soldiers of
France, was still confident that, so far from all being lost, there was
hope of victory which might turn the German advance.

I had seen the superb courage of French regiments rushing up to
support their left wing, and the magnificent confidence of men who
after the horrors of the battlefields, and with the full consciousness
that they were always retiring, still, said: "We shall win. We are
leading the enemy to its destruction. In a little while they will be in a
death-trap from which there is no escape for them."

"This spirit," I wrote in my dispatch, "must win in the end. It is
impossible that it should be beaten in the long run. And the splendour
of this French courage, in the face of what looks like defeat, is
equalled at least by the calm and dogged assurance of our English
troops."

They repeated the same words to me over and over again--those
wounded men, those outposts at points of peril, those battalions who
went marching on to another fight, without sleep, without rest,
knowing the foe they had to meet.

"We are all right. You can call it a retreat if you like. But we are
retreating in good order and keeping our end up."

Retiring in good order I It had been more than that. They had retired
before a million of men swarming across the country like a vast ant-
heap on the move, with a valour that had gained for the British and
French forces a deathless glory. Such a thing has never been done
before in the history of warfare. It would have seemed incredible and
impossible to military experts, who know the meaning of such fighting,
and the frightful difficulty of keeping an army together in such
circumstances.

7

When I escaped from Amiens before the tunnel was broken up and
the Germans entered into possession of the town--on August 28--the
front of the allied armies was in a crescent from Abbeville by the
wooded heights south of Amiens, and thence in an irregular line to
the south of Mezieres. The British forces under Sir John French were
on the left centre, supporting the heavy thrust forward of the German
right wing.

On Saturday afternoon fighting was resumed along the whole line.
The German vanguard had by this time been supported by fresh
army corps, which had been brought from Belgium. At least a million
men were on the move, pressing upon the allied forces with a ferocity
of attack which has never been equalled. Their cavalry swept across
a great tract of country, squadron by