade,  on  the  right  of  the  7th  Division,  had 
been  compelled  to  retire,  and  then  the  2nd  Brigade,  next 
on  its  right.  When  all  seemed  to  be  lost,  the  1st  and  7th 
Divisions  rallied.  The  former,  helped  by  some  of  the  2nd 
Division,  swung  round  against  the  German  right  flank,  on 
the  Menin  road,  and,  the  2nd  Warwickshires  leading,  recap- 
tured the  village  of  Gheluvelt  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet. 
This  success  enabled  the  7th  Division  to  bring  its  left  back 
in  touch  with  the  1st;  and  it  liberated  the  6th  Cavalry  Bri- 
gade, which,  by  a  dashing  attack,  further  helped  to  restore 
the  front.  Aid  was  also  forthcoming,  late  in  the  afternoon, 
from  the  French  cavalry.  "  Throughout  the  day,"  Field- 
Marshal  French  says,  "  the  extreme  right  and  left  of  the 
1st  Corps  held  fast,  the  left  being  only  slightly  engaged, 
while  the  right  was  heavily  shelled  and  subjected  to  slight 
infantry  attacks.  In  the  evening,  the  enemy  were  steadily 
driven  back ;  and  by  10  p.m.  the  line  as  held  in  the  morning 
had  practically  been  reoccupied.  As  a  result  of  the  day's 
fighting,  870  wounded  were  evacuated." 

So  passed  "  the  most  critical  moment  in  the  whole  of  this 
great  battle,"  the  day  that  was  to  have  made  Belgium  a 
German  province.  One  more  special  effort  was  made  to  re- 
trieve the  Imperial  fortunes  before  Ypres.  "  About  Novem- 
ber 10,  after  units  of  several  German  corps  had  been  com- 
pletely shattered  in  futile  attacks,  a  division  of  the  Prus- 
sian Guard,  which  had  been  operating  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Arras,  was  moved  up  to  this  area  with  great  speed  and 


298  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

secrecy.  Documents  found  on  dead  officers  prove  that  the 
Guard  had  received  the  Emperor's  special  commands  to 
break  through  and  succeed  where  their  comrades  of  the  line 
had  failed.  They  took  a  leading  part  in  the  vigorous  at- 
tacks made  against  the  center  on  the  11th  and  12th,  but, 
like  their  comrades,  were  repulsed  with  enormous  loss."  The 
Prussian  Guards  numbered  some  15,000  men,  but  they  were 
no  longer  of  the  quality  of  those  who  had  fallen  in  the 
marshes  of  St.  Gond.  They  broke  through  the  lines,  but 
were  enfiladed,  and  fled.  The  British  losses  included  three 
commanding  officers — Brigadier-General  FitzClarence,  of  the 
1st  Guards;  Colonel  Gordon  Wilson,  of  the  Horse  Guards, 
and  Major  the  Hon.  Hugh  Dawney,  2nd  Life  Guards.  The 
last  two  were  killed  on  November  7,  when  the  7th  Cavalry 
Brigade  was  called  to  support  the  French  troops  near  Klein 
Zillebeke. 

The  battle  of  Ypres  was  followed  on  November  23  and 
subsequent  days  by  a  long-distance  bombardment  of  the 
town  and  the  destruction  of  the  famous  Cloth  Hall,  a  spite- 
ful kind  of  confession  of  failure.  The  siege  warfare  of  the 
trenches  continued;  the  phase  of  acute  and  open  struggle 
involving  the  fate  of  a  large  area,  to  which  alone  the  word 
"  battle  "  can  now  be  applied,  was  finished,  at  least  for  the 
present.  Its  later  stage  had  been  the  occasion  not  only  for 
prodigies  of  valor  on  the  part  of  the  regular  troops,  and 
"  quite  extraordinary "  services  by  the  artillery,  the  engi- 
neers, the  flying  corps,  signal  corps  and  other  special  arms, 
but  for  the  baptism  of  fire  of  the  first  units  of  the  Territorial 
force— the  London  Scottish  and  Hereford  battalions,  and 
the  Somerset  and  Leicester  Yeomanry  regiments.  "  They 
took,"  says  Sir  John  French,  "  a  conspicuous  part  in  re- 
pulsing the  heavy  attacks  delivered  against  this  part  of  the 
line.  I  was  obliged  to  dispatch  them  immediately  after 
their  trying  experiences  further  south,  and  when  they  had 
had  a  very  insufficient  period  of  rest;  and,  although  they 
gallantly  maintained  these  northern  positions  until  relieved 


THE  BATTLES  OF  FLANDERS  299 

by  the  French,  they  were  reduced  to  a  condition  of  extreme 
exhaustion."  Regulars,  volunteers,  and  the  subsidiary  serv- 
ices had  all  earned  a  share  of  their  leader's  tribute:  "  That 
success  has  been  attained,  and  all  the  enemy's  desperate  at- 
tempts to  break  through  our  line  have  been  frustrated,  is 
due  entirely  to  the  marvelous  fighting  power  and  the  in- 
domitable courage  and  tenacity  of  officers,  non-commissioned 
officers,  and  men.  No  more  arduous  task  has  ever  been  as- 
signed to  British  soldiers ;  and  in  all  their  splendid  history 
there  is  no  instance  of  their  having  answered  so  magnifi- 
cently to  the  desperate  calls  which  of  necessity  were  made 
upon  them.  .  .  .  Words  fail  me  to  express  the  admiration 
I  feel  for  the  conduct,  or  my  sense  of  the  incalculable  ser- 
vices they  rendered." 

Sir  John  French  says  that  the  German  losses  in  the 
battle  of  Ypres  were  "  at  least  three  times  as  many  "  as  the 
British.  The  French  War  Office  estimated  them  as  "  at 
least  120,000  men."  Four  Victoria  Crosses  were  afterwards 
granted  for  gallant  actions  during  this  battle;  and  it  is 
notable  that  two  of  them  were  for  life-saving,  one  of  these 
taking  the  form  of  a  clasp  to  a  cross  already  gained,  an 
unprecedented  distinction.  The  official  entries  for  these 
V.C.'s  were  as  follows: 

"  6535  Drnir.  William  Kenny,  2nd  Bn.  Gordon  Highland- 
ers. For  conspicuous  bravery  on  23rd  October  near  Ypres,  in 
rescuing  wounded  men  on  five  occasions  under  very  heavy  fire 
in  the  most  fearless  manner,  and  for  twice  previously  saving 
machine-guns  by  carrying  them  out  of  action.  On  numer- 
ous occasions  Drummer  Kenny  conveyed  urgent  messages 
under  very  dangerous  circumstances  over  fire-swept  ground. 

"  Lieut.  James  Anson  Otho  Brooke,  2nd  Bn.  Gordon  High- 
landers. For  conspicuous  bravery  and  great  ability  near 
Gheluvelt  on  the  29th  October,  in  lending  two  attacks  on 
the  German  trenches  under  heavy  rifle  and  machine-gun 
fire,  regaining  a  lost  trench  :it  a  very  critical  moment.  He 
was   killed    on    that    day.      By    his    marked    coolness    and 


300  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

promptitude  on  this  occasion  Lieutenant  Brooke  prevented 
the  enemy  from  breaking  through  our  line,  at  a  time  when 
a  general  counter-attack  could  not  have  been  organized. 

"Capt.  John  Franks  Vallentin,  1st  Bn.  South  Stafford- 
shire Regt.  For  conspicuous  bravery  on  7th  November  at 
Zillebeke.  When  leading  the  attack  against  the  Germans 
under  a  very  heavy  fire  he  was  struck  down,  and  on  rising 
to  continue  the  attack  was  immediately  killed.  The  capture 
of  the  enemy's  trenches  which  followed  was  in  a  great  meas- 
ure due  to  the  confidence  which  the  men  had  in  their  Cap- 
tain, arising  from  his  many  previous  acts  of  great  bravery 
and  ability. 

"  Lieut.  Arthur  Martin  Leake,  R.A.M.C,  who  was  awarded 
the  Victoria  Cross  on  13th  May,  1902,  is  granted  a 
Clasp  for  conspicuous  bravery  in  the  present  campaign. 
For  most  conspicuous  bravery  and  devotion  to  duty  through- 
out the  campaign,  especially  during  the  period  29th  October 
to  8th  November,  1914,  near  Zonnebeke,  in  rescuing,  whilst 
exposed  to  constant  fire,  a  large  number  of  the  wounded 
who  were  lying  close  to  the  enemy's  trenches." 

A  thousand  acts  of  zeal,  skill,  and  heroic  devotion  by 
those  whose  duty  it  is  not  to  take,  but  to  save,  life  on  the 
battlefield  cry  for  mention.  There  was  a  French  doctor 
attending  to  the  wounded  in  the  Civil  Hospital  during  the 
bombardment  of  Ypres.  For  four  days,  with  the  help  of 
volunteer  assistants,  he  had  been  caring  for  fifty-four  Ger- 
man wounded,  and  the  hospital  had  been  struck  by  shells, 
one  of  them  an  incendiary  shell.  The  supply  of  bread  was 
failing,  but  the  doctor  and  nurses  shared  their  portion  with 
their  patients.  It  was  suggested  to  him  that  they  should 
desert  so  dangerous  a  post.  His  reply  deserves  textual 
quotation :  "  Our  superiority  consists  precisely  in  showing 
to  this  race  of  vandals  that  we  possess  those  humanitarian 
feelings  of  which  they  seem  to  be  devoid,  and  that  we  should 
do  this  because  example  is  the  only  law  which  nations  obey. 
If  we  imitate  the  Germans,  there  is  no  reason  why  the  pres- 


THE  BATTLES  OF  FLANDERS  301 

ent  state  of  things  should  not  continue  for  ever,  for  we  are 
merely  descending  to  their  level,  whereas  the  mission  of 
France  is  to  elevate  the  Germans  to  our  own.  So  long  as  I 
remain  here,  by  your  leave,  I  will  continue  to  look  after 
the  wounded  Germans,  showing  them  that  a  French  doctor 
laughs  at  their  shells,  and  only  knows  his  duty."  This  hero 
did  so  continue  until,  on  November  13  or  14,  he  was  killed 
by  a  shell.  The  surviving  wounded,  in  sole  charge  of  two 
nuns,  were  then  removed  to  a  safer  place. 

Two  personal  events  of  political  interest  here  call  for 
notice.  The  first  is  the  death  of  Field-Marshal  Earl  Rob- 
erts, on  November  14,  from  illness  due  to  exposure  during 
a  visit  of  inspection  and  farewell  to  the  Indian  army  in 
France.  "  Only  one  Englishman,"  said  an  official  writer, 
"  has  attained  to  anything  near  the  place  which  Lord  Roberts 
filled  in  the  heart  of  the  Indian  soldier,  and  that  was  John 
Nicholson,"  the  hero  of  Delhi.  During  the  week  Novem- 
ber 30-December  5,  King  George,  with  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
visited  in  succession  the  four  British  army  corps  in  the 
field,  the  Indian  troops,  and  the  various  headquarters  of  the 
connected  services.  On  December  1,  he  met  President  Poin- 
care",  M.  Viviani,  and  General  Joffre,  who  received  the 
G.C.B.  decoration.  Field-Marshal  French  was  afterwards  in- 
vested with  the  Order  of  Merit;  and  on  December  4  the 
King  met  King  Albert  at  Furnes,  and  inspected  some  of  the 
Belgian  troops. 

IV.     The  Battle  of  the  Yser 

By  this  name  we  mean  not  chiefly  the  stream  so  called, 
but  the  canal  which  runs  from  Ypres,  first  beside  the  little 
Yperlee,  then  beside  the  Yser,  which  at  length  it  joins  to 
reach  the  sea  amid  the  dunes  by  Nienport.  Half-way  along 
this  course  of  twenty-three  miles,  the  Yser  Canal  touches 
Dixmude,  a  large  village  of  4,000  souls  (before  they  fled, 
and  it  was  destroyed),  happy  in  their  cottages  of  rosy  brick 
and   tile,  prosperous   in  their  surrounding  beet-fields  and 


302 


TOWARD  DEADLOCK 


grazing  grounds,  their  flocks  and  herds,  and  proud  of  their 
ancient  church  of  St.  Nicholas.  In  this  dead  flat  land, 
seamed  with  canals  and  dykes,  man  was  ever  doomed  to  a 
double  struggle — against  the  reluctance  of  the  earth,  and 
the  insidious  aggression  of  the  water.  Between  the  hills 
of  the  French  border  and  the  dunes  of  the  North  Sea 
coast,  it  lay  saturated,  misty,  saved  from  total  submersion 
only  by  an  intricate  sj'Stem  of  drainage  maintained  by  farm- 
ers' associations  under  direction  of  the  Belgian  Govern- 
ment.    For  a  population  scattered  in  villages  and  small 


MILES 

The  Battle  of  the  Yseb. 


THE  BATTLES  OF  FLANDERS  303 

towns,  a  few  highroads  served — narrow  causeways  of  cobble- 
stone, with  broad  bands  of  black  mud  on  either  side.  A  dis- 
mal land,  under  its  frequent  rains  and  white  mists,  though 
quaint  enough  in  sunshine,  with  its  turning  mills,  bulbous 
spires,  white  farmsteads,  and  everlasting  lines  of  pollards 
and  poplars:  so  the  tourist  might  say.  But  it  is  the  soul 
that  counts,  in  nations  as  in  men.  The  wounded  spirit  of 
this  marshy  land  had  cried  its  wrong  to  the  world ;  and 
Britons  and  Bretons,  Indians  and  Canadians,  ranchmen 
from  the  Antipodes  and  tribesmen  from  the  Atlas  had  an- 
swered the  call  to  help  a  little  nation  defending  the  last 
miles  of  its  hard-won  soil. 

Down  in  their  ditches  by  Dixmude,  5,000  Belgians  under 
General  Meyser  and  0,000  French  Marines  under  Admiral 
Ronarc'h,  held  out  against  three  corps  of  the  Duke  of  Wur- 
temberg's  army  from  October  16  to  November  10,  in  torrents 
of  rain  hardly  less  painful  than  the  fire  of  the  German  guns. 
"  You  have  to  sacrifice  yourselves  to  save  our  left  wing," 
the  Admiral  told  them ;  "  try  to  hold  out  at  least  for  four 
days."  The  four  days  dragged  on  to  a  fortnight,  and  still 
these  lion-hearted  fellows  held  their  place,  with  no  heavy 
guns,  and  with  no  scouting  service  but  that  of  a  few  Bel- 
gian cyclists.  The  line  of  defense  ran  at  first  from  Dix- 
mude almost  due  northward,  by  the  villages  of  Beerst, 
Keyem,  Leke,  to  Slype,  on  the  Nieuport-Ostend  road,  and 
almost  due  southward  to  Ypres — that  is,  it  ran  for  most  of 
the  way  two  or  three  miles  east  of  the  Yser  Canal.  The 
French  Marines  held  the  center,  in  and  north  and  south  of 
Dixmude,  with  the  help,  in  the  end,  of  a  few  hundred  Sene- 
galese. Four  Belgian  divisions,  with  badly  depleted  ranks, 
occupied  the  Ostend  road,  with  rear  trenches  on  the  west  of 
the  Yser.  South  of  Dixmude,  a  French  cavalry  corps  and 
some  Territorials  kept  touch  with  the  British  and  French 
troops  around  Ypres.  The  first  German  attack  was  deliv- 
ered at  the  village  of  Essen,  to  the  east  of  Dixmude,  through- 
out the  night  of  October  1G  and  the  morning  of  the  17th. 


304  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

Although  the  way  was  prepared  by  a  lengthy  bombardment 
(the  heavy  guns  had  not  yet  arrived,  however),  the  close 
columns  of  infantry  were  at  length  driven  back.  Five  Bel- 
gian batteries  reached  Dixmude  on  the  17th,  giving  the 
defense  a  total  strength  of  seventy-two  guns.  There  was 
other  cheering  news.  Field-Marshal  French  had  ordered 
his  4th  Army  Corps  to  try  to  advance  from  Ypres  upon 
Bruges;  and  the  cavalry  of  General  d'Urbal's  9th  Corps, 
co-operating,  had  ridden  east  from  the  Dixrnude-Ypres  road 
and  occupied  the  village  of  Clerken,  whence  it  was  conduct- 
ing a  series  of  bold  raids  across  the  north  of  the  Forest  of 
Houthulst.  Admiral  Ronarc'h  immediately  endeavored  to 
aid  this  movement.  Re-enforced  by  two  regiments  of  Moroc- 
can horsemen,  a  party  was  sent  out  eastward  toward  Thou- 
rout.  It  found  the  churches  of  Eessen  and  Vladsloo  in  the 
condition  of  stables,  but  no  other  traces  of  the  invaders. 
They  seemed  to  have  beaten  a  retreat.  In  fact,  unfortu- 
nately, they  had  only  gone  along  the  Ostend  road  where, 
on  the  morning  of  October  19,  they  attacked  simultaneously 
three  points  of  the  thin  Belgian  line,  at  Leke,  Keyem,  and 
Beerst.  When  he  discovered  this  perilous  diversion,  the 
French  commander  sent  three  battalions,  with  artillery,  to 
the  rescue,  one  of  which  was  to  make  a  flank  assault.  Beerst 
was  recovered  after  a  bloody  struggle  lasting  the  whole  day ; 
but  new  German  forces  had  come  up,  and  had  captured 
Vladsloo.  The  Ostend  road  had  to  be  abandoned;  and,  at 
midnight,  the  Allies,  much  exhausted,  were  back  in  Nieu- 
port  and  Dixmude,  and  the  trenches  between  on  the  west 
bank  of  the  canal.  All  that  could  be  kept — and  that  with 
great  difficulty — of  the  northward  advance  nearer  Ypres 
was  the  road  from  Bixshcoote,  through  Langemarck,  to  Zon- 
nebeke. 

And  now  the  crucial  moment  had  come;  both  sides  must 
have  known  it,  from  the  high  commanders  to  the  tired  and 
tattered  privates.  If  the  line  of  the  Yser  were  lost,  not 
only  would  Dunkirk  and  Calais  be  imminently  threatened; 


THE  BATTLES  OF  FLANDERS  305 

not  only  would  the  lnsl  thin  strip  of  Belgian  soil  be  lost; 
the  Allied  army  at  Ypres  would  have  to  retire  rapidly  or 
be  surrounded,  and  all  the  bloodshed  on  the  Lys  would  have 
gone  for  nothing.  No  "  little  band  of  brothers  "  ever  had 
a  sterner  task,  and  none  ever  carried  their  duty  to  a  more 
heroic  triumph.  The  small  Belgian  force  was  being  slowly 
strengthened,  and  provided  with  the  munitions  it  had  had 
to  leave  behind  in  the  retreat.  But,  with  the  whole  of  the 
long  line  across  France  pressed  to  the  utmost,  neither  the 
French  nor  the  British  Government  was  able  to  throw  into 
this  end  of  the  field  forces  numerically  equal,  or  nearly 
equal,  to  the  new  formations  which  the  German  Staff  had 
rushed  across  Belgium  for  a  conclusive  effort  to  break 
through  the  extreme  left  of  the  Allies.  In  this  crisis,  King 
Albert  found  two  very  powerful  friends  upon  whose  appear- 
ance the  invaders  had  evidently  not  calculated.  The  first 
was  the  British  fleet,  now  in  fact,  and  not  only  in  theory, 
supreme  upon  the  seas,  since  its  adversary  had  dared  to 
essay  nothing  but  a  few  trivial  raids.  On  October  18,  when 
the  danger  at  Nieuport  had  become  apparent,  the  Belgian 
Government  again  asked  London  for  naval  aid.  A  flotilla, 
under  Admiral  Hood,  consisting  largely  of  shallow-draught 
monitors,  carrying  powerful  long-range  guns,  was  immedi- 
ately sent  across  the  North  Sea,  and  appeared  before  Nieu- 
port on  the  morning  of  October  19.  It  was  afterwards 
joined  by  several  French  destroyers.  Before  the  German 
regiments  had  had  time  to  settle  down  in  the  small  seaside 
towns  along  the  coast  road  south  of  Ostend — Lombartzyde, 
Westende,  and  Middelkerke— or  the  villages  just  beyond  the 
dunes,  they  were  overwhelmed  with  a  raking  fire  much 
heavier  than  General  Grosetti's  artillery  could  bring  to 
bear  upon  them.  The  gunners  were  directed  by  observations 
from  naval  balloons  and  aeroplanes,  and  by  signals  from 
shore;  and,  while  their  marksmanship  proved  remarkably 
accurate,  the  ships  were  enabled,  by  the  superior  range  of 
their  guns  and  constant  movement,  to  evade  all  attempts  to 


306  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

reach  them  effectively  by  ordinary  field  batteries.  Nor  could 
the  German  troops  easily  protect  themselves  by  intrench- 
ment;  for,  if  the  trenches  and  gun-pits  were  directed  toward 
the  sea,  they  might  be  enfiladed  from  the  canal,  and  vice 
versa..  Hour  after  daylight  hour,  during  the  next  week, 
the  cannon  blazed  over  the  sandhills — one  vessel  fired  a 
thousand  lyddite  and  shrapnel  shells  in  a  day — reaching 
three  miles  inland  between  Middelkerke  and  Nieuport,  de- 
stroying batteries,  blowing  up  ammunition  wagons,  and  dis- 
persing infantry  columns.  On  the  24th,  heavier  batteries 
that  had  been  established  on  the  sea-front  at  Ostend  were 
bombarded,  much  to  the  discomfort  of  German  officers  who 
had  their  quarters  in  the  large  hotels  there.  Many  fruit- 
less attempts  were  made  by  submarines  to  torpedo  the  fleet. 
By  the  end  of  the  month,  the  British  Admiralty  was  able  to 
report  that  "  the  opposition  from  the  shore  has  practically 
ceased,  and  the  preponderance  of  the  naval  gunnery  seems 
to  be  established." 

During  this  experiment  in  amphibious  warfare,  the  Bel- 
gians and  French  were  defending  the  river  bridge  and  the 
three  canal  bridges  at  Nieuport,  the  passage  at  Dixmude, 
and  their  trenches  between,  against  constantly  repeated 
mass  assaults.  On  the  24th,  the  Germans  succeeded  in  get- 
ting across  the  Yser  between  Nieuport  and  Dixmude.  The  last 
defensive  expedient  of  the  Lowlander  was  then  called  into 
play:  the  lock-gates  were  opened,  and  the  country  around 
the  high  causeways  was  submitted  to  a  slowly  extending 
inundation.  The  Wurtembergers  had  scarcely  succeeded  in 
destroying  the  little  town  of  Nieuport  by  long-range  artillery 
fire,  they  had  scarcely  set  foot,  at  the  cost  of  terrible  losses 
in  their  close-formed  ranks,  in  the  village  of  Ramscapelle, 
commanding  the  road  through  Furnes  to  Dunkirk,  when 
they  found  the  expected  triumph  snatched  from  them.  The 
Belgians  and  French  could  well  protect  the  few  raised  high- 
roads; they  had  no  numbers  for  long  lines  of  trenches  ex- 
tending inland  to  Ypres.     What  they  could  not  do  was  ef- 


THE  BATTLES  OF  FLANDERS  307 

fected  by  the  floods,  extending  at  first  between  the  Yser  and 
the  Nieuport-Dixmude  railway,  and  afterwards  over  part  of 
the  line  between  the  latter  place  and  Bixschoote.  On 
October  30,  Ramscapelle  was  recovered  by  a  night  charge 
of  French  Chasseurs  and  Algerian  rifles;  and  on  November 
3,  the  lost  passages  were  completely  recovered.  Lombart- 
zyde,  a  mile  north  of  Nieuport,  was  captured,  and  lost  after 
several  struggles;  but  generally  the  stress  of  the  fighting 
now  passed  southward.  On  November  10,  the  Germans  suc- 
ceeded in  occupying  the  piles  of  broken  walls  and  torn 
street  that  had  once  been  Dixmude;  but  they  could  not 
cross  the  canal.  Three  days  later,  they  secured  two  pas- 
sages, only  to  be  driven  back  on  the  15th,  when  one  German 
regiment  was  almost  annihilated.  An  even  more  terrible 
carnage  marked  attempts  to  pierce  the  wall  at  Bixschoote 
and  Pervyse.  This  extremity  of  violence,  damped  by  re- 
peated snow  and  rain  storms,  soon  exhausted  itself.  One 
of  the  last  futile  struggles  raged,  about  December  5,  around 
the  ferryman's  house  at  Poesele,  a  point  of  some  importance 
that  had  been  contested  for  a  month.  Then  the  fury  of  at- 
tack died  down ;  the  three  armies  turned  to  the  strengthen- 
ing of  their  trenches,  not  only  against  each  other,  but 
against  the  common  enemies — rain  and  frost;  while  the 
British  fleet  went  north,  and  bombarded  Zeebrugge,  now  in 
process  of  conversion  into  a  German  naval  station. 


CHAPTEK  XXIII 
PARIS,  THE  AUSTERE 

Paris,  October  10. 

Paris  is  coming  to  life  again.  Under  the  wonderful 
autumn  sunshine,  so  pure  and  radiant,  there  is  a  fluttering 
activity  that  has  long  been  absent  from  the  boulevards  and 
squares.  Every  day  the  railway  services  which,  for  civil- 
ians, had  been  almost  completely  suspended  after  the  great 
flight,  are  pushed  out  a  few  miles  further  to  the  north  and 
east.  At  some  hours  there  are  quite  considerable  numbers 
of  people  in  the  streets.  Nearly  a  half  of  the  shops  in  the 
center  of  the  city  must  now  be  open — one  sees  the  trades- 
men pluckily  dressing  their  windows,  or  cajoling  a  shy  cus- 
tomer. The  terrasses  in  front  of  the  cafes  still  present  a 
forlorn  array  of  empty  chairs;  but  the  chairs  are  at  least  a 
beginning.  More  restaurants  are  reopening,  and  the  few 
that  have  never  shut  are  fuller.  In  some  mansions,  the  great 
gates  stand  wide,  and  the  shutters  are  thrown  back;  one 
imagines  that  they  have  stripped  the  chandeliers  and  the 
pianos  of  their  holiday  covers,  and  that  here,  as  in  humbler 
homes,  the  family  gathers  in  the  evening  to  hear  the  "  com- 
munique' "  read,  and  the  little  flags  moved  northward  on  the 
map  of  the  battlefield. 

At  the  beginning  of  August,  each  new  alarm — were  it 
only  a  tiny  column  of  volunteers,  with  a  flag  and  a  trumpet 
— brought  a  crowd  on  to  the  pavement.  The  theaters  were 
already  shut,  and  the  crying  of  newspapers  was  forbidden. 
But  there  was  always  a  crowd,  always  a  noise.  Years  seem 
to  have  passed  since  then.     At  the  beginning  of  September 

308 


PARIS,  THE  AUSTERE  309 

came  the  flight  of  the  half  million,  immediately  followed  by 
the  first  German  defeats.  But  the  invaders  might  yet  re- 
turn. Every  approach  to  the  city  was  barricaded;  it  was 
difficult  to  come  in  or  go  out,  and  impossible  to  remain  with- 
out various  kinds  of  permit.  Impossible  to  get  a  meal  after 
8.30;  by  10,  nearly  everybody  was  abed.  Paris — all,  or 
nearly  all,  that  is  essential  in  the  real  Paris,  save  the 
men  at  the  front — settled  down  to  a  stoical  acceptance  of 
the  hard  rules  of  General  Gallieni  and  the  Censorship,  a 
splendid  courage  of  silent  waiting.  It  wras  then  I  fell  in 
love  with  the  Parisian  women.  Outside  their  houses,  they 
always  seemed  to  be  stitching  or  knitting,  with  a  grim  in- 
tentness.  Inside,  who  knows?  Marie,  who  brings  me  my 
morning  coffee,  and  whose  husband  and  brother  are  at  the 
front,  asked  every  morning,  as  she  still  asks,  for  the  news; 
and  presently  she  let  fall  an  occasional  complaint  that  it 
was  impossible  to  find  out  whether  her  soldiermen  were  alive 
— not  a  single  letter  had  come  for  a  month.  For  the  rest, 
not  a  tear,  not  a  complaint — though  she  has  sometimes  said, 
like  thousands  upon  thousands  of  others,  no  doubt,  "  God 
grant  this  may  be  the  last  war ! " 

When  the  crowd  had  gone,  with  its  miserable  fears  and 
patent  hypocrisies,  a  strange  and  blessed  calm  fell  upon  us. 
The  blows  of  those  terrible  days  of  the  long  retreat  had 
fallen  too  fast  upon  our  hearts  to  be  separately  felt.  We 
were  stunned.  We  did  the  work  we  had  to  do,  automati- 
cal^. The  swarming,  surging  masses  added  an  element  of 
squalor  to  our  pain.  When  they  departed,  and  a  perfect 
quietude  lay,  day  and  night,  upon  the  city,  something  new 
was  born  in  us  as  we  became  accustomed  to  the  emptj7  vistas, 
the  unbroken  silence,  the  pure  air,  the  majesty  of  the  sky, 
and — perpetual  accompaniment — the  familiar  thought  of 
Death. 

