the firing of the guns. The mounds
were turfed and so inconspicuous that in times of peace sheep grazed
over them. In Brialmont's original plan each fort was to be connected by
infantry trenches with sunken emplacements for light artillery, but this
important part of his design was relegated to the dangerous hour of a
threatening enemy. This work was undertaken too late before the onsweep
of the Germans. Instead, Brialmont's single weak detail in surrounding
each fort with an infantry platform was tenaciously preserved long after
its uselessness must have been apparent. Thus Liege was made a ring
fortress to distinguish it from the former latest pattern of earth
ramparts and outworks.

Six major and six minor of these forts encircled Liege. From north to
south, beginning with those facing the German frontier, their names ran
as follows: Barchon, Evegnee, Fleron, Chaudfontaine, Embourg, Boncelles,
Flemalle, Hollogne, Loncin, Lantin, Liers, and Pontisse. The armaments
of the forts consisted of 6-inch and 4.7-inch guns, with 8-inch mortars
and quick firers. They were in the relative number of two, four, two and
four for the major forts, and two, two, one and three for the minor
_fortins_, as such were termed. The grand total was estimated at 400
pieces. In their confined underground quarters the garrisons, even of
the major forts, did not exceed eighty men from the engineer, artillery
and infantry branches of the service. Between Fort Pontisse and the
Dutch frontier was less than six miles.

[Illustration: This bridge over the Meuse at Liege was blown up by the
Belgians to delay the German advance. The German army crossed on pontoon
bridges.]

It was through this otherwise undefended gap that Von Kluck purposed to
advance his German army after the presumed immediate fall of Liege, to
that end having seized the Meuse crossing at Vise. The railway line to
Aix-la-Chapelle was dominated by Fort Fleron, while the minor Forts
Chaudfontaine and Embourg, to the south, commanded the trunk line by way
of Liege into Belgium. On the plateau, above Liege, Fort Loncin held
the railway junction of Ans and the lines running from Liege north and
west. Finally, the forts were not constructed on a geometric circle, but
in such manner that the fire of any two was calculated to hold an enemy
at bay should a third between them fall. This was probably an accurate
theory before German guns of an unimagined caliber and range were
brought into a