means things are
going badly for them elsewhere and they are seeking compensation."

He was right! Von Kluck was retiring in a northeasterly direction
under Manoury's blows; and even Von Buelow (whom Foch faced) was
withdrawing parts of his troops from the line at Foch's left.

But the attempt to break through the center Foch held, waxed fiercer as
the Germans realized the strength opposing them on their right.

And on Tuesday, the 8th, Foch was unable to hold--save at certain
points--and had to move his headquarters eleven miles south, to Plancy.

He had now reached the Aube, beyond which Joffre had decreed that he
must not retire. On its north bank his gallant army must, if it could
not do otherwise, "allow itself to be slain where it stands rather than
give way."

On that evening he sent Major Requin to the Forty-second Division with
orders for the morrow. The most incredible orders!

The enemy had found his point of least resistance--on his right wing.
He ought to strengthen that wing, but he could not. All the reserves
were engaged--and the enemy knew it as well as he did. And it is a
fixed principle of war not to withdraw active troops from one part of
the line to strengthen another.

Only one part of his army had had any success that day: Toward evening
the Forty-second Division and the Moroccans had made an irresistible
lunge forward and driven the enemy to the north edge of the marshes.

They were weary--those splendid troops--but they were exalted; they had
advanced!

Foch believes in the power of the spirit. He appealed to the
Forty-second to do an extraordinary thing--to march, weary as it was,
from left to right of his long line and brace the weak spot. And to
cover up the gap their withdrawal would make he asked General Franchet
d'Esperey to stretch out the front covered by his right wing and
adjoining Foch's left.

In a letter to me, Lieutenant-Colonel (then Major) Requin gives some
graphic bits descriptive of that historic errand. He was a sort of
liaison officer between General Grossetti, commanding the Forty-second
Division, and the latter's chief, General Foch, his special duty being
to carry General Foch's orders to General Grossetti and to keep the
army chief informed, each evening, how his commands were being carried
out.

"It was 10 P.M.," he writes, "when I roused General Grossetti from his
sleep in the straw, in the miserable little shell-riddled farm of
Chapton.

"The or