The French Counter-Offensive Fails 121 the French armies that they would be unable to hold the lines to which they had now been driven. If it had the German advance could still reach Paris on schedule time. As the situa^ion now stood the French on all their fronts were back on their first permanent line of de- fences. The Eastern Army occupied the gap be- tween Epinal and Toul, which had long been pre- pared to meet the whole German advance into France. The position was tremendously strong, both naturally and by reason of the great forts about it which had been erected in recent years. Unless the army had been hopelessly routed, it could still stand on the defensive, where French engineers and staff had long ago prepared the ground. As to the army of the centre, facing the German Army of the Moselle, the situation was less clear. Between Verdun and Charleville-Mezieres, on the south bank of the Meuse, there was an admirable position to defend, with the deep Meuse in front, the Verdun forts on the right, the forts of Mezieres, Givet and the broken country between the Sambre and the Meuse on the left, where contact with the Allied army to the west could be made. But there was no serious obstacle in the shape either of forts or mountains, and if the French advance to Neuf- chateau had ended in a rout, it was exceedingly doubtful if French resistance could hold a victorious German Army here.