Page:The Great War.djvu/161

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Sedan Day and a Month of War 141 to what her statesmen had long called " her place in the sun." Her victorious armies had already proved utterly that the German " machine " created by the father of Frederick the Great, used by him, remodelled by the soldiers of the German uprising in 1 8 13, moulded on grander and more splendid lines by von Moltke and von Roon, was still as marvellous as ever. In one short month the army had swept through Belgium, crushed the feeble Belgian forces, broken down the northern gate to France and had driven before it French armies still unbroken but yielding steadily to terrific blows dealt by numbers always superior — despite the terrible losses of each ad- vance. To the precision and efficiency of the ma- chine there was added the enthusiasm, the devotion, of the soldiers, who were fairly rivalling the Japan- ese in their recklessness and contempt for death. Once more the German Army had been mobilized more quickly, equipped more completely, handled with more skill and judgment, than the French. Once more it had been left to the French soldiers, aided this time by a small but sturdy army of Eng- lish, to seek to repair, to redeem, the errors of poli- ticians in the Cabinet and palterers in the field. So far they had failed, not decisively, but wholly. Yet the wonderful achievement of German arms could not blind the observer to the manifest differ- ence between Sedan Day 1870 and 19 14. On the earlier day the surrender of Napoleon left the road

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