s of force. "The art of
war consists in having them when the enemy has none."

But as there were no reserves available at that first Battle of the
Marne, he exemplified his other principle that conditions must be met
as they arise.

"I still seem," says Rene Puaux, "to hear General Foch telling us, one
evening after dinner at Cassel several months later, about that
maneuver of September 9.

"He had put matches on the tablecloth"--some red matches which Colonel
Requin treasures as a souvenir--"and he illustrated with them the
disposition of the troops engaged. For the Forty-second Division he
had only half a match, which he moved here and there with his quick,
deft fingers as he talked.

"The match representing the Twelfth German Corps (which with the
Prussian Guard was cutting the gap in Foch's weak spot) was about to
make a half-turn which would bring it in the rear of the French armies.

"The general, laying down the half-match that was the Forty-second
Division, made an eloquent gesture with his hand, indicating the move
that the Forty-second made.

"'It might succeed,' he said, laconically, 'or it might fail. It
succeeded. Those men were exhausted; they won, nevertheless.'"

At nine o'clock the next morning (September 10) the Forty-second
entered La Fere-Champenoise, where they found officers of the Prussian
Guard lying, dead drunk, on the floors in the cantonments, surrounded
by innumerable bottles of stolen champagne wherewith they had been
celebrating their victory.

Two days later Foch was at Chalons, to direct in person the crossing of
the Marne by his army in pursuit of the fleeing enemy.

"The cavalry, the artillery, the unending lines of supply wagons," says
Colonel Requin, "the infantry in two columns on either side of the
road; all this in close formation descending like a torrent to resume
its place of battle above the passage on the other side of the river;
was an unforgettable sight and one that gave all who witnessed it an
impression of the tremendous energy General Foch has for the command of
enormous material difficulties."

XV

SENT NORTH TO SAVE THE CHANNEL PORTS

Germany's plan to enter France by the east gate, in Lorraine, was
frustrated with the aid of Foch.

Her plan to smash through the center of the armies on the Marne was
frustrated, with the very special aid of Foch.

Blocked in both these moves, there was just one other for Germany to
make, then, on the western