rcycles were shooting and
pillaging on the French side of the border, although it was not until
6:45 P.M. that day that Germany declared war on France.

That which France had been unable to suppose even Germany capable of,
happened: The treaty with Belgium became a scrap of paper and the main
attack upon France was made by way of the north.

But the expectation that Nancy would be one of the first objectives of
the Hun-rampant was not without fulfillment. For the hordes advanced
in five armies; and the fifth, the German left wing under Crown Prince
Rupprecht of Bavaria, was ordered to swarm into France south of that of
the Imperial Crown Prince, spread itself across country behind the
French armies facing northward, join with Von Kluck's right wing
somewhere west of Paris, and "bag" the French--armies, capital and
all--"on or about" September 1.

It was all perfectly practicable--on paper. The only difficulty was
that there were so many things the German staff had omitted from its
careful calculations--omitted, perforce, because it had never guessed
their existence. And that spoiled their reckoning.

Foch had, for years, been teaching that fighting demands supreme
flexibility, adaptability; that war is full of surprises which must be
met as they arise; that morale, the spiritual force of an army, is
subject to fluctuations caused by dozens of conditions which cannot be
foreseen and must be overcome. The phrase oftenest on his lips was:
"What have we to do here?" For, as he conceived warfare, officers and
even privates must constantly be asking themselves that. One plan goes
awry. Very well! we'll find a better.

But Foch had not trained the German general staff. They made war
otherwise. And well he knew it! Well he knew what happened to them
when their "blue prints" would not fit unexpected conditions.

He knew that they expected to take Nancy easily, that they were looking
for some effort to defend it, but not for a French attack.

They did not know his maxim: "The best means of defense is to attack."

He attacked. His Twentieth corps fought its way through the center of
the Bavarian army, into German Lorraine. Then something happened.
Just what it was is not clear--but doubtless will be some day. The
offensive had to be abandoned and the French troops had to withdraw
from German soil to defend their own.

How bitter was the disappointment to Foch we may guess but shall never
know. But remaking