By November 15 (six weeks after arriving in the north) Foch had the
high command of the German army as completely thwarted in its design as
it had been at the Marne. It had fallen to Foch to defeat the German
plan on the east (Lorraine), in the center (Marne) and on the west
(Ypres). And the consequences of this frustration that he dealt them
in Flanders were calculated to be "at least equal to the victory of the
Marne." Colonel Requin calls that Battle of the Yser "like a preface
to the great victory of 1918."

In the spring of 1915 Foch left Cassel and took up headquarters at
Frevent, between Amiens and Doullens, whence he directed those
engagements in Artois which demonstrated that though trench warfare was
not the warfare he had studied and prepared for, and nearly all its
problems were new, he was master of it not less than he would have been
of a cavalry warfare.

In the autumn of 1915, Foch moved nearer to Amiens--to the village of
Dury in the immediate outskirts of the ancient capital of Picardy. For
the next chapter in his history was to be the campaign of the Somme
including the first great offensive of France in the war, which,
together with the Verdun defense, forced the Germans not only again to
re-make their calculations, but to withdraw to the Hindenburg line.

On September 30, 1916 (just before his sixty-fifth birthday, on which
his retirement from active service was due), he was "retained without
age limit" in the first section of the general staff of the French army.

Honors were beginning to crowd upon him as the debt of France and of
her allies to his genius began to be realized. Responsibility vested
in him became heavier and heavier as he demonstrated his ability to
bear it. But always, say those who were nearest him, "a great,
religious serenity pervaded and illumined his soul."

This is a serenity not of physical calm. Foch is intensely nervous,
almost ceaselessly active. His body is frail, racked with suffering,
worn down by the enormous strains imposed upon it. But the
self-mastery _within_ is always apparent; and it inspires confidence,
and renewed effort, in all who come in contact with him.

XVI

THE SUPREME COMMANDER OF THE ALLIED ARMIES

After his position in the first section of the General Staff had been
made independent of age limits, General Foch was relieved (for the
autumn and winter at least, during which time no operations of
importance were expected) of a