ar cloud. In the middle
of July, France was persuaded to declare war. Her first great clash
with Germany was on.

The news, however, was not displeasing to Ferdinand. He had supreme
confidence in the ability of the trained French army to subdue the
"Prussian militia." All France had been soundly fooled as to the
extent of the German preparedness. Foch thought of Metz as the
starting point of the war which was to wage its victorious course
eastward. But the reverse soon proved to be the case. From Metz the
Germans drove westward into France. The school at St. Clement was
transformed into a military hospital. Ferdinand remained at home
watching the turn of events with surprised eyes. When the defeat at
Sedan came, in September, it seemed to him like the end of the world.

Then came the frantic call from Paris for new troops. Young Foch was
one of the first to respond to this appeal. He could do his bit, at
any rate, and once the Second Army was assembled, the invader would
see! But alas! he was destined to do no fighting. For four months he
remained with his regiment, a high private in the rear ranks, doing
drill and garrison duty until peace was declared.

The war was over. France had concluded a shameful peace but one that
was forced upon her. This sort of war had brought bitter
disillusionment to a host of French boys, and they always thought in
their hearts of the day of reckoning which must come later on--and
hoped that they would be alive to see it. Such must have been the
dream of Foch, the "sleeping firebrand."

For the present, there was nothing for it, but to doff his uniform and
take up his studies again. The college of St. Clement had ceased to be
a hospital and was again full of classrooms. But over the old fort
floated a strange flag--the black, white and red emblem of Germany, and
German officers strutted everywhere on the streets. The French signs
over the shops and on the street corners were rapidly disappearing.
Soon came an official order from Berlin forbidding the teaching of
French in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine. The work of benevolent
assimilation was begun.

Foch privately shook his fist at the broad backs of the swaggering
conquerors, and set to work at his studies with renewed vim. French or
German, the old Jesuit college was going to aid him in his task of
becoming a soldier--and then his country would have one more recruit at
any rate!

We are not surprised t