CHAPTER XIX GERMAN ARMIES APPROACH BRUSSELS Xy EADING the official despatches from Paris and -'-^ London on August i8 it was impossible longer to doubt that Brussels was in peril and that the battle for it was being fought east of the city and along the famous Lines of the Dyle from Louvain to Namur. Nor was it more difficult to guess that in both Allied capitals It was expected that the city would be cap- tured, since the Belgian Government had already re- tired to Antwerp, that the French troops would pres- ently fall back from Gembloux toward Charleroi and Maubeuge and that the Belgian forces would retire to the fortress of Antwerp, which had been con- structed for just such an emergency. What were the causes of this Imminent reverse ? What would be the effect of German occupation of the Belgian capital upon the general campaign against France, of which the Belgian operation was already recognized as the mere preliminary? To answer these questions It is necessary to review once more and briefly the progress of events after Monday, August 3, when the Germans suddenly entered Bel- gium and moved against Liege. German assault upon that city had begun on August 4. On that 97