fficer of the German advance guard with a
copy of the treaty guaranteeing the neutrality of the state. The
reigning Grand Duchess Marie Adelaide blocked the way with her motor
car, she was ordered to return at once, and when General Vandyck,
commandant of Luxemburg, arrived, he was confronted with a revolver.

At the end of July, when there was evidence that the storm which had
been brewing ever since Austria sent an ultimatum to Serbia on July
23, 1914, thirteen classes of Belgian recruits were called to the
colors; but even so, at its full war strength on August 1, 1914,
the entire army numbered only 160,000 men. Owing to the small size
of the Belgian army and the small territory of that country, and
also owing to the fact that it is one of the most thoroughly
equipped countries of the world so far as railroads are concerned,
Belgian mobilization presented few difficulties for the
concentration of the few available troops.

But Belgium was in the midst of reorganization of its national
defenses and its army, and so was _de facto_ unprepared to use to
the utmost the advantages of great fortresses of Liege, Namur, and
Antwerp, which could have been made almost impregnable if the
necessary field army and artillery material had existed. The
fortresses of Liege and Namur demanded a garrison of about 250,000
men and artillery, and there were only about 30,000 men disponible.
If the organization of the national defense of Belgium had been
completed, the Belgian army would have been probably of a strength
of over 600,000 men, well trained, instead of the poorly trained
army of about 160,000 combatants equipped only for parade, and the
story of that part of the Great War would have been another.

The German cavalry entered Belgium and pushed on ahead, and a few
stray shots were fired, but the first Belgian town of Limburg, on
the road to Liege, was occupied without attack. At Verviers a weak
Belgian force was driven out by the strong advance guard of the
German cavalry. This was the "peaceful invasion of Belgian
territory" spoken of in the earliest telegrams sent to the kaiser
from the advancing army. Then the German troops suddenly found
themselves confronted by the destruction of the Trois Ponts tunnels,
and by the wrecked bridges across the Meuse. The attack upon Vise,
which had been figured by the Germans to be a matter of form, and
not requiring a body of troops of any size, was stopped by blown-up
bridges, and a deta