ing a losing game, showed marvelous stubbornness and
gameness, but even so, it could not resist being pushed south of Fort
Troyon, itself unable to support the battering it might expect to
receive when the German siege guns should be brought into place.

[Illustration: Battle of the Marne--End of German Retreat and the
Intrenched Line on the Aisne River.]

At every point but one the Germans had a right to deem the day
successful. The only reversal had been a minor one before the forest of
Crecy. Yet, of all the generals on that front Von Kluck alone was in a
position to see the gravity of the situation. The British had caught him
on the flank as he tried to pierce the left wing of General
d'Esperey's army, and if he should now retreat, that army could envelop
him and thus catch him between two fires.

Next morning, Monday, September 7, 1914, another glorious summer
morning, saw a resumption of the battle along exactly the same lines,
with the same persistent attack and defense along the eastern part of
the front, and with the British making full use of the blunder made by
the German right. General von Kluck had realized his plight, but, even
so, he had not secured an understanding of the size of the force that
was threatening his flank, and he sent as a reenforcement a single army
corps which had been intrenched near Coulommiers on the Grand Morin. The
British had three full army corps and were well supplied with cavalry
and artillery. Yet Coulommiers was Von Kluck's headquarters and
actually, when the Germans were driven back and the British troops
entered the town, Prince Eitel, the second son of the kaiser; General
von Kluck and his staff were compelled to run down to their motor cars
and escape at top speed along the road to Rebais, leaving their
half-eaten breakfast on the table, and their glasses of wine half
emptied. One of the most dramatic cavalry actions of this period of the
war took place shortly before noon, when one hundred and seventeen
squadrons of cavalry were engaged. In this action the British were
successful, but the German cavalry were tired and harassed, having been
severely handled the day before.

In this engagement between the British and the German right, all the
odds had been in favor of the British, and success meant merely the
grasping at opportunities that presented themselves. Still, by
constantly striking at General von Kluck's exposed flank, his frontal
attack of General d'Esperey wa