At  three  o'clock,  and  again  at  eleven,  we  went  to  get  the 
official  bulletins.  At  first,  they  were  given  out,  to  those 
duly  accredited,  in  a  room  full  of  ancient  furniture  and 


310  TOWARD  DEADLOCK 

arms  in  the  Ministry  of  War;  then  in  a  stable-like  hall,  lit 
by  a  bad  oil  lamp,  next  door,  in  the  Rue  St.  Dominique; 
and  latterly  in  a  boys'  school  taken  over  for  such  purposes, 
opposite  the  Invalides.  For  a  score  of  us,  31,  Rue  St.  Do- 
minique, on  the  evenings  after  the  street  lamps  had  been 
extinguished  or  turned  low,  will  be  a  sacred  memory.  Jour- 
nalists do  not  carry  their  hearts  on  their  sleeves;  but  per- 
haps they  feel  more  than  most,  as  they  see  more  than  most 
in  following  the  threads  of  tragedy  and  comedy  that  color 
the  common  stuff  of  life.  With  what  fears  and  hopes  we 
awaited  the  appearance  of  the  sheets  bearing  a  few  type- 
written lines,  and  then  groped  our  way  down  the  blackness 
of  the  narrow  street  to  the  wide,  star-lit  spaces  near  the 
river ! 

In  the  daytime  we  could  sometimes  get  down  to  the  river- 
side, or  one  of  the  public  gardens,  and  watch  the  children 
at  their  play.  For  a  week  or  two,  it  was  even  possible  to 
make  furtive  expeditions  through  the  beautiful  countryside 
twice  crossed  by  the  two  armies.  Between  the  loveliness 
of  such  a  summer  and  the  rage  of  hatred  and  slaughter,  can 
there  be  any  reconciliation?  One  knows  less  as  one  grows 
older ;  mystery,  the  foe  of  youth,  becomes  our  friend,  and  we 
are  content  to  know  less.  I  only  knew  that,  in  these  still 
weeks,  some  secret  spirit  of  the  air  brought  us  a  new 
humility,  and  with  it  a  new  fortitude,  a  sure  sense  that  the 
unspeakable  evil  of  to-day  must  end,  because  it  is  only  by 
beauty  and  love  that  mankind  can  live.  The  witness  of  the 
soul  is  hard  to  utter.  Let  the  raucous  voices  pass — the 
future  is  not  theirs.  But  there  is  many  a  child  of  good 
English  homes  now  in  the  trenches,  keeping  his  vigil  under 
the  bright,  chill  moonlight  of  early  October,  who  has  felt 
the  spirit-finger  touch  him,  and  has  whispered  a  prayer  for 
his  country  not  often  to  be  found  in  the  liturgies  of  the 
vulgar.  It  is  not  these  who  will  blaspheme  against  the 
most  certain  of  truths,  the  truth  of  the  world's  need  of 
peace. 


PARIS,  THE  AUSTERE  311 

And  now  President  Poincare'  and  the  two  chief  Ministers 
have  spent  a  night  in  Paris.  No  doubt  they  will  soon  be 
back  for  good ;  and  with  them  will  come  a  swarm  of  trades- 
men and  deputies,  officials,  and  arrivistes,  trippers,  and 
cocottes.  The  Chambers  and  the  Bourse,  the  hotels  and  the 
theaters  will  reopen.  Paris  will  become  "  Tout  Paris " 
again.  The  fugitives  will  tell  each  other  that  it  was  hard 
to  bear  the  provincialism  of  Bordeaux.  Everybody  will  re- 
joice over  the  recovery  of  the  only  possible  capital  of  France. 
And  a  few  of  us  will  listen  with  a  silly  jealousy,  knowing 
they  are  robbing  us  of  something  of  an  infinite  tenderness 
and  charm  that  we  shall  never  see  again. 

It  is  gone  for  ever — the  austere  city,  the  Paris  that  was  to 
be  besieged.  But  sometimes,  as  I  walk  home  in  the  early 
morning  under  the  shining  purple  vault,  and  breathe  deep 
the  frosty  air,  I  may  hear  again,  as  I  did  once,  from  behind 
a  shuttered  window,  a  voice  singing  an  old  song  of  love  and 
pain  and  the  faith  that  is  stronger  than  death. 


BOOK  IV 
BOUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 


CHAPTER  XXIV 
BEHIND  THE  WESTERN  WALL 

On  the  Belgian  Frontier,  November  21,  19 H. 

As  the  powerful  ear  drew  out  of  the  courtyard  of  the 
Foreign  Office  on  to  the  Quai  d'Orsay,  crossed  the  city,  and 
passed  swiftly  through  the  northern  suburbs,  I  wondered 
how  much  our  French  hosts  would  allow  us  to  see  on  this 
visit  to  the  hidden  and  tragic  land  which  we  call  the  front. 
It  was  the  plan  to  reach  the  Belgian  border  in  a  single  long 
day's  journey,  a  matter  of  160  miles  or  more — as  far  as  from 
London  to  Sheffield.  On  this  first  day,  then,  we  evidently 
could  see  hardly  anything  of  the  actual  fighting  lines  along 
the  great  wall  by  which  the  invasion  has  been  stemmed  in 
western  France.  But  the  country  immediately  behind  is 
nearly  as  inaccessible  as  the  trenches  themselves;  and  we 
know,  by  hearsay  and  our  earlier  expeditions,  that  it  teems 
with  a  multitudinous  secret  and  peculiar  life.  In  peace 
time  a  motor  journey  from  Paris  to  Dunkirk  would  be  of 
interest;  how  much  more  so  when  every  change  of  land- 
scape is  related  to  the  changing  fortunes  of  a  fearful  con- 
flict 

The  old  ramparts  and  the  further  forts  and  field-works  of 
Paris  were  soon  left  behind.  The  thin,  wintry  sunshine  of 
early  morning  sparkled  on  the  hoar  frost  in  the  bracken  of 
the  Chantilly  woods,  and  outlined  the  feathery  larch-trunks 
and  leafless  undergrowth,  but  could  not  yet  dispel  the  mist 
that  hung  in  the  valleys.  This  is  one  of  the  loveliest  regions 
of  northern  France,  showing  from  each  hill-top  far  prospects 
of  wooded  heights  and  peopled  valleys,  fading  away  into 

315 


316   ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

purple  horizons.  Chantilly,  with  its  great  villas,  parks,  and 
racing-stables,  did  not  suffer  very  seriously  during  the  Ger- 
man occupation;  but  at  Senlis,  eight  or  nine  miles  to  the 
east,  foul  deeds  were  done.  In  these  towns  there  is  a  re- 
commencement of  normal  life;  in  the  neighboring  villages 
most  of  the  white  plaster  houses  are  empty  and  shuttered. 
Here  and  there,  in  the  fields  and  woods,  squads  of  Terri- 
torials are  busy  digging  new  trenches  against  the  possi- 
bility of  the  lines  being  broken  through,  or  cutting  saplings 
and  young  trees  to  build  shelters  against  the  more  likely 
evil  of  frost  and  storm.  At  every  town  or  large  village, 
pickets  stop  us  and  carefully  examine  our  papers.  The  un- 
hedged fields  are  bare  and  empty.  A  cart  drawn  by  bul- 
locks, the  yoke  fixed  behind  their  horns,  with  low-bent  heads 
and  slow  gait,  passes  us.  Only  the  beauty  of  the  scene 
saves  it  from  appearing  desolate. 

At  Creil  we  stayed  to  examine  the  ruins  of  a  dozen  build- 
ings destroyed  by  artillery  fire  during  the  German  advance 
upon  Paris.  It  soon  becomes  possible  to  distinguish  the 
havoc  of  "  legitimate  "  warfare  from  that  of  deliberate  in- 
cendiarism. Creil  is  in  the  former  category;  the  German 
retreat  took  a  more  easterly  road.  The  bridge  over  the  Oise 
was  destroyed ;  and  traffic  now  depends  upon  a  rough  plank 
structure.  As  we  came  up,  a  soldier's  funeral  was  crossing, 
a  priest  at  its  head  with  two  tiny  acolytes,  then  the  coffin 
covered  with  a  flag,  on  which  lay  a  small  cross  of  thin  wood, 
and,  last,  a  file  of  the  dead  man's  comrades-in-arms.  The 
sad  procession  was  too  familiar  a  thing  to  attract  much  at- 
tention from  the  townsfolk. 

Here  we  left  the  woods,  and  entered  a  region  of  vast, 
warm,  rolling  downs,  cut  periodically  by  the  valley  of  a 
westward-moving  river — the  Oise,  the  Somme,  the  smaller 
Authie  and  Canche,  and,  lastly,  the  Lys,  which,  however, 
runs  north-eastward,  between  Hazebrouck  and  Lille,  to  join 
the  Scheldt  at  Ghent.  All  these  streams  have  played  their 
part  in  the  war — the  Somme  and  Oise,  in  particular,  by 


BEHIND  THE  WESTERN  WALL  317 

giving  the  British  and  French  armies  opportunities  for  de- 
laying actions  during  the  great  retreat,  and  the  Lys  as  the 
border-line  of  the  effort  to  relieve  Lille.  After  the  battle 
of  the  Marne,  or,  rather,  after  the  battle  of  the  Aisne  had 
ended  in  the  deadlock  which  still  continues,  the  geographi- 
cal character  of  the  campaign  altered.  The  Allies  turned 
the  western  corner  between  Montdidier  and  Compiegne,  and 
hurried  northward  in  an  effort  to  outflank  the  German 
right,  and  to  break  across  its  lines  of  communication.  This 
effort  failed — both  sides  extended  their  lines  till,  from  above 
Paris,  straight  up  to  the  North  Sea  coast  in  Belgium,  there 
stood  a  double  wall  which  could  be  pressed  a  little  this  way 
or  that,  but  which  neither  side  has  yet  been  able  to  break 
down.  A  human  wall,  every  brick  of  which  is  a  sacred  life, 
a  wall  needing  daily  repair  at  a  cost  that  can  never  be  meas- 
ured, resting  upon  scores  of  thousands  of  new-made  graves, 
and  the  ruins  of  ancient  country  towns— Lassigny,  Roye, 
Chaulnes,  Albert,  Bapaume,  Arras,  La  Basse'e,  Armentieres 
— and  villages  whose  sufferings  will  not  win  even  the  honor 
of  a  record  in  history. 

Behind  this  fire-riven,  smoke-crowned  wall  facing  east 
and  west  through  a  hundred  miles  of  northern  France,  the 
downs  climb  up  from  the  river  valleys,  and  roll  away  to  the 
coast.  The  deadness  of  winter  lies  over  the  open  lands ;  and 
in  a  belt  twenty  or  thirty  miles  wide  the  small  communities 
are  living  almost  wholly  on  and  for  the  army.  In  the  few 
hotels  and  large  inns,  officers  and  the  more  substantial  sort 
of  refugee  or  displaced  inhabitant  crowd  together  in  some- 
thing almost  approaching  to  comfort.  Amiens,  the  only 
considerable  city  along  the  line,  drags  on  a  thin,  dull  kind 
of  existence.  The  trams  are  running;  the  shop  windows  cry 
out  for  the  return  of  the  wealthier  inhabitants,  who  fled 
when  the  Germans  came,  but  did  not  like  military  and  police 
rule  well  enough  to  come  back  when  they  left.  Placards  of 
September  4  may  still  be  seen  on  the  public  buildings  warn- 
ing the  citizens  not  to  make  hostile  demonstrations,  for- 


318    ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

bidding  motor-cars  to  leave  the  town,  and  stopping  the  sale 
of  all  newspapers.  Though  the  trenches  are  only  twenty 
miles  away,  there  is  no  fear  of  a  new  visitation  of  the 
enemy,  with  new  lists  of  requisitions,  fines,  and  hostages. 
But  everything  is  abnormal;  all  usual  interests  and  duties 
have  lost  tljeir  weight;  one  single  reality — typified  in  the 
ambulances  and  hospitals,  and  the  trains  of  supply  wagons 
— dominates  the  thoughts  of  every  man  and  woman,  and 
even  of  the  urchins  who  crowd  about  us  as  though  visitors 
from  Paris  were  as  rare  as  a  thumping  good  dinner. 

From  Amiens,  we  went  north-eastward,  getting  off  our 
route  and  too  near  the  zone  of  fire  below  Arras.  Between  the 
scattered,  solitary  farms,  on  the  fine  highroad  or  the  muddy 
bypaths,  we  met  occasional  wayfarers,  carrying  packs 
on  their  backs,  or  pushing  a  barrowful  of  household  goods, 
and,  more  frequently,  a  Red  Cross  car,  a  column  of  cavalry- 
men taking  up  remounts,  or  a  line  of  big,  hooded  supply 
wagons.  Some  of  the  villages  are  simply  dead,  only  a  few 
miserable  old  folk  remaining.  Others  have  been  taken  pos- 
session of  for  rest-camps  or  depots;  and  here  you  see  the 
streets  of  cottages  bustling  with  the  come-and-go  of  privates, 
petty  officers,  and  transport  drivers,  the  yards  full  of  horses 
corraled  under  rough  straw  shelters.  Then  again,  you  are 
out  upon  the  bare  countryside,  the  expanse  of  fields  broken 
only  by  clumps  of  trees,  haycocks,  or  heaps  of  manure  and 
ensilage — a  ragged,  afflicted  scene. 

The  road  runs  down  into  Doullens,  past  the  high  brick 
wall  of  the  old  citadel,  now  a  Red  Cross  station,  and  up  over 
another  plateau  toward  St.  Pol.  These  two  old-fashioned 
market  towns  are  the  chief  points  on  two  railways  connect- 
ing the  coast  with  Arras.  Unfortunately  the  Germans  have, 
on  their  side  of  the  great  wall,  many  small  towns  that  must 
be  very  useful  to  them  for  supplies,  and  a  close  network  of 
railways.  Beyond  St.  Pol  the  air  has  a  more  northerly  bite ; 
on  the  bleak  hills  large  farmhouses,  with  deep  tiled  roofs, 
are  more  frequent,  and  the  fields,  cut  up  by  hedges  and 


BEHIND  THE  WESTERN  WALL  319 

lines  of  trees,  have  a  familiar  look.  To  our  right,  towards 
Lens  and  La  Basse'e,  pithead  dump-heaps  stand  up  for  all 
the  world  like  the  pyramids  on  the  margin  of  the  Egyptian 
desert.  A  few  smoking  chimneys  show  that  some  of  the 
collieries  are  still  at  work  in  the  rear  of  the  French  trenches. 
At  Aire,  we  cross  the  little  river  Lys,  which  has  seen  so  many 
hard  fights.  Then  we  reach  the  quietude  and  beauty  of 
Cassel,  on  its  sharp,  lonely  height,  from  which  the  sea  is 
visible  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  battle  lines  in  Belgium  on 
the  other. 

It  is  pretty  certain  that  Calais  never  loomed  in  the  mind 
of  the  German  Staff  as  prominently  as  it  did  in  certain  parts 
of  the  British  Press.  Except  as  a  scare  center,  Calais  would 
be  useless  to  the  Germans  while  the  British  fleet  is  free  and 
France  is  unconquered.  Dunkirk  would  have  been  as  good 
and  much  easier  to  take  and  keep.  At  any  rate,  the  north- 
ern battles  have  another  significance.  When  the  contend- 
ing hosts  turned  the  corner  where  the  Aisne  falls  into  the 
Oise,  and  stretched  northward  in  the  effort  each  to  outflank 
the  other,  the  attacks  became  more  and  more  desperate  as 
one  part  of  the  wall  after  another  was  solidified,  and  as  the 
point  was  being  reached,  on  the  Belgian  coast,  where  out- 
flanking became  impossible.  On  the  German  side,  particu- 
larly, they  became  most  violent  about  Ypres  and  Dixmude 
for  reasons  quite  unconnected  with  any  insane  idea  of  at- 
tempting the  invasion  of  England.  In  the  first  place,  rail- 
way communications  with  Germany  are  here  more  direct 
and  abundant  than  further  south,  so  that  it  was  easier  to 
concentrate  masses  of  men  for  a  smashing  blow.  Secondly, 
success  here  would  automatically  relieve  the  Allies'  pressure 
upon  Lille;  and  a  considerable  success  would  rob  them  of  a 
strip  of  coast  containing  four  important  seaports  in  a  space 
of  only  fifty  miles — Dunkirk,  Gravelines,  Calais,  and  Bou- 
logne. To  seize  that  strip  of  coast  would  not  really  threaten 
England;  but  it  would  be  a  most  useful  agency  of  panic 
on  the  one  hand  and  triumphant  advertisement  on  the  other; 


320    ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

and  it  would  materially  hamper  Anglo-French  communica- 
tions. 

The  northward  progress,  then,  showed  a  continual  aggra- 
vation of  attack  until  a  new  stage  of  deadlock  was  reached. 
Deadlock,  however,  is  only  a  relative  term.  In  this  case,  it 
involves  unceasing  struggle  for  trivial  advantages,  under 
conditions  the  most  trying  warfare  has  ever  presented — ex- 
cept that  there  is  no  actual  starvation,  and  that  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  sick  and  wounded  quickly  recover,  thanks 
chiefly  to  the  excellent  road  and  railway  services  on  both 
sides.  It  is  for  the  present,  on  the  part  of  the  Allies,  a  con- 
test of  endurance  and  organization,  preparatory  to  a  more 
decided  offensive.  There  is  already  a  real  resumption  of  the 
offensive,  but  it  is  more  apparent  in  the  spirit  of  the  men 
than  in  the  outward  course  of  events.  They  know  that  there 
is  a  long,  hard  path  before  them;  but  there  is  no  sign  of 
wavering.  One  peculiarly  damaging  effect  of  the  spirit  of 
conquest  is  that  it  blinds  its  victims  to  the  extraordinary 
power  of  will  which  it  arouses  in  defense  of  a  threatened 
fatherland.  And  a  Prussian  war  of  conquest  excites  this 
resistance  in  the  highest  degree,  because  the  Prussian  spirit 
of  dominance  combines  so  many  odious  qualities  and  is  re- 
pugnant alike  to  all  the  nations,  and  every  part  of  each, 
that  is  threatened  by  it.  Differing  in  nearly  everything 
else,  they  agree  upon  this,  that  a  Prussian  victory  or  Prus- 
sian rule  are  things  utterly  and  finally  intolerable. 

It  is  a  very  simple  frame  of  mind ;  but  the  faces  we  see, 
the  talk  we  hear,  the  concentration  of  energy  which  seems 
to  increase  as  we  approach  our  destination  at  the  end  of  the 
great  north  road  of  France,  all  impress  afresh  upon  us  the 
elementary  truth  that  the  Allies  will  win  because  the  peoples 
know  that  European  life  would  be  unbearable  without  this 
victory.  The  khaki-clad  Englishmen  look  younger,  trimmer, 
more  expert.  The  French  in  their  long  blue  coats,  so  often 
ill-fitting  and  shabby,  look  more  like  fathers  and  citizens. 
There  are  differences  more  real  than  those  of  appearance, 


BEHIND  THE  WESTERN  WALL  521 

deep  differences  of  experience  and  character.  But,  as  the 
night  comes  up  around  us,  with  its  great  winds  and  its  bitter 
cold;  as  the  mighty  wagons,  with  blazing  headlights,  loom 
up  out  of  the  mystery  before  us  and  pass  into  the  darkness 
behind ;  as  we  catch  a  sound  of  song  in  passing  through  the 
shadows  of  a  village  camp,  or  meet  the  challenge  of  pickets 
on  the  edge  of  a  town  where  larger  movements  are  afoot,  I 
reflect  that  there  is  being  forged  in  this  dreadful  furnace  of 
war  a  brotherhood  of  two  races  such  as  diplomatists  could 
never  conceive,  a  unity  of  heart  and  purpose  that  may  last 
out  our  time,  if  we  are  wise,  and  far  beyond. 


CHAPTER  XXV 
FROM  FURNES  TO  YPRES 

At  the  Front  in  Flanders,  November  28. 
There  is,  in  a  certain  village  just  behind  the  canal  which 
runs  southward,  twelve  miles,  from  Dixmude  to  Ypres,  a 
certain  trench  from  which,  if  ever,  the  Invisible  War  should 
become  visible.  It  represents  the  advanced  firing-line  at  a 
point  where  the  battle  of  the  Yser  took,  and  may  again  take, 
a  character  of  sustained  violence.  It  is  of  a  construction 
that  has  become  familiar  from  newspaper  photographs — not 
one  of  the  extensive  subterranean  galleries  with  kitchens 
and  rest-rooms  that  are  to  be  the  winter  quarters  (perhaps) 
of  the  Allied  lines  further  south,  but  a  narrow  alley  cut 
deep  in  the  brown,  clayey  soil,  with  transverse  sections,  and, 
in  the  front,  an  open  gallery  at  which  the  riflemen  stand. 
The  opening  is  only  about  18  in.  deep,  from  the  turfed  and 
sanded  roof,  supported  by  pieces  of  tree-trunk,  to  the 
ledge  on  which  the  rifles  lie  in  action.  The  nearest  build- 
ing of  the  village  is  within  a  stone's  throw.  The  men 
have  no  need  here  for  more  extensive  arrangements;  they 
come  down,  and  are  relieved  at  intervals,  and  the  line  of 
communications  is  so  good  that  the  intervals  need  not  be 
long.  The  German  trenches  are  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Yser  Canal,  no  more  than  300  yards  away  to  the  east. 
Imagine  the  excited  interest  with  which  we  looked  out  upon 
this  expanse  of  dead-flat  land,  fields  of  grass  and  stubble 
broken  by  hedges,  dykes,  and  lines  of  polders,  where  one  of 
the  crucial  stages  of  the  mightiest  conflict  of  modern  times 
has  just  been  settled. 

322 


FROM  FURNES  TO  YPRES  323 

There  is  no  doubt  about  the  bloody  work  that  has  been 
done.  Most  of  this  village  is  in  ruins — a  few  blackened 
walls,  yawning  over  heaps  of  brick  aud  plaster,  mark  what 
were  lately  its  humbly  prosperous  homes;  the  church  is  a 
broken  skeleton,  the  vane  and  tip  of  the  steeple  hanging 
over  on  a  thread  which  I  guess  to  be  the  lightning  conductor. 
It  is  still  a  mark  for  the  German  artillerymen — the  boo-o-m 
of  their  big  guns  breaks  out  intermittently ;  and  a  battery  of 
French  field-pieces  close  to  our  right  replies  with  its  lighter 
rat-tat-tat.  But  all  we  can  actually  see  from  our  trench 
can  be  put  in  a  couple  of  sentences.  A  shell  bursts  rather 
uncomfortably  near,  with  a  sudden  flash  of  fire  and  cloud  of 
dust.  Further  away,  to  the  north,  a  small  village  is  blaz- 
ing, yellow  tongues  of  flame  rising  clear  against  the  gray 
sky.  Not  a  single  human  being  is  visible  at  any  point  of  the 
compass. 

The  particular  phase  of  the  battle  of  Flanders  which  has 
been  and  probably  will  continue  to  be  called  the  Battle  of 
the  Yser — that  is,  the  desperate  effort  of  the  Germans  to  get 
across  the  canal — is  over.  Fighting  continues;  but  it  has 
not  yet  revealed  any  new  objective,  and  one  has  the 
impression  that  it  is  only  a  mischievous  sort  of  marking 
time,  a  warning  from  each  side  that  it  is  not  to  be  caught 
unawares,  that  the  last  word  is  not  yet  said.  The  fighting, 
however,  does  unmistakably  continue,  for  we  have  watched 
the  ammunition  wagons  going  in  at  one  end  of  the  process, 
and  the  ambulances  taking  the  wounded  men  out  at  the 
other  end.  But  it  bears  hardly  any  resemblance  to  the 
product  of  heated  imaginations  which  I  have  called  the 
romantic  illusion. 

While  we  were  hurrying  through  from  Furnes  to  Ypres, 
along  the  highway  which  runs  parallel  with  the  Franco- 
Belgian  lines,  a  breakdown  in  front  brought  us  to  a  sudden 
stop.  The  best  of  these  Flanders  roads  consists  of  a  cobbled 
center  not  wide  enough  for  two  vehicles  to  pass,  with  broad 
bands  of  mud  on  either  side.     For  twenty  minutes  we  stood 


324.   ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

watching  a  dozen  Zouaves,  with  several  horses,  trying  to 
get  a  cart  out  of  a  hole  in  the  road.  The  guns  were  banging 
away  to  north  and  south  of  us,  and  once  a  rain  of  shrapnel 
burst  over  a  line  of  willows  just  across  a  field  on  our  left. 
To  me  there  was  much  more  reality  in  the  bogged  cart  than 
in  the  shrapnel.  They  say  it  is  bullets,  not  shells,  that  the 
men  fear.  I  can  understand  this  now  without  being  able 
clearly  to  explain.  The  one  is  a  silent,  multitudinous  mes- 
senger of  death;  the  other  makes  a  noise  and  a  show  alto- 
gether disproportionate  to  the  damage  done — at  least,  in  the 
open  field.     Among  buildings  it  is  another  story. 

We  examined  Pervyse  and  Ypres  particularly.  Pervyse 
lies  six  miles  east  of  Furnes  and  half-way  between  Nieuport 
and  Dixmude.  This  large  village  was  one  of  the  points  of 
stress  in  the  second  phase  of  the  battle  of  Flanders.  The 
first  phase  may  be  counted  as  extending  from  the  cavalry 
advance  which  protected  the  landing  of  the  British  Expedi- 
tionary Force  to  the  rallying  of  the  Belgian  army  after  the 
fall  of  Antwerp ;  and  it  consisted  essentially  in  delaying  the 
German  advance.  The  second  phase  centered  in  the  German 
attempt  to  get  round  the  Allies  by  the  coast  way,  between 
Nieuport  and  Dixmude,  the  former  place  being  defended  by 
the  Belgians  (to  the  point  of  absolute  exhaustion),  under 
General  Grosseti,  and  the  latter,  with  heroic  obstinacy,  by 
Admiral  Ronarc'h  and  his  Marines.  These  attacks  being 
defeated,  there  followed  what  has  been  called  the  Battle  of 
the  Dykes,  the  defense  by  inundation  which  proved  locally 
decisive;  and  the  center  of  pressure  was  then  moved  south- 
ward, the  Germans  trying  to  break  through  between  Bix- 
schoote  and  St.  Eloi — that  is  to  say,  around  Ypres. 

If  either  Pervyse  or  Ypres  had  been  lost,  the  effort  to  keep 
a  hold  upon  at  least  a  corner  of  Belgian  territory  would 
have  failed,  and  the  Allied  line  southward  would  have  been 
imperiled.  Both  places  are  important  road  centers,  and 
both  are  served  by  railways — matters  of  critical  moment  in 
this  country  of  dykes  and  ditches.    Both,  therefore,  were 


FROM  FURNES  TO  YPRES  325 

defended  with  desperate  determination,  and  with  such  suc- 
cess that,  after  losing  120,000  men  in  three  weeks,  the  Ger- 
man army  had  no  more  strength  to  attack,  and  has  now 
lain  idle  in  its  trenches  for  a  week,  apparently  incapable  of 
a  new  initiative. 

