It
suffered some loss in this operation from the masses of the enemy,
which were pressing forward from Mons. When the 2nd Corps had thus
halted on the line Dour-Frameries, the 1st Corps, which had been
making the demonstration, took the opportunity to retire in its turn,
and fell back before the evening to a line stretching from Bavai to
Maubeuge.

[Illustration: Sketch 50.]

The 2nd Corps had entrenched itself, while the 1st Corps was thus
falling back upon its right; and when it came to the turn of the 2nd
Corps to play the part of rearguard in these alternate movements, the
effort proved to be one of grave peril.

[Illustration: Sketch 51.]

Since the whole movement of the enemy was an outflanking movement,
the pressure upon this left and extreme end of the line was
particularly severe. The German advance in such highly superior
numbers overlapped the two British corps to _their_ left or west,
which was at this moment the extreme end of the Allied Franco-British
line. They overlapped them as these pursuing Black units overlap the
lesser retiring White units. It is evident that in such a case the
last unit in the line at A will be suffering the chief burden of the
attack. An attempt was made to relieve that burden by sending the and
Cavalry Brigade in this direction to ride round the enemy's outlying
body; but the move failed, with considerable loss to the 9th Lancers
and the 18th Hussars, which came upon wire entanglements five hundred
yards from the enemy's position. There did arrive in aid of the
imperilled end of the line reinforcement in the shape of a new body.
One infantry brigade, the 19th, which had hitherto been upon the line
of communications, reached the army on this its central left near
Quarouble and a little behind that village before the morning was
spent. It was in line before evening. This reinforcement lent some
strength to the sorely tried 2nd Corps, but it had against it still
double its own strength in front, and half as much again upon its
exposed left or western flank, and it suffered heavily.

By the night of that Monday, the 24th of August, however, the whole of
the British Army was again in line, and stretched from Maubeuge, which
protected its right, through Bavai, on to the fields between the
villages of Jenlain and Bry, where the fresh 19th Infantry Brigade had
newly arrived before the evening, while beyond this extreme left again
was the cavalry.

The whole operation, then, of