France was chastened by the war of 1870.  She will be crushed or redeemed by the war of 1915.  The spirit of her people to-day is the spirit of sacrifice.  The French character never before shone forth so nobly.

“What a terrible disfigurement!” exclaimed a thoughtless lady as she visited the wounded in a great French hospital.

“Not a disfigurement at all, madame,” exclaimed the French soldier.  “A decoration!”

Out of this war may come great political and military heroes.  There is one general in France to-day whose name is not widely known but of whom his associates say, “He is not only the equal but the superior of Napoleon.”  But the great hero throughout Europe to-day is the King of the Belgians, of that little country that grew daily bigger in the eyes of the world as it grew daily smaller in possessed territory.  There are those who believe that France and Belgium will be hereafter closer together than before, and that—­stranger things have happened—­the King of the little Belgians might be no greater miracle for France than the little Corsican more than one hundred years ago.

CHAPTER VI

THE POSITION OF FRANCE

The Iron Hand of War—­Paris offered in Sacrifice—­Faulty
Mobilization—­The French Army—­The Joffre Strategy—­The German Retreat.

The position of France to-day cannot be compared with that of any other country in the war.  The French people have a distinctive genius all their own.  They are still the greatest people in art in the world.  Nothing in sculpture or painting in the outside world yet rivals the skill of France.  Politically the French are trusting children, vibrating between empires and republics, and following only the rule of success.  In finance they were accounted great a generation ago.  In savings they have been regarded as world-leaders.

When the stern reality of military necessity suddenly confronted France five months ago, there was the same old story of graft, fraud, and a deceived people.

But the war authorities gripped France with an iron hand.  The military traitors and grafters are in jail.  The weaklings in the official line have been cashiered.  The politically undesirable have been given foreign missions.

There was political as well as military wisdom in the return of the government from Bordeaux to Paris.  The French people were shocked when they learned that the boasted military defences of Paris, “the most extensive fortifications in the world,” embracing 400 square miles, were unprovisioned and indefensible, that the government had fled, and that there was no army to save the city.

Indeed, the authorities had determined to sacrifice Paris to save France.  General Joffre had no men to spare to be bottled up in the city.  He determined that his armies should be kept free on the field.

You may ask anywhere in France, Belgium, or England why the French did not come to the relief of Belgium, why Paris was undefended, and what saved it after Von Kluck had led seven armies of 1,000,000 men down to its very gates, and you will get no satisfactory answer.