astelnau as eager to serve under Foch,
for France, as, eight weeks ago, Foch had been to serve under
Castelnau. If the sublime unselfishness of such men could have
communicated itself to some of the minor figures of this war, how much
more inspiring might be the stories of these civilian commanders!

At six o'clock Foch was under way again--to Amiens, Doullens, St. Pol,
and then, at nine, to Aubigny, where General Maud'huy had the
headquarters of his army, holding the line north of Castelnau's.

The difficulties of Foch's new undertaking were not military alone, but
diplomatic. He had to take account of the English and Belgian armies,
each under independent command, and each small. It was the fitness of
Foch for the diplomacy needed here, as well as his fitness for the
great military task of barring the enemy from the Channel ports, that
determined Joffre in nominating him to the place.

In 1912 General Foch had been the head of the French military
commission sent to witness the British army maneuvers at Cambridge.

He speaks no English; and not many British generals at that time spoke
much French. Yet he somehow managed to get on, with the aid of
interpreters, so that his relations with the British officers were not
only cordial, in a superficial social way, but important in their
results of deepened understanding on his part and of respect on theirs.

His study of what seemed to him the military strength and weakness of
France's great neighbor and ally was minute and comprehensive.

In his opinion, the soldiers of Britain were excellent; but he was
fearful that their commanders lacked seasoned skill to direct them
effectively. This lack he laid to that apparent inability to believe
in the imminence of war, which was even more prevalent in Britain, with
her centuries of inviolate security, than in France.

Two years before the long-suspended sword fell, Foch foresaw clearly
what would be the difficulties in the way of England when she should
gird herself for land conflict. Doubtless he had resolved in his mind
plans for helping her to meet and to overcome them.

Now he was placed where he could render aid--where he _must_ render aid.

After the Battle of the Marne Sir John French wanted his army moved up
north, nearer to its channel communications--that is to say, to its
source of supplies. And on October 1 Joffre began to facilitate this
movement. It was just well under way when Foch arrived in the nor