German Disaster 185 down the last desperate resistance of the Austrians in Galicia, might to-morrow be on the road toward BerHn with only German troops to reckon with in their pathway. From the west, then, from the armies which had already proved inadequate to the task of crushing the Anglo-French power, more troops must soon be taken, if Russia were to be held. As for the French, after fifty years they had known the intoxication of victory. They had beaten and were pursuing the Germans. The night- mare of Sedan, which had hung over them for forty- four years, had been banished. As the legendary glory of the army of Frederick the Great perished at Jena, that of von Moltke's was dimmed at the Marne. One was a rout, the other a defeat, but mere defeat was destructive of the reputation the Prussian soldier had possessed for half a century. Now a million and a half victorious French sol- diers, supported by the British expeditionary force, were undertaking to clear France of Germans. Be- hind them the whole colonial armies of Britain were coming up. Even the Belgian army was in the field once more. On the west the Germans were hope- lessly outnumbered. This disadvantage could only be accentuated when Russian pressure on the 'istula and the Oder claimed new attention. Nor was the German disaster to be measured by mere losses of numbers. The flower of her mili- tary power had gone down in the desperate battles