chment of German engineers, undertaking to build
a new pontoon bridge, was shot to pieces. Belgium, having thus
thrown down the gauntlet, concentrated its troops, a little over
100,000, on a line back of the forts of Liege and Namur. King Albert
himself was at the front, and not only directed, but also led the
defense.

This gallant action on the part of Belgium formed a screen behind
which the French troops could mobilize in full order and with a
clear knowledge of the intention of the enemy. Already the skies
were filled with scouting aircraft and wireless messages buzzed
incessantly from the overhead scouts of the movements of the hostile
troops rushing from Berlin, from Cologne, from every point of the
German Empire to the three frontiers of Luxemburg, Belgium, and
France. And, all the while, the band of devoted heroes at Liege held
to their ideal of independence, and Belgium grew to be a bigger
thing in the eyes of the world, as her territory grew hourly smaller
by the encroachment of the German invaders.

French mobilization, in spite of the prompt action in sending the
first half million to the front, became disorganized under the
discovery of the plans of Germany. It will be remembered that the
French railroad systems all center in Paris. Therefore, in order to
divert the troops to what was seen to be the point of attack,
brigades had to be brought back from the Verdun-Belfort district and
transshipped to the north. This, in a word, was the answer to the
question why France did not rush to the aid of Belgium and hurl her
forces at the Germans at the gates of Liege. For that mobilization
they were not ready. The neutrality of Belgium had been considered
as a true military barrier.

A glance at the railroad map of France shows how thoroughly (and
unwisely) France had trusted to this treaty, the treaty that became
famous when it was declared by Germany to be merely a "scrap of
paper," for while there are good transport facilities to the
Franco-German frontier, there were few to the Franco-Belgian
frontier. The motor busses practically saved the day, and nearly all
the French troops went to the northern front by this means of
transport. Still more difficult was the question of munitions. The
German railways brought troops at forty miles an hour, the French
lines carried munitions at forty miles per day. For her German
frontier she was ready. For this new contingency she was unprepared.

For this unpreparedness