forts counted upon four large and three or four small cupolas. They were
armed with two pieces of 15, two of 12, a howitzer of 21, three or four
guns, without cupola, of 5'7, and of seven or eight commanding the
ditches. The forts are arranged around Liege in the following order:--On
the left bank of the Meuse: Flemalle, Hollogne, Loncin, Lantin, and
Pontisse. On the right bank, between the Meuse and the Vesdre: Barchon,
Evegnee, and Fleron. Between the Vesdre and the Ourthe: Chaudfontaine
and Embourg. Between the Ourthe and the Meuse: Boncelles. The forts are
four kilometres apart, except Flemalle-Boncelles and Embourg-Pontisse,
which are six kilometres apart, while Chaudfontaine and Embourg are only
two kilometres from one another. The forts are eight kilometres from the
limits of the town. The forts of Hollogne, Loncin, Lantin, and Liers are
in grassy country. Boncelles is nearly completely surrounded by woods;
Embourg and Chaudfontaine dominate the deep and winding valleys of the
Ourthe and the Vesdre. Pontisse, Flemalle, and Barchon, commanding the
Meuse, are on broken ground. This last-named fort, with Evegnee and
Fleron, holds the most important strategic position in the Herve
country, facing the German frontier, in a land cut up by meadows planted
with trees and by little woods, traversed by many vales, not very deep,
but winding.

[Sidenote: War conditions changed.]

It is known that in the Brialmont project the intervening spaces were to
be defended and fortified with siege artillery. To tell the truth, the
eminent military engineer, in the pamphlets where he set out the
project, only allowed for a small mobile garrison, but he confessed
later that the difficulties which he knew he would meet with in the
Belgian Parliament over the credits for the fortifications made him
underestimate the number of men required. Besides which, the conditions
of war have been greatly modified during the twenty-five years which
have passed, owing to the increased power of siege guns. So that it may
be laid down that 80,000, if not 100,000, men were needed to properly
defend the entrenched camp of Liege.

[Sidenote: Troops in the forts.]

As for the forts, they were each occupied by a battery of artillery (250
men) and three companies (120 men), a total of 370 men. About 4,500
artillerymen for the twelve forts.

General Leman was shut up in Loncin, one of the chief forts, which
commanded the road towards Waremme and Brussels