We  came  to  Pervyse  along  the  cobbled  causeway,  under 
a  faint  winter  sun  that  silvered  the  canals  and  the  flooded 
meadows.  The  windmills,  the  white  cottages,  the  bulbous 
church  towers,  which  are  the  common  features  of  the  Flem- 
ish landscape,  now  look  down  upon  no  humdrum  labors 
of  home  and  field,  but  upon  columns  of  blue-coated  infantry- 
men marching  to  or  from  the  front,  batteries  ingeniously 
hidden  in  the  willow  thickets,  Red  Cross  vans  laagered  in 
the  farmyards,  upon  pickets  of  Dragoons  and  Cuirassiers 
and  parks  of  artillery,  pitched  and  bivouacked  in  orchards 
and  gardens,  and  upon  all  manner  of  convoys — intermi- 
nable lines  of  ammunition  wagons,  supply  wagons,  and  cars 
carrying  or  to  carry  the  wounded  to  the  nearest  ambulance. 
Through  hurly-burly  such  as  this  we  came  to  Pervyse.  I 
have  seen  ruins,  south  of  the  Marne  and  the  Aisne,  that 
hurt  me  more,  because  there  was  time  to  learn  what  such 
an  agony  of  modest  homesteads  may  mean.  Pervyse  cannot 
have  been  anything  but  a  very  modest  townlet;  and,  as  it 
is  still  under  fire,  and  the  courteous  officers  under  whose 
guidance  the  French  Government  has  placed  us  are 
unconscionably  anxious  for  our  safety,  there  was  no  op- 
portunity to  realize  fully  how  this  little  community  was 
destroyed. 

Many  of  the  houses  show  marks  of  rifle-fire,  as  well  as  the 
shattering  effect  of  shells.  There  remains  a  part  of  the 
outer  walls  of  a  large  building  that  seems  to  have  been  a 
convent,  for,  high  above  the  central  doorway,  the  figures  of 
Virgin  and  Child  still  stand  in  their  niche,  overlooking  the 
scene  of  desolation  and  blind  fury.  Threading  our  way  over 
a  litter  of  broken  masonry,  timber,  and  ironwork  in  the 
churchyard,    we   reach    the   entrance   to   the   church,   now 


326    ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

blocked  by  a  mass  of  rubble,  on  top  of  which  lies  a  great 
bell,  fallen  from  the  tower.  The  transept  and  aisles  are 
quite  open  to  the  sky ;  and  the  floor  is  buried  deep  in  broken 
brick  and  glass  and  charred  fragments  of  the  roof.  The 
tower  stands,  but  it  has  a  perceptible  tilt,  which  is  said  to 
be  due  to  the  force  of  the  shell-fire. 

They  tell  a  story  of  a  certain  general  sitting  calmly  in  a 
chair  at  a  street  corner  near  Pervyse  church  for  two  hours, 
while  shot  and  shell  were  showered  upon  the  place.  The 
French  officers  repeat  these  fables  with  the  tolerant,  take- 
it-or-leave-it  air  of  the  scientific  man  who  knows  that  the 
mighty  public  must  be  entertained,  but  knows  also  that  all 
popular  fables  are  essentially  true.  I  think  there  was  an  ad- 
dition to  the  story — of  a  British  officer  passing  by  who  did 
not  altogether  approve  of  this  sort  of  heroism.  That,  also, 
sounds  true.  The  French  greatly  value  what  they  call  a 
"  beau  geste."  We  have  not  the  word  because  we  have  not 
the  thing.  For  a  "  geste  "  is  more  than  a  "  gesture."  The 
one  is  a  trifling  sign ;  the  other  is  a  dramatic  symbol,  given 
and  received  with  equal  sincerity.  Many  a  thing  is  neces- 
sary to  an  army  of  two  or  three  millions  that  has  never 
been,  and  never  needed  to  be,  contemplated  for  professional 
troops.  But  the  differences  lie  deeper  down  in  the  minds 
of  the  two  peoples;  and  probably  these  differences,  so  far 
from  being  causes  of  misunderstanding,  actually  contribute 
to  the  affectionate  interest  that  draws  them  together  to-day 
more  closely  than  any  political  bonds  can  do.  The  martial 
Frenchman  must  have  his  beau  geste.  Atkins  demands  cap- 
able management.  They  are  each  getting  what  they  want 
in  full  measure. 

Ypres  is  not  on  all  fours  with  Pervyse.  The  latter  is  a 
small  place;  and,  if  a  small  place  is  obstinately  defended, 
the  fact  that  its  chief  building  is  a  church  will  not  avail  to 
protect  it  from  bombardment.  Ypres  is,  or  rather  was,  a 
town  of  18,000  inhabitants.  Its  unique  historical  and 
architectural  interest  was  universally  known.     If  ever  a 


FROM  FURNES  TO  YPRES  S27 

thought  be  given  in  war-time  to  the  precious  memorials  of 
the  past,  to  the  beauty  that  genius  has  made  and  time  has 
enriched,  here  and  now  was  the  occasion  for  such  a  restrain- 
ing thought.  The  officers  of  the  Allies  say  that  there  is  no 
military  excuse  for  this  fifteen  days'  bombardment,  and  that, 
in  any  case,  shrapnel  would  have  been  as  effective  as  big 
shells,  except  for  the  purpose  of  sheer  destruction. 

What  I  saw  for  myself  is,  perhaps,  more  conclusive.  It 
is  that,  while  large  parts  of  the  town  have  suffered  no  in- 
jury, the  famous  Linen  Hall  and  the  equally  ancient,  though 
less  rare  and  beautiful,  Cathedral  of  St.  Martin  are  practi- 
cally destroyed,  with  a  number  of  the  quaint  old  houses 
around  them,  including  the  "  Nieuwerck,"  a  little  two-story 
building  in  Spanish  Renaissance  style,  dating  from  1620, 
attached  to  the  east  end  of  the  Linen  Hall,  containing  the 
municipal  offices,  and  commonly  called  the  Town  Hall.  This 
result  could  not  be  accidental.  It  stands  as  clearly  against 
the  German  commanders  as  the  less  serious  damage  to 
Rheims  Cathedral,  and  the  destruction  of  Louvain.  Here, 
as  at  Louvain,  the  injury  to  civilization  is  irreparable.  The 
high  roof  of  the  Halles  has  gone  completely;  its  charred 
fragments  strew  the  pavement  of  the  pillared  naves,  which 
formed  the  ground-floor  of  the  vast  building.  The  windows 
are  all  shattered,  the  tiny  diamond  panes  lying  amid  the 
heaps  of  brick  and  mortar  within,  and  on  the  pavement 
outside.  Of  the  "  Nieuwerck,"  which  was  only  slightly  dam- 
aged by  the  earlier  bombardment,  nothing  now  remains 
standing.  The  delicate  pinnacles  at  the  corners  of  the 
Halles  still  point  up  naked  to  the  sky — strangely  naked 
without  their  familiar  background.  The  fine  rafters  and  the 
long  gallery  of  the  Cloth  Hall  have  disappeared;  and  the 
remarkable  wall  paintings  are  hopelessly  defaced.  Nothing 
stands  inside  but  the  pillars — poor  skeletons  that  cry  aloud 
for  pity,  like  the  pillars  at  Pompeii,  or  the  Propylea  on  the 
Acropolis  of  Athens.  The  great  central  tower  shows  a 
huge  rent  in  the  upper  part  where  the  clock  was;  and  on 


328    ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

both  sides  of  the  tower  the  facade  of  the  Cloth  Hall  has  been 
smashed  in. 

Opposite  this  side  of  the  Halles,  a  number  of  houses  have 
been  gutted,  fragments  only  of  the  outer  walls  standing 
amid  piles  of  rubble.  On  the  other  side  lies  the  Cathedral. 
We  could  not  get  within,  for  the  entrance  is  blocked  by  a 
mound  of  still  smoking  mortar  and  stone,  the  top  of  which 
was  lit  by  a  faint  flame  throwing  out  curious  little  sparks. 
This  was  the  remains  of  the  belfry.  Of  the  interior  we 
could  only  see  that  there  was  no  longer  a  roof,  and  that  the 
floor  was  a  horrible  chaos.  Everybody  notices  the  odd 
things  that  escape  the  common  fate  amid  these  calamities. 
The  stone  effigy  of  some  local  worthy  stands  in  the  path 
leading  to  the  central  door  of  the  Cathedral,  quite  unhurt — 
as  though  to  emphasize  the  greater  glories  that  are  gone  for 
ever.  In  the  street  just  outside,  a  shell  has  dug  a  hole  large 
enough  to  swallow  up  a  horse  and  cart:  it  happened  to 
strike  the  top  of  one  of  the  town  sewers.  The  station  was 
naturally  the  first  mark  for  the  German  guns;  and,  in  the 
neighboring  square,  houses,  a  large  factory,  and  a  large 
school  have  been  knocked  to  bits.  But  all  this  is  nothing 
beside  the  loss  of  that  which  has  been  a  joy  and  pride  to 
good  men  for  600  years  and,  having  been  demolished  in  a 
fortnight  of  frenzy,  can  now  never  be  replaced. 

Out  to  the  north  and  south  of  Ypres,  as  we  left  the  now 
depopulated  town,  the  infantry  of  the  Allies  were  pushing 
their  lines  a  little  forward.  They  might  have  been  a  thou- 
sand miles  away  for  all  we  could  see  of  them.  The  boom 
and  rattle  of  the  guns,  close,  yet  muffled  like  stage  thunder, 
followed  us  as  we  passed  through  the  dead  streets,  and 
reached  the  mud-bound  causeway  which  is  one  of  the  main 
arteries  of  the  war. 

You  want  to  go  further  out  there  to  the  east,  to  the 
trenches  and  bridge-heads  of  the  Yser,  into  the  villages  by 
Bixschoote  (which  was  described  to  me  as  a  furnace  full 
of  unburied  bodies),  and  the  mysterious  woods  toward  Mes- 


FROM  FURNES  TO  YPRES        329 

sines  where  the  Germans  Lave  held  so  hard?  So  do  we,  my 
dear  sir.  But  we  have  a  scrupulous  guardian.  The  nature 
of  things,  not  any  human  law,  however,  is  the  real  obstacle. 
No  one,  save  those  who  have  lived  in  the  trenches,  will  ever 
know  what  life  there  is  really  like.  My  impression  is  that 
nearly  all  the  heroic  stories  falsify  the  facts.  They  crowd 
together  into  a  small  space  and  time  incidents  which  were 
scattered  widely  and  happened  with  undramatic  slowness 
and  inconsequence.  The  most  real  thing  about  the  battle- 
field proper  must  be  the  long  intervals  of  sheer  boredom, 
sordid  labor  which  will  not  bear  to  be  told,  and  silent, 
dogged  endurance.  The  occasional  incidents — such  is  the 
universal  passion  for  a  stirring  story — are  incredibly  mag- 
nified. Some  eloquent  sentences  have  been  written  about 
fighting  amid  snow  during  the  last  few  days.  There  has 
certainly  been  some  snow,  but  from  Paris  to  Ypres  I  could 
not  discover  a  teaspoonful  of  it  remaining.  I  was  told  a 
thrilling  story,  reminiscent  of  the  Beresina  a  century  ago, 
about  several  German  regiments  advancing  across  the  ice- 
bound Yser  and  being  swallowed  up — the  ice  on  the  ponds 
to-day  would  not  carry  a  dog.  As  though  the  hostelry  of 
the  Noble  Rose,  in  Fumes,  had  not  seen  enough  of  high 
romance  in  the  three  centuries  of  its  history,  they  say  that 
on  All  Saints'  Day,  while  the  Belgian  officers  were  at  dinner 
in  the  little  back  room  overlooking  the  yard,  a  German  shell 
went  clean  through  the  upper  part  of  the  building  and  fell 
into  the  narrow  street.  I  found  perfect  peace  in  Furnes: 
thus  the  tide  ebbs  and  flows. 

Some  stories  attain,  as  I  have  said,  a  sort  of  collective  or 
symbolical  truth.  It  is,  I  suppose,  for  that  kind  of  value 
that  soldiers  themselves  like  the  war  pictures  of  Detaille. 
But,  in  general,  the  romantic  illusion  is  mischievous,  be- 
cause it  hides  the  real  life  of  war,  which  is  not  a  picnic  re- 
lieved by  episodes  of  a  peculiar  sort  of  play-acting,  but  a 
perpetual  round  of  labor  incredibly  hard,  with  spells  of  ut- 
ter lassitude  intermingled;  of  acute  sufferings  from  hunger 


330    ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

and  thirst,  cold  which  pierces  the  weak  places  of  the  body 
and  pulls  down  the  courage  of  the  strong,  and,  in  a  minority 
of  cases,  the  pain  of  actual  wounds.  These  things  are  not, 
in  fact,  shown  up  by  any  scene-shifter's  limelight;  but,  for 
him  who  has  the  eyes  to  see,  they  are  irradiated  from  within 
by  a  spirit  as  high  and  strong  as  any  reflected  in  our  old 
story-books.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  press  this  view  insistently, 
because  you  must  empty  the  bottle  of  falsehood  before  you 
can  fill  it  with  truth.  The  parents  and  wives  and  brothers 
and  children  of  those  at  the  front  want  to  know  what  sort 
of  a  life  their  men  are  living,  and  they  have  every  right  to 
know.     Would  that  it  were  easier  to  tell  them ! 

I  remember  tumbling  into  the  midst  of  a  French  infantry 
regiment  on  the  first  day  of  the  battle  of  the  Marne.  It  was 
my  first  glimpse  of  the  edge  of  war;  and  I  felt  like  W.  T. 
Stead  when,  in  his  last  years,  he  went  to  the  theater  for 
the  first  time.  Where  was  the  regimental  band?  There 
wasn't  one;  and  from  then  till  now  I  have  never  seen  one. 
There  are  no  more  bands  and  standards ;  they  are  beginning 
even  to  cover  the  blue  and  red  uniforms  of  France  with 
khaki,  as  they  have  already  covered  the  too-brilliant  helmets 
and  cuirasses.  War  has  become  invisible,  not  by  choice, 
but  by  necessity.  Why  could  we  not  see  the  infantry  push- 
ing forward  their  lines  just  outside  Ypres  yesterday?  Be- 
cause they  were  underground,  and  their  progress  probably 
consisted  only  in  the  capture  of  a  score  of  yards  by  mining. 
This  is  not  the  whole  story  of  the  front,  but  it  is  by  far 
the  greater,  and  an  increasing,  part  of  it.  At  the  present 
moment  almost  the  whole  line  from  the  North  Sea  into 
Alsace  is  stationary,  and  is  underground.  Battles  in  the 
olden  sense  are  rare,  and  will  become  rarer.  That  sort  of 
thing  is  disappearing,  and  with  it  the  fierce  pride  of  the  old 
warriors,  their  professional  habits,  and  their  superstitions 
of  glory.     Whether  we  like  it  or  no,  so  it  is. 

But  courage  does  not  disappear;  it  is  impossible  that  men 
can   ever  have  endured   monstrous   evils   more   cheerfully, 


FROM  FURNES  TO  YPRES  331 

and  individual  capacity  and  morale  are  infinitely  higher 
than  they  can  have  been  in  any  previous  war.  I  have  met 
in  the  last  three  months  a  number  of  bloodthirsty  journal- 
ists, but  not  one  bloodthirsty  soldier  (except  a  poor  Tommy, 
half-mad  from  fatigue,  who  wanted  to  shoot  me  for  a  spy). 
The  Frenchmen  strike  one  as  quick  enough,  when  needed, 
for  an  adventure,  and  at  the  same  time  as  serious  citizens, 
fathers  of  families,  factory  and  office  workers,  or  owners 
of  little  shops  and  farms,  whose  inspiration,  whatever  the 
original  responsibilities  for  the  war  may  have  been,  is  noth- 
ing less  than  duty.  The  Britons  are  younger  on  the  average; 
and  a  finer  set  of  men  you  could  not  hope  to  see.  Often 
shy,  generally  silent,  hating  heroics,  if  you  want  anything 
doing,  here's  your  man.  Though  we  crossed  them  repeatedly 
we  were  not  officially  taken  to  any  part  of  the  British  lines. 
But,  among  various  chances,  the  luck  of  a  motor  mishap 
gave  me  half  an  hour's  talk  with  men  of  the  Army  Service 
Corps,  and  particularly  with  one  of  those  sergeants  in  whom 
you  have  the  average  British  stuff  at  its  best— clean,  straight 
fellows,  now  tanned  and  lined  about  the  cheeks  and  jaw, 
but  with  the  keenness  of  intelligent  youth  in  their  laughing 
eyes ;  all  alive,  and  ready  for  anything,  men  to  be  proud  of, 
men  infinitely  too  good  for  this  filthy  business  of  war. 

It  was  a  dark,  icy  night,  with  the  moon  flitting  between 
1  tanks  of  cloud  over  a  village  not  a  hundred  miles  from 
Hazebrouck.  A  hundred  and  thirty  big  motor-wagons,  in 
charge  of  this  company  of  the  A.S.C.,  were  ranged  up  the 
two  sides  of  the  village  street — awkward,  delicate,  very 
precious  beasts,  that  must  be  nursed  and  coaxed  and 
watched  if  they  are  to  do  their  work  well ;  and  the  break- 
down of  a  single  wagon  may  mean  that  some  hundreds  of 
men  needing  all  you  can  give  them,  and  much  more,  must 
go  short.  So  the  wagons  must  have,  like  the  men,  not  only 
food  (and  one  wonders  how  all  the  wells  in  the  world  can 
produce  enough  petrol  for  them),  but  hospitals  for  when 
they  are  wounded.    The  company  has  three  complete  work- 


332    ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

shops  on  wheels,  with  each  its  dynamo  and  full  tool  equip- 
ment; and  it  seemed  to  me  there  was  hardly  anything  they 
could  not  do,  in  their  narrow  space  under  the  tarpaulin 
covers.  The  sergeant  told  me,  while  his  men  set  our  head- 
lights going,  that  since  the  beginning  of  September,  includ- 
ing the  retreat  from  Antwerp,  his  company  had  not  lost  a 
man  or  a  machine.  He  said  it  with  the  touch  of  proud 
affection  with  which  an  old  rider  speaks  of  his  favorite 
horse.  "  Necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention,"  he  quoted ; 
and,  'pon  my  soul,  the  hackneyed  proverb  sounded  all  new 
and  vital.  It  was  bitterly  cold  among  the  wagons  under 
the  pale  moonshine  as  we  parted.  I  hope  those  fellows 
will  get  back  home  safely. 

It  is  work,  business,  organization,  and  nothing  like  stage 
play,  with  the  officers  also.  In  a  certain  curious  little  town 
which  must  not  be  named,  we  suddenly  learned,  by  the  fact 
that  he  invited  us  to  meet  him,  that  we  were  in  the  midst 
of  the  Etat-Major  of  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  four 
northern  armies,  General  Foch.  The  general  of  to-day  does 
not  go  about  the  battlefields  on  a  prancing  charger.  He  sits 
still  in  an  obscure  house,  working  out  the  plans  of  the  war 
as  though  it  were  a  particularly  long,  hard,  and  momentous 
game  of  chess.  There  was  no  sign  whatever  to  mark  this 
house  out  from  its  terrace  neighbors;  and,  within,  there 
was  no  sign  of  pomp  or  comfort.  A  short,  quick-moving, 
clear-glanced  man  stepped  out  of  an  inner  room — the  en- 
gineer's office  of  the  northern  campaign — and  stood  for 
three  or  four  minutes  in  our  midst.  After  greetings,  he 
uttered  a  sharp  speech  of  about  a  hundred  words,  noting 
the  critical  character  of  the  twenty  days'  battle,  the  endur- 
ance and  gallantry  of  the  men,  and  the  greatness  of  the 
issue.  We  had  not  time  to  thank  him  ere  he  had  said 
good-by  and  returned  to  his  work.  I  had  been  re-reading 
Se'gur,  and  could  not  but  contrast  the  new  method  with  the 
theatrical  comings  and  goings  of  the  greatest  of  soldiers. 
General  Foch  is  responsible  for  a  host  larger  than  any  Na- 


FROM  FURNES  TO  YPRES  333 

poleon  led,  with  the  possible  exception  of  the  disastrous 
Russian  expedition.  But  no  Napoleonic  legend  will  gather 
around  his  person  or  memory;  and  to  say  this  is  not  to 
shadow  a  distinguished  name,  but  simply  to  record  our 
passage  into  a  new  phase  in  the  development  of  the  world. 

We  should  think  of  the  war  in  terms  of  the  new  facts. 
It  is  a  narrow  red  line,  some  ten  miles  wide  and  350  miles 
long,  with,  on  either  side,  a  hinterland  whose  colossal  activ- 
ities are  directed  into  a  number  of  channels — main  roads, 
railways,  and  canals — connecting  with  the  central  line. 
There  is  never  a  dull  moment  at  the  chief  points  on  this 
system  of  communications;  and,  even  between  the  towns, 
from  Creil  into  Belgium,  the  solitude  of  the  wide  plateaux 
of  central  France  is  broken  day  and  night  by  a  never-ceas- 
ing stream  of  traffic,  all  concentrated  upon  the  one  appalling 
task.  The  great  green-hooded  country  wagon  of  our  ances- 
tors still  plays  a  modest  part,  but  the  typical  vehicle  now 
is  the  petrol  car  and  lorry.  Where  have  they  all  come  from 
— the  town  buses  and  traders'  vans,  the  powerful  touring 
cars  in  which  officers  rush  hither  and  thither;  the  hospital 
vans,  the  motor-cycles  of  the  dispatch-riders,  and,  above 
all,  the  high,  lumbering  camions  carrying  incredible  quan- 
tities of  bread,  meat,  and  other  supplies? 

The  most  trivial  incidents  of  the  road  reveal  something 
of  the  romance  of  this  vast  agitation  behind  "  the  front." 
There  was  an  English  boy  standing  sentinel  at  a  railway 
crossing  near  the  frontier,  some  mother's  darling  fresh  from  a 
public  school,  straight,  and  slight,  and  very  clean  against  the 
universal  mud  and  murk.  His  angel  face  showed  his  diffi- 
culty in  understanding  the  language  of  the  townsfolk,  and  his 
anxiety  that  it  should  not  show.  For  him,  too,  I  uttered 
my  hurried  prayer  that  he  might  come  safely  home  out  of 
this  devilry. 

A  column  of  Belgian  infantrymen  were  marching  along 
a  cobbled  causeway,  returning  from  the  trenches  to  camp. 
As  he  passed  me,  one  of  them  dropped  into  the  mud  a  big 


334        ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

book,  six  inches  long  and  two  thick,  bound  in  solid  brown 
leather.  It  was  a  Bible.  Yet  some  men  think  all  the  Cove- 
nanters are  dead. 

An  English  lady  was  standing.,  as  we  passed,  at  the  gate 
of  a  tiny  cottage  over  which  floated  the  Red  Cross,  watch- 
ing the  mushroom  smoke  of  bursting  shells,  and  awaiting 
her  wounded.  Down  the  road  a  company  of  Alpines,  with 
their  slouch  caps,  marched,  singiDg  a  tune  that  lilted  rarely. 
There  was  a  handsome  young  devil  of  a  Zouave  officer  sit- 
ting his  horse  like  an  image  of  chivalry.  Some  woman  is 
waiting  for  him  in  a  far-distant  village  with  a  heartful  of 
tears.  Three  Hindus  crouched  shiveringly  on  top  of  a  big 
cartful  of  baggage. 

We  came  through  pollard-lined,  flooded  fields  to  a  way- 
side inn  called  "  Au  Due  de  Marlborough."  The  Duke ! — 
and  the  name  conjures  up  a  hundred  pictures  of  campaigns 
in  which  England  spoke  for  interests  less  respectable  than 
now. 

The  big  hall  of  the  goods  station  at  Poperinghe  has  been 
made  into  an  ambulance  for  cases  awaiting  the  daily  hos- 
pital trains.  Three  doctors  move  about  in  the  dusk  dress- 
ing and  re-dressing  wounds,  and  saying  kindly  words.  One 
man  lying  by  me  on  a  stretcher  has  both  feet  bound  up. 
Some  of  the  patients  can  move  about,  and  are  drinking 
something  from  cups,  with  a  long-drawn  enjoyment  that, 
shows  it  is  not  medicine.  The  air  is  full  of  a  faint,  sicken- 
ing odor  of  disinfectant. 

After  these  wanderings,  a  Parisian  dinner  was  comfort- 
ing. As  I  went  to  the  pay-desk  afterward,  I  observed  that 
the  young  woman  was  softly  crying  her  heart  out. 

"  Forgive  me,  madarne,"  I  said,  "  is  it  a  relative  at  the 
war?" 

"  My  husband,"  she  replied.  "  I  have  not  heard  of  him 
for  three  months." 


CHAPTER  XXYI 
THE  DEFENSE  OF  VERDUN 

Verdun.  December  1. 

Thousands  of  French  and  German  soldiers  must  have 
noted,  as  I  did.  by  the  metal  signposts,  that  the  road  to 
Verdun  was,  for  the  one,  the  road  from  Paris  to  Metz,  and 
for  The  other,  the  road  from  Metz  to  Paris.  It  runs,  broad 
and  smooth  like  all  the  great  French  highways,  along  the 
hill  vineyards  of  the  Marne  Valley,  and  over  the  edge  of 
the  Brie  plateau  at  Montmirail,  to  Chalons,  across  the  roll- 
ing plain  of  Champagne,  and  through  the  somewhat  myste- 
rious region  now  known  to  the  reader  of  the  French  war 
bulletins  as  •■  the  Forest  of  the  Argonne." 

It  has  sometimes  been  thought  that  the  power  of  move- 
ment in  modern  times  was  such  that  physical  conditions 
would  never  influence  the  course  of  warfare  as  they  mani- 
festly did  of  old.  The  more  I  see  of  the  country,  however, 
the  more  am  I  struck  with  the  influence  of  physical  condi- 
tions in  the  present  war.  Taking  only  the  three  clearly  dis- 
tinguishable sections  of  the  route  just  named,  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  hills  above  and  below  the  Marne,  and  the  sub- 
Alpine  region  of  which  the  Argonne  and  the  Heights  of  the 
Meuse  are  twin  portions  lightly  separated,  formed  most 
important  barriers  against  the  southward  swarm  of  the 
German  host:  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  relative  tl.it 
of  the  interval  between  the  first  two  enabled  the  Wiir- 
temberg  army  to  get  sooner  to  the  south.  It  is.  again,  no 
inconsiderable  fortune  to  France  that,  in  the  west,  her 
rivers,  and  the-  hills  defining  them,  mostly  run  westward, 

335 


336        ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

while  on  the  eastern  frontier  they  mostly  run  northward. 
To  the  extent,  then,  that  these  features  constitute  an 
obstacle  (and  broken  bridges  and  defensible  heights  are  a 
real  obstacle),  both  waves  of  invasion,  the  northern  and  the 
eastern,  were  hindered.  So  far  as  the  Germans  are  now  on 
the  defensive,  they  in  turn  share  these  advantages ;  and  that 
is  one  reason,  which  modern  trenches  do  but  accentuate, 
why  the  greater  part  of  the  front  to-day  is  in  a  condition  of 
deadlock. 

You  have  only  to  see  the  hills  above  Soissons,  the  Craonne 
plateau,  the  forest-clad  slopes  about  Ste.  Menehould,  and 
the  wonderful  girdle  of  mountains  around  Verdun,  to  realize 
that  any  force,  well-armed  and  supplied,  must  be  exceed- 
ingly difficult  to  dislodge  from  such  positions.  Nearly  all 
this  country  is  of  a  great  beauty  that  emphasizes  the  horror 
of  the  scenes  of  which  it  is  the  theater.  Not  the  richly 
crowded,  vivid  beauty  of  the  best  parts  of  our  English  coun- 
tryside; but  something  more  softly  swelling  and  spacious, 
the  difference — is  it  fanciful  to  say? — between  Mrs.  Siddons 
and  the  typical  figure  of  the  Republic  on  a  coin  or  in  public 
statuary.  One  learns  to  love  (I  watch  many  a  stranded 
Tommy,  with  a  friendly  astonishment  in  his  eyes,  learning 
to  understand)  the  differences  between  peoples  and  the  lands 
that  have  made  them  what  they  are.  This,  also,  is  a  factor 
in  the  future  of  what  I  would  still  prefer  to  call  the  Entente 
Cordiale.  But,  if  I  attempt  now  to  convey  a  sense  of  the 
landscape  of  eastern  France,  it  is  for  its  more  material,  its 
military  significance. 

