October 31, 1914 
la:n"i> and water 
oOO ft. above the plain, and densely ■wooded— is cut 
into tbree sections : that south of the Grand Pro Pass, 
with its road and railway ; that south of the Vienne- 
Varennes road ; and that south of the Ste. Monehould- 
Clermont road. 
a^ow when the whole German line was forced 
back (by numbers smaller than its own) in what is 
called " The Battle of the Marno," the Crown Prince, 
Avho had had his headquarters at Ste. Menehould, 
moved them rapidly back to IMontfaucou. The line 
wliich the Germans held, after September 14, in front 
of these new headquarters ran north of Forges (where 
it reposed upon the Meuse just out of range of the 
Charny forts, that are part of the fortifications of 
Verdun, and there run along the llidge of Charny). 
From this point north of Forges, the line passed in 
front of Malancourt ; then in front of Varennes ; then 
in front of the road from Varennes to Vienne, and so 
proceeded across Champagne to the hills and gun 
positions in front of Eheims and to the lower Aisne 
and Soissons. 
That was more than six weeks ago ; and all 
the efforts on both sides during those six weeks, 
though there has been constant fighting and ceaseless 
Avatching for an opjjortunity to gain any yard that 
could be gained, has not, I say, altered that line by 
fom- miles either way. 
The first move was a French attack, which 
carried Varennes and the town of Vienne. The next 
move was a German counter attack which attempted 
to seize Vienne, failed in doing so, but succeeded in 
Varcunos-Vienne road ; they were beaten back from 
the western part of it, but kept the eastern. Last 
week they advanced from the eastern part of this line 
in front of Varennes into the woods called the Bois 
de Chaladc — which ai"e the woods through which 
Dreuet rode to intercept the flight of Louis XVItli 
and ]\rarie Antoinette. The Germans blundered in 
this attack and lost very heavily, but the Freucli 
covdd not force their way north into Varennes. Mean- 
while Vauquois close by was held by the French, 
though the German line was still in front of Malan- 
court. All the southern part of the woods betv^een 
that vdlage and Varennes was held by the French. 
Finally this week, four days ago, a French advance 
captured Sezon-Melzicourt. 
From this brief summary may be judged the 
extraordinarily close grip of two modern entrenched 
lines. For a month " and a half you have two 
opposing army corps (that is supposed to be about tlie 
strength of either party just to the west of Verdun) 
doing no more than hold the one the other, and 
each counting it a success if at any point he can 
advance by less than the range of a field piece. 
^Meanwhile, in that more interesting because more 
critical point, the gate the Gemians have opened and 
kept open at St. Mihiel, this very slow shifting of the 
line has greater significance, for the corridor held 
by the Gennans here is so narrow that the least 
restriction of it puts their positions on the Meuse in 
St. Mihiel in peril. One may see in this sketch map 
how the thing lies. The valley of the little river 
O 
10 
I 
20 
MILES 
THfAUCOURT , 
PONT A M0US5ON 
RAMBUCOURT 
COMMERCY 
^_^ Approximate Franco- 
' * Gerinan Front. 
YL 
capturing Varennes. Later again, in about the 
fourth week of the operations, the Gennans made a 
sharp move to recover if they could the whole of the 
Mad — a tributary of the Moselle just above Metz — 
is that up wliich the railway comes from Metz as far 
as Thiaucourt. This valley is almost a ravine with its 
9* 
