ere safe.

The French center had essayed an offensive into the Ardennes at the
moment the battle of Charleroi was beginning. In this they did not
succeed, and the Fourth Army under Langle de Cary fell back in
perfect order from the Belgian-Luxemberg frontier across the Meuse
near Sedan, where they held their line until the general retreat
began. Henceforth the French armies from left to right were not
seriously threatened until the final struggle at the Marne.

But the right under De Castelnau had been obliged to retreat. It had
opened the campaign by a series of victories which had carried the
main force into German Lorraine as far as Saarburg on the railroad
from Metz to Strassburg. To the south Muelhausen had been taken,
lost, and recaptured. But in the third week of August the main army
encountered strong forces in the region of Morhange and fell back on
Nancy, the frontier town of Luneville being momentarily occupied by
the Germans. At Nancy it stood. But its stand was one of the
important battles of the western war and a contributory cause to the
subsequent victory at the Marne. By this victory the eastern barrier
was held and the German effort to isolate Verdun and Toul blocked.
Some of the most terrible fighting of the war took place here, and
the Germans, fighting under the eye of the kaiser suffered colossal
losses.

In the last days of August Joffre had to make his great decision.
His right was holding before Nancy, and was soon to make a
successful advance, clearing most of eastern Lorraine. His center,
stretched across the Champagne country from the Argonne to the Oise,
had recovered from early reverses and won several considerable local
counteroffenses, notably at Guise. But his left was still shaky, his
reserves were not yet up and his reconcentration was incomplete.
Should he risk all now, or take his army back until his left rested
upon Paris? To do this latter would be to surrender more French
territory, but it would mean a further exhaustion of the Germans, a
further increase in his numbers. The morale of his troops was
unshaken. He had suffered defeats, but merely incidental defeats,
the real test had not yet come.

THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE

Joffre decided to continue his retreat, and took his army south of
the Marne, his left formed by the British resting upon the forts of
Paris, behind which he had massed a new army, his center stretching
between Paris and Verdun, his right along the barrie