After  passing  through  what  they  call  "  la  Champagne 
Pouilleuse"  (poverty-stricken),  from  the  relative  infertility 
of  its  chalky  soil,  it  was  a  grateful  change  to  strike,  at  Ste. 
Menehould,  the  sudden  rise  of  the  Argonne,  grateful  as 
that  first  entry  into  the  feet  of  the  Swiss  mountains  which 
made  a  certain  morning  golden  in  our  youth.  A  little  town 
of  low-roofed  houses,  perched  on  a  rock  on  the  upper  Aisne, 
and  surrounded  by  thick  woods,  it  seems  to  have  been  acci- 


THE  DEFENSE  OF  VERDUN  337 

dentally  dropped  here  by  the  giant  who  planted  the  villages 
between  Basle  and  Berne.  Its  name,  taken  from  a  lady 
who  died  in  the  odor  of  sanctity  in  the  year  600,  marks  its 
age.  Its  more  recent  history  is  scant  but  characteristic. 
Here  Louis  XVI  was  recognized  by  a  postman  in  course 
of  his  fatal  flight;  Varennes,  where  he  was  stopped,  lies  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Argonne  ridge,  to  the  north-east — that 
is,  toward  the  nearest  part  of  the  German  frontier.  Ten 
miles  west  of  Ste.  Menehould  (and  just  north  of  the  road 
we  followed)  lies  the  battlefield  of  Valmy,  where,  in  the 
following  year,  1792,  the  soldiers  of  the  Revolution  won 
their  first  considerable  success,  driving  back  the  invading 
Brunswickers  by  their  stiff  cannonade.  The  Brunswickers 
of  to-day  are  more  redoubtable;  but  the  townlet  of  Ste. 
Menehould  remains  one  of  the  gateways  of  France,  impor- 
tant to  take  and  to  hold. 

From  this  point,  in  pouring  rain,  we  rose  by  roads  that 
twined  along  the  valley  sides,  always  flanked  by  forests 
of  smallish  trees,  close  set  with  much  undergrowth,  and — 
this  is  the  point — clearly  impenetrable  by  bodies  of  troops. 
The  Argonne  is  about  forty-six  miles  long  from  north  to 
south,  and  only  ten  miles  across.  The  hills  rarely  rise  to 
1,000  feet ;  it  is  the  woods  that  make  them  formidable.  In  the 
middle  of  its  width,  the  large  village  of  Les  Islettes  marks 
one  of  the  two  central  cross-roads ;  and  at  Clermont  we  pass 
out  of  the  mountain  belt  into  lower  land  stretching  to  Ver- 
dun. We  did  not  visit  any  part  of  the  Argonne  front,  al- 
though it  was  only  four  or  five  miles  away,  and,  among  the 
burned  and  battered  houses  of  Clermont,  firing  was  clearly 
audible.  After  seeing  the  ground,  however,  it  is  much  easier 
to  realize  the  nature  of  the  struggle  that  has  been  going 
on  for  the  last  two  months. 

The  German  lines  have  been  pressed  northward  very 
slowly  but  surely;  and  now  the  trench  and  mine  warfare 
wages  around  the  second,  more  northerly,  cross-roads,  in 
the  Bois  de  la  Grurie.    There  are,  in  fact,  only  three  main 


338   ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

roads  east  and  west  across  the  Forest;  and  there  is  only 
one  main  road  through  its  center  connecting  these,  which 
conies  down  from  the  Bois  de  la  Grurie,  through  La  Chalade, 
to  Les  Islettes,  and  so  on  to  Triaucourt.  The  first  east- 
and-west  way  is  the  Gap  of  Grand  Pre',  through  which  the 
Germans  have  useful  railway,  road,  and  river  communica- 
tions. The  second  has  been,  during  the  past  month,  and 
still  is  the  scene  of  continuous  fighting.  Running  from 
Varennes,  on  the  east,  to  Vienne-le-Chateau  on  the  west, 
the  German  lines  extend  almost  straightly  thence  through 
the  Suippe  Valley  to  just  above  Rheims.  Throughout  this 
stretch  of  country  it  is  hard  sapping  and  mining  work  be- 
tween the  closely  ranged  trenches,  with  small  engagements 
between  artillery  and  scouting  parties  in  the  difficult  forest 
heights.  The  French  are  attacking  this  critical  line  of  com- 
munications both  from  the  Souain  road  on  the  west,  and  the 
Les  Islettes  road  on  the  south.  The  third  cross-way  is  as 
solidly  French  as  the  first  is,  for  the  present,  German ;  it  is 
the  one  by  which  through  Ste.  Menehould  and  Clermont 
we  came  to  Verdun. 

Sentries  stood  in  their  thatched  boxes  in  the  dusk ;  muni- 
tion wagons  passed,  taking  out  or  coming  for  new  supplies 
— six  horses  to  each  caisson,  three  drivers,  and  four  or  five 
sleepy  fellows  riding  on  the  wagon.  Gradually  the  woods 
broke  up,  the  hills  softened  down ;  and,  after  narrowly  escap- 
ing being  cut  up  in  the  dusk  on  a  level  crossing,  we  groped 
our  way  into  the  great  fortress  town,  through  the  frowning 
gates  and  walls  of  the  ancient  citadel. 

Here  we  are,  then,  within  a  day's  march  (in  happier  times, 
not  now)  of  the  Lorraine  frontier,  and  only  forty  miles 
from  the  great  German  stronghold  of  Metz.  Verdun !  What 
memories  cling  around  the  name,  from  that  fateful  day, 
over  a  thousand  years  ago,  when  the  heritage  of  Charle- 
magne was  divided,  and  the  eternal  Franco-German  scission 
of  western  Europe  began.  It  is  not  surprising  that,  with 
such  a  background  of  history,  the  old  words  should  obsess 


THE  DEFENSE  OF  VERDUN 

our  minds,  and  become  rather  a  hindrance  than  a  help.  But 
time  is  really  a  revolutionary  youngster,  not  a  gray  dotard. 
It  never  ceases  to  spring  surprises  upon  us,  and  he  who 
seeks  facts  must  beware  of  the  pitfall  of  words.  Certainly 
Verdun  is  a  "  fortress,"  yet  of  a  kind  how  unexpected  and 
strange!  It  has  been  sealed  fast  for  the  last  four  months 
(during  which  time  much  of  France  has  been  overrun) 
against  the  Teutonic  intruder,  and  no  less  against  the  pry- 
ing journalist.  I  am  one  of  the  first  of  that  suspected  order 
to  be  privileged  to  penetrate  into  this  fastness,  and  to  see 
it  as  it  is. 

But  what  do  I  say?  "Penetrate"  ?  There  was  no  more 
apparent  difficulty  in  getting  into  Verdun  than  in  going 
down  to  Brighton  for  the  week-end.  When  the  threat  of 
capture  fell  upon  Paris  early  in  September,  it  suddenly 
became  impossible  to  enter  or  leave  the  city  without  a  special 
permit,  extremely  difficult  to  obtain.  Each  gate  on  the  line 
of  the  old  ramparts  had  its  rifle-pits  and  chevaux-dc-frise. 
Along  the  eastward  and  northward  roads,  there  were  bar- 
ricades at  which  you  were  stopped,  perhaps  ten  times  in 
the  course  of  a  mile,  to  show  your  scrap  of  pink  or  yellow 
paper.  In  the  daytime,  a  sergeant  attended  by  a  picket 
with  fixed  bayonets  came  up  to  your  car,  examined  your 
pass  as  a  bank  clerk  examines  a  dubious  check,  and  gen- 
erally made  you  feel  that,  if  you  were  not  a  German  spy, 
you  looked  precious  like  one.  At  night,  the  sentries  waved 
their  red  lanterns  across  the  road,  and  woe  betide  you  if 
you  advanced  a  foot  too  far.  The  bivouac  fire  gleamed 
against  the  black  depth  of  the  neighboring  woods;  and,  far 
behind,  the  flashlights  searched  the  sky  for  night  raiders 
who  never  came.  Such  weird  scenes,  through  which  we 
passed  to  and  from  the  battlefields  of  the  Marne  and  Aisne, 
until  we  were  warned  off  the  road  altogether,  gave  us  a 
ridiculous  sense  of  sharing  in  martial  events  and  of 
belonging  to  a  capital  city  which  was  also  a  modern 
fortress. 


340        ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

Verdun  presents  none  of  these  theatrical  effects  to  her 
rare  visitors.  It  looks  at  first  sight  about  as  warlike  as 
York  or  Chester.  Its  scarps  and  counterscarps,  moat  and 
crenellated  towers,  are  a  curiosity,  not  a  terror.  We  came 
in  after  nightfall  by  the  Porte  St.  Paul,  and  no  blue-coated 
guards  arrested  us.  We  crept  by  dark  and  narrow  ways 
through  the  upper  town,  past  the  Place  du  Gouvernement 
and  the  ancient  Cathedral,  to  General  Sarrail's  headquar- 
ters ;  then,  after  reporting  ourselves,  crossed  the  Meuse  to  our 
hotel  beside  the  town  hall.  Verdun  is  normally  a  small 
place  of  only  22,000  inhabitants;  and  there  are  now  prob- 
ably not  much  more  than  half  this  number  of  civilians  in  it. 
At  our  orthodox  dinner  hour,  everybody  seemed  to  have 
gone  to  bed — no  Early  Closing  or  Daylight  Saving  Act  ever 
operated  as  effectively  as  this  war  has  done.  I  will  not 
conceal  that  if  we  had  depended  upon  the  resources  of  the 
Hotel  of  the  Three  Moors  we  should  have  felt  them  to  be 
meager  and  uncomfortable. 

At  the  Military  Club,  we  had  all  we  wanted  for  the  inner 
man,  and  a  charmingly  cordial  welcome.  Also  we  saw  the 
habiliments  of,  and  heard  much  talk  about,  war.  We  quickly 
corrected  our  crude  notions  of  military  geography  and  de- 
fense organizations.  We  learned  that  the  real  Verdun  is 
not  a  certain  quaint  little  town,  with  gates  and  walls  in 
the  manner  of  Vauban,  and  old  houses  overhanging  the 
Meuse.  Nor  is  it  this  plus  the  old  forts  which  held  out  for 
three  weeks  in  1870,  and  are  now  smoothed  down  into  a  pic- 
turesque promenade.  It  is  not  even  this  together  with  the 
circle  of  modern  forts,  marked  upon  the  military  maps, 
which  have  never  been  in  action,  and  whose  guns  have  been 
used  to  better  purpose  elsewhere.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  piece 
of  country  around  this  center,  protruding  to  the  north-east 
from  the  general  line  of  battle,  like  a  vast  bastion,  with 
crescent  face  of  seventy  miles'  length,  and  a  solidly  French 
hinterland  for  its  support.  Here,  at  the  heart  of  this  area, 
we  do  not  hear  even  the  distant  boom  of  the  guns,  and  a 


THE  DEFENSE  OF  VERDUN       341 

bomb  from  an  aeroplane,  which  killed  a  woman,  is  the  only 
German  shell  that  has  disturbed  the  security  of  the  town. 
We  had  asked  ourselves  "What  came  ye  out  for  to  see?" 
Now  we  know  that  we  have  come  to  see  the  real  bulwark  of 
eastern  France,  the  Heights  of  the  Meuse. 

Verdun,  December  2. 

The  great  central  doorway  of  the  Lorraine  frontier  is 
not  only  banged,  barred,  and  bolted  against  the  invader;  it 
covers  an  area,  if  not  of  perfect  peace,  at  least  of  perfect 
security.  Verdun  has  been  advertised  by  the  German  com- 
manders as  subject  to  a  close  investment.  They  have  even 
claimed  to  have  captured  some  of  the  forts.  No  doubt  the 
German  people  imagine  that  it  is  besieged.  I  wish  some  of 
their  representatives,  if  they  have  any  free  men  who  could 
tell  them  the  simple  truth,  could  have  accompanied  us  in 
at  least  a  part  of  our  tour  of  inspection.  Verdun  has  never 
been  besieged.  Its  communications  are  unbroken.  It  is  the 
center  of  a  district  in  which  there  is  no  menace.  On  the 
north,  west,  and  east  there  is  a  space  of  twenty  miles  before 
the  zone  of  German  gunfire  is  reached. 

The  road  to  the  city  through  the  Argonne  is  as  safe  and 
quiet  as  the  road  from  York  to  London.  On  the  south,  the 
Germans  touch  the  Meuse  at  only  a  single  point — St.  Mihiel. 
To  reach  it  from  Metz,  there  is  but  one  single  difficult  road, 
and  all  along  that  line  the  position  of  the  invaders  is  ex- 
ceedingly precarious.  Around  the  semicircle  north  of  Ver- 
dun, the  French  armies  make  slow  but  steady  progress. 
They  are  prepared  for  the  winter  as  well  as  any  armies  can 
be.  I  spoke  to  many  of  the  men  at  different  points;  and 
there  is  not  the  least  doubt  about  their  high  spirits  and 
perfect  confidence.  I  spoke  also  to  a  number  of  officers. 
They  struck  me  as  men  of  marked  intelligence  and  vigor, 
possessed  by  a  modern  and  liberal  spirit,  seeing  the  moral 
and  political  issues  of  tlie  war  very  much  as  we  see  them 
ourselves,  and  watching  closely  over  the  safety  and  comfort 


342   ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

of  their  men.  They  felt,  and  seemed  to  me  justified  in  feel- 
ing, themselves  invincible  men  enjoying  an  impregnable 
position. 

The  secret  of  this  important  success  at  the  pivoting  point 
of  the  western  campaign  is  not  the  strength  of  the  fixed  de- 
fenses of  Verdun,  for  many  of  the  forts  have  not  fired  a  shot. 
It  is  that  the  army  has  never  lost  its  freedom  of  action. 
All  danger  is  now  past  on  the  eastern  frontier. 

In  the  course  of  our  journey  we  have  been  privileged  to 
meet  and  spend  some  hours  with  General  Sarrail;  and  it 
seemed  to  me  that  the  fullness  and  frankness  with  which  he 
explained  to  us  the  course  and  character  of  the  operations 
exemplified  the  new  type  of  mind  that  modern  conditions  are 
producing  even  in  places  where  the  conservative  spirit 
most  obstinately  lingers.  A  tall,  slight  man,  with  short, 
white  beard  and  mustache,  soft  gray  eyes,  and  a  gentle  man- 
ner, he  looks  a  scholar  and  a  thinker,  rather  than  the  man 
of  action  we  know  him  to  be.  In  answer  to  a  question  about 
the  present  morale  of  the  German  troops,  he  said,  "  Que 
voulez-vous?  It  is  a  ship  in  a  tempest,  and  the  sailors  run 
hither  and  thither."  There  was  no  sound  of  hate  or  triumph 
in  his  tone;  but  I  thought  that,  if  a  symbolical  picture  of 
the  defense  of  France  were  needed,  one  could  hardly  find  a 
better  than  the  portrait  of  General  Sarrail. 

Winter  has  fallen  upon  France  this  year  with  merciful 
softness.  There  has  been  only  a  brief  touch  of  frost  so  far, 
and,  better  still  for  the  men  in  the  trenches,  much  less  rain 
than  usual.  They  should  now  be  fully  prepared ;  and  those 
we  saw  appeared  to  be.  A  bright  but  fitful  sunshine  favored 
me  as  I  went  up,  under  the  best  possible  military  guidance, 
to  view  the  line  of  the  front  from  three  chosen  positions  on 
the  hills  amid  which  Verdun  lies.  The  town  left  behind,  a 
magnificent  panorama,  for  whose  beauty  I  was  quite  unpre- 
pared, revealed  itself.  In  sweeping  lines  of  clean  fields,  the 
heights  rose,  through  endless  grades  of  green  and  brown,  to 


THE  DEFENSE  OF  VERDUN  343 

the  blue  forest  masses  on  the  edge  of  the  scene.  White  roads 
and  the  shining  band  of  the  Meuse — a  narrower  and  shal- 
lower trench  than  I  had  expected — cut  them;  and  here  and 
there  were  scattered  small  villages,  their  short  church  spires 
rising  above  the  red  roofs  and  plaster  walls.  In  the  morn- 
ing, heavy  clouds  increased  this  effect  of  richly  varied  color- 
ing; later  in  the  day,  a  burst  of  sunshine,  falling  now  upon 
one  and  now  another  range  of  hills,  seemed  to  enhance  the 
spaciousness  of  the  amphitheater,  an  illusion  due,  doubt- 
less, to  some  indefinable  harmony  of  its  outlines. 

We  took,  first,  the  more  southerly  of  the  two  roads  which 
run  eastward  to  Metz,  as  far  as  a  hill  nine  miles  out,  imme- 
diately overlooking  the  village  of  Haudimont.  At  this 
point,  we  had  passed  two  of  the  famous  forts,  those  of  Bel- 
rupt  and  Rozellier;  but  not  a  sign  of  the  traditional  kind 
of  fortification  was  visible  till,  on  our  return,  we  passed 
over  a  small  piece  of  concrete  pavement  with  an  iron  chim- 
ney sticking  up,  down  which  one  of  the  party  shouted  a 
jocular  message.  No  sooner  on  the  hills  than  we  found 
thatched  sentry-boxes  and  the  huts  and  cabins  which  the 
troops  are  making,  with  much  ingenuity,  for  winter  quarters. 
In  the  woods,  bedded  with  red  leaves,  soldiers  were  cutting 
logs  for  firing,  or  saplings  of  ash  and  birch  to  make  trellis 
for  new  streets  of  huts.  They  all  like  this  work  under  the 
open  sky,  the  Commandant  told  me;  it  is  an  immense  relief 
from  waiting  in  barracks.  In  clearings  among  the  trees, 
small  bodies  of  troops  were  camped.  They  turned  to  gaze 
as  we  passed,  wondering  who  these  strange  civilians  could 
be.  Standing  upon  a  height  overlooking  the  far-spreading 
plain  of  the  Woevre,  the  General  explained  to  us  the  course 
and  rationale  of  the  Verdun  position,  and  the  action  of  its 
army  of  defense  since  the  beginning  of  the  war.  It  was  a 
most  illuminating  statement;  and,  as  this  section  of  the  cam- 
paign has  been  shrouded  from  western  readers,  and  a 
knowledge  of  it  is  necessary  to  an  understanding  of  the 
j) resent   position,  I  will  here  sketch  very  briefly  what  has 


344    ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

happened,  basing  myself  upon  his  words,  but  not  attempting 
textually  to  repeat  them. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  France  was  really  prepared 
only  for  an  eastern  and  north-eastern  campaign.  Against 
such  an  attack,  she  had  three  great  obstacles  to  offer — 
Verdun,  the  most  northerly,  Toul-Nancy  in  the  center  (and 
I  include  Nancy  with  Toul,  although  it  is  not  a  "  fortress," 
because  its  field-works  have  successfully  served  the  same 
purpose),  and  Belfort,  which  has  never  been  within  range 
of  German  fire.  If  any  of  these  three  positions  had  given 
way,  all  the  after-course  of  the  war  would  have  been  differ- 
ent, and  probably  the  Germans  would  now  be  firmly  estab- 
lished in  Paris.  The  Verdun  position  was  one  of  particular 
stress,  because  it  was  threatened  from  the  north  as  well  as 
the  east.  As  it  turned  out,  it  was  also  to  be  vitally  affected 
by  events  taking  place  far  to  the  west.  It  had  already  con- 
ducted some  successful  skirmishes  against  German  forces 
from  the  north  and  east  (its  proper  business),  when,  at 
the  end  of  August,  the  evacuation  of  Belgium  and  the  rapid 
retreat  of  the  Allies  on  Paris  gave  it  a  new  and  very  difficult 
task — that  of  preventing  a  breach  of  its  connections  with 
the  western  armies.  This  involved  a  south-westward  inclina- 
tion which — when  the  Crown  Prince  had  got  down  as  far  as 
Revigny  and  Vitry-le-Frangois — had  to  be  extended  to  Bar- 
le-Duc.  Finally,  when  the  Germans  were  beaten  back  into 
the  northern  Argonne,  the  Verdun  army  returned  to  the 
intermediate  position,  with  its  communications  safely  estab- 
lished. 

Such,  very  briefly  stated,  are  the  four  phases  of  the  Ver- 
dun defense;  and,  evidently,  the  complex  task  called  for 
exceptional  talent  in  the  command,  and  great  courage  and 
tenacity  in  the  body  of  the  troops.  British  readers  have 
naturally  had  their  eyes  chiefly  upon  the  western  campaign. 
The  recoil  after  the  battle  of  the  Marne,  the  great  turning 
movement  toward  and  over  the  Belgian  frontier,  and  then  the 
desperate  effort  of  the  Germans  to  break  through  the  Allied 


THE  DEFENSE  OF  VERDUN 


345 


lines  in  Flanders,  absorbed  their  attention,  because  these 
events  were  nearest,  and  their  own  men  were  engaged  in 
them.  Yet  all  the  efforts  of  those  men  would  have  been  in 
vain  had  not  the  eastern  wall  held  firm.    Of  course,  the  diffi- 


5 

« 
• 

•N 

N.W.V^ 

©   > 

Verdun 

^  SE. 

(  Varenne 
I  S"MENEI 


/C\ 


• 


Verdun 


The  Foub  Phases  at  Vebdun. 

culties  were  not  on  the  one  side  only.  The  German  retreat 
from  the  Marne  involved  the  Crown  Prince's  retirement  to 
a  line  on  which  he  could  keep  contact  with  Rheims  and  the 
Suippe  Valley  on  the  west,  and  the  Metz  army  on  the  east. 
This  brought  him  between  the  Argonne  and  Verdun;  and 
the  German  positions  here  have  since  been  pressed  north- 
ward slowly  to  the  Varennes  road.  On  the  eastern  side, 
strenuous  attempts  have  been  made  from  Metz  and  Thiau- 
court  to  break  through  the  Meuse  defenses  between  Verdun 
and  Toul.  The  heroic  defense  of  Fort  Troyon  is  one  episode 
of  a  succession  of  intermittent  struggles  in  this  thickly 
wooded  mountain  region.     Only  at  one  point,  where  the 


346   ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

hills  fall  and  the  woods  thin  off,  have  the  Germans  been 
able  to  obtain  and  keep  a  foothold  upon  the  Meuse — at  St. 
Mihiel.  With  forces  much  weaker  than  their  assailants, 
the  French  have  disposed  of  what  the  General  called  an 
"  enormous  bluff,"  held  the  integrity  of  the  French  lines,  and 
freed  Verdun  from  danger  (an  important  thing  for  its 
moral  effect,  as  well  as  in  a  military  sense). 

The  point  of  the  German  lines  now  nearest  to  the  town 
is  the  twin  hills  known  as  the  Jumelles  d'Orne,  and  that  is 
ten  miles  from  the  town  and  four  from  the  nearest  fort  (the 
infantry,  however,  are  actually  in  touch).  Generally  speak- 
ing, the  German  batteries  are  about  twenty  miles  from  Ver- 
dun, and  ten  miles,  or  more,  from  where  we  stand,  between 
the  line  of  the  forts  and  the  French  trenches.  And  now 
the  struggle  has  undergone  a  double  change.  The  Germans 
have  fallen  upon  the  defensive;  the  French  have  resumed 
the  initiative  of  attack.  But  positions  of  such  strength 
have  been  built  up  on  either  side  that  the  progress  is  small 
and  slow.  "  You  are  all  safe  here?  "  I  heard  an  officer  ask 
some  men ;  and  the  answer  was  characteristic  of  the  tactical 
position,  as  well  as  of  the  French  spirit :  "  Yes,  too  safe !  " 
It  is  a  new  sort  of  siege  warfare,  in  which  soft  earth  is 
found  to  give  better  protection  than  stone  and  iron,  and  a 
hail  of  bullets  to  be  more  deadly  than  all  the  melinite  shells. 
The  infantry  fire  proceeds  at  close  quarters,  and  is  imper- 
ceptible at  a  distance.  The  large  guns  are  directed  by  scien- 
tific measurements,  not  eyesight,  at  a  range  of  several  miles, 
often  over  an  intervening  line  of  hills — a  purely  mechanical 
and  most  undramatic  business.  Occasionally,  there  is  a 
rushing  attack,  nearly  always  at  terrible  cost  to  the  at- 
tackers. Once  two  battalions  came  on  singing  war-songs, 
with  fifes  playing;  there  is  no  doubt  about  their  courage. 
But  they  did  not  know  that  there  was  another  blockhouse 
just  behind,  and  the  force  was  practically  destroyed  by  the 
French  artillery.  The  clearest  fact  established  in  this  war 
is  the  deadly  power  of  the  defensive,  equipped  with  modern 


THE  DEFENSE  OF  VERDUN  347 

rifles  aiid  field-guns,  when  once  it  has  been  enabled  to  in- 
trench itself. 

The  trenches  lie  a  couple  of  miles  in  front.  Just  beyond 
them,  half-way  between  Verdun  and  the  frontier,  is  Etain, 
the  nearest  German  town.  The  railway  running  back  from 
Etain  to  Conflans  is  under  French  fire;  and  the  Germans 
have  had  to  improve  their  communications  to  the  north-east 
by  building  a  short  line  from  a  point  near  Spincourt  to 
near  the  front.  On  the  way  from  the  east  to  the  north- 
west of  the  French  lines,  we  visited  several  batteries,  one 
of  which,  receiving  a  message  from  either  an  aeroplane  that 
soared  ahead  or  a  big  yellow  captive  balloon  that  floated 
above  a  camp  of  white  tents,  began  to  bombard  a  German 
position.  The  sharp  smack  of  the  gun  fell  startling  upon 
our  ears ;  but  there  was  nothing  else  impressive  in  the  affair. 
They  were  firing  over  a  line  of  wooded  hills  at  some  invisible 
objective  two  miles  away;  and  I  wondered  when,  if  ever, 
they  would  hear  of  the  result. 

Montfau^on  is  an  isolated  hill,  apparently  only  about  800 
feet  high,  which  would  have  presented  no  particular  diffi- 
culties to  the  assailant  a  century  ago.  It  was  to  this  place 
that  the  Crown  Prince  withdrew  his  headquarters  from  Ste. 
Menehould  after  the  battle  of  the  Marne;  and  for  the  last 
three  months  it  has  watched  over  the  German  trenches  con- 
necting the  Imperial  armies  of  Lorraine,  the  Argonne,  and 
northern  Champagne. 

At  any  rate,  Verdun  is  safe  behind  its  seventy  miles  of 
field-works.  As  we  returned  to  the  city  at  nightfall,  a  man 
was  quietly  plowing  one  of  the  hillsides,  as  though  the  war 
were  not  only  invisible,  but  non-existent. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

UNDER  FIRE  IN  RHEIMS 

Rheims,  December  4- 
We  were  chatting  over  the  luncheon  table  at  our  hotel  in 
the  Place  Drouet  d'Erlon,  waiting  for  the  coffee,  when  the 
first  shell  burst  over  the  city.  Others  whistled  over  our 
heads  during  this  afternoon;  and,  while  a  full  inquiry  was 
impossible,  we  learned  that  one  of  them  had  killed  six  men 
— street-cleaners — in  a  road  beside  the  canal.  We  watched 
the  columns  of  smoke  rising  from  two  separate  parts  of 
the  south-eastern  suburbs,  set  on  fire  by  shells  from  the 
position  still  called  after  the  old  Fort  Berru.  The  French 
artillery  claim  to  have  silenced  the  offending  German  guns. 
The  gendarmerie  is  essentially  a  romantic  service,  and 
the  colonel  in  blue  and  silver  expressed  the  opinion  that, 
after  all  their  efforts,  there  must  remain  somewhere  in  the 
city  an  underground  telephone  wire  by  means  of  which 
news  of  the  arrival  of  particular  visitors  is  signaled  to 
the  German  batteries.  I  prefer  the  evidence  of  the  Regu- 
lars. In  any  case,  journalistic  modesty  and  the  horror  of 
responsibility  for  the  lives  lost  to-day  would  combine  to 
make  us  wish  to  discredit  this  idea.  Rheims  lies,  in  fact, 
in  a  saucer  between  the  "  Mountain  of  Rheims,"  the  Cra- 
onne  plateau,  and  several  outlying  hills.  I  should  suppose 
that  every  party  entering  the  city  is  plainly  within  sight 
of  the  German  gunners,  and  that  every  such  party  should 
expect  to  be  potted  at.  Firing  upon  the  city  itself,  which 
is  unfortified  and  full  of  civilians,  is  quite  another  matter. 
However    that    be,    there    had    been    no    bombardment    of 

348 


UNDER  FIRE  IN  RHEIMS  349 

Rheims  for  five  days  before  we  came,  the  last  happening 
in  precisely  the  same  manner  during  the  visit  of  a  party  of 
journalists  representing  neutral  countries.  No  doubt,  it  is 
more  sensible  to  bombard  journalists  than  innocent  towns- 
folk, who  are  not  even  armed  with  a  pen,  and  are  most  of 
them  women  and  children.  But,  generally  speaking,  one 
can  discover  no  logical  course  at  all  in  the  conduct  of  the 
German  campaign. 

