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I02 The Great War Lines of the Dyle, too late to save the brave Belgians from the final defeat they were to suffer at Louvain the next day, too late to give moral or material aid to Namur, already crumbling under the terrific fire of the German howitzers, which were to gain fatal dis- tinction in the next three days. Brussels was already doomed, then. The German Army now almost before its gates numbered far more than half a million. The blow was already launched that was to fall upon the Allies at Mons-Charleroi five days later and carry disaster and destruction to the very gates of Paris. Meantime the press of the world was calmly speculating on the possibility of a second Battle of Waterloo and, in fact, Prussian cav- alry were actually on the Wavre road, along which Bliicher had pressed to Wellington's aid almost a cen- tury before. One other consideration was at this moment weigh- ing on the minds of British and French military ex- perts : Was the Belgian Army to go south or north after defeat? To retire to Antwerp, as Belgian mil- itary advisers had planned for years or to go south and join the Allies? British experts strongly in- sisted upon the latter. A few hours later the Ger- mans were to decide this question by cutting in be- tween the Belgians and the French and sweeping the former roughly back through unfortunate Louvain to the great fortress city of the Scheldt. To the fact that the Belgian Army made good its escape was to be ascribed, soon, much of the ultimate disappoint-

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