d as won. They had, however, apparently had no time
to entrench or to consolidate their forces, when, early in the
afternoon, General Foch suddenly ordered an attack by all his forces.
For six weeks the French had labored through a losing campaign and had
just fought through thirty-six hours of steady defeat, and yet they
turned about on the instant and attacked the astonished Germans with a
dash which could not have been surpassed by the troops of the First
Empire at the height of a victory. They would not be denied, but
attacked and attacked until the Germans were overwhelmed. We saw
fields where charging battalions had apparently been put out of action
up to the last man without deterring that last man from advancing.
By evening the French had retaken all the ground which they had lost
in the previous thirty-six hours, and on the morning of the 10th
their offensive was resumed with unabated fury and unfaltering
self-sacrifice. No number of casualties could stop them and in places
the retreat of the Germans became a rout. They left their wounded upon
the battlefields and abandoned their hospitals, caissons, and
supplies. Especially furious rearguard actions were fought in the
neighborhood of Pierre-Morains and Coizard and at Mondemont.

On the night of the 10th the German army pulled itself together, and
on the 11th, under the protection of magnificently executed rearguard
actions which held up the determined pursuit of the French, retreated
in good order to the Marne and across it. On the 12th they reached the
Aisne and have since been endeavoring to make a stand on the farther
side of Rheims.

The most conservative French officers with whom we talked estimated
that the total casualties of both sides in the fighting near Fere
Champenoise amounted to at least one hundred and fifty thousand. Some
thought it was as high as two hundred thousand, and I am inclined to
this latter figure. Perhaps we saw the field in its entirety more
thoroughly than did they. Certainly they were busy with many other
affairs, whereas we had nothing other to do than study and estimate.

Had the German attack succeeded in breaking the French center, the
French army would have been cut in two and both remnants would have
been compelled to retreat in order to save themselves from ruinous
flank attacks. In retreating they would have been obliged to leave
Verdun and Paris each to take care of itself, and the German armies
could have swung about