CHAPTER XXX GENERAL JOFFRE's STRATEGY TUST as the whole world had for ten days been
- ^ almost completely hoaxed by the Brussels re-
ports of Belgian resistance and victory in the first days of August until it became fashionable to speak of German military efficiency as inferior to its repu- tation, contemptuousness shortly thereafter dearly paid for by all three of the Western iUies, it be- came, in the first days of September, common and natural to describe the German offensive as irre- sistible, to forecast the speedy fall of Paris and the utter defeat of French and British field armies. Superficially the success of the Germans had been tremendous. Their victories won in struggles against entrenched foes, the mobility of their troops, the efficiency of their organization, the regularity with which they had taken fortresses, these things had captured the imagination of the readers of each edition of the daily press, who saw there hourly new reports of the Allies retreating, the Germans ad- vancing through new cities and provinces toward Paris, from which the French Government had al- ready fled to Bordeaux. Yet at this precise time it had now become neces- 162