This was a state of affairs well known to General Joffre and none caused him more distress and anxiety.  But—­this was between August and November, 1914, it must be remembered, when France was anything but the magnificent machine she is to-day—­it was quite impossible for the authorities to devote a cell of their harassed brains to the temporarily inept.  Every executive mind in power was absorbed in pinning the enemy down, since he could not be driven out, feeding the vast numbers of men at the Front, reorganizing the munition factories, planning for the vast supplies of ammunition suddenly demanded, equipping the hospitals—­when the war broke out there were no installations in the hospitals near the Front except beds—­obtaining the necessary amount of surgical supplies, taking care of the refugees that poured into the larger cities by every train not only from Belgium but from the French towns invaded or bombarded—­to mention but a few of the problems that beset France suddenly forced to rally and fight for her life, and, owing to the Socialist majority in the Chamber of Deputies, criminally unprepared.

There were plenty of able minds in France that knew what was coming; months before the war broke out (a year, one of the infirmiere majors told me; but, as I have said, it is difficult to pin a French official down to exact statements) the Service de Sante (Health Department of the Ministry of War) asked the Countess d’Haussonville, President of the Red Cross, to train as many nurses as quickly as possible, for there was not an extra nurse in a military hospital of France—­in many there was none at all.  But these patriotic and far-sighted men were powerless.  The three years’ service bill was the utmost result of their endeavors, and for six months after the war began they had not a gun larger than the famous Seventy-fives but those captured at the Battle of the Marne.

As for the poor eclopes, there never was a clearer example of the weaker going to the wall and the devil taking the hindmost.  They had been turned out to grass mildly afflicted, but in a short time they were progressing rapidly toward the grave or that detestable status known as Reformes Numero II.  And every man counts in France.  Quite apart from humanity it was a terribly serious question for the Grand Quartier General, where Joffre and his staff had their minds on the rack.

IV

The Cure of St. Honore d’Eylau was the first to discover the eclopes, and not only sent stores to certain of the depots where they were herded, but persuaded several ladies of Paris to visit and take them little presents.  But practically every energetic and patriotic woman in France was already mobilized in the service of her country.  As I have explained elsewhere, they had opened ouvroirs, where working girls suddenly deprived of the means of livelihood could fend off starvation by making underclothing