livered a heavy blow at the
Dukla Pass, the least important of the four. Here they pushed through to
Bartfeld, on the Hungarian plain. Then, however, Mackensen's fearful
blow smashed the Russian line on the Dunajec and poured the German
legions across Galicia in the rear of the Carpathian armies, forcing the
Muscovites to abandon the passes and scurry home.

[Sidenote: Plains more often battlegrounds.]

Mountain warfare has always had a certain romantic glamour, and it has
filled many pages in the literature of fighting. As a matter of
historical fact, however, it has played a comparatively small part in
the world's annals. Almost all the great campaigns have been fought out
in the lowlands. It is Belgium, for instance, and not Switzerland, that
has been proverbially the battle-ground of Europe. Napoleon and Suwaroff
marched armies through the Alps, but only as a means of striking
unexpectedly at the enemy who occupied the plains beyond.

Up to the time of the present war, mountain campaigns have usually been
no more than picturesque foot-notes to history, illuminated by the valor
of raiding clansmen like Roderick Dhu of the Scottish Highlands, or
guerrilla chiefs like Andreas Hofer, the Tyrolese patriot. Hofer's
struggle against Napoleon was indeed a gallant and notable one, but it
scarcely entered into the main current of history.

[Sidenote: Garibaldi's mountain campaigns.]

If, however, we include Garibaldi among the mountain fighters--and such
was the characteristic bent of his remarkable military genius--we must
accord him a place among the molders of modern Europe, for without his
flashing sword Italy could not have been liberated and united. His two
Alpine campaigns against the Austrians were successful and effective,
but his most brilliant powers were shown in his memorable invasion of
Sicily in 1860. Chased ashore at Marsala by the Neapolitan war-ships,
and narrowly escaping capture, he led his followers--one thousand
red-shirted volunteers armed with obsolete muskets--into the Sicilian
mountains, where he played such a game that within two months he
compelled the surrender of a well-equipped army of nearly thirty
thousand regulars. The history of warfare can show but few exploits so
daring and so dramatic.

* * * * *

The most important military movement on the western front in the early
autumn of 1915 was the great French offensive in Champagne. During the
preceding mon