n the ridge west of the forest. On the 9th a
new bombardment of Mont d'Amance, a struggle of extreme violence,
took place on the ridge west of the forest of Champenoux, the French
gaining ground. General Castelnau decided to take the direct offensive,
the Germans giving signs of great fatigue. On the 12th they retired
very rapidly. They evacuated Luneville, a frontier town, where they
left a great quantity of arms and ammunition. The French began
immediately to pursue them, the Germans withdrawing everywhere
over the frontier.

* * * * *

CHAPTER VII

SIEGE AND FALL OF NAMUR

When the Germans occupied Brussels on August 20, 1914, we observed
that corps after corps did not enter the city, but swept to the
south. This was Von Kluck's left wing moving to attack the Allies
on the Sambre-Mons front. The forces which passed through Brussels
were Von Kluck's center, advancing south by east to fall in line
beside the right wing, which had mainly passed between Brussels
and Antwerp to the capture of Bruges and Ghent. The whole line
when re-formed on the French frontier would stretch from Mons to
the English Channel--the great right wing of the German armies.

Meanwhile, Von Buelow's second army had advanced up the valley of
the Meuse, with its right sweeping the Hisbaye uplands. Some part
of this army may have been transported by rail from Montmedy. Its
general advance in columns was directed chiefly upon the Sambre
crossings. As Von Kluck's wide swing through Belgium covered a
greater distance, Von Buelow's army was expected to strike the Allies
some twenty-four hours earlier. Its march, therefore, was in the
nature of an onrush.

But Von Buelow was now in the full tide of fighting strength--an
amazing spectacle to chance or enforced witnesses. Well may the
terrified peasants have stood hat in hand in the midst of their
ruined villages. Any door not left open was immediately broken
down and the interior searched. Here and there a soldier could be
seen carrying a souvenir from some wrecked chateau. But for the
most part everyone fled from before its path, leaving it silent
and abandoned. The field gray-green uniforms were almost invisible
in cover, in a half light, or when advancing through mist. No
conceivable detail seemed to have been overlooked. Each man carried
a complete equipment down to handy trifles, the whole weighed to
the fraction of an ounce, in carefully estimated proportio