The Russian Offensive Also Steps Out 105 the spectacle of a nation launching more than a mil- lion of magnificently trained, fully equipped men, whose courage equalled their efficiency, in one gigan- tic drive, sending them in three weeks forward over more than two hundred miles, from victory to victory in battles far surpassing the Napoleonic struggles in numbers engaged, and rivalling the Russo-Japanese War in the sacrifice of life, seems in all our written history comparable only with the dispatch of the myriads of Xerxes against Greece and the Armada of Spain against England. But while the German Army was still about Brus- sels and before French and British troops had yet been compelled to begin their great retreat, events were taking place elsewhere, which Avere bound to exercise a powerful influence upon the western field and were soon to awaken doubts as to the permanent value, or, at the very least, as to the extent of Ger- man success in Belgium. To get an accurate estimate of the situation in the whole European field at the beginning of the fourth week of the war, it is necessary to pass in review certain facts. German attack upon France had been dictated by the following considerations : In a war with France, Russia, Great Britain, and Servia, having only Aus- tria as an ally, it was certain that when all her foes had their military strength in the field, Germany would be decisively outnumbered. But at the outset of the conflict only France could mobilize with ap-