ow faced
her; not victory, but embarrassment on every side: a trench-line
running from north to south in Russia--a trench-line against which her
weakened battalions had battered in vain, a line held by the forces of
the Tsar, even though short of ammunition, so securely that Germany
could not advance; and on the west another trench-line, which, after
the battle of the Marne, had been extended westward and northward to
the sea-coast and blocked the advance of the Kaiser's forces just as
securely as did those lines in Russia.

In short, the triumphal march of Germany had been abruptly stopped, in
spite of those forty-two years of preparation. The prize so nearly
seized--so certain to fall to the armies of Prussia, as the people of
Germany thought--Paris, in fact, had been snatched from the armies of
the Kaiser at the very last moment; the cup of triumph had, indeed,
been dashed to pieces on the Marne, where French and British soldiers,
turning at bay after that glorious retreat from Mons, had fallen upon
the Germans, had driven them north across the river, had sent them
fleeing to the Aisne, and had there read them a lesson.

Possessing still much territory of her enemies, but checked on every
side, Germany had yet not achieved her object by a great deal. She
had, in fact, failed most utterly and most miserably; for to have
proved successful--as successful as she had designed and had
confidently hoped to be--she should, in the first few months of the
war, have thoroughly beaten the French and have crushed the armies of
the Tsar. But she had failed to do either, in spite of her treacherous
invasion of Belgium; for the coming of the British had helped not a
little to turn the tables. It had held up the advance on Paris, it had
helped to drive the Germans over the Marne, it had held the gate to
Calais at Ypres--where the forces sent from England had shattered the
Prussian Guard, the best of Germany's troops. Indeed, one may say that
the inclusion of Great Britain in the fighting had given vital
assistance to France and Belgium and Russia, had gone some long way to
check the mad triumphal rush of the German bully upon her unready
enemies, and had assisted in the erection of that barrier of trenches
which held the enemy in check; while, beyond the fighting-line, Britain
called for her volunteers to form new armies, and France completed the
mobilization of her men and made ready to shatter the invader.

Disappointment h