Many  harmless  and  helpless  communities  have  been  piti- 
lessly destroyed.  Others  have  been  inexplicably  spared.  I 
had  the  odd  privilege  of  sleeping  last  night  in  one  of  the 
rooms  occupied,  while  the  Germans  stayed  in  Epernay,  by 
General  von  Biilow  and  his  staff,  in  the  house  of  M.  Paul 
Chandon.  The  chalk  marks  of  one  "  Hauptmann  Brinck- 
man "  on  my  bedroom  door  are  preserved  as  a  curiosity, 
matching  souvenirs  of  the  visits  of  President  Poincare'  and 
the  wife  of  Prince  August  Wilhelm  to  this  palatial  resi- 
dence. Afterward,  we  walked  through  some  of  the  seven- 
teen miles  of  cellars  of  Messrs.  Moet  and  Chandon,  where 
about  a  million  bottles  of  champagne  per  mile  are  stored. 
One  of  the  most  eloquent  facts  we  had  found  in  the  devas- 
tated villages  to  the  south-east  was  the  litter  of  empty 
wine-bottles.  Epernay,  one  of  the  richest  and  finest  of 
French  towns,  was  practically  untouched.  The  wine-cellars, 
in  which  the  whole  German  army  could  have  been  hidden, 
were  not  entered.  During  an  earlier  visit,  immediately  after 
the  German  retreat,  I  told  how — whether  by  sheer  whim 
or  real  sense  of  right  it  is  impossible  to  say — the  indemnity, 
extorted  under  pressure,  was  repaid  in  full.  Turn  now  to 
Revigny  on  the  south,  or  to  Rheims  on  the  north,  and  try 
to  harmonize  the  sheer  barbarity  practiced  there  with  the 
complete  immunity  of  this  wealthy  town  of  Epernay,  in 
which  not  a  single  house  has  been  destroyed,  and  only  trivial 
looting  in  the  shops  took  place. 

The  official  representatives  of  Germany,  at  the  two  Hague 
Conferences,  and  on  other  occasions,  have  pretty  steadily 


350        ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

resisted  attempts  to  tighten  the  rules  of  warfare.  But  if 
they  thus  exiled  themselves  in  advance  from  the  comity  of 
progressive  nations,  they  claimed  none  the  less  to  have  rules 
of  their  own.  What  are  they?  Can  some  of  the  professors 
explain? 

Let  us  try  to  state  things  precisely :  Rheims  is  not  "  de- 
stroyed," like  the  villages  and  small  towns  burned  from 
end  to  end  by  the  army  of  the  Crown  Prince,  Rheims  Cathe- 
dral is  not  "  in  ruins  "  like  the  Linen  Hall  at  Ypres.  A 
considerable  part  of  the  city  presents,  if  not  its  normal 
appearance,  at  least  an  air  of  quiet,  solid  security,  under 
the  radiant  sunshine  of  this  rare  December.  Here  and  there 
on  the  southern  and  western  sides  of  the  town,  a  building 
has  been  more  or  less  badly  damaged.  Nearly  all  the  larger 
houses  are  closed  and  shuttered,  and  the  streets  are  deserted. 
Between  the  entrance  by  the  Epernay  road  and  the  Fontaine 
Suby,  a  motor  ride  of  ten  minutes,  I  counted  only  five  houses 
seriously  damaged.  Nearer  to  the  center  of  the  city,  the 
shopping  streets  seem  to  have  suffered  more  seriously,  two 
or  three  houses  in  each  block  having  the  upper  and  middle 
story  broken  in  by  projectiles.  Immediately  to  the  north 
of  the  Cathedral,  a  score  or  more  of  buildings,  some  of  them 
very  ancient,  and  a  solid  stone  block  facing  the  statue  of 
Louis  XV  in  the  Place  Royale,  have  been  completely  demol- 
ished. In  the  neighborhood  of  St.  Remi  and  what  is  called 
"  The  Seamsters'  Quarters,"  where  the  Pommery  and  other 
wine-cellars  lie,  the  worst  mischief  of  all  has  been  wrought, 
and  many  lives  have  been  lost.  It  was  impossible,  in  the 
circumstances,  to  examine  this  district. 

At  first  I  was  surprised — such  is  the  influence  of  promis- 
cuous phrases — to  find  the  vast  pile  of  the  Cathedral  stand- 
ing majestic  and  seemingly  whole.  We  approached  it  from 
behind;  and,  from  below,  the  loss  of  the  steep  outer  struc- 
ture of  the  roof,  essential  though  it  be  to  the  architectural 
scheme,  is  not  immediately  noticeable.  Perhaps,  also,  the 
boom  of  guns  is  not  favorable  to  close  observation,  and  we 


UNDER  FIRE  IN  RHEIMS  351 

had  hardly  an  hour  to  view  what  it  will  require  months  to 
examine  closely.  But,  when  we  came  round  to  the  front  of 
the  church,  the  injury  to  the  most  glorious  of  Gothic  facades 
was  grievously  visible.  One  supposes  that  it  must  have  been 
hit  either  sideways  by  shots  from  the  German  batteries  at 
Nogent  FAbbesse,  their  most  southerly  position,  or,  more 
probably,  by  fragments  of  shells  exploding  immediately  be- 
fore the  entrances. 

Dozens  of  the  beautiful  statues  and  carved  groups  which 
fill  the  sides  of  the  three  deep  doorways  have  been  broken, 
the  chipped  stone  showing  white  against  the  age-worn  color 
of  the  mass.  The  corner  pillars  of  the  front  of  the  church 
are  still  more  completely  defaced,  probably  by  the  burning 
of  the  scaffolding  which  covered  this  part  of  the  front  before 
the  first  and  most  serious  bombardment.  Above  the  left 
porch,  one  of  the  long  narrow  windows  of  the  west  tower 
has  lost  a  pillar.  The  range  of  about  twenty  gigantic 
statues  of  the  Kings  of  France  which  runs  across  the  facade, 
above  the  Rose  Window,  seems  to  be  intact,  as  are  the  heads 
of  the  towers.  But  half  of  the  fine  balustrade  between  them 
has  disappeared. 

What  the  burning  scaffolding  did  for  the  facade,  blazing- 
rafters  did  for  the  interior.  In  all,  about  forty  shells  are 
believed  to  have  struck  the  Cathedral.  The  direct  damage 
thus  done  is  relatively  small — a  hole  in  the  wall  of  the  north 
tower,  several  broken  buttresses  and  pieces  of  parapet,  and 
such  like.  The  fire  caused  by  the  explosions  has,  on  the 
other  hand,  done  irreparable  damage.  All  of  the  wood- 
work of  the  nave,  transepts,  choir,  and  apse  has  gone.  Fall- 
ing in  upon  piles  of  straw  on  which  wounded  German  sol- 
diers had  been  lying,  it  turned  the  vast  interior  for  a  short 
time  into  a  furnace,  shattering  the  stained  glass  windows, 
some  of  them  dating  from  the  thirteenth  century ;  consum- 
ing doors,  stalls,  pulpit,  chairs,  and  other  woodwork,  twist- 
ing iron  and  melting  lead,  sending  the  great  bells  crashing 
down  from  the  belfry  to  the  ground  and  partly  melting 


352    ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

them,  corroding,  and,  in  some  cases,  breaking  the  interior 
statues,  pillars,  and  walls.  The  great  Rose  Window  has 
lost  a  half  of  its  wonderful  glass.  A  few  fragments  only 
hang  to  the  bars  in  the  windows  over  the  high  altar  and 
the  three  doors,  in  most  of  those  in  the  aisles.  The  lesser 
rose  window  over  the  central  portal  is  riddled. 

It  is  a  melancholy  sight,  though  I  will  confess  to  hav- 
ing been  more  deeply  shocked  by  the  ruin  of  humble  cot- 
tage homes,  where  the  crime  of  murder  was  added  to  those 
of  sacrilege  and  barbarous  destruction.  Most  of  the  litter 
of  masonry  outside  and  within  the  Cathedral  has  been  swept 
into  neat  heaps ;  but  there  still  lies  all  over  the  floor  of  the 
nave  a  sprinkling  of  fragments  of  colored  glass,  and  the 
riddled  windows  no  longer  temper  the  daylight  to  the  soft 
gloom  befitting  hours  of  prayer.  These  are  the  remains  of 
one  of  the  glories  of  a  heritage  belonging,  not  only  to  the 
people  of  Rheims  or  to  the  Roman  Church,  but  to  all  men 
who  have  a  heart  for  the  beautiful  creations  of  the  art  and 
piety  of  the  past.  The  priest  who  conducted  us  protested 
that  the  evil  was  not  beyond  repair.  Rheims  Cathedral  is 
not,  indeed,  destroyed.  But  the  work  of  restoration,  where 
possible,  will  be  difficult;  the  ancient  glass  can  never  be  re- 
placed; and  in  many  lines  and  details  of  decoration  the 
old  loveliness  can  never  be  won  back. 

We  came  out  of  the  Cathedral  into  the  small  Notre  Dame 
square;  glanced  at  the  blackened  walls  and  delbris  of  the 
old  Archiepiscopal  Palace;  verified  the  odd  fact  that  the 
statue  of  Joan  of  Arc  on  horseback  in  front  of  the  Cathe- 
dral has  sustained  no  damage;  and  then  looked  around  for 
evidence  of  some  provocation  for  the  bombardment,  which 
was  still  proceeding.  A  very  tame  affair  it  seemed,  not  at 
all  resembling  the  frightful  splash  of  fire  of  the  imaginative 
pictures.  This  was,  no  doubt,  because  no  projectile  hap- 
pened to  fall  among  or  near  our  little  party,  and  you  can- 
not see  through  streets  of  brick  and  stone.  In  open  country 
you  may  watch  the  puff  of  white  or  brown  smoke  from  the 


UNDER  FIRE  IN  RHEIMS  353 

guns,  and  tne  actual  explosion;  and,  of  course,  the  relatively 
small  number  of  soldiers  at  the  extreme  front  see  it  alto- 
gether too  closely  and  too  often  for  comfort.  Here  we  could 
only  hear  a  heavy  bang,  a  prolonged,  soft  screech,  and  once 
or  twice  a  loud  smash.  For  nearly  everybody,  the  war  ob- 
stinately continues  to  be  invisible.  But  its  bloody  work 
goes  on  steadily.  This  particular  cannonade  lasted  for  about 
two  hours,  and  I  do  not  think  that  more  than  a  score  of 
German  shells  were  fired  in  that  time.  I  may  be  mistaken 
about  this,  for  there  were  other  things  to  think  about.1  It 
is  the  general  testimony  that  for  some  time  the  Germans 
have  been  economizing  ammunition,  as  they  conspicuously 
did  not  at  the  outset. 

We  searched,  but  could  find  no  sort  of  justification. 
Rheims  completely  answers  to  the  military  description  of 
an  open  town.  It  is  neither  fortified  nor  occupied.  The 
French  army  is  either  in  the  trenches  two  or  three  miles 
out,  in  a  crescent  from  the  north-west  to  the  south-east,  or 
it  is  in  the  camps  to  the  south.  There  is  not,  and  never  has 
been,  any  military  reason  for  the  bombardment.  A  glance 
around  the  region  from  the  southward  heights  shows  that 
there  can  be  nothing  accidental  about  it.  As  from  here,  so 
from  the  German  batteries,  the  city  lies  spread  out  in  the 
plain  between,  every  part  of  it  clearly  visible.  The  Cathe- 
dral rises  prominently  from  its  center,  and,  like  St.  Paul's 
in  London,  is  a  landmark  for  many  miles  around.  The  repe- 
tition of  the  bombardments  proves  their  deliberate  character. 

Two  justifications  have  been  offered.  On  September  2, 
General  von  Biilow,  commanding  the  Second  German  Army 
in  its  southward  advance,  sent  forward  two  officers  of  the 
Imperial  Guard  (Von  Arnira  and  Von  Kummer)  to  treat 
for  the  surrender  of  the  city.  At  the  village  of  Neuvillette, 
they  were  met,  and  told  that  the  Governor-General  was  leav- 
ing Rheims,  and  it  was  useless  for  them  to  go  further.  From 

'The  French  official  bulletin  for  the  day  stated:  "Rheims  has  been 
bombarded  with  a  particular  intensity." 


354    ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

this  moment,  they  inexplicably  disappeared.  Prince  August 
Wilhelm  (fourth  son  of  the  Kaiser)  came  into  the  city  to 
make  inquiries,  and  gave  permits  to  the  Mayor  of  Neuvil- 
lette  and  another  Frenchman  to  go  in  search  of  the  missing 
parlementaires.  On  the  morrow,  as  they  had  not  returned, 
the  Guards'  artillery,  not  knowing  that  General  Zimmer 
and  other  Saxon  officers  were  already  in  the  town  arrang- 
ing for  requisitions,  bombarded  it;  and  there  are  said  to 
have  been  200  killed  and  wounded  on  this  occasion.  Gen- 
eral von  Btilow  then  took  hostages,  and  imposed  a  large 
fine  on  the  city.  The  two  French  envoys,  also,  have  not  re- 
turned ;  they  are  believed  to  be  prisoners  in  Germany.  There 
is  no  need  to  enlarge  further  upon  this  incident,  which  evi- 
dently affords  no  justification  for  the  bombardments  fol- 
lowing the  northward  return  of  the  French. 

The  second  excuse  is  that  the  Cathedral  has  been  used 
as  a  military  signal  station  or  observation  post.  The  Abbe" 
Thinot,  chapel  master  of  the  Cathedral,  in  a  published  state- 
ment, says  that,  for  a  single  night  before  the  opposed  hosts 
had  come  into  contact,  an  electric  light  was  installed  in  the 
north  tower,  but  that  it  was  taken  down,  and  never  re-estab- 
lished. The  military  and  ecclesiastical  authorities  agree  in 
declaring  positively  that,  since  September  12,  when  the 
French  returned  and  the  Germans  retired,  leaving  a  num- 
ber of  their  wounded  behind,  no  military  use  of  any  kind 
has  been  made  of  the  Cathedral,  and  no  military  post  has 
been  established  near  it.  I  can  only  myself  speak  of  the 
present  time;  and  to-day  there  is  certainly  nothing  in 
Rheims  that  can  reasonably  invite  the  attention  of  the  Ger- 
man guns.  We  were  ourselves  absolutely  refused  permis- 
sion to  go  to  the  roof  of  the  Cathedral  to  examine  the  dam- 
age there,  lest  we  should  be  taken  for  soldiers  making  ob- 
servations.1 

1  On  October  19,  the  German  Consulate-General  issued  a  statement 
to  the  effect  that  French  batteries  were  placed  in  front  of  the  Cathedral 
"in  the  direct  line  of  the  German  fire."  This  tardy  explanation  has, 
I  believe,  no'better  basis  than  those  examined  above. 


UNDER  FIRE  IN  RHE1MS  355 

Such  are  the  main  facts  of  an  episode  of  the  great  war 
which  will  he  a  lasting  stain  upon  the  character  of  the 
German  army.  It  seems  to  me  an  episode  calling  urgently 
for  a  formal,  open,  and  unmistakable  protest  from  the  public 
men  of  neutral  countries.  There  is  no  mere  question  of  pass- 
ing judgment  upon  acts  that  are  dead  and  done  with.  The 
interests  of  a  great  living  community  cry  out  for  such  a 
moral  intervention.  Of  the  normal  population  of  110,000 
persons,  there  remain  60,000  in  Rheims  to-day.  Why  do  they 
not  clear  out?  I  presume  because  they  cannot.  The  rich 
have  gone,  and  practically  all  the  able-bodied  men  are  away 
with  the  army.  Some  of  the  poor  have  probably  been  able 
to  find  a  refuge  with  relatives  beyond  the  region  of  the  in- 
vasion. Most  of  them — women,  children,  old  men  and  weak- 
lings— stay  here  because  they  have  no  other  home,  and  it 
is  here  that  they  receive  their  allowances  of  a  shilling  a 
day  for  soldiers'  wives  and  5d.  a  day  for  each  child.  On 
these  pittances  they  drag  out  a  feverish,  pitiful  existence, 
going  down  into  their  cellars  during  each  bombardment, 
if  they  are  in  the  quarters  most  open  to  it;  or  walking  out 
on  to  the  roads  outside  the  town  to  watch  the  explosion  of 
shells  from  behind  walls  and  haystacks. 

How  many  lives  have  already  been  sacrificed  to  provide 
an  entertainment  for  the  German  artillery  officers,  it  is  yet 
impossible  to  say.  One  substantial  citizen  whom  I  ques- 
tioned thought  a  thousand  civilians  had  been  killed  in  the 
last  three  months,  chiefly  by  the  earlier  cannonades.  This 
is,  perhaps,  an  over-estimate,  but  the  death-roll  is  certainly 
a  long  one.  The  material  destruction  in  this  open  town  is 
a  very  serious  matter,  to  be  counted  in  millions  of  pounds 
sterling.  There  is  no  apparent  reason  why  the  city  should 
not  lie  under  fire  for  another  three  months.  The  Germans 
will  certainly  hold  on  here  as  long  as  they  can,  and  when 
they  have  to  let  go  they  will  not  do  so  in  a  spirit  of  Chris- 
tian submissiveness.  Are  another  thousand  innocent  and 
helpless  non-combatants  to  be  slaughtered?     A  shipful  of 


356        ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

Christmas  toys  is  a  very  jolly  present;  and  I  have  seen 
Americans,  men  and  women,  working  here  in  the  ambu- 
lances, on  the  edge  of  the  thin  red  line,  with  an  energy  and 
practical  sense  beyond  all  praise.  There  are,  however,  emer- 
gencies when  a  plain  word  from  men  who  speak  with  author- 
ity, like  the  President  of  the  United  States,  might  effect 
more  than  all  such  individual  devotion. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 
THE  LINES  OF  THE  AISNE 

Paris,  December  11. 

The  British  reader  early  became  acquainted  with  the 
more  westerly  portion  of  the  Aisne  Valley,  from  Soissons 
to  Compiegne,  not  because  this  region  was  of  exclusive  in- 
terest, but  because  it  was  comparatively  easy  of  access  from 
Paris,  during  the  exciting  days  of  the  first  German  retreat. 
The  more  easterly  portion  has  been  practically  closed  to 
civilians,  except  the  remaining  inhabitants,  for  the  last 
four  months.  It  is,  however,  an  area  of  great  interest,  not 
only  or  chiefly  because,  before  they  were  moved  to  the  north, 
Sir  John  French's  troops  had  here  some  of  their  hardest 
work,  but  because  it  is  here  that  the  military  deadlock  is 
seen  in  its  fullest  development.  I  rejoiced  greatly,  there- 
fore, when  I  found  that  I  should  be  able  to  visit,  not,  indeed, 
the  trenches  of  the  extreme  front,  but  three  points  of  vantage 
giving  bird's-eye  views  of  the  whole  field,  and  a  number  of 
points  behind  the  Aisne  lines,  in  addition  to  the  city  of 
Rheims. 

Briefly,  we  came  up  from  Epernay  north-westward  to 
Fismes,  through  what  is  called  the  Forest  of  the  Mountain 
of  Rheims,  and  the  Ardre  Valley.  From  Fismes,  we  went 
northward,  to  a  point  where  the  Aisne  Valley,  from  Conde" 
to  Craonne,  lay  before  us,  a  superb  panorama.  Returning 
to  Fismes,  we  then  took  the  eastward  road  to  Rheims,  and, 
just  before  reaching  the  city,  obtained  another  remarkable 
view-point.  Finally,  from  the  terrace  of  Mine.  Pommery's 
chateau  to  the  south-east  of  Rheims,  we  viewed  the  positions 

357 


358        ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

on  that  side.  During  the  journey,  three  generals  and  sev- 
eral Staff-officers  gave  us  explanations  with  a  clearness  and 
courtesy  essentially  French,  and  with  a  freedom  that  should 
have  made  certain  censorial  ears  tingle. 

It  may  be  the  obsession  of  current  events,  but  I  always 
seem  to  feel  a  contest,  a  rivalry,  of  beauty  and  martial  qual- 
ities in  these  landscapes  of  central  France.  In  the  perfect 
clarity  of  the  winter  air,  the  waters  sparkle;  the  scudding 
clouds,  like  prisms,  filter  the  thin  light  in  a  thousand  degrees 
of  color  upon  the  hillsides ;  and  in  the  bare  fields  and  leafless 
woods  there  is  only  an  enhancement,  not  an  interruption,  of 
the  sweeping  outlines  of  the  scene.  But,  as  we  climbed 
through  the  vineyards  and  orchards  above  Epernay,  into 
the  heights  of  the  Forest  of  Rheims,  this  sense  of  an  incom- 
parable loveliness  in  the  Marne  Valley  was  spoiled  (ah! 
the  wickedness  of  the  mind  of  man!)  by  the  thought:  Why 
did  not  Von  Billow  defend  this  ridge,  instead  of  falling 
back  beyond  Rheims?  Perhaps  he  did;  there  have  been 
hundreds  of  engagements  in  this  war  that  we  have  never 
heard  of,  and  that  may  never  be  distinguished  when  its  his- 
tory comes  to  be  written.  Again  and  again  the  thought  re- 
curred, as  we  coasted  the  wooded  slopes  of  this  high,  crum- 
pled plateau.  In  a  width  of  about  seventeen  miles,  there 
are  only  three  northward-running  main  roads.  Few,  if 
any,  of  the  Germans,  in  their  haste,  took  the  Ardre  Valley 
way — the  main  body  were  making  due  north,  for  Rheims. 
So  the  small  stone  villages — Sarcy  and  Faverolles,  Savigny 
and  Serzy — lie  uninjured,  fat  and  smiling,  doing  their  hum- 
drum labor,  with  here  and  there  a  camp  of  wagons  and 
huts,  or  a  slow  convoy  column,  to  remind  them  of  the  younger 
men  who  are  striving  and  dying  for  France  just  over  the 
hills.  But  at  Fismes  we  met  the  road  from  Paris  through 
Chateau-Thierry,  and  the  railway  that  runs  to  the  front 
from  Paris  through  Meaux — one  of  two  lines,  the  other  hug- 
ging the  south  bank  of  the  Aisne,  which,  as  an  officer  said, 
"  seem  to  have  been  put  here  by  Providence  to  help  us." 


THE  LINES  OF  THE  AISNE  359 

Now  we  heard  the  distant  flap  of  gunfire;  the  bustle  of  all 
the  supporting  processes  of  a  large  army  increased;  and 
in  a  few  minutes  we  reached  a  large  farm,  from  which  we 
could  see  right  over  to  the  Laon  Mountains. 

At  our  feet  lay  the  villages,  Revillon,  Maizy,  Villers,  Arcy, 
where  many  British  soldiers  fell  in  the  first  fighting  to  secure 
the  crossing  of  the  Aisne,  in  mid-September.  On  the  other 
side  of  the  river  stretched  the  Chemin  des  Dames  and  the 
hills  from  Vailly,  on  the  west,  through  Soupir  and  Ven- 
dresse,  to  Craonne,  which  marks  the  eastern  edge  of  the 
plateau — all  names  made  famous  in  the  official  war  bulle- 
tins of  the  last  three  months.  Just  under  Craonne  village, 
the  farm  of  Heurtebise,  and  just  behind  it  the  farm  of  Vau- 
cle'rc,  were  plainly  visible — both  doubly  famous,  for  at  these 
spots  Napoleon  directed  some  of  the  critical  operations  of 
the  Laon  campaign  of  1814.  Unknown  to  the  modern  tour- 
ist, it  is  all  classic  ground,  full  of  the  marks  of  Homeric 
strife.  There  lie  the  ruins  of  the  great  Abbey  of  Vauclerc, 
built  by  Saint  Bernard,  and  destroyed  by  the  Revolution. 
Across  the  crest,  an  old  farm  called  the  Tower,  now  razed 
to  the  ground,  dates  back  to  the  time  of  Charlemagne.  Joan 
of  Arc  came  with  Charles  VII  by  the  Chemin  des  Dames  to 
Vailly,  now  in  ruins,  to  receive  the  keys  of  Laon,  now  the 
center  of  the  German  position  in  France.  Conde"  recalls 
the  name  of  the  great  family  whose  two  fortresses  of  Coucy 
and  La  Ferte'-Milon  were  connected  by  a  system  of  dun- 
geons and  underground  tunnels.  In  the  quarries  of  Bourg, 
where  one  of  Caesar's  lieutenants  defended  Gaul  against  the 
Northmen,  a  few  wretched  peasants  hide  from  the  newest 
phase  of  the  same  eternal  conflict.  At  Heurtebise,  Napoleon 
looked  out  upon  his  last  great  victory.  Upon  such  ground 
the  Hohenzollern  has  dared  to  tempt  destiny.  He  may  well 
be  ill  as  he  reads  the  omens. 

The  General  told  us  that  the  French  and  German  trenches, 
only  70  or  80  feet  apart,  were  also  visible  through  field- 
glasses.     Perhaps  they  were;  all  I  could  make  out,  for  my 


360   ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

part,  was  some  lines  of  white  which  might  be  walls  or  any 
kind  of  marks  across  the  face  of  the  fields  on  the  slope  five 
or  six  miles  away.  But  one  gained  a  new  impression  of 
the  latest  kind  of  warfare  in  seeing  spread  out  before  one 
like  a  map  the  theater  where  it  had  been  practiced  with 
hardly  any  considerable  movement  for  two  months. 

At  the  second  point,  just  west  of  Rheims,  we  could  follow 
more  closely,  because  it  was  much  nearer,  the  division  be- 
tween the  two  armies,  broadly  marked  by  the  Rheims-Laon 
highroad,  running  north-west  across  the  plain,  past  the  edge 
of  the  Craonne  plateau.  Here,  also,  it  was  possible  better 
to  appreciate  the  part  played  by  the  dismantled  French  forts 
on  the  north  of  the  city,  those  of  Chenay,  St.  Thierry,  Loivre, 
Fresnes,  and,  especially,  of  Brimont.  From  the  Chateau 
Pommery,  we  could  note  how  the  strong  positions  above 
Berru  and  Nogent  l'Abbesse  dominate  the  east  of  the  city 
and  the  neighboring  plain.  The  only  part  of  the  former 
semicircle  of  fortifications  the  French  have  been  able  to 
recover  is  the  Pompelle  battery,  below  Nogent.  On  this 
side,  the  front  is  pretty  closely  defined  by  the  Aisne-Marne 
Canal,  which  runs  between  the  Chalons  road  and  railroad. 

It  is  indescribably  strange,  looking  out  upon  this  fair 
margin  of  Champagne,  to  reflect  that,  within  range  of  our 
eyes,  there  are  hidden  several  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men 
engaged  in  an  unremitting  and  deadly  struggle.  Save  for 
some  burning  building,  and  occasional  puffs  of  smoke  fol- 
lowed by  the  peal  of  artillery,  but  for  the  hospital  we  have 
just  left,  and  the  encampments  we  have  visited,  it  would 
be  incredible.  It  is  now,  in  the  main,  a  test  of  endurance 
in  this  part  of  the  field.  The  power  of  either  side  is  such 
that  open  operations  are  impossible  except  at  frightful  cost, 
and  offer  hardly  any  chance  of  success.  During  the  last 
three  weeks  Soissons  and  Rheims  have  been  several  times 
bombarded;  the  chateau  of  Soupir  has  been  burned  down; 
the  French  artillery  has  located  and  destroyed  one  or  two 
German  batteries;  an  advance  of  500  yards  has  been  won 


CENTRE    FRONT 


The  Fbont  at  the  Beginning  of  1915. 


