On his appointment to the command, Gallieni did what he could to strengthen the defenses.  Trenches were dug, wire entanglements were constructed; and hundreds of buildings that had been allowed to spring up over the military zone of defense were demolished in order to leave a clear field of fire.  The gates of the city were barred with heavy palisades backed by sandbags, and neighboring streets also were barricaded for fighting.  Certain strategic streets were obstructed by networks of barbed wire, and in others pits were dug to the depth of a man’s shoulders.  The public buildings were barricaded with sandbags and guarded with machine guns.

But while Paris was preparing for siege and assault the French staff were concentrating their efforts on making a siege impossible by a decisive stroke against the German advance.

Hardly had the Government left the city when tidings arrived that instead of marching on Paris, General von Kluck had swung southeastward toward the crossing of the Marne.  This news was obtained by the allied flying corps, which had made daring flights over the enemy’s line.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XII

THE MARNE—­GENERAL PLAN OF BATTLE FIELD

On September 4, 1914, the bugler of Destiny sounded the “Halt!” to the retreat of the armies of the Allies from the Belgian frontier.  The marvelous fighting machine of the German armies, perhaps the most superb organization of military potency that has been conceived by the mind of man, seemed to reach its limit of range.  Success had perched upon the German eagles, and for two weeks there had been a steady succession of victories.  Nevertheless the British and French armies were not crushed.  They were overwhelmed, they were overpowered, and, under stern military necessity, they were forced to fall back.

Day after day, under the swinging hammer-head blows of the German drive, the flower of the forces of the Allies had been compelled to break.  A little less generalship on the part of the defenders, or a little more recklessness behind that smashing offensive might have turned this retirement into a rout.  Even as it was, the official dispatches reveal that, while occasional and local retirements had been considered, such a sweeping retreat was far from contemplated by Generals Joffre and French.  German official dispatches bear testimony to the intrepid character of the defenders sullenly falling back and contesting every inch of the way, as much as they do to the daring and the vivid bravery of the German attackers who hurled themselves steadily, day after day, upon positions hastily taken up in the retreat where the retirement could be partly repaid by the heaviest toll of death.