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For they look as if yesterday they might have been bristling with men-at-arms whereas not in centuries has their melancholy majesty served any other purpose than that of raising reflections in those to whom the past speaks through her monuments. From Montpellier, Ferdinand Foch returned to Paris, in February, 1891, as major on the general army staff. He and Joffre had now the same rank.
Others, of a humorous turn, derived a certain rudimentary amusement in studying the garden marked Reserved for Patients with Insane Delusions, where they found a very excellent relief-model of the battleground of the Marne, laid out by a former inmate who had imagined himself to be General Joffre. But most of them stood about in groups, talking bitterly.
Over in his office in the municipal building where we went after dinner the general took something wrapped in tissue paper out of a drawer and from his manner, had he been a collector, I should have known that it was some rare treasure. When he undid the paper I saw a photograph of General Joffre autographed with a sentiment for the occasion.
On the evening of September fifth General Joffre sent this message to all the commanders of armies: "The hour has come to advance at all costs, and do or die where you stand rather than give way." The French did not give way. Paris was saved after a colossal battle, in which more than two million men were engaged.
General Joffre immediately hurled a new force to the support of the French army at that point. Meanwhile, as the result of the German assaults upon Soissons and Verdun, in an effort to lessen the pressure being brought to bear by the French in Alsace-Lorraine, there had been a lull in the fighting in the latter regions.
It was a perilous position and there were some days when the situation seemed critical. Accordingly, when the German drive at Verdun was at last disclosed in its real magnitude Joffre prepared to evacuate the town and the east bank of the river, to straighten his line and abolish the salient and give over to the Germans the wreck of Verdun.
Leaving the body of Jean to be disposed of with the others, the lads made their way outside, to where General Gallieni stood. The latter greeted them with a smile. "Well, we have finished it up," he said cheerfully, "and thanks to you two lads. I can see now why General Joffre has such confidence in you." The lads flushed with pleasure at this compliment, but neither replied. They merely bowed.
As he agonized with his philosophy and lighted another cigarette, the street roared like hurricane. Below the windows the French Mission was proceeding up Fifth Avenue. Marechal Joseph Joffre and Rene Viviani were awakening tumult in the American heart and stirring it to the rescue of France and of England and of Belgium and Italy, with what outcome none could know.
From official orders and dispatches and also from the developments of that week, it is clear that General Joffre had perceived the possibility of such a plan as the Germans had actually conceived. He had brought back his armies and there is nothing harder to handle than a retreating army step by step over northern France without losing them their morale.
"Sorry I can't tell you. We men know absolutely nothing. Only three men in this war know anything of its plans, Kitchener, Joffre, and French. The rest of us obey orders, and know only what we see. Not even a brigade commander is any wiser. Once in a while the colonel makes a remark, but he is never illuminating." "How much risk am I running by remaining here?"
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