ighting for the
possession of the bridges, which the French engineers blew up as
the army withdrew southward to the frontier. Soon after, at Givet,
the Germans succeeded in wedging their way across the Meuse. Some
advanced on Rocroi and Rethel, and other corps marched along the
left bank of the Meuse, through wooded country, against a steadily
increasing resistance which culminated at Charleville, a town on
the western bank of the river. There a determined stand was made.

On August 24, 1914, the town of Charleville was evacuated, the
civilians were sent away to join multitudes of other homeless refugees,
and then the French also retired, leaving behind them several machine
guns hidden in houses, placed so that they commanded the town and
the three bridges that connected it with Mezieres.

The German advance guards reached the two towns next day, August
25, 1914, which, as we know, witnessed the British retirement toward
Le Cateau. Unmolested, they rode across the three bridges into the
quiet, empty streets. Suddenly, when all had crossed, the bridges
were blown up behind them by contact mines, and the German cavalrymen
were raked by the deadly fire of the machine guns. Nevertheless,
finding their foes were not numerous, they made a courageous stand,
waiting for their main columns to draw nearer. Every French machine
gunner was silenced by the Guards with their Maxims; but when the
main invading army swept into view along the river valley, the
French artillery from the hills around Charleville mowed down the
heads of columns with shrapnel. Still the Teutons advanced with
reckless courage. While their artillery was engaged in a duel with
the French, German sappers threw pontoon bridges across the river,
and finally the French had to retire. Between Charleville and Rethel
there was another battle, resulting in the abandonment of Mezieres
by the French.

The retreating army crossed the Semois, a tributary of the Meuse,
which it enters below Mezieres, and advanced toward Neufchateau;
but they were repulsed by the Germans under the Duke of Wuerttemberg.
At Nancy on August 25, 1914, there was another engagement between
the garrison of Toul and the army of the Crown Prince of Bavaria;
after fierce onslaughts the garrison was compelled to yield and
retire. Finally, on August 27, 1914, at Longwy, a fortified town near
Verdun, the army of the German crown prince succeeded in bursting
into France after a long siege, and marche