re. All our English reserves had been rushed up to the
front from Havre and Rouen.

There was only one deduction to be drawn from this great, swift
movement--the French and English lines had been supported by every
available battalion to save Paris from its menace of destruction, to
meet the weight of the enemy's metal by a force strong enough to resist
its mighty mass.

It was still possible that the Germans might be smashed on their left
wing, hurled back to the west between Paris and the sea, and cut off
from their line of communications. It was undoubtedly this impending
peril which scared the enemy's Headquarters Staff and upset all its
calculations. They had not anticipated the rapidity of the supporting
movement of the allied armies, and at the very gates of Paris they saw
themselves balked of their prize, the greatest prize of the war, by the
necessity of changing front.

To do them justice, they realized instantly the new order of things,
and with quick and marvelous decision did not hesitate to alter the
direction of their main force. Instead of proceeding to the west of
Paris they swung round steadily to the southeast in order to keep their
armies away from the enveloping movement of the French and English and
drive their famous wedge-like formation southward for the purpose of
dividing the allied forces of the west from the French Army of the East.
The miraculous had happened, and Paris, for a little time at least, is
unmolested.

That brings me back to the fighting at Creil and Compiegne, which
preceded from last Tuesday until two days later.

The guns were at work at midnight on Tuesday when I passed the English
Headquarters. This battle had only one purpose so far as the Germans
were concerned. It was to keep our British soldiers busy, as well as to
hold the front of the French allies on our right, while their debordant
movements took place behind this fighting screen.

Once again, as throughout the war, they showed their immense superiority
in mitrailleuses, which gives them marvelous mobility and a very deadly
advantage. They masked these quick-firers with great skill until they
had drawn on the English and French infantry and then spilled lead into
their ranks. Once again, also the French were too impetuous, as they
have always been, and as they still are, in spite of Gen. Joffre's
severe rebuke.

Careless of quick-firers, which experience should have taught them were
masked behind the enemy's