was given to the affair. The
defense stiffened, and as rapidly as it stiffened, so much the
more did it become patent that the Duke of Wuerttemberg could not
afford to be in an exposed position far in advance of all the other
attacking armies. Wednesday, September 9, 1914, revealed to the
German center the need of falling back on the crown prince's army,
which was the pivot on which the whole campaign swung.

Meantime, the crown prince's army had been steadily victorious.
The weak French army under General Sarrail had been pushed back,
yielding only foot by foot, back, back, along the rugged hill country
of the Meuse. A determined stand was made to protect the little
fort of Troyon, ten miles south of Verdun, for had the Germans
succeeded in taking this, Verdun would have been surrounded. No
army and no generalship could have done more than the Third Army
and General Sarrail did, but they could not hold their ground before
Troyon. On September 7, 1914, the way to Troyon was open, and the
army of the crown prince prepared to demolish it. Then came September
9, 1914, when the allied successes in the western part of the Marne
valley allowed them to send reenforcements. Thus the Third Army
was perceptibly strengthened and hope for Troyon grew. One day
more, certainly two days more, and nothing could have saved Troyon,
but with the whole German line in retreat, the army of the crown
prince could not be left on the advance.

Incredible though it may seem, when the army of the crown prince
besieging Troyon withdrew, that little fort was a mere heap of
ruins. There were exactly forty-four men left in the fort and four
serviceable guns. Even a small storming party could have carried
it without the least trouble, and its natural strength could have
been fortified in such wise as to make it a pivotal point from
which to harry Verdun.

At the extreme east, on that ring of wooded heights known as the
Grande Couronne de Nancy, and drawn up across the Gap of Nancy,
the Second French Army, under General de Castelnau, successfully
resisted the drive of the Crown Prince of Bavaria. Great hopes had
been placed on this attack, and on September 7, 1914, the German
Emperor had viewed the fight at Nancy from one of the neighboring
heights. Surely a victory for the German arms might come either at
the point where stood the German Emperor or where led the crown
prince. But the fortunes of war decided otherwise. Far from losing
at Nancy, t