the realization that a
momentous crisis was impending. It was known that the French-British
armies confronted German armies of equal, if not of superior strength.
In Paris and London the military critics wrote optimistically that the
Germans were marching into a trap.

The British army had arrived at the front in splendid fighting trim. It
was difficult to restrain the impetuous valor of the French soldiers.
The skies were bright and there was confidence that the Germans would
unquestionably meet with a crushing defeat. Let us glance at the line of
the French and British armies stretched along the Belgian frontier. It
ran from within touch of Namur up the right bank of the Sambre, through
Charleroi to Binche and Mons, thence by way of the coal barge canal just
within the French frontier to Conde. For the choice of a great battle
ground there was nothing particularly attractive about it in a military
sense.

There is evidence to show in an official communique from General Joffre
published on August 24, 1914, that it was intended to be merely the left
wing of a gigantic French battle offensive--on the adopted German
plan--from Conde to Belfort. "An army," runs the communique, "advancing
from the northern part of the Woevre and moving on Neufchateau is
attacking the German forces which have been going through the Duchy of
Luxemburg and are on the right bank of the Samoy. Another army from the
region of Sedan is traversing the Belgian Ardennes and attacking the
German forces marching between the Lesse and the Meuse. A third army
from the region of Chimay has attacked the German right between the
Sambre and the Meuse. It is supported by the English army from the
region of Mons."

These attacks comprised chiefly the battle of Dinant and cavalry
skirmishing, but the purpose of General Joffre was otherwise made plain
in throwing advance French troops across the Belgian frontier into Ligny
and Gembloux on the road to a recapture of Brussels. This we have
previously noted in another connection. The rout of the French army in
Lorraine, however, put an end to the grand Conde-Belfort offensive.

Thus the Namur-Conde line became a main defensive position instead of an
offensive left wing sweep through Belgium upon Germany. As such it was
well enough--if its pivot on the fortress of Namur held secure. Liege
had already proved its vulnerability, but it would seem that the French
General Staff joined with General Michel, the Command