r. Here an engagement took place
with a Belgian guard, which terminated with the Germans bombarding
Vise. The Belgians had destroyed the river bridge, but the Germans
succeeded in seizing the crossing.

This was the first actual hostility of the war on the western battle
grounds. With the capture of Vise, the way was clear for Von Kluck's
main army to concentrate on Belgian territory. By nightfall, Liege
was invested on three sides. Only the railway lines and roads running
westward remained open.

[Illustration: BELGIUM AND THE FRANCO-GERMAN BORDER]

* * * * *

CHAPTER II

SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF LIEGE

A view of Liege will assist in revealing its three days' siege,
with the resulting effect upon the western theatre of war. Liege
is the capital of the Walloons, a sturdy race that in times past
has at many a crisis proved unyielding determination and courage.
At the outbreak of war it was the center of great coal mining and
industrial activity. In the commercial world it is known everywhere
for the manufacture of firearms. The smoke from hundreds of factories
spreads over the city, often hanging in dense clouds. It might
aptly be termed the Pittsburg of Belgium. The city lies in a deep,
broad cut of the River Meuse, at its junction with the combined
channels of the Ourthe and Vesdre. It stretches across both sides,
being connected by numerous bridges, while parallel lines of railway
follow the course of the main stream. The trunk line from Germany
into Belgium crosses the Meuse at Liege. For the most part the
old city of lofty houses clings to a cliffside on the left bank,
crowned by an ancient citadel of no modern defensive value. Whatever
picturesqueness Liege may have possessed is effaced by the squalid
and dilapidated condition of its poorer quarters. To the north
broad fertile plains extend into central Belgium, southward on the
opposite bank of the Meuse, the Ardennes present a hilly forest,
stream-watered region. In its downward course the Meuse flows out
of the Liege trench to expand through what is termed the Dutch
Flats.

Liege, at the outbreak of the war, was a place of great wealth and
extreme poverty--a Liege artisan considered himself in prosperity
on $5 a week. It was of the first strategic importance to Belgium.
Its situation was that of a natural fortress, barring the advance
of a German army.

The defenses of Liege were hardly worth an enemy's gunfire before
18