LAND AND WATER 
September 12, 1914 
combined manoeuvre upon wliich the Allies are now 
couccntrated, and which, if it is imposed upon the 
(iennan invasion, will compel that invasion to retreat. 
The other field in Avhich the Allies are concerned 
is the equallv important one stretching in a gi-eat 
concave tlu-ough Yitry-le-Frangois^to the fortified line 
between Verdun and Toul. Here the conditions are 
as follows : — ■ 
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SKETCH SHOWISO THE CRITICAL SECTION OF THE FBENCH LIXH 
NEAR VITET-LE-rEANfOIS WHEN THE MAIN OEBIIAN ATTACK 
FALLS. 
The eastern side of this field, that lying towards 
the Meuse and the fortified line Verdun — Toul, is 
country both hilly and thickly wooded. It is a 
country not only of deep ravines and considerable 
forests, but of pastm-e lands, often fairly " close " and 
" blind " — cut up by hedges and full of spinneys and 
copses as well as woods. To the north stretches the 
long low ridge of the Argonne, a lump of clay, crossed 
by five or six main roads, but only two railways. The 
main German effort to break the French Ime must be 
made to the west of this wooded, ravined, and difficult 
country, for to the west of it lie plains, at first very 
open and bare ; and even farther east there is easy 
i-olling ploughed and heath, country with wide 
horizons; such as is suitable to the manoeuvring of 
gi-eat forces. 
It is across this open country — the plains which 
take their name from the town of Chalons on the 
Mame, and the great wheat district that lies to the 
south and east of those plains — that the main (aerman 
effort to pierce the French line, now in progress, is 
directed. Its centre of effort is agamst Vitry. 
In this critical effort, upon the success or failure 
of which will so largely turn the fate of France, the 
armies of the Crown Pi-ince of Prussia and of 
Wm-temberg, the 10th Corps and the Guard are 
traversing country which has been throughout all 
recorded history the battlefield of the Gauls. 
It is the first time, I think, in history that the 
parallel eastern obstacles which cover France have 
been thus turned, or that an invader has been approach- 
ing from the north, but, save for this anomaly, history 
here repeats itself in an astonishing fashion. 
It must have been about the 4th of September, 
Friday last, that once more men from Brandenburg 
saw before them south of the gi-eat camp at Chalons 
the half-starved rolling plain of the Champagne- 
Pouilleuse, uttei'ly bare save for dwarf lines of newly- 
planted firs. And as they looked over that mournful 
country, which is like a tumbled sea of hillocks and 
rounded dips with the duU, low line of Ai-gonue 
crossing the eastern horizon, one crest and roll over 
Avhich they marched bore the tomb of Kellerman, and 
v,'as the lonely position of Valmy. Whatever column 
it was that crossed this field, some man among them 
as he crossed the hish road rested for a moment where 
young Goethe rested, and if he glanced back during a 
halt, may have wondered, as Goethe wondered, whether 
he were not at the begmning of a new world. 
But there is more than this. In that same lost 
and barren region of the huge Catalaunian Plain, 
coming along the Eoman Eoad, wluch skirts the 
Cctmp of Chalons and is the main avenue of advance 
southward, by Suippes, some column passed imme- 
diately beneath the ramparts of that amazing thing 
which is still called the Camp of Attila. It is a huge 
oval bank, reminding one in its shape of those modern 
tracks (such as Brooklands) where petrol races are 
rmi, and also in its size— for it is many hundred yard.-< 
in length. But it is piled much higher than the 
banks of these modern racing tracks, and in its bulk 
and isolation it is the most impressive thing a man 
may see in the whole com-se of Eui-opean travel. This 
Camp, tradition affirms, was the fortification wherein 
the Huns secm-ed themselves before they marched 
some two days fiu-ther south, and were broken to 
pieces at last by the discipline of the Eoman people, 
and by that power there is in the Latin blood to digest 
and to bring into useful service the barbarians. 
Even as I write these lines upon the Wednesday 
of the week I do not know, for there is no immediate 
news in England, whether this effort of the invader 
upon the French centre at Vitry has succeeded. But 
I know that he is marching over sacred ground where 
there rise against hun the influences of the dead. 
Not so far away, a day's march behind the defending 
line, is the house that nourished Danton. If that line 
is pierced the invader may burn the house, stiU 
standing, where Joan of Arc was born. 
Such, then, is the nature of the ground and such 
the position of the opposing forces at the most critical 
point of all in this campaign. Should the extreme 
French right fall past Eevigny-aux-Vaches and 
approach Bar le Due, it will be high time for the 
French Army in Lorraine at L L L to retire. 
And here one cannot biit digi-ess to consider the 
arresting of the German offensive which has been 
achieved so far by the troops covering the open 
country between Nancy and the Vosges. 
Indeed, one of the chief puzzles of this great war, 
with its astonishing armour of concealment, is the 
position and the implied success in their resistance of 
the forces that cover this bit of open ground. 
I have seen in more than one telegram the phrase 
" Fortifications of Nancy." In pai-ticular we were 
told in one despatch three days ago that the German 
Emperor was with the troops that were " attacking 
the fortifications of Nancy." But the phrase has no 
meaning. Nancy is an open town. There are a few 
field works in front of it wliich could have no effect 
save to delay for a very short time any detennined 
advance upon the city. There is only one permanent 
work East of the Nancy line, and that is the Fort of 
Manon\-illers, which fell (apparently) after a bombard- 
ment of some twelve days, and has been in the hands 
of the enemy for over a week. For the rest the 
defence of Nancy and of all that gap depends entirely 
upon an army in the field. That army cannot be 
of any great size. It is only composed of just 
what can be spared to cover the gap between 
Toul and Epinal, but it has so far a2>parently fulfilled 
its task. It will be of interest to discover, Avhon news 
can be given us, whether the Germans have pm-sued, 
in the case of Nancy, their hitherto constant practice 
of bombarding open towns. There is no town ia 
France that would be more \Tilnerable to an argument 
of that sort and there is none where greater destruction 
could be caused by such a breach of civilised traditions. 
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