361 


362        ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

near  Berry-au-Bac ;  on  November  30,  the  artillery  "  scat- 
tered German  infantry  columns  north  of  Fort  Conde" "  ; 
west  of  Presles  and  near  Rouge-Maison,  a  German  gun  was 
destroyed  and  others  silenced,  and  it  is  claimed  that  here 
"  the  growing  activity  of  our  artillery  reduced  our  daily 
average  of  infantry  casualties  from  100  to  20  " ;  a  German 
attempt  to  blow  up  the  bridge  at  Berry-au-Bac,  by  means 
of  a  barge  laden  with  explosives  and  a  time-machine,  was 
repulsed.  That  is  all  that  merits  mention  in  the  official 
reports.  Both  sides,  in  fact,  have  been  largely  occupied 
in  preparing  winter  quarters.  The  Germans  not  only  hold 
positions  of  great  strength;  they  have,  especially  through 
Me'zieres,  very  good  lines  of  communications.  And  they  hold 
on  obstinately  because  this  is  a  most  critical  point  of  their 
front. 

Pending  some  diversion,  the  deadlock  is  complete.  But 
there  is  not  a  sign  of  discouragement  or  restlessness  among 
the  French  officers  and  men.  Some  frankly  enjoy  the  rough, 
open-air  life.  "  If  it  were  not  for  the  deaths,"  one  of  them 
said  to  me,  "  it  would  be  splendid."  The  rest  go  to  and 
fro  with  a  quiet,  sober  resolution  of  which  the  civilian  spirit 
seems  to  me  as  effective  a  part  as  any  remnant  of  martial 
tradition.  Their  intelligence,  their  invincible  wit,  their 
camaraderie  and  robust  democratic  sense,  the  high  manli- 
ness of  these  French  citizens-inarms,  all  cry  shame  upon 
the  foul  business  into  which  they  have  been  forced.  I  do 
not  believe  that  any  military  adventurer  could  carry  them 
into  a  war  of  conquest.  They  give  their  lives  for  the  defense 
of  their  homes,  for  the  land  they  always  figure  not  as  an 
armed  man,  but  as  a  noble  woman.  No  ocean  bed  can  hold 
the  tears  of  this  sacrifice.  But  France  is  worth  saving,  at 
whatever  cost  must  be  saved.  And  from  this  agony  the  great 
Republic  will  rise  nearer  to  the  ideal  than  even  her  dream- 
ing founders  dreamed. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 
THE  GOVERNMENT  RETURNS 

After  the  fall  of  Antwerp,  the  Belgian  Government  estab- 
lished itself  at  Havre,  with  all  the  honors  the  French  Re- 
public could  offer  it,  with  its  own  telegraphic  and  postal 
services,  and  every  facility  for  carrying  on  such  business 
as  remains  to  Ministers  temporarily  separated  from  their 
land  and  people.  The  local  officials  in  Belgium  in  general 
were  requested  to  remain  at  their  posts  so  that,  as  far  as 
possible,  the  country  might  be  saved  from  anarchy;  magis- 
trates were  asked  to  continue  to  act  on  condition  that  they 
were  permitted  to  do  so  "  in  the  name  of  the  King  of  the 
Belgians,"  promising  to  do  nothing  that  could  be  consid- 
ered as  an  act  of  hostility  to  the  invader  while  exercising 
his  provisional  authority. 

In  the  last  week  of  October,  I  learned  with  astonishment 
that  the  German  Government  had  intimated  to  certain  influ- 
ential Frenchmen,  through  commercial-financial  channels, 
that  it  was  ready  to  negotiate  a  separate  peace.  Briefly, 
the  message  was  that  the  Imperial  Government  recognized 
the  quality  of  the  stand  made  by  the  French  armies,  had 
never  regarded  France  as  its  principal  enemy  in  this  strug- 
gle, and  was  ready  to  grant  terms  not  merely  honorable, 
but  generous.  They  would  include  the  transfer  to  France 
of  Metz  and  the  neighboring  portion  of  Lorraine,  and  per- 
haps, also,  of  at  least  a  pari  of  Alsace.  Quite  apart  from 
the  "  scrap  of  paper  "  on  which  the  Allies  had  undertaken, 
at  the  outset  of  the  war,  not  to  conclude  peace  separately, 
such  an  invitation  could  have  no  chance  of  acceptance.  For 
dependence  upon  Berlin,  even  Metz  would  be  no  price.    And 

363 


364    ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

what  of  Servia,  of  Russia,  of  England,  above  all,  what  of 
the  martyr-land,  Belgium?  Before  these  questions  the 
would-be  negotiators  fell  vague,  shrugging  a  dubious  shoul- 
der, but  opined  that  Germany  would  require  an  enclave  on 
the  Scheldt — in  other  words,  Antwerp  and  northern  Bel- 
gium. Perhaps  the  offer  was  designed  to  aid  the  efforts  of 
Count  Bernstorff,  Herr  Dernburg,  and  Professor  Munster- 
berg  to  influence  American  opinion.  Intelligence,  interest, 
and  even  lack  of  interest  combined  in  the  United  States  at 
this  time  to  produce  a  vague  feeling  that  the  war  should 
be  brought  to  an  end  somehow,  anyhow.  It  was  a  sentiment 
creditable  to  a  great  humane  and  neutral  Power.  But  it 
was  not  then  a  very  helpful  sentiment,  because,  for  Europe, 
the  issue  was  one  of  life  and  death,  and  the  "  how  "  was 
everything,  no  less  than  in  the  Civil  War  of  the  States 
themselves  fifty  years  before.  Fortunately,  the  process  of 
education  furthered  by  men  like  President  Nicholas  Murray 
Butler,  of  Columbia  University;  President  Starr  Jordan, 
of  Leland  Stanford,  and  President  Eliot,  of  Harvard,  had 
gone  far.  Many  misunderstandings  had  been  removed. 
The  original  aggression,  the  devastation  of  Belgium,  the 
destruction  of  historic  edifices,  the  aeroplane  outrages, 
had  made  a  deep  impression  across  the  Atlantic.  Mr.  Her- 
rick,  at  the  American  Embassy  in  Paris,  had  been  a  coura- 
geous, able,  resolute,  and  disinterested  observer;  and  so, 
no  doubt,  would  his  successor  prove.  From  one  quarter 
and  another,  President  Wilson  had  been  truly  and  fully 
advised.  He  could  not  but  be  aware  that  even  so  powerful 
an  influence  as  that  of  the  United  States  must  be  carefully 
conserved;  and  he  had  himself  said  that  peacemaking  in 
such  a  case  is  no  child's-play. 

As  though  to  remind  the  world  of  one  of  the  character- 
istics of  German  warfare,  there  was  about  this  time  a  new 
outburst  of  aerial  raiding  upon  the  civilian  population  of 
Paris.  After  a  lapse  of  more  than  three  weeks,  there  had 
been  an  aeroplane  visit  on  September  27,  when  an  aviator 


THE  GOVERNMENT  RETURNS  365 

signing  himself  Von  Decken  had  thrown  four  bombs  on  the 
city.  The  American  Ambassador  had  just  passed  the  spot 
where  one  of  these  fell,  at  the  corner  of  the  Avenue  du 
Trocadero  and  the  Rue  de  Freycinet.  Two  persons  were 
seriously  injured— a  solicitor,  who  died  on  the  way  to  hos- 
pital, and  a  little  girl,  whose  leg  was  badly  cut.  They 
were  on  their  way  to  church.  A  fortnight  passed.  Then 
another  aviator  arrived  from  the  German  lines,  and  threw 
two  bombs,  which  wounded  a  policeman,  his  wife,  and  a 
child  of  seven  years,  in  the  working-class  quarter  of  St. 
Denis.  On  the  following  day,  October  11,  there  were  two 
raiders,  and  about  twenty  projectiles  were  thrown,  three 
persons  being  killed  and  fourteen  injured.  Of  these,  four- 
teen were  women,  mostly  of  the  working  class,  six  of  them 
being  girls.  One  of  the  bombs  struck  the  roof  of  Notre- 
Dame,  without  doing  much  damage,  and  two  more  fell  close 
by.  On  October  12,  a  further  attack  was  made,  without 
serious  results.  A  more  effective  air  police  was  then  organ- 
ized around  the  city;  and  no  more  was  heard  of  this  par- 
ticular pest. 

With  the  passing  of  summer,  the  French  people  suddenly 
realized  the  need  not  only  of  an  improvement  of  the  serv- 
ices of  care  for  the  sick  and  wounded,  but  of  ample  supplies 
of  warm  clothing  for  their  soldiers.  M.  Cle'menceau — who, 
when  the  Government  moved  to  Bordeaux,  had  gone  to 
Toulon,  and  then  to  Toulouse,  as  it  was  said,  to  keep  an  eye 
upon  them — had  conducted  a  characteristic  campaign  in  his 
journal  on  the  subject ;  and  when,  at  the  end  of  September, 
L'Homme  Libre  was  suspended  for  eight  days,  because  he 
refused  to  suppress  certain  passages  in  an  article  on  the 
army  medical  services,  the  old  statesman-journalist  had  re- 
started it  under  the  title  of  L'Homme  Enchaini.  Undoubt- 
edly, the  official  provisions,  and  the  energies  of  all  the  offi- 
cial staffs — doctors,  nurses,  stretcher-bearers,  supplies, 
transport,  and  hospital  accommodation — had  been  strained 
to  the  utmost.     The  Government  pleaded  that  there  had 


366    ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

been  occasions  when  not  only  the  wounded  have  had  to  be 
picked  up  under  fire  on  the  field,  but  those  under  treat- 
ment in  the  field  hospitals  had  to  be  removed,  because  they 
were  fired  upon  by  the  German  artillery.  There  were  French 
hospital  trains  capable  of  carrying  100,000  wounded.  But 
evidently  very  few  of  these  could  be  concentrated  upon  any 
given  battlefield,  however  great  the  need.  The  immense 
numbers  of  men  gathered  within  such  an  area  as  that  to  the 
north  of  the  Aisne,  and  the  continuity  of  the  fighting,  must 
inevitably  result  in  a  strain  upon  hospital  services  alto- 
gether beyond  anything  that  had  been  experienced  in  pre- 
ceding wars.  Hence  the  grievous  scenes  of  which  we  saw 
so  many,  when  the  wounded  soldier  must  be  content  with 
a  pile  of  straw  in  a  horse-truck  of  a  slow-going  train,  and 
the  charity  of  the  villagers  at  the  wayside  stations  which 
it  passed. 

Impatient  people  asked  why  civilian  and  even  amateur 
assistance  was  not  enlisted  more  freely,  not  understanding 
how  difficult  it  is  to  combine  military  and  civilian  services, 
and  to  organize  the  help  which,  in  the  nature  of  the  case, 
could  not  be  submitted  to  the  full  rigor  of  official  rules. 
Indeed,  it  was  exactly  the  faculty  of  powerful  organiza- 
tion, one  of  the  rare  human  faculties,  that  was  most  strained. 
Thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  women  and  men  were 
devoting  themselves  gallantly  to  softening  the  blows  of  war. 
Perhaps  a  very  small  illustration  will  bring  this  fact  home 
better  than  overwhelming  statistics  or  grandiose  eulogies. 
Trainloads  of  wounded  were  constantly  arriving  on  the  out- 
skirts of  Paris,  whence  they  were  shunted  on  to  the  lines 
for  the  south  and  west.  Seeing  that  the  State  services  could 
not  at  the  time  guarantee  these  convoys  constant  supplies 
of  warm  food  and  other  comforts  throughout  what  was  often 
a  long  journey,  the  good  folk  of  Argenteuil  organized  a  com- 
mittee; and,  after  the  battle  of  the  Marne,  particularly, 
forty  ladies,  in  day  and  night  relays,  were  in  constant  at- 
tendance at  this  and  the  next  station  on  the  Grand  Ceinture 


THE  GOVERNMENT  RETURNS  367 

(Outer  Circle)  Railway.  They  supplied  freely  to  the 
wounded  and  their  guardians  bread  loaves,  sandwiches,  cof- 
fee, tea,  and  boiling  milk,  packets  of  chocolate  and  ciga- 
rettes, and,  sometimes,  fresh  fruit  and  pots  of  jam.  A  local 
baker  put  his  bakery  at  the  disposal  of  the  committee;  and 
they  cooked  large  quantities  of  apples  and  pears  presented 
by  the  inhabitants — portions  of  the  stewed  fruit  being  given 
to  the  suffering  men  between  slices  of  bread.  If  you  hap- 
pened to  be  in  the  station  watching  curiously  the  happy 
scene,  a  girl  would  jog  your  elbow,  present  a  little  clinking 
bag,  and  tell  you  with  a  smile  that,  in  this  theater,  every 
man  must  pay  for  his  place.  So,  in  a  hundred  other  spots. 
Every  effort  was  made  to  co-ordinate  the  work  of  the  two 
Government  departments — the  health  service  and  the  "  As- 
sistance Publique " — the  three  societies  constituting  the 
French  Red  Cross,  and  other  philanthropic  groups.  But  to 
secure  that  at  every  point — from  immediately  behind  the 
fighting  line  to  the  sanatorium  on  the  Spanish  frontier — 
good  surgical  aid,  medical  supplies,  food,  and  competent 
nursing  were  always  available  was  a  gigantic  if  not  an 
impossible  task.  The  provision  of  warm  clothing  against 
the  cold  and  wet  months  was  easier,  for  the  millions  of 
women  and  girls  left  at  home  were  only  too  glad  to  knit 
vests,  socks,  mufflers,  and  gloves,  and  to  make  good  shirts, 
too,  when  they  were  provided  with  the  flannel.  Evidently, 
however,  the  Government  itself  must  be  chiefly  responsible 
for  clothing  the  men  in  the  field.  As  a  first  measure,  it 
was  announced  at  the  end  of  September  that  they  might 
provide  themselves  with  the  following  articles,  and  that  they 
would  be  reimbursed  on  showing  that  they  had  them:  two 
flannel  shirts,  two  pairs  of  pants,  one  jersey,  one  flannel 
belt,  two  pairs  of  woolen  socks,  one  blanket,  one  pair  of 
woolen  gloves.  This  provision  was  supplemented  by  an  im- 
mense volume  of  voluntary  effort;  and,  the  stationary  war- 
fare of  the  trenches  somewhat  simplifying  the  problem  of 
communications,  it  could  be  said  during  the  autumn  and 


368        ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

winter  not  only  that  no  armies  had  ever  been  better  cared 
for,  but  that  the  sacrifice  of  many  thousands  of  men  was 
recognized  by  attention  they  would  hardly  have  received  in 
the  trials  of  civil  life. 

The  Chambers,  which  had  been  silent  since  the  beginning 
of  the  war,  reopened  on  December  22  for  a  short  special 
session.  This  was  formally  necessary  in  order  to  postpone 
the  elections  that  would  have  normally  taken  place  before 
the  end  of  the  year,  to  vote  supplies,  and  to  ratify  acts  of 
the  Government  done  by  decree  during  the  war.  The  ses- 
sion had  the  more  general,  the  unwritten,  aim  of  marking 
the  return  of  the  Government  to  Paris — an  event  heralded 
by  various  Presidential  and  Ministerial  visitations,  and  now 
quietly  completed — and  of  demonstrating  the  unity  and  reso- 
lution of  the  nation.  The  chief  interest  on  such  an  occasion 
naturally  centers  in  the  popular  assembly;  and  thither  I 
betook  myself  soon  after  noon. 

The  lobby  of  the  Palais  Bourbon,  called  the  "  Salle  des 
Pas  Perdus,"  has,  no  doubt,  presented  in  some  past  crises 
a  spectacle  fuller  of  the  elements  of  dramatic  surprise,  but 
never,  I  should  think,  a  more  moving  scene  or  one  more  finely 
reflecting  the  sufferings  and  anxieties,  the  capacities  and 
courage,  of  a  great  people.  Many  of  these  men  had  come 
direct  from  the  camps  and  trenches  of  the  battle  line,  where 
votes  do  not  count  and  another  law  than  that  of  Parlia- 
ment reigns  supreme.  They  told  each  other  weird  expe- 
riences, laughed  over  hardships  the  thought  of  which  would 
have  been  intolerable  six  months  before,  recalled  their  col- 
leagues who  had  fallen  on  the  stricken  field — the  deputies 
Goujon,  Nortier,  and  Proust,  and  Senator  Reymond,  the 
gallant  aviator — and  three  others,  MM.  Ghesquiere,  Delory, 
and  Basly,  who  were  still  hostages  in  the  hands  of  the 
enemy.  The  Abbe'  Lemire,  the  only  priest  in  this  Chamber, 
told  of  the  stirring  events  he  had  witnessed  at  Hazebrouck. 

The  two  deputies  for  Valenciennes,  MM.  Durre  and  Melin, 
succeeded  in  escaping  from  that  city  when  it  was  occupied, 


THE  GOVERNMENT  RETURNS  369 

aud  had  many  curious  and  tragic  incidents  to  relate.  The 
eastern  members  were  full  of  the  advance  in  Alsace  and  the 
gallant  actions  by  which  Nancy  and  Verdun  had  been  held 
immaculate.  To  an  assembly  190  of  whose  members  were 
in  the  army — the}'  had  received  leave  of  absence  from  the 
front  for  the  session,  as  the  law  provides,  and,  by  the  same 
obligation,  appeared  in  civilian  garb,  not  uniform — these 
experiences  had  a  peculiar  interest.  So  when,  at  2  o'clock, 
they  trooped  into  the  Chamber  to  take  each  his  accustomed 
desk  in  face  of  the  tribune,  from  which  fierce  and  fiery 
harangues  had  so  often  been  hurled  against  this  side  or 
that,  it  was  in  a  strange  new  spirit  of  gentleness  and  fra- 
ternity. Some  dajr  the  old  divisions  must  reappear,  the  old 
feuds  revive.  To-day  there  was  only  one  party  in  France, 
the  universal  party  of  national  defense. 

In  the  House  of  Commons,  the  dominant  feature  is  the 
division  of  Government  and  Opposition  benches,  with  Mr. 
Speaker  paternally  guarding  the  decencies.  In  Paris,  parties 
grade  off  imperceptibly  from  Right  to  Left;  the  concen- 
tration of  seats  within  the  well-lighted  amphitheater,  and 
of  the  vision  both  of  deputies  and  visitors  in  the  high  gal- 
leries behind  upon  the  tribune,  or  speaker's  platform,  gives 
a  dramatic  and  modern  quality  to  the  scene  quite  absent  at 
Westminster.  There  was,  however,  no  theatrical  note  in 
these  proceedings.  After  a  quarter  of  an  hour's  hubbub  of 
greetings  and  gossip,  M.  Deschanel  read  an  admirably  con- 
ceived presidential  oration.  He  spoke,  amid  sharp  volleys 
of  hand-clapping,  of  the  courage  and  powers  of  organiza- 
tion that  had  carried  the  French  colors  back  into  Alsace, 
and  had  triumphed  on  the  Marne  and  in  the  north;  of  the 
complete  cessation  of  civil  discords  before  the  national  peril ; 
and  of  the  spirit  in  which  France  was  defending  the  respect 
for  treaties,  the  independence  of  Europe,  and  human  lib- 
erties. In  an  incidental  phrase,  he  spoke  of  Germany  as 
treading  underfoot  the  principle  of  nationalities  which  she 
had  invoked  for  herself  in  earlier  days,  a  principle  truly 


870        ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

illustrated  by  England,  surrounded  by  a  loyal  family  of 
daughter  nations.  A  sentence  of  homage  to  Belgium,  "  the 
sovereign  example  in  our  days  of  moral  grandeur,"  was  re- 
ceived with  a  wave  of  applause,  the  whole  assembly  stand- 
ing. "  Right  is  greater  than  force,"  M.  Deschanel  pro- 
tested; and  no  words  uttered  during  the  session  reached 
higher  than  this  simple  denial  of  the  Bismarckian  maxim. 
The  President  then  proceeded  to  the  traditional  eulogy  of 
members  of  the  Chamber  dead  since  the  last  session.  The 
seats  of  the  three  deputies  who  had  fallen  in  action  were 
marked  with  tricolor  scarfs. 

M.  Viviani  followed.  He  looked  tired,  and  his  voice  was 
not  at  its  best;  but  there  was  something  impressive  in  the 
quietude  and  strong  reserve  of  this  civilian  figure.  His 
speech  was  not,  he  said,  a  declaration  of  policy,  for  there 
was  that  day  only  one  policy — the  unceasing  combat  for 
the  definite  liberation  of  Europe,  guaranteed  by  a  fully 
victorious  peace.  The  complete  unity  of  France  had  dis- 
turbed the  drunken  dream  of  a  German  triumph.  The 
Prime  Minister  referred  to  the' documents  by  which  the  Ger- 
man Government's  attempts  to  rehabilitate  itself  had  been 
destroyed.  The  Allies  had  been  forced  into  this  war,  and 
would  wage  it  to  the  end.  France  had  shown  that  an  organ- 
ized democracy  could,  when  necessary,  support  with  vigol' 
its  ideal  of  liberty  and  equality.  A  nation  that  could  show 
such  heroism  was  imperishable.  None  doubted  the  suprem- 
acy of  Parliament,  but  all  must  make  sacrifices.  Let  them 
go  forward  with  one  cry — victory;  one  vision — the  father- 
land; one  ideal — the  right.  It  was  an  inspiring  allocution, 
and  the  Chamber  cheered  its  chief  passages  to  the  echo. 
Then  the  sitting  raced  to  a  conclusion.  M.  Ribot  appeared 
for  about  one  minute  in  the  tribune  to  lodge  his  Budget. 
M.  Viviani  presented  a  number  of  Bills,  including  a  meas- 
ure enabling  the  Government  to  withdraw  by  simple  decree 
the  privilege  of  naturalization  from  any  person  found  guilty 
of  trafficking  with  the  enemy.    M.  Millerand,  the  War  Min- 


THE  GOVERNMENT  RETURNS  371 

ister,  and  M.  Malvy,  the  Home  Secretary,  ran  up  the  steps 
and  down  again,  and,  before  anyone  had  had  time  to  reflect 
that,  in  an  assembly  of*  nearly  six  hundred  members,  there 
might  well  be  one  dissentient  voice,  all  the  day's  business 
had  been  finished,  and  the  House  had  adjourned. 

There  was  behind  this  short  Parliamentary  Session  a  pow- 
erful but  hidden  wave  of  anxious  thought,  which  marked  its 
importance.  The  Tress  said  little  about  it,  and  leading 
politicians  would  not  allow  themselves  to  be  interviewed 
on  the  subject.  Yet  it  filled  all  intelligent  minds;  and  to 
define  it  will  help  us  to  understand  where  lies  the  funda- 
mental unity  of  Englishmen  with  the  people  of  France,  and 
how  great  was  in  this  day  of  trial  the  difference  of  their  im- 
mediate circumstances  and  sacrifices.  They  were,  in  this 
struggle,  the  two  great  champions  of  democracy  and  civil 
liberties.  But  whereas  Britain  lay  safe  within  her  girdle 
of  sea,  her  ancient  institutions  unchallenged,  and  her  habit- 
ual life  little  modified,  the  whole  fate  of  France  was  cast 
into  the  scales  of  war.  For  the  French  Republic,  it  was 
no  mere  question  of  an  expeditionary  corps  swelling  slowly 
to  the  dimensions  of  a  Continental  army.  Like  a  lightning 
stroke,  all  her  best  manhood  had  to  be  thrown  out  to  answer 
the  hellish  challenge  of  a  Power  openly  contemptuous  of 
democracy  and  Parliamentarism.  At  this  moment,  eight 
departments  of  France,  including  some  of  her  richest  in- 
dustrial districts,  the  textile  cities  and  half  of  the  collieries 
of  the  north,  lay  under  the  heel  of  the  invader.  There  was 
hardly  a  family  in  the  land  that  was  not  already  wounded 
in  the  prodigious  effort  by  which  his  advance  had  been 
stayed.  The  army  was  now  the  nation,  and  so  it  must  be 
till  the  day  of  victory. 

The  best  English  book  on  France — true,  it  was  now  ten 
years  old — spoke  of  the  French  people's  "  incapacity  for 
parliamentary  government."  Such  was  the  failure  of  the 
conservative  mind  to  see  into  the  depths  of  national  con- 
sciousness.   In  Germany,  the  same  kind  of  deception  was 


372        ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

naturally  encouraged,  and  went  to  ridiculous  lengths. 
France  was  decadent,  French  parliamentary  disputes  were 
a  preparation  for  conquest,  Gustave  Herv6  and  the  Labor 
Confederation  were  worth  so  many  army  corps,  the  French 
Army  was  an  army  of  lawyers,  deputies,  talkers.  If  our 
eyes  had  not  been  dazzled  with  the  flashing  succession  of 
events,  every  man  of  us  who  had  ever  criticized  French 
Parliamentarism  would  have  stood  still  for  a  moment  of 
sheer  shame  on  August  4  to  recognize  the  wonder  of  the 
miracle  that  German  aggression  had  worked.  There  is  a 
perpetual  mingling  of  faith  and  skepticism  in  the  French 
nature,  which  may  easily  be  misunderstood  by  foreign  ob- 
servers. Skepticism,  for  instance,  of  the  motives  of  carpet- 
bag politicians  is  almost  universal.  It  leads  to  very  large 
abstentions  from  voting  at  every  General  Election.  It  may 
easily  be  mistaken  for  disbelief  in  Parliament  itself.  So, 
again,  many  things  one  heard  in  private  conversation  in 
Paris  when  the  Government  moved  to  Bordeaux  might  be 
mistaken  for  skepticism  as  to  the  Republic  itself.  Now  no 
such  mistakes  could  be  made.  The  Republic  was  more 
firmly  founded  than  ever  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the 
French  people.  There  is  not  any  alternative — we  can  say 
that  now  more  positively  than  before  the  war.  And  even 
when  the  Chambers  are  only  in  brief  and  occasional  ses- 
sion, when  martial  law  and  military  dispositions  are  su- 
preme, Parliamentarism  has  justified  itself.  It  has  passed 
through  the  supreme  test,  not  a  French  voice  challenges  it, 
and  it  emerges  purified  of  certain  quarrelsome  and  unclean 
elements  into  a  new  strength,  the  voice  of  France,  in  danger 
one  and  indivisible. 


CHAPTER  XXX 


WAR  AS  IT  IS 


I.     The  Costs  in  Life  and  Wealth 

The  deadlock  of  winter  warfare  across  the  trenches  of 
Belgium  and  France  gives  a  material  reality  to  the  chrono- 
logical limit  of  this  narrative.  In  costs  and  losses,  in  the 
anxiety  and  labor  of  putting  new  forces  into  the  field  and 
maintaining  those  already  there,  there  was,  however,  no 
breach  of  continuity;  and,  while  it  would  be  evidently  fool- 
ish, in  reviewing  a  portion  of  a  war,  to  enter  into  a  detailed 
discussion  either  of  these  major  factors  or  its  military  les- 
sons, it  would  be  a  yet  graver  error  to  omit  the  few  faint 
indications  that  can  be  given  of  the  dire  injuries  that  the 
world  in  general,  and  Europe  in  particular,  have  suffered. 

There  is  one  fact  of  a  wholly  satisfactory  kind,  the  result 
of  modern  surgical  and  medical  skill  and  the  advances  in 
sanitary  organization.  At  the  end  of  the  year,  Mr.  Asquith 
stated  in  the  House  of  Commons  that,  of  104,000  British 
casualties,  about  GO  per  cent,  of  the  wounded  had  recovered, 
and  were  again  fit  for  service.  On  February  15,  1915,  Mr. 
Tennant  gave  remarkable  figures  as  to  disease  in  the  army 
during  the  first  six  months  of  the  war.  In  that  period,  there 
had  not  been  a  single  case  of  typhus  or  cholera,  in  either 
the  Expeditionary  Force,  or  the  troops  in  the  United  King- 
dom.   For  other  diseases,  the  figures  were: 


Expeditionary  Force 

Troops  in  U.  K. 

