y under the command of General French.

To what resolution did General Joffre come? On that memorable evening of
the 24th, and on that morning of the 25th, two alternatives presented
themselves before him. Should they, rather than permit the enemy to
invade the soil of France, make a supreme effort to check the Germans on
the frontier?

This first apparent solution had the evident advantage of abandoning to
the enemy no part of the national soil, but it had some serious
inconveniences. The attack of the German armies operating on the right
(Generals von Kluck, von Buelow, von Hausen) were extremely menacing. In
order to parry this attack it was necessary considerably to reenforce
the French left, and for that purpose to transfer from the right to the
left a certain number of army corps. That is what the military call, in
the language of chess players, "to castle" the army corps. But this
movement could not be accomplished in a few hours. It required, even
with all the perfection of organization shown by the French railways
during this war, a certain number of days. As long as this operation
from the right to the left had not been accomplished, as long as the
left wing of the French army and even the center remained without the
reenforcement of elements taken from the right, it would have been
extremely imprudent, not to say rash, for the French high command to
attempt a decisive battle. If General Joffre had risked a battle
immediately he would have been playing the game without all his trumps
in hand and would have been in danger of a defeat, and even of a decided
disaster, from which it might have been impossible to recover.

The second alternative consisted in drawing back and in profiting from a
retreat by putting everything in shipshape order to bring about a new
grouping of forces. They would allow the Germans to advance, and when
the occasion showed itself favorable the French armies, along with the
British army, would take the offensive and wage a decisive battle.

It was to this second decision that General Joffre came. As soon as on
August 25, 1914, he had made up his mind as to what the French retreat
was going to lead he gave orders for a new marshaling of forces and for
preparations with a view to the offensive.

General Joffre has made no objection to the publication of his orders in
detail from that date, August 25, 1914, down to the Battle of the Marne.
They constitute an eloquent and convincing docu