idly on their entire front. The British entered Lille.

The Germans fled from Ostend and British naval forces were landed there.
The Belgian infantry were sweeping up the coast, and Belgian patrols
entered Bruges. In the afternoon of the day King Albert of Belgium, and
Queen Elizabeth entered Ostend. The splendid fighting of the Belgian
troops and their magnificent victory was now attracting universal
attention. It was one of the revelations of the war. They were bearing
the giant's share of the work of the Allied armies in their own country,
and had already liberated territory which more than doubled the area of
that part of Belgium which had been in their possession.

With the Belgian coast cleared of invaders it became open to British
transports which would afford relief to the whole Allied armies from the
resultant decrease in the congestion of the channel ports. On October
19th the progress continued. Zeebrugge was occupied by the Allies, the
last Belgian port remaining in German hands.

The Belgian advance continued along the whole line. King Albert entered
Bruges. Day after day the advance continued. The reception of the King
and Queen of Belgium in the recovered towns was something to remember.
In Bruges they rode in amid the tumultuous cheering of the frenzied
population. On the central square they were received by the burgomaster
with an escort of a solitary gendarme, who had refused to give up his
uniform and old-fashioned rifle to the enemy; though fined and
imprisoned he had kept their hiding place secret. As he stood there
alone with fixed bayonet the King and the Queen shook him by the hand
and congratulated him. Greatly moved, he stammered, "It is too great an
honor, too great an honor."

And with all this happiness came the happiness arising from the return
of the soldiers to the homes from which they had been absent so long,
the reunions of husband and wife, of parents and children. Belgium was
now to reap the reward for her heroism.

CHAPTER XLV

ITALY'S TERRIFIC DRIVE

For many months after the great Italian stand on the Piave there was
inactivity on both fronts in Italy. The Italians had been reinforced by
troops from France and Great Britain and their own army was now larger
than it had been at any other time. On June 15th, about the time when
the Germans were being driven back on the Marne and the Oise, the
Austrians, urged to action by the Germans, suddenly undertook a great
offensive