Cases 

Deaths 

Cases 

Deaths 

Typhoid  Fever 

Scarlet  Fever 

Measles 

625 
196 
175 

49 
4 

2 

262 
1,379 
1,045 

47 

23 
65 

373 


374        ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

Among  the  troops  in  the  United  Kingdom,  there  had  been 
only  one  case  of  smallpox,  and  that  not  fatal.  Six  men  had 
died  of  diphtheria,  out  of  783  cases.  The  highest  mortality 
was  from  pneumonia — 357  deaths  out  of  1,508  cases.  Within 
this  period,  England  had  been  called  upon  to  multiply  by 
four  her  land  forces,  apart  from  the  Indian  and  Colonial 
contingents:  thus — 

Regulars  and   Territorials   at  the  out- 
break of  the  war 711,005 

Increase  on  August  6,  1914 500,000 

Do.  on  September  10,  1914 500,000 

Do.  on  November  16,  1914 1,000,000 

Total   2,711,005 

These  were  numbers  voted,  not  yet  raised;  the  above 
figures  of  sickness  apply  only  to  the  troops  in  being.  But 
they  may  be  taken  broadly  to  represent  the  modern  level 
of  army  health;  and  both  in  amount  of  sickness  and  rate 
of  recovery  they  show  a  very  marked  improvement  upon 
past  war  experience.  Lt  is  highly  probable  that  France  and 
Germany  could  both  exhibit  equal  proof  of  skill,  devotion, 
and  organization,  but  that  Russia  and  Austria-Hungary 
have  suffered  much  more  heavily,  and  Servia  and  Turkey 
most  heavily  of  all,  in  proportion  to  numbers  engaged. 

The  military  position  of  these  States  involved  for  Ger- 
many the  heaviest  proportionate  losses  if  she  failed  to  ef- 
fect an  early  success.  She  was  able  indeed,  in  the  last 
resort,  to  throw  eight  or  nine  million  men  into  the  field,  a 
number  that  would  secure  her,  with  the  Austro-Hungarian 
army,  an  equality  with  any  forces  Russia  and  the  Western 
Allies  could  enroll  and  arm  for  at  least  six  months.  But 
the  Austro-Hungarian  armies  proved  to  be  quite  unequal  to 
their  share  in  the  programme;  and,  simultaneously,  the 
offensive  which  Germany  had  planned  in  the  west  failed. 
Every  day  thereafter  must  make  their  case  more  hopeless, 


WAR  AS  IT  IS  375 

for  the  difficulty  of  the  Allies  had  been  not  the  lack  of  men 
and  other  resources,  but  only  the  difficulty  of  quickly  mo- 
bilizing them.  In  nearly  every  direction,  their  resources 
were  much  superior;  among  them  was  the  power  of  impos- 
ing a  naval  blockade,  and  so  limiting  the  German  Empire 
almost  wholly  to  its  domestic  production  in  agriculture  and 
industry.  Hence  the  reckless  desperation  of  those  massed 
assaults  by  which  it  was  sought  to  force  an  issue  at  one 
part  after  another  of  the  front  across  France  and  Belgian 
Flanders.  Only  the  Prussian  casualty  lists  have  been  pub- 
lished. Approximately,  however,  it  may  be  said  that  the 
wastage  of  the  German  armies  up  to  the  end  of  1914,  from 
death,  permanent  disablement,  and  constant  sickness  (al- 
lowing for  those  able  to  return  to  the  ranks)  and  capture, 
amounted  to  about  a  million  and  a  quarter  men.  The 
French  Government  says  1,300,000  (gross,  1,800,000,  less 
500,000  returned  to  the  ranks)  ;  and  it  declares  that  this  was 
double  the  French  losses. 

Something  has  been  said  of  the  great  effort  of  charity  to 
assuage  the  unspeakable  pains  of  this  world-wide  calamity. 
It  is,  perhaps,  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  no  equivalent 
amount  of  thought  was  given  to  the  larger  economic  prob- 
lems of  the  war.  In  France,  as  in  England,  there  was  much 
talk  of  "  capturing "  German  trade,  which,  in  fact,  was 
rapidly  being  destroyed.  The  thinking  observer  knew  that 
trade  is  not  to  be  caught  as  boys  catch  butterflies;  and  he 
knew,  also,  that  the  idea  of  any  substantial  compensation 
for  this  vast  disturbance  and  arrest  of  production  and  ex- 
change by  way  of  war  indemnities  was  a  simple  fantasy.  At 
a  meeting  of  the  French  Political  Economy  Society,  on 
October  5,  M.  Yves  Guyot  estimated  that,  in  six  months,  the 
war  would  cost  the  seven  European  belligerents,  including 
loss  of  production  and  losses  in  human  capital,  more  than 
88  milliards  of  francs — £3,520  Millions — or  over  seventeen 
times  the  amount  of  the  indemnity  imposed  on  France  in 
1871.     M.   Leroy-Beaulieu    reckoned   that  £240   Millions   a 


376        ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

month  was  being  spent  by  the  seven  nations  in  immediate 
military  costs.  He  thought  that  they  would  have  to  bor- 
row from  £1,400  Millions  to  £1,600  Millions  at  the  end  of  a 
six-months'  war,  and  that,  considering  the  lowness  of  the 
real  national  debt  of  Germany,  she  could  pay  an  indemnity 
of  £800  to  £1,000  Millions. 

The  current  strain  of  the  war  upon  State  finances  is  illus- 
trated by  the  account  placed  before  the  House  of  Com- 
mons at  the  beginning  of  March  1915,  when  the  British 
Government  obtained  two  new  Votes  of  Credit.  The  first 
of  these  brought  the  war  expenditure  for  the  eight  months, 
August-March,  up  to  £362,000,000,  nearly  tripling  the  nor- 
mal national  budget.  As  £441,000,000  had  been  borrowed 
for  the  war  up  to  this  time  (£350,000,000  in  the  previous 
November,  and  the  rest  earlier),  a  margin  of  £86,500,000 
was  left  in  the  Treasury  toward  a  war  expenditure  which 
was  being  piled  up  at  a  rate  of  £543,000,000  a  year,  or  about 
a  million  and  a  half  per  day. 

The  completest  estimate  of  the  costs  of  the  war  hitherto 
attempted  was  laid  before  the  Royal  Statistical  Society 
on  March  16,  1915,  by  Mr.  Edgar  Crammond,  and  showed 
a  rate  of  expenditure  and  loss  considerably  in  excess  of 
that  of  M.  Guyot's  calculation.  Mr.  Crammond  assumed  a 
continuance  of  active  and  general  hostilities  up  to  the  end 
of  July  1915,  and,  for  the  period  of  twelve  months,  con- 
cluded that  the  direct  and  indirect  costs  to  the  six  chief 
nations  involved  would  amount  to  £9,147  Millions,  the  larger 
half  of  this  colossal  sum  falling  upon  the  Allies.  This 
does  not  include  the  losses  of  Japan,  Servia,  or  Turkey,  for 
which  the  data  were  insufficient,  or  the  very  heavy  penalties 
falling  upon  the  United  States  and  other  neutral  nations. 
The  cost  to  the  six  Powers,  Mr.  Crammond  reckoned  as  fol- 
lows: 


£ 

Belgium    526,500,000 

Russia     1,400,000,000 

Germany   2,775,000,000 


£ 

France    1,686,400,000 

British  Empire 1,258.000,000 

Austria-Hungary    . . .  1,502,000,000 


WAR  AS  IT  IS 


377 


These  totals  lie  divided  into  direct  and  indirect  costs  (in 
millions  of  pounds),  as  follows: 


Direct 
expenditure 

of 
Government 

Destruction 
of  property 

Capitalized 

value  of 
loss  of  life 

Loss  of  pro- 
duction and 
other  losses 

Belgium 

36.5 
553.4 
600 

708 

250 
160 
100 

40 
348 
300 
300 

200 

France 

625 

400 

British  Empire 

250 

Total 

1,897.9 

510 

988 

1,475 

Austria-Hungary 

Germany 

562 
938 

100 

240 
879 

600 
958 

Total 

1,500 

100 

1,119 

1,558 

The  loss  of  production,  in  the  case  of  England,  by  the 
withdrawal  of,  say,  two  million  workers,  he  placed  at 
£200,000,000.  He  endeavored  to  distinguish  clearly  between 
the  permanent  loss  of  capital — that  is,  the  direct  State  ex- 
penditure and  destruction  of  property — which  he  estimated 
at  £4,000  Millions,  and  the  indirect  losses,  such  as  that  of 
income  and  the  capitalized  value  of  lives  lost,  which  was  put 
at  £5,150  Millions.  He  gave  reasons  for  believing  that,  al- 
though the  larger  half  of  these  burdens  would  fall  upon  the 
Allies,  the  vast  superiority  of  their  resources  would  enable 
them  to  continue  the  war  much  longer  than  Germany  and 
Austria  could,  and  to  recover  much  more  quickly  from  its 
effects. 

The  chief  value  of  calculations  like  this  was  to  turn  such 
competent  minds  as  were  not  absorbed  in  the  work  of  the 
war  itself  to  the  contemplation  of  the  exceedingly  grave  prob- 
lems which,  if  historical  precedent  goes  for  anything,  must 
arise  upon  the  resumption  of  normal  economic  life.  The 
word  "  normal  "  is,  indeed,  out  of  place,  for  many  years  must 
elapse  ere  Europe  reaches  a  stable  condition  in  industry 
and   business.    Mr.   Crammond's  balance-sheet  dealt  with 


378        ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

immediate  penalties:  it  scarcely  touched  the  neighboring 
field  of  losses  due  to  the  world-wide  dislocation  of  finance, 
commerce,  and  production  that  usually  follows  a  great  war. 
The  political  treaty  of  peace  is  merely  the  occasion,  in  the 
present  anarchic  condition  of  international  society,  for  the 
opening  of  an  undeclared  economic  war,  in  which  the  vic- 
tims can  find  neither  patriotic  nor  any  other  kind  of  con- 
solation. Millions  of  soldiers  and  armaments  workers  are 
disbanded,  and  sent  out  to  destroy  the  price-level  of  pro- 
ductive industry.  For  a  time,  a  spasm  of  "  trade  revival  " 
may  help  them.  Floods  of  newly  created  wealth  are  sud- 
denly poured  into  markets  which  are  mere  glass-houses  in 
their  delicacy.  A  fever  of  financial  speculation  aggravates 
the  process.  Prices,  interest,  and  wages  soar  up,  and  up. 
Then  the  bubble  bursts.  The  nexus  of  production  and  con- 
sumption is  lost;  there  is  what  people  call  overproduction, 
a  glut  of  commodities.  Orders  are  restricted,  and  prices 
fall.  Laborers  are  dismissed,  and  wages  fall.  Capital  is 
canceled,  and  interest  falls.  What  should  be  the  blessing 
of  mankind,  the  power  of  producing  new  wealth,  is  turned 
into  a  curse.  There  is  a  widespread  "  trade  crisis  "  ;  and 
riotous  crowds  of  unemployed  workmen  ask  angrily  whether 
it  was  for  this  that  they  fought  through  the  greatest  war  in 
history.1  Nevertheless,  the  war  taxes  required  by  the  bill 
of  immediate  losses  have  still  to  be  paid. 

Three  schools  of  political  thought  may  be  said  to  have 
arisen  from  the  long  economic  crisis  following  the  war  of 
1870-71 — those  of  Imperialism,  of  "  Tariff  reform,"  and  of 
Labor-Socialism.  We  cannot  foresee  the  changes  the  great 
war  will  work  in  the  mind  of  the  western  world,  except 
that  there  will  certainly  be  a  general  demand  for  some 
better  means  of  assuring  European  peace  than  those  yet 
existing.     But  it  should  not  be  altogether  beyond  the  power 

1  The  writer  may,  perhaps,  refer  to  an  inadequate  consideration  of  the 
economic  effects  of  the  wars  of  1866  and  1871  in  his  "  Industrial  History 
of  Modern  England." 


WAR  AS  IT  IS  379 

of  the  doctors  of  physical  and  social  science  to  cope  with  the 
problems  just  indicated.  It  was  the  new  power  of  steam, 
directed  by  Pitt  as  national  financier,  as  really  as  the  power 
directed  by  Nelson  and  Wellington,  that  broke  Napoleon 
and  saved  England  a  century  ago.  Because  the  new  means 
of  producing  wealth  were  not  subjected  by  organization 
to  the  general  welfare,  the  mass  of  the  people  sank  for  many 
years  into  abject  misery.  Whether  invention  and  science 
can  again  effect  such  a  miracle  as  that  of  the  "  industrial 
revolution,"  we  cannot  say;  we  can,  however,  say  that  only 
second  in  importance  to  the  conclusion  of  a  lasting  peace 
between  the  belligerent  States  is  the  task  of  so  directing  the 
resumption  of  common  work  that  the  injury  shown  in  past 
trade  crises  may  be  reduced  to  a  minimum. 

II.     The  Deadlock  op  the  Trenches 

The  chief  military  lesson  of  the  first  five  months  of  the 
western  war  was  the  great  power  of  the  intrenched  de- 
fensive. Not  even  in  Napoleon's  highest  period  had  the 
doctrine  of  energy  and  concentration  afterwards  formulated 
by  Clausewitz  been  illustrated  as  in  the  first  month  of  the 
German  campaign,  and  afterward  in  the  persistence  of 
mass  attacks.  Everything  that  superior  numbers,  filled 
with  inspiration  of  the  offensive,  and  backed  by  long  scien- 
tific preparation,  could  attempt  was  attempted;  and  nearly 
always  it  broke  upon  the  resistance  of  a  thin  line  of  maga- 
zine rifles  and  field-guns  in  a  deep  ditch. 

In  1902,  before  the  aeroplane  and  the  motor-wagon — per- 
haps the  most  important  of  the  new  implements  of  war — had 
appeared,  the  writer  summarized  as  follows  the  chief  thesis 
presented  in  the  writings  and  conversations  of  the  late  John 
de  Bloch,  the  Russian  military  economist:  "  The  resisting 
power  of  an  army  standing  on  the  defensive,  equipped  with 
long-range,  quick-firing  lilies  and  guns,  from  ten  to  forty 
times  more  powerful  than  those  employed  in  1870  and  1877, 


380        ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

expert  in  intrenching  and  in  the  use  of  barbed  wire  and 
other  obstacles,  and  highly  mobile,  is  something  quite  differ- 
ent from  that  which  Napoleon,  or  even  later  aggressors,  had 
to  face.  Not  only  is  it  a  much  larger  force,  the  manhood 
of  a  nation,  instead  of  its  hooligan  surplus;  it  is  also  a  body 
highly  educated,  an  army  of  engineers.  Its  infantry  lines 
and  battery  positions  will  be  invisible.  Reconnaissances  will 
be  easily  prevented  by  protecting  bands  of  sharpshooters; 
and  no  object  of  attack  will  offer  itself  to  the  invader  till  he 
has  come  within  a  zone  of  deadly  fire.  His  cavalry  cannot 
charge  intrenched  infantry;  and,  while  the  direction  of  an 
attack  against  a  hidden  foe  has  become  extremely  difficult, 
owing  to  the  immensity  and  dispersion  of  the  two  forces, 
the  morale  of  the  attacking  army  will  be  weakened  by  the 
absence  of  all  the  bracing  elements  of  ancient  warfare,  and 
the  open  order  now  necessary.  The  most  heavy  and  pow- 
erful shells,  which  are  alone  of  use  against  intrenched  posi- 
tions, cannot  be  used  in  great  number,  or  brought  easily  into 
action;  while  the  defenders  have  their  ammunition  at  hand 
in  unlimited  quantities.  While  the  defenders  are  more  safe 
than  ever  in  their  trenches,  the  attackers  are  necessarily 
exposed  over  an  immensely  enlarged  field,  to  a  heavier  and 
more  accurate  fire  than  has  ever  been  known  in  earlier 
battles.  Artillery  shares  the  advantage  of  a  defensive  posi- 
tion. If  the  attackers  have  a  local  superiority,  the  defenders 
can  delay  them  long  enough  to  allow  of  an  orderly  retire- 
ment to  other  intrenched  positions.  The  attacker  will  be 
forced  to  intrench  himself,  and  so  the  science  of  the  spade 
reduces  battles  into  sieges.  Battle  in  the  open  would  mean 
annihilation;  yet  it  is  only  by  assault  that  intrenched  posi- 
tions can  be  carried. 

"  Warfare  will  drag  on  more  slowly  than  ever.  Frontier 
defenses  will  give  time  for  a  concentration  of  national  re- 
sources; while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  invader  will  have 
greater  difficulty  than  ever  in  provisioning  his  enormous 
hosts.     A  conqueror  cannot  reward  himself  as  he  once  did, 


WAR  AS  IT  IS  381 

nor  can  be  hope  for  compensation  for  the  expenses  he  will 
have  to  bear.  While  an  invading  army  is  being  decimated 
by  sickness  and  wounds,  and  demoralized  by  the  heavy  loss 
of  officers  and  the  delay  of  any  glorious  victory,  the  home 
population  will  be  sunk  in  misery  by  the  growth  of  economic 
burdens,  the  stoppage  of  trade  and  industry.  The  small, 
mobile,  elastic,  and  manageable  army  of  the  past  was  cap- 
able of  making  quick  marches,  sudden  changes  in  its  line  of 
operation,  turning  movements,  movements  on  interior  lines, 
strategical  demonstrations  in  the  widest  sense;  in  a  word, 
it  was  capable  of  performing  all  the  acts  in  which  the  genius 
of  a  great  captain  could  show  itself.  But  massed  armies  of 
millions,  like  those  of  to-day,  leaning  on  fortresses,  in- 
trenched camps,  and  defenses  which  have  been  prepared  for 
the  last  thirty  years,  must  perforce  renounce  all  the  more 
delicate  manifestations  of  the  military  art.  Armies  as  they 
now  stand  cannot  maneuver,  and  must  fight  in  directions 
indicated  in  advance.  The  losses  of  to-day  would  be  pro- 
portionately greater  than  in  past  wars,  if  it  were  not  for 
the  tactical  means  adopted  to  avoid  them.  The  diminution 
in  the  losses  arises  from  dispersion  and  the  great  distances 
over  which  battles  are  fought.  But  the  consequence  of  dis- 
tance and  dispersion  is  that  victorious  war — the  obtaining 
of  results  by  destroying  the  enemy's  principal  forces,  and 
thus  making  him  submit  to  the  conqueror's  will — can  exist 
no  more." 

De  Bloch  was  prejudiced  by  inaccurate  summaries  of  his 
work  "  La  Guerre "  ;  and  much  has  happened  since  the 
closing  years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  he  wrote  it. 
He  did  not  say  that  war  had  become  impossible — if  he  had 
believed  that,  proof  in  six  volumes  would,  indeed,  have  been 
a  labor  of  supererogation — but  that  an  aggressive  war  could 
not  now  give  the  results  aimed  at  as  between  States  of 
nearly  equal  resources.  Whatever  errors  of  detail  he  made, 
he  was  a  true  savant;  it  can  no  longer  be  denied  that  he 
foresaw  the  main  track  of  military  development;  and,  at  a 


382    ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

time  when  western  readers  are  encouraged  by  many  republi- 
cations to  test  German  military  theory  by  its  results,  it 
cannot  be  ill  to  challenge  comparison  with  a  radically 
opposed  school  of  thought.  The  new  instruments  of  war 
have  not  invalidated  his  thesis,  because,  generally,  they  are 
the  property  of  both  sides.  The  aeroplane  has  greatly  suc- 
ceeded in  scouting  and  signaling  work,  revealing  concen- 
trations of  troops  behind  the  lines,  and  hidden  gun  positions. 
The  motor-wagon  has  exceeded  all  expectations,  and,  with 
the  motor-bus,  car,  and  cab  (1,300  motor-buses  were  re- 
quisitioned in  Paris  alone),  has  revolutionized  the  convey- 
ance of  men  and  supplies.  To  these  and  the  railways,  we 
owe  the  marvelous  rapidity  with  which  the  extension  of 
lines  is  now  carried  out.  The  searchlight,  field-telephone, 
"  wireless,"  and  the  trench  periscope  must  be  mentioned  as 
important  parts  of  the  modern  equipment.  But  neither 
side  has  a  monopoly  of  these  scientific  auxiliaries ;  and  the 
most  characteristic  tools  of  the  newest  armies  are  still  the 
oldest  of  all  tools,  the  spade  and  pick  for  digging  trenches — 
and  graves.  This  is  due  above  all  to  the  fact  that  trenches 
are  so  easily  dug  and  moved  in  obedience  to  local  conditions, 
and  that  they  offer  so  narrow  a  mark  (2  or  3  feet)  to  the 
enemy's  artillery.  The  stoutest  steel  and  concrete  cover- 
ings give  no  compensation  for  the  fixity  of  the  fort,  whose 
position  cannot  be  long  concealed.  Even  if  its  guns  have 
the  advantage  of  number,  range,  and  power,  the  besiegers 
may  be  able  to  steal  near  without  being  located,  or  they 
may  get  protection  behind  a  range  of  hills;  if  the  fort  does 
not  possess  these  advantages,  it  is  doomed,  except  for  the 
purpose  of  a  short  arrest,  by  the  weight  of  high  explosives 
the  new  mobile,  heavy  howitzers  can  pour  upon  it,  by  high- 
angle  fire,  from  their  protected  and  frequently  changed  em- 
placements. 

It  will  be  said,  and  with  truth,  that,  when  his  aggression 
has  been  checked,  the  would-be  conqueror  can  still  fall  back 
upon  the  advantages  of  the  intrenched  defensive.    But  he 


WAR  AS  IT  IS  383 

does  so  with  forces  relatively,  as  well  as  positively,  reduced 
by  his  heavier  losses  in  the  aggressive  campaign.  The  fol- 
lowing estimates  of  comparative  strength,  put  forward  at 
various  times,  with  much  supporting  evidence,  by  the  French 
Government,  have  not,  so  far  as  I  know,  been  challenged. 
On  a  peace  footing,  the  German  Empire  had  25  army  corps. 
At  the  opening  of  the  war  this  number  was  increased  to  61 ; 
and  by  the  end  of  the  year,  it  had  reached  G9  (Active  corps, 
25£;  Reserve,  21£;  Ersatz  brigades,  6^;  Reserve  corps  of  new 
formation,  7^;  Landwehr  corps,  8J).  This  represented, 
very  nearty,  if  not  quite,  the  maximum  of  the  German  effort. 
For,  assuming  original  resources  (minus  railway  men, 
police,  etc.)  of  about  8|  million  men,  there  being  on  the  two 
fronts,  at  the  end  of  the  year,  about  4  millions ;  and  the  net 
losses  in  five  months  having  been  1,300,000,  there  remained 
a  margin  of  only  3,200,000,  or,  if  inefficients  and  men  over 
thirty-nine  years  of  age  be  deducted,  only  2  millions.  This 
would  compensate  for,  wastage  at  the  same  rate  for  about 
eight  months;  if  more  new  corps  were  formed,  the  margin 
available  would  be  used  up  proportionately  sooner. 

On  the  other  hand,  Russia  and  England  had  only  just  be- 
gun to  bring  their  main  forces  into  action;  while  France, 
with  2,500,000  men  at  the  front,  and  every  unit  at  war 
strength,  had  still  2  million  men  to  call  up.  In  quality,  the 
comparison  favored  the  Allies  still  more  markedly.  The 
new  German  levies  were  largely  untrained.  Most  of  the 
old  regiments  had  had  to  be  entirely  renewed ;  and  the  lack 
of  officers  was  already  seriously  felt.  Depressed  by  the 
knowledge  of  repeated  failure  in  both  fields,  and  the  rumor 
of  approaching  famine  at  home,  they  saw  France  reforming 
her  generalship  and  conserving  her  energies;  they  saw  new 
hosts  gathering  on  both  flanks,  better  trained  and  com- 
manded, better  equipped  and  supplied — already  definitely 
superior  in  artillery — and  unboundedly  confident  in  their 
rising  strength.  The  moral  difference  between  a  genuine 
national  defense  and  a  defensive  which  is  only  the  bank- 


384    ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

ruptcy  of  an  outrageous  aggression  is  enormous.  Added  to 
the  material  difference  in  the  balance  of  forces  which  be- 
gan to  show  itself  when  winter  sealed  the  deadlock  in  the 
west,  it  warranted  the  high  hopes  with  which  the  Allies 
entered  upon  the  new  year's  operations. 

III.     The  Farm  of  Quennevieres 

On  the  first  of  October,  the  French  official  bulletin  con- 
tained the  following  phrase :  "  Between  the  Oise  and  the 
Aisne,  the  enemy  has  vigorously  attacked  Tracy-le-Mont,  to 
the  north-east  of  the  Forest  of  Laigle,  but  has  been  repulsed 
with  heavy  loss."  Tracy  was  a  village  of  GOO  inhabitants, 
between  Noyon  and  Vic-sur-Aisne.  It  did  not  share  the 
fame  of  these  larger  neighbors  (Noyon  is  reputedly  the 
birthplace  of  Charlemagne,  as  well  as  of  Calvin,  and  Vic 
has  an  eleventh-century  church  and  a  thirteenth-century 
donjon).  Nor  was  any  war  correspondent  present  to 
chronicle  the  conflict  of  which  the  above  sentence  is  the  only 
direct  record.  But  there  was  present  on  the  battlefield  a 
corporal  stretcher-bearer,  who,  being  wounded,  has  since  put 
down  some  notes  of  his  experiences.  In  printing  them,  the 
Temps  says,  not  too  strongly,  that,  "  while  written  by  a 
man  who  has  no  literary  pretensions,  they  may  be  compared 
with  the  most  striking  pages  of  some  Russian  authors." 

The  writer  is  concerned  to  expose  the  current  idea  that 
the  Army  Medical  Service  begins  to  work  when  the  firing 
ceases,  resting  meantime  at  the  rear.  This  is  only  true  of 
the  special  divisions  of  nurses  and  stretcher-bearers  charged 
with  the  removal  of  the  wounded  to  hospital.  The  regi- 
mental doctors,  on  the  contrary,  work  on  the  field  and  under 
fire,  and  cannot  even  take  shelter  in  trenches,  like  the  firing- 
line.  On  the  day  in  question,  when  the  duel  of  gun  and 
rifle  fire  had  begun  in  earnest,  they  were  advised  that  many 
French  and  German  wounded  needed  help  in  the  large  farm 
of  Quennevieres,  lying  between  the  lines.     It  was  a  journey 


WAR  AS  IT  IS  385 

of  the  utmost  peril,  but  two  doctors  and  the  writer  started 
off  without  hesitation.  The  trio  reached  the  farm.  Around 
it,  the  trees  were  torn  and  cut,  deep  holes  showed  in  the 
soil,  and  gaps  in  the  walls  of  the  farmyard.  Probably  the 
Germans  thought  it  sheltered  the  French  artillery,  and  had 
deliberately  bombarded  it. 

"  We  now  heard  again  the  whizz-z-z  that  those  who  have 
once  heard  it  can  never  forget.  The  shell  was  coming 
straight  toward  us.  We  fell  flat,  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye,  our  noses  to  the  ground.  Happy  he  who  finds  a  drain 
or  ditch  at  such  a  moment!  Yet  we  had  time  to  ask  our- 
selves whether  it  would  pass  over,  or  catch  us  in  this  ridicu- 
lous posture;  and  I  saw  the  past  and  the  future."  Four, 
five,  six  shells  tore  over  them.  "  We  got  up,  muddy  and 
peevish.  A  faint  smell  of  dynamite  filled  the  air.  We 
passed  through  the  gateway.  The  yard,  surrounded  on 
three  sides  by  the  farmhouse  and  servants'  quarters,  was 
quiet  and  trim.  Through  the  open  shed  doors,  we  could 
see  cows  peaceably  ruminating.  But  a  horribly  thin  dog 
was  barking  grievously,  as  he  turned  round  and  round  some- 
thing on  the  soil — a  great  red  patch  of  clotted  blood.  The 
poor  beast  bayed  without  cessation,  in  lamentable  appeal 
to  his  master,  who  had  fallen  there. 

