Yet in spite of the powerful efforts of the French armies they were all held in check, and General Sarrail was beginning to give way.

Though the fighting in the center had been stationary on this sixth of September, 1914, it had been desperate.  D’Esperey was facing the 150,000 men of Von Kluck’s army, and the effect of the British attack on Von Kluck’s flank had not yet been felt.  He more than held his own, but at great cost.  General Foch, with the Ninth Army, had a double problem, for he was wrestling with General von Buelow to hold the southern edge of the Sezanne Plateau, while General von Hausen’s Saxon Army was trying to turn his right flank.  A violent attack, which, for the space of over two hours seemed likely to succeed, was launched by the Duke of Wuerttemberg against General Langle and the Fourth Army.  The attack was repelled, but the French losses were proportionately great.  There could be no denial that many such attacks could break through the line.  General Sarrail’s army, fighting a losing game, showed marvelous stubbornness and gameness, but even so, it could not resist being pushed south of Fort Troyon, itself unable to support the battering it might expect to receive when the German siege guns should be brought into place.

[Illustration:  Battle of the Marne—­end of German retreat and the intrenched line on the Aisne river]

At every point but one the Germans had a right to deem the day successful.  The only reversal had been a minor one before the forest of Crecy.  Yet, of all the generals on that front Von Kluck alone was in a position to see the gravity of the situation.  The British had caught him on the flank as he tried to pierce the left wing of General d’Esperey’s army, and if he should now retreat, that army could envelop him and thus catch him between two fires.

Next morning, Monday, September 7, 1914, another glorious summer morning, saw a resumption of the battle along exactly the same lines, with the same persistent attack and defense along the eastern part of the front, and with the British making full use of the blunder made by the German right.  General von Kluck had realized his plight, but, even so, he had not secured an understanding of the size of the force that was threatening his flank, and he sent as a reenforcement a single army corps which had been intrenched near Coulommiers on the Grand Morin.  The British had three full army corps and were well supplied with cavalry and artillery.  Yet Coulommiers was Von Kluck’s headquarters and actually, when the Germans were driven back and the British troops entered the town, Prince Eitel, the second son of the kaiser; General von Kluck and his staff were compelled to run down to their motor cars and escape at top speed along the road to Rebais, leaving their half-eaten breakfast on the table, and their glasses of wine half emptied.  One of the most dramatic cavalry actions of this period of the war took place shortly before noon, when one hundred and seventeen squadrons of cavalry were engaged.  In this action the British were successful, but the German cavalry were tired and harassed, having been severely handled the day before.