"  We  entered  the  kitchen,  and  found  three  ground-floor 
rooms  full  of  wounded — French  and  German  uniforms  pell 
mell ;  a  few  officers.  Six  unwounded  German  soldiers,  three 
carrying  the  Red  Cross  armlet,  are  taking  care  of  both — we 
must  say  it  to  their  honor — with  equal  solicitude.  There 
are  also  a  French  doctor  and  nurses.  Many  of  the  unfortu- 
nates, lying  on  the  blood-marked  straw,  had  horrible 
wounds.  The  farm  had  seemed  to  them  a  last  refuge;  and 
they  had  dragged  themselves  as  best  they  could  to  what  for 
many  of  them  would  be  only  a  tomb.  ...  A  soldier  asks 
for  a  drink ;  as  he  rises,  with  hand  stretched  out  for  the 
glass  of  water,  a  bullet  comes  through  the  window,  and 
strikes  him  full  in  the  heart.     The  poor  fellow  sinks  with- 


386        ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

out  a  sigh.  Most  of  the  wounded  are  taken  away  in  a  lull 
of  the  combat.  Drs.  A.  and  T.  remain  with  the  last  of  them, 
and  with  the  Germans,  who  help  them  with  a  real  courage. 
It  is  three  in  the  afternoon.  Firing  recommences,  more 
violent  than  ever.  The  shells  whistle  ceaselessly.  An  adju- 
tant, terribly  wounded,  begs  to  be  put  into  the  cart,  which 
seems  to  him  a  guarantee  that  he  will  be  among  the  next 
to  be  removed.  Scarcely  is  he  laid  there  than  shrapnel 
bursts  over  the  cart,  killing  him.  The  firing  sounds  more 
clearly.  I  watch  the  doctors,  indifferent  to  the  approach- 
ing danger,  tending  the  wounded.  Most  of  the  living  rooms 
of  the  farm  are  now  in  ruins.  In  the  sheds,  the  cows  low 
piteously. 

"  A  wounded  man  in  the  kitchen  calls  me.  Struck  by  a 
ball  in  the  chest,  the  poor  fellow  pants  for  breath.  He  is 
supporting  himself  by  one  arm,  which  slips  on  the  bloody 
straw.  With  the  other  hand  he  feels  in  his  overcoat  pocket, 
which  is  glued  up  with  congealed  blood,  for  a  letter  which 
he  hands  to  me,  his  eyes  full  of  tears.  '  It  will  soon  be  over/ 
he  says,  '  perhaps  for  both  of  us.  But  if  you  should  escape, 
look,  here's  a  letter.'  He  stopped.  A  shell  passed,  bury- 
ing itself  in  the  road  twenty  yards  away.  The  lad  looked 
at  me,  smiling  sadly  through  his  tears.  I  take  the  letter. 
'  My  sweetheart,'  he  murmurs.  And  I  see  in  his  blood- 
stained fingers  a  little  lock  of  black  hair  which  he  presses 
tenderly  to  his  lips. 

"  Raising  my  eyes  to  the  ceiling,  I  see  the  plaster  break 
into  a  huge  star,  and  through  a  gaping  hole  the  end  of  a 
great  shell  appears.  The  ceiling  sinks  funnel-wise;  at  the 
same  moment  the  roof  cracks,  and  the  shell  explodes.  Then 
all  is  dark.  .  .  .  Presently  I  come  to  myself,  half  suffo- 
cated with  dust  and  the  fumes  of  dynamite.  The  house  is 
riven  from  top  to  bottom,  and  we  can  see  the  calm  blue 
sky  through  the  broken  roof.  The  least  seriously  wounded 
men  disengage  their  fellows.  One  of  the  Germans,  half 
mad,  gesticulates  and  wails,  '  Zum  keller,  zum  keller ! '  ('  To 


WAR  AS  IT  IS  387 

the  cellar!')  His  contortions  throw  a  comic  note  into  the 
terrible  scene.  Nearly  all  of  us  are  bleeding.  The  poor 
lover  is  dead,  disfigured.  Shells  have  struck  the  house  on 
two  sides.  In  a  part  that  is  still  standing,  a  sergeant, 
mortally  wounded,  with  indifferent  gaze  watches  the  ceiling 
cracking  and  sinking  above  him." 

They  manage  to  get  into  the  cellar;  and  here  the  German 
wounded,  hungry  and  desperate,  burst  out  into  complaints 
of  this  war  of  pains  incalculable  into  which  they  have  been 
driven.  " '  My  poor  wife!  My  poor  children!'  cries  one 
of  them,  wounded  in  the  stomach  by  a  fragment  of  shell. 
Another  says  that  his  wife  was  a  Frenchwoman,  and  he 
had  seen  his  brother-in-law  in  a  group  of  prisoners.  At  this 
moment,  in  a  dark  corner,  we  heard  a  sob,  and  a  woman's 
voice  rose  out  of  the  shadow :  '  All  my  own  children  are 
dead,  and  my  husband  was  killed  up  there  in  the  yard.'  It 
was  the  farmer's  wife.  She  had  watched,  helpless,  the  work 
of  destruction.  Children,  husband,  goods,  she  had  lost 
everything. 

"  And  I  saw  once  more  the  emaciated  dog  up  there  baying 
in  the  yard  before  the  clotted  blood  of  his  master." 

Another  cartful  of  wounded  was  removed.  The  remain- 
ing woman  and  two  men  spent  four  more  hours  in  the  cellar, 
under  the  faint  light  of  a  smoky  lamp.  It  was  9  p.m. 
when  they  got  away  from  the  ruined  farm.  As  they  passed 
over  the  battlefield,  they  saw  the  dim  forms  of  ghouls  rob- 
bing the  dead. 

The  writer  signs  himself  "  Pierre  de  Lorraine."  It  is 
doubtless  a  pseudonym.  And  the  official  record  of  one  day 
of  this  "  anonymous  war  "  merely  records  that  "  the  enemy 
has  attacked  Tracy-le-Mont,  but  has  been  repulsed  with 
heavy  loss." 

IV.     The  Christmas  Truce 

Sometimes,  not  often,  there  comes  to  hand  a  simple  sol- 
dier's letter  that  reflects  more  faithfully  than  any  but  the 


388        ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

highest  art  the  facts  of  an  obscure  corner  of  the  vast  battle- 
field. A  Lorrainer,  wounded  and  made  prisoner  by  the 
French,  writes :  "  To  tell  you  what  I  have  suffered  is  impos- 
sible. The  marches,  the  nights  in  ditches,  the  fever  of  fight- 
ing, the  lack  of  food — I  lived  for  three  days  on  tinned  stuff 
that  I  took  from  the  knapsacks  of  dead  soldiers — the  burn- 
ing villages — what  horrors!  It  was  frightful;  my  heart 
bled.  I  was  with  one  section  for  six  hours  under  artillery 
fire.  The  first  shell  killed  the  man  on  my  right,  and  a  long 
string  of  blood  dripped  from  his  ear ;  he  died  after  an  hour 
and  a  half  of  acute  suffering,  during  which  he  cried  out 
like  one  of  the  damned.  We  lay  there,  our  heads  buried 
in  the  soil,  without  stirring,  waiting  for  death.  What 
moments!  Every  day  was  like  that.  The  dead  bodies, 
blocked  the  trenches.  Although  bullets  and  projectiles  fell 
like  hailstones  about  us,  I  was  preserved  from  them  until 

the  morrow  of  the  terrible  battle  of ,  when  I  was  given 

the  mission  of  reconnoitering  a  village.  We  were  received 
with  a  storm  of  fire.  I  was  struck  by  a  piece  of  shell  which 
tore  my  arm.  Sitting  under  a  hedge,  I  tied  my  handkerchief 
round  it,  but  the  blood  ran  down  in  a  stream,  staining  my 
breeches  and  boots,  and  falling  drop  by  drop  on  to  the 
grass.  Completely  exhausted,  I  yet  managed  to  walk  a 
couple  of  miles  to  the  ambulance.  Then  I  was  made 
prisoner;  but  we  of  Alsace  or  Lorraine  were  separated 
from  the  Germans,  and  everywhere  welcomed  with  open 
arms." 

M.  Georges  Berthoulat  gives  an  account  of  a  visit  he  paid 
to  one  of  the  camps  of  wounded  behind  the  center  of  the 
French  fighting  line.  The  men  spoke  to  him  of  the  horrible 
conditions  of  trench  warfare,  with  the  air  poisoned  by  dead 
bodies  that  cannot  be  removed,  because  directly  a  head  is 
lifted  above  the  earthworks  it  is  a  mark  for  the  sharpshoot- 
ers. Without  naming  it,  he  refers  to  a  jolly  suburb  of  a 
large  town,  in  the  villas  of  which  some  British  officers  had 
installed  themselves  during  the  interval  of  rest.    He  was 


WAR  AS  IT  IS  389 

very  much  struck  to  find  them  occupying  themselves  with 
golf,  football,  boating,  and  swimming;  and,  after  speaking 
of  their  clean-shaved  faces  and  carefully  brushed  uniforms, 
he  observes :  "  The  British  troops  fight  like  ours,  but  they 
dress  and  wash  better." 

He  tells  two  of  the  best  stories  of  the  war.  The  army 
corps  whose  base  he  was  visiting  has  two  chaplains — a 
Catholic  priest  and  a  Jewish  rabbi.  They  seemed  to  be  very 
good  friends,  as  well  as  the  best  of  fellows.  One  evening, 
they  were  kept  on  the  battlefield  looking  after  some 
wounded,  and  found  it  impossible  to  get  back  to  the  lines. 
After  looking  round,  they  found  an  abandoned  farm,  with  a 
single  ragged  pallet.  Here  they  spent  the  night,  side  by 
side;  and,  as  they  went  off  to  sleep,  the  priest  remarked  to 
the  rabbi :  "  If  there  were  only  a  photographer  here ! — the 
Old  and  the  New  Testaments  as  bedfellows." 

An  officer  told  the  writer  that  the  carnage  on  the  Craonne 
plateau  was  such  that,  owing  to  the  mass  of  German 
corpses,  the  aviators  have  now  to  fly  high  to  avoid  the  pesti- 
lential odor.  The  same  officer  narrated  the  following  piece 
of  heroism:  After  the  fighting  on  September  15-17,  an  in- 
fantry regiment  was  defending  the  village  of  P ,  which 

the  Germans  were  shelling  from  a  higher  level.  The  French 
troops  had  to  evacuate  a  large  farm,  called,  I  suppose  sym- 
bolically, "  Cholera  Farm,"  standing  between  the  two  firing- 
lines.  In  it  had  been  left  a  number  of  French  wounded. 
The  colonel  asked  for  a  volunteer  to  bring  them  back  over 
the  300  yards  of  intervening  plain,  which  was  swept  con- 
tinually by  the  enemy's  fire.  A  cart  and  horse  would  be 
at  his  disposal.  For  a  moment,  there  was  silence.  Then 
a  simple  soldier  named  Expert  stepped  out  of  the  ranks, 
and  said,  "  I'll  go."  For  three  days,  he  made  the  journey 
to  and  from  "  Cholera  Farm,"  alone,  putting  the  wounded 
in  his  cart,  and  taking  them,  with  others  whom  he  picked 
up  on  the  road,  to  the  ambulance  in  the  rear.  He  never 
budged   under   the  storm   of  the  big  guns.     But,   on   the 


390        ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

evening  of  the  third  day,  his  horse  was  shot.  Expert  at 
once  stepped  into  the  shafts,  and  began  to  drag  the  cart 
himself.  On  the  road,  however,  meeting  a  carriage  belong- 
ing to  another  regiment,  he  commandeered  one  of  its  horses, 
for  the  supreme  sake  of  his  precious  wounded.  This  was  a 
military  offense,  and  Expert  received,  almost  simultane- 
ously, the  military  medal  for  his  heroism,  and  a  sentence  of 
fifteen  days'  imprisonment  for  having  taken  a  horse  with- 
out authority.     But  he  did  not  serve  the  term. 

I  have  no  heart  to  collect  humorous  stories  of  the  war; 
but  this  incident  told  by  a  returned  soldier  is  characteristic. 
An  infantryman  walked  into  his  trench  eating  a  pear.  The 
whizz  of  a  shell  was  heard;  then  it  burst,  throwing  the 
man  to  the  ground  amid  a  cloud  of  dust.  Before  his  com- 
rades could  speak,  he  was  on  his  feet,  shouting  angrily : 
"  The  pigs !     They've  made  me  drop  my  pear !  " 

A  cavalry  patrol  was  reconnoitering  the  edge  of  a  wood. 
There  was  deep  silence;  the  place  was  believed  to  have  been 
evacuated,  and  nothing  suspicious  could  be  seen.  Suddenly, 
a  wounded  infantryman  half-rose  from  the  beetroot  field, 
and,  with  his  last  strength,  called  out :  "  Take  care  .  .  .  ma- 
chine-guns ! "  The  patrol  turned  and  galloped  off,  pursued 
by  a  volley  which  did  not  touch  them.  The  wounded  soldier 
fell  dead. 

Eighty  years  ago,  Alfred  de  Vigny  reproached  his  con- 
temporaries by  comparing  the  soldier's  life  with  the  gladi- 
ator's :  "  The  people  are  the  easy-going  Caesar,  the  laugh- 
ing Claudius,  whom  the  soldiers  endlessly  salute  as  they 
pass — '  Those  about  to  die  salute  thee ! '  "  There  was  no 
easy-going  Caesar  in  England,  or  France,  or  Belgium  when 
the  great  war  began;  and  it  was  in  no  gladiatorial  spirit 
that  the  millions  of  reservists  and  volunteers  offered  their 
lives  to  their  country.  For  them,  war  was  a  hateful  means 
to  a  necessary  end.  I  have  spoken  to  hundreds  of  them, 
and  have  not  met  one  who  would  not  have  prayed,  with  me, 
that  the  end  might  come  soon,  and  the  means  be  then  aban- 


WAR  AS  IT  IS  391 

cloned  and  broken  for  ever.  How  else  shall  their  sacrifice 
be  honored? 

One  of  the  strangest  and  most  significant  events  of  the 
war  marked  Christmas  on  a  long  line  of  trenches  held,  on 
the  one  side,  by  a  body  of  Saxon  troops,  on  the  other  by  the 
Leicestershire  Regiment,  the  London  Rifle  Brigade,  and 
some  other  British  units.  Darkness  fell  at  about  7  o'clock 
on  Christmas  Eve,  and  with  it  a  sudden  calm.  The  Ger- 
man snipers  seemed  to  have  disappeared.  Then  the  sound 
of  carol-singing  rose  from  the  trenches;  and,  at  that,  the 
British  snipers  in  turn  ceased.  The  magic  chorus  sank  and 
swelled  again  to  the  black  sky.  Some  of  the  British  soldiers 
raised  an  experimental  cheer.  "  Shouts  from  the  Germans : 
'You  English,  why  don't  you  come  out?'" — so  wrote  an 
officer  of  the  R.F.A. — "  and  our  bright  knaves  replied  with 
yells  of  '  Waiter.'  "  Nevertheless,  they  came  out;  and,  very 
soon,  fires  and  candles  were  burning  along  the  parapets 
hitherto  guarded  with  ceaseless  vigilance,  and  the  men  were 
fraternizing  in  a  crowd  between  them,  exchanging  gifts  and 
experiences,  and  agreeing  that  the  truce  should  continue  till 
midnight  of  Christmas  Day.  "  It  was  all  arranged  pri- 
vately, and  started  by  one  of  our  fellows  going  across. 
You  can  hardly  imagine  it.  The  only  thing  forbidden  was 
to  make  any  improvement  to  the  barbed  wire.  If  by  any 
mischance  a  single  shot  was  fired,  it  was  not  to  be  taken  as 
an  act  of  war,  and  an  apology  would  be  accepted ;  also,  that 
firing  would  not  be  opened  without  due  warning  on  both 
sides." 

Officers  came  out  to  see  "  the  fun."  A  chaplain  gave  a 
German  commander  a  copy  of  "  The  Soldier's  Prayer,"  and 
in  return  received  a  cigar,  and  a  message  for  the  bereaved 
family  of  a  certain  British  officer.  "  He  had  been  killed ; 
and,  as  he  was  dying,  the  German  commander  happened 
to  pass,  and  saw  him  struggling  to  get  something  out  of  his 
pocket.  He  went  up,  and  helped  the  dying  man,  and  the 
thing  in  the  pocket  was  a  photograph  of  his  wife.     The 


392   ROUND  THE  FRONT  IN  DECEMBER 

commander  said,  '  I  held  it  before  him,  and  he  lay  looking 
at  it  till  he  died,  a  few  minutes  after.'  " 

Christmas  Day  passed  in  burying  the  dead,  whose  bodies 
lay  in  scores  between  the  trenches;  in  carol-singing,  each 
side  cheering  the  other;  and  in  a  football  match,  which 
the  Saxons  won.  "  War  was  absolutely  forgotten,"  says 
one  soldier's  letter;  "they  weren't  half  a  bad  lot,  really." 
"  The  sergeant-major,"  an  officer  wrote,  "  has  not  got  over 
it  yet ;  his  remarks  were,  '  It  is  'ardly  credible,'  and  '  I  never 
would  'ave  believed  it.' " 

God  bless  you,  comrades,  say  I.  Such  acts,  such  men, 
give  us  back  our  faith  in  the  virtue  of  life  and  the  com- 
mon human  heart.  No  earthly  Majesties  or  Excellencies 
sanctioned,  no  pale-faced  dreamer  invited  them  to,  this 
high  experiment.  The  vision  of  their  hours  of  reconcilia- 
tion will  last  when  many  a  day  of  dear-bought  but  necessary 
victory  has  sunk  into  oblivion.  The  men  who  went  back 
to  their  guns,  if  they  survive,  will  recall  it  as  the  day  when 
Christmas  became  real  for  them.  Bereaved  mothers  and 
wives  will  cherish  the  memory.  We  who  sit  in  a  security 
we  have  scarcely  helped  to  make  will  remember  with  twinges. 
"Its  logic?"  Thou  grub,  to  set  logic  against  prophetic 
love!  And  you,  pundits  and  sergeant-majors  of  our  ruling 
spheres,  read  and  mark  well  this  humble,  yet  most  impera-1 
tively  credible,  omen.  Our  sons'  ways  will  not  be  as  ours. 
They  will  make  a  new  Europe.  At  your  peril,  do  not  hinder 
them.  Many  will  have  died  for  liberty.  The  rest,  and 
their  sons,  and  their  sons'  sons,  will  live  for  peace. 


INDEX 


Aerschot,  massacre  at,  48 
Alsace,  first  French  advance  into, 

17,   88;    second   advance,    19-22, 

31,  89;   subsequent  actions,  202, 

268 
American  aid  and  opinion,  41,  137, 

138,  276,  356-7,  364 
Amiens,  158,  208,  257,  267,  269-71, 

318 
Andenne,  massacre  at,  52 
Antwerp,  Belgian  army  retires  to, 

sorties   from,    149;   defense   and 

fall  of,  275,  280-4 
Arbitration    and    mediation,    Ger- 
many's refusal  of,  xiv,  xx,  xxi, 

57 
Argonne,   the,    175-8,   262-3,   336-8 
Arlon,      wholesale      shootiag      of 

civilians  at,  53 
Armies,   strength   of   the   opposed, 

xxiv,  7,  23,  31,  42-5,  86,  87,  90, 

147,     157-8,    256-7,    268,    283-6, 

294,  303,   374,  383 
Arras,  bombardment  of,  272-3 
Artillery  of  the  Allies,  264,  383 
Asquith,  Mr.,  on  the  aim  of  the 

Allies,  xiii 
Aviators,  25,  101,  117-18,  128,  166, 

200,  229,  382 

Balkan  conflicts,  xv,  xvi 

Baye,   pillage  of  the  Chateau  of, 

211-12 
Belgian    Ministry    at   Havre,    the, 

363 
Belgium,    German    assurances    to, 

on  the  eve  of  the  war,  xix,  xxii 
British    army    transferred    to   the 

north,   282-3 

—  neutrality,  question  of,  xvii,  61-2 

—  Regiments  named:  4th  Fusi- 
liers, 101;  Royal  Irish,  102,  288; 
Middlesex,  102,  288,  291;  Gor- 
don Highlanders,  102,  288,  299; 


9th  Lancers,  104,  161 ;  12th  Lan- 
cers, 119;  18th  Hussars,  104,  161; 
2nd  Yorks  Light  Infantry,  117; 
37th  Battery  R.F.A.,  117;  2nd 
Munster  Fusiliers,  119;  King's 
Royal  Rifles,  260-2,  295;  Royal 
Sussex,  260;  North  Lancashire, 
260;  Coldstream  Guards,  260; 
1st  Royal  Highlanders,  260;  1st 
Scots  Guards,  260;  Northamp- 
tonshire, 260,  295;  Munster, 
260;  Queen's,  261,  295;  Dorset, 
288;  Lincoln,  288;  Royal  Fusi- 
liers, 288;  Leicestershire,  291; 
Cameron  Highlanders,  295; 
Somerset  Light  Infantry,  291; 
Royal  Scots  Fusiliers,  296;  2nd 
Warwickshire,  297;  London 
Scottish  Territorial,  291;  Here- 
ford Territorial,  298;  Somerset 
Yeomanry,  298;  Leicester  Yeo- 
manry, 298;   S.  Staffs,  300 

Brussels,  German  occupation  of, 
33-4,   97 

Bulletin  des  ArmSes,   76-7 

Camp    des    Roma  ins,    capture    of 

Fort  du,  246 
Casualties,    117,    122-3,    251,    254, 

298,  299,  300,  373-4 
Censorship,  the  British,  73-4 
—  the  French,  72-5 
Charleroi,  French  retirement  from, 

36,  89,  90,  99,  100 
Churchill,   Rt.    Hon.    Winston,    in 

Antwerp,  277-8 
Clemenceau,     M.,     and     V Homme 

Enchaine",  365 
Clermont-en-Argonne,  burning  and 

sack  of,  212-13 
Costs    of    the    war,    estimates    of, 

375-8 
Courtaqon,     wrecked     school     in, 

195-6 


393 


394 


INDEX 


De  Bloch,  Jean,  on  modern  war- 
fare,  379-80 

De    Mun,    Count    Albert,    28 

Deputies   killed,   368 

Dinant,  first  battle  of,  35-6;  mas- 
sacre at,  50-2 

Doctors,  heroic,  103,  300,  384-5 

Epernay,  the  Germans  in,  232-7, 
349 

Pinancial    measures    in    England 

and  France,  41-2,  66,  375-6 
Foch's  7th  French  Army,  122,  149, 

167-8  et  seq. 
Foch,  General,  in  his  office,  332 
Fortresses,  fall  or  abandonment  of, 

25,  87,  118,  121,  131,  138,  232-3, 

360,  382 
"  Frightfulness,"     the     philosophy 

of,  57-60,  210-11,  215-17,  223-4, 

252-3 
Frontier,  Franco-German,  military 

geography  of  the,  15,  22-3,  86-7, 

335-6 

Ghent,  148-9,  279-80 

Haelen,    Belgian   victory   at,   31-2 

Hausen's    (Von)    advance  through 

the   central  Ardennes,   35-7,   89, 

90,  99 

Herve,  Gustave,  63,  372 
Hospital  services,  365-7 

Indian  troops  in  action,  292 
Irish,  attitude  of  the,  16 
Italian  neutrality,  xxii,  62 

Jaures,  Jean,  15,  63,  78 

Joffre's  strategy,  General,  21,  87, 

91,  95,  109-10,  119,  120,  121, 
122,  123,  149-57,  159,  162-3,  177- 
8,  265 


Kitchener's     advice     to 
Atkins,"   Lord,  44-5 


Tommy 


Laon    Mountains    as    a    defensive 

position,  255 
Le    Cateau-Landreeies,    battle    of, 

113-16 
Lille,   92,   97,    105,   272,  273,   275, 

283,   290 


Lorraine,  French  retreat  from,  29, 

88-9 
Louvain,    fire    and    massacre    at, 

53-7 
Luxemburg,  invasion  of,  xvi,  xviii, 

xix,  31 

Marshes  of  St.  Gond,  166,  168-9 
Maubeuge,    defense    and    fall    of, 

118,   148 
Maunoury's  6th  French  Army,  115, 

120,  122,   149,   157,  257,  262 
Ministry,     French,     reconstructed, 

124;  leaves  Paris,  130,  135,  136- 

8,  368 

Mobilizations  and  declarations  of 
war,  the,  xvi-xvii,  xxiv,  56,  64-5, 
68-9 

Morhange,  great  German  victory 
at,  28-9,  88 

Namur,  defense  of,  38-9,  94 

Nancy,  defense  of,  29-30,  209,  245, 
247-52 

Naval  situation,  40,  62;  naval  in- 
tervention on  Belgian  coast, 
305-6,    307 

Neuf chateau  (Ardennes),  De  Lan- 
gle's  defeat  at,  35,  89-90 

Nomeny,  massacre  of,  252 

Paris,  the  fortifications  of,  124-6, 
131,  138,  145;  air-raids  on,  128- 

9,  364-5 
Parliamentarism,  French,  justified, 

370-2 
Peace  suggestions  to  France,  Ger- 
man, 363-4 
Pgronne,  Germans  in,  269-70 
Pervyse,  destruction  of,  324-6 
Plans   of   campaign,   the,   xxiii-iv, 
12-13,    14,    16-19,   25,   29-30,   31, 
32-3,   85-8,   90-5,   110,   121,    147- 
57,  173-5,  255,  265-8,  276-7,  285- 
6,  290,  294,  319-20 

Railway  communications,  3-4,  71- 

2,  111-12,  132-3,  166,  230,  266-7, 

282-3    319 
Refugees,    41,    105-8,    132-4,    139, 

143-4,  279 
Revigny,  destruction  of,  216 
Rheims  Cathedral,  the  damage  to, 

350-2 


INDEX 


395 


Roberts,  Earl,  death  of,  301 
Russia  and  the  Poles,  66-7 

St.  Mihiel,  German  capture  of, 
246-7,   263,    341,   345-6 

St.  Quentin-Guise,  battle  of,    120 

"  Scrap  of  Paper  "  speech  of  the 
German  Chancellor,  xix 

Senlis,  massacre  at,  206-7 

Sermaize,  destruction  of,  217-18 

Servia  and  Austria,  xvi-xvii,  xx, 
xxi 

"  Smashing  Blow,"  the,  from  Bel- 
gium, 85,  87-8,  90-5,  97-8 

Socialists,  attitude  of,  xiii,  13-14, 
63 

Soissons,  225-8,  237-8,  239,  255-8 

Spies,  German,  46,  180-1 

Tamines,  massacre  at,  48-9 

Termonde,   148-9 

Trench   warfare,   262-4,   322,    362, 

379-83 
Troyon,  siege  of  Fort,  175,  246 


Ultimatums,  the,  xvi,  xviii,  xx,  56 

Verdun,  defense  of,  25,  89,  112- 
13,  121,  335-47 

Victoria  Cross,  101,  105,  117,  123, 
300 

Villers-aux-Vents,  destruction  of, 
214 

Vis6,  first  engagement  of  the 
western  campaign,  8-9,  46-7 

Viviani,  M.,  on  German  war  prep- 
arations, 64-5;  speech  on  De- 
cember 22,  370 

Warfare,  the  rules  of,  57-8,  235-6, 

349-50 
William  II,  the  Emperor,  xvi,  58, 

209,    251,    285,    296,    298 

Ypres,  Cloth  Hall  destroyed,  298, 
327 

Zabern,    26-8 


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New  York  Times  Review. — Vivid  and  pictorial  touches.  .  .  .  He 
examines  the  myths  of  the  Bonapartists  with  scrupulous  and  unpartial  care." 

C.  D.  Hazen's  Europe  Since  1815 

(American  Historical  Series.)    Library  edition.    $3.75  net,  postpaid. 

The  author  brings  down  more  or  less  together  the  histories  of 
those  countries,  Austria,  Prussia,  France,  and  Italy,  which  have  so 
intimately  interacted  upon  each  other.  He  then  returns  to  18 15  and 
traces  the  histories  of  England,  Russia,  Turkey,  and  the  lesser 
states  separately,  showing  their  continuous  development.  A  biblio- 
graphy of  36  pages  is  provided. 

"  A  clear,  comprehensive  and  impartial  record  of  the  bewildering  changes 
in  Europe.     Illuminatingly  clear."—  New  York  Sun. 

HENRY     HOLT     AND     COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  NEW